Alita: Battle Angel: The Official Movie Novelization

I've read both this book and the prequel Iron City. I've also seen the movie far more times than I should have and that is the basis for my major gripes about the official novelization.Let's start with the good. There are numerous places in the story where Pat adds some very valid and valuable filler and provides a reasonable backstory about whats going on. In my mind, the good outweighs the bad so this book is worth a read but understand what you're getting.It could have been so much better and that's disappointing in a way.In a book like this - where you're the official novelization of the movie - you DO NOT leave out/change movie scenes. You function more as an extended edition and add to what has gone on. Having seen the movie a lot, these changes are some of my biggest annoyances.Here's just a few examples:1. Final Champion becomes First Champion and then most of the way through the book, becomes Final Champion again. Huh?2. In the first flashback scene when Alita is fighting Grewiska, the first words heard in the movie is "99, on your left!". The fight scene was in this book, but those words were totally omitted. On the flip side of this particular scene, the filler was particularly good as it filled in some of Alita's history that the movie couldn't do.3. Many scenes had major dialog shift and/or described something different. An example is the Kansas bar fight - in the movie, its a table that goes into the liquor cabinet behind the bar, in this book its a chair. Other things are even more major - Vector's death scene for example at the end.4. The Motorball race and Alita's run to the cathedral. Put simply, they are two almost totally different tales with the same characters.I've also ran down the source material (Vol 1 Alita on Amazon) and the movie kind of sort of follows the source - in some cases religiously, in other cases the movie departs more wildly from the source material than Pat did. For example, Grewiska isn't even in Vol. 1 - it was a more hideous killer that would have earned a movie an "R" rating for sure. Particularly if Chiren was shown as she was in the manga (bare-ass naked in Vector's apartment). On the plus side, the near-end scene where Alita is hanging from the supply tube is almost exactly created in the movie as in the manga.I go back to the intent of this book - the novelization of the movie. Scenes can be added. Backstory can be told. And in some cases in this book, the added scenes and stories work well. But when it departs radically from the movie - Houston, we have a problem. I enjoyed the book, but unfortunately every time I hit one of these inconsistencies, it was quite annoying. I have to say I enjoyed Iron City more as there were no expectations other than the general characters to hold to.If you're on the fence about this book, I do believe the good outweighs the bad and would recommend a purchase, just understand there will be some major inconsistencies with the movie.

Kudos on writing this. But I do not see it as a proper novelization. Scenes were changed (sometimes dramatically), added scenes. Sentences were changed (also sometimes dramatically) and how they said it. And there were completely new, unnecessary, scenes. There were even really obvious changes. Colors, memorable parts. Even really big things, like personalites.I would say it's more like the unrevised script where they had originals for the movie and smashed parts of the manga in it before they did revise before final filming. And I like the movie better.

I really enjoyed reading this book because I'm a huge fan of the movie. It is not 100% like the movie in that it has more scenes that were not in the movie, extra dialogue, and some additional backstory. However, there are some differences as well. The dialogue is not exactly the same but that could be the actors/actresses read the script and may have ad-libbed and then Rodriquez kept it. The order of some scenes also changed but minor in my opinion.The one thing the movie did a better job on was the Motorball game and the post Motorball street chase.I would definitely buy and read this book if you enjoyed the movie. Don't expect this book to be as if someone watched the movie and then wrote the book. Look at it as if the author had the original script and spoke to James, Laeta, and Robert, and then wrote the book. Directors always make changes to the script and had to cut scenes for budget and scheduling reasons.The book shows the Alita/Hugo relationship develop, and you see them crushing on each other like we all did at their age. People have said the movie seemed to have rushed the relationship and now you have this book to play the scenes in your head.Also the known deleted scene is when Hugo helps train Alita in Motorball. I think that would have been cool if it was added.I won't go into details of the additions and differences so I don't spoil the book for anyone, but know they are there.The movie is 2 hours long but I wish it was 2.5 hours or the blu-ray had a directors cut.I read the book and took notes on the the differences and then re-watched the movie.I watched the movie a ton of times and I'll probably read this book more than once.

I saw the movie before reading this. Then went and re-watched it afterwards. The novelization provided the answers the movie had left me wondering. It filled in some of the holes that had me scratching my head by giving answers to the back story of the characters that the movie did not cover. Some of the material did not match up exactly as it happened in the movie, but had the same results. I wish some, not all, of the content in this would have made it in to the movie. I believe it would have made it better.

I bought this book after seeing Alita: Battle Angel twice at my local Imax. Very well written and an enjoyable read, it mostly follows the movie (maybe 95%) and gives more insight into the characters. Of course it can't compete with the movie for action, but I loved the way it delved into the thoughts of the characters in many of the scenes. It gave insight into their motivations that the movie couldn't (there just wasn't enough time). I highly recommend this book if you're seen Alita. And if you haven't, you need to.

It has a few more scenes than the movie. It adds a bit more insight into the characters thoughts. Some scenes in the book are slightly different than the movie as well as some dialogue. I would consider buying this, if you want to know a bit more about the Alita world. This is definitely something to get if you absolutely love this movie, which I do very very very much (I’ve seen the movie about 24 times at the time I’m writing this).

I had such high hope that this would be a good read. It was slow, boring, and a grind to read. Well the 50% I was able to be through.

Outstanding read. Fills in the blanks f the story. Could not put the book down. Hoping to read the sequel.

Cool, fab, super

Awesome movie and book

great reading

Für den Fall, dass die individuell empfundenen Charakterbeziehungen im Film etwas zu schnell verliefen und dabei womöglich als unnatürlich erscheinen, kann ich das Buch nur empfehlen. (Generell kann ich es nur empfehlen... Es geht schließlich um Alita....) Es enthält wichtige Informationen über die Charaktere (sogar über die Nebencharaktere) die das Verhalten von z.B. Dr Ido gut erklären und dadurch ein viel besseres und glaubhafteres Bild präsentieren. Die "Action" kann natürlich nicht so genial dargestellt werden wie im Film, jedoch hat das Buch dafür andere Stärken. Alles in Allem auf jeden Fall eine ausgezeichnete Ergänzung.

Wer den Film kennt, wird alle wichtigen Szenen im Buch wiedererkennen. Die eigentlichen Szenen sind ab und zu ein klein wenig abgeändert und an einigen Stellen sind zusätzlichen Informationen eingefügt. Zum Beispiel: Ganz am Anfang wird auf ein paar Seiten erzählt, wie Schwester Gerhard zu ihrem Cyborg-Arm gekommen ist und wieso sie für Ido arbeitet. Nichts davon wird im Film erwähnt, gibt dem Buch allerdings noch noch etwas zusätzliche Tiefe. Der Film hat es bei den Kampfszenen natürlich leichter, während das Buch mit dem "Innenleben" der Charaktere besser punkten kann. Ich habe Film und Buch und nehme beide gern zur Hand.