Alita: Battle Angel - A lesson on pushing your opinions, beliefs and products

Introduction

For those of who you don't know, Alita: Battle Angel (currently in cinemas at the time of writing) is about a cyborg who learns more about her past as she takes part in a dangerous sport. With its stunning visuals, an interesting sounding main character and prolific director, Robert Rodriguez, at the helm, I should be excited about this.

But I'm not excited for one reason: it's overly-advertised. Everywhere I go, especially now, I see nothing but Alita: Battle Angel. Be they in cinemas or online, Alita: Battle Angel has been advertised to death and quite frankly, I'm sick of it. And that's before I even seen the film.

Why is that? Why did a film that piqued my interest cause me to turn against it so quickly before I've even seen it? 

That's when I realised: this is the perfect example of how not to get people to see your product. In this post, I will explore several examples of how pushing people to see your movie or join your organisation will do exactly that: push.

Main Thingy

So the earliest example of pushing something beyond breaking point, at least for me, is Disney's Frozen. It was a massive hit with both audiences and critics and it generated over $1 billion dollars at the box office. And for good reason, it is a solid film with great characters, beautiful animations, one or two great songs and a fantastic moral about how true love is familial love, not necessarily romantic love.

Sadly, Disney caught on to its success and suddenly it was everywhere. For a while, you couldn't go anywhere without hearing 'Let it Go,' nor could you go anywhere without Frozen merchandise being shoved in your face. They even put unnecessary short films before other Disney films! It got so ludicrous that I actually started to forget why I even liked that film and I just became sick of it.

And as a result, pretty much everyone became sick of Frozen. I'm not even sure how much money the upcoming Frozen 2 will make.

But it doesn't stop there with Disney but with this example, it's not Disney's fault. Enter The Lion King, which I have to say is overrated. True it has stunning animation and a great villain but the main character is an obnoxious brat, the story is fine but it doesn't stand out to me, it's unfunny and the songs... not a fan...

But the main reason why I don't like The Lion King is that everyone won't shut up about its greatness, to the point where they denounce anyone who says they didn't like it. Because of this, it got shoved in my face and now I'm sick of it.

Then there's Netflix's Stranger Things. I have yet to see this show because, once again, it gets everywhere. Everyone wouldn't stop raving about it and everyone I talked to about it freaked out when I mentioned I haven't seen it. Now I won't watch it because I'm afraid I'll be underwhelmed. Ditto with Game of Thrones.

On that regard, I've been fairly guilty myself. I tell everyone I meet to read/watch Doctor Who, Star Wars, and Harry Potter if they haven't done so. So I guess I can't be too mad. But then again, as surprising as it is for you to hear, I don't jabber on about these as much as I want to because I know people would get sick of me. Heck, I get sick of me sometimes!

But okay, that's for movies. Everyone is entitled to their opinion even if I don't share it and at the end of the day, that's inconsequential. But sadly this applies to things like politics and religion.

A bit of background: For starters, I am apolitical. I believe that all political parties in the UK are out of touch with the people and don't have much of an idea what they're doing. If I had to vote, I'd say Labour because they make the most sense but even then, they're not perfect. But honestly, if voting wasn't that important to the lives of everyone in my country, I wouldn't do it. Not just because British politics is basically a joke these days but because everyone I know and know of would not stop shoving their political views down everyone's throats. And guess what, more often than not, it would cause arguments as people were more pushed apart then drawn together. And don't get me started on the kind of divide Brexit caused! I understand that politics make people angry but when you share your anger, people will only get angry in return. That's why I stayed out of this, to keep a positive aura around everyone I know.

And don't think political correctness and social justice warriors are free from this too. Yes, I get that you want to make positive changes and I admire you guys for that but can you do it in a way that doesn't make you come across as 'I'm better than you!' It'll just annoy people. Same with the anti-SJWs: you're just as annoying as the thing you're against and I cannot take your opinions seriously if they aren't even there.

And sadly, religion is no stranger to this. Now, as I mentioned in my last post I am a Christian. But I have to admit that part of the reason why I wasn't for a while was that my Christian friends wouldn't talk about anything else. They came across as weird to me because they came across as obsessed. I ultimately chose Christianity on my own terms because I was in a dark place and Jesus helped me out. And I know shoving Christianity down people's throats doesn't work because I tried that. In a fit of enthusiasm, I tried forcing my atheist friend to come with me and, unsurprisingly, she didn't take it well. We nearly fell out because of it and I learned that if I were to get people to become a Christian, I must let them do it on their terms and I must respect their views until they want to change it.

It's a lesson some Christians need to learn because it's getting dangerous. Now, unfortunately, I have to begrudgingly agree with the Bible's questionable views on the LGBT+ community but only because I believe that the Christian approach is to let them change on their own terms, not ours (if that's even possible). But apparently, some morons don't believe that and we have the ex-gay groups and, most horrifyingly, gay conversion therapy, both of which force LGBT+ people to turn straight with damaging results. I do hope they're just an extreme minority because that is messed up and is the ultimate example as to how forcing your views on other people is a bad, bad idea. No wonder non-Christians mock us! We must come across as raving lunatics if this is how we spread the word.

Granted, it's not like other religions are much better. Atheists are laughably hypocritical by condemning Christians for forcing their views only to force their own views down people's throats. Then there are terrorists like ISIS and Al Queda who fail to realise that killing people isn't going to make us like them.

Conclusion

Okay, I could go on and on (I haven't even mentioned vegans and opinionated fans) but that would be defeating my objective. What's the point of all this? 

Basically, if you push something, be they an opinion, a belief or a piece of entertainment, you will do exactly that: you will push people away. What you should do instead is that you should say your piece and let people decide for themselves. If they disagree with you, respect their decision and move on with your life. 

As for Alita: Battle Angel, if they cut back on their advertising I would've seen the movie because I made that decision on my own. But sadly, the movie pushed it too far and now I'm dreading it. 

Now I may have just come across as a hypocrite seeing how much of a rant this was so I'll leave it up to you. Did I make a good point or is there actually merit to pushing an opinion? Or do you just not care about this? Leave your thoughts on the comments below both on here and my Facebook page 'Joel Mole' and always, leave your suggestions on what I should talk about next. Until then, fare thee well good people of the internet!