Alita: Battle Angel
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Writer(s): James Cameron, Laeta Kalogridis, Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Mahershala Ali, Jennifer Connelly
Music: Junkie XL
Cinematographer: Bill Pope
Production Designer: Caylah Eddleblute, Steve Joyner
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
On a scavenging run through a junkyard, cyborg scientist Dr. Dyson Ito stumbles upon the remains of a half destroyed female android who he fixes and names “Alita” after his deceased daughter. Alita wakes with no memory of who she was before Ito found her and must rediscover who and what she is among the people of the dystopian Iron City who all clamber for a chance to enter Zalem, the last advanced city, floating loftily above them in the sky.
Although the manga, originally published in 1990 under the name Gunnm in Japan, originated the story of Alita, Alita: Battle Angel more closely adapts the story from the 1993 OVA (Gally in the original story) for the big screen. After waking, Alita played by Rosa Salazar, walks into the world like a newborn baby with a sense of curiosity and wonder that’s actually pretty cute. Her relationship with Dr. Ito quickly forms into one of a father and daughter and somehow manages not to come off as creepy or unnatural. Christoph Waltz is pretty spot on as Ito, himself an unassuming cybernetic physician with an air of mystery about him. His fatherly demeanor compliments the naivety of Alita completely until the moment they discover the hidden sides of each other and the movie kicks into an action packed marvel.
However, not all the character interactions are as organic. Hugo, played by Keean Johnson, is Alita’s friend and love interest. A lot of the world building and plot development in this film comes from his character and is done pretty neatly. Unfortunately, the love story is rushed and sometimes humorously cringeworthy. I have to say that this is probably due to some of the action oriented additions to the film. With a run time of two hours the movie may not have had enough time to properly build this particular relationship that is so pivotal to both Alita and her motivations against Zalem for the rest of her story. Johnson doesn’t do a bad job as Hugo and like a lot of the other actors does a pretty good job depicting the character but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out a lot of the Alita/Hugo relationship got left on the cutting room floor.
As for the villains of the film, of which there are a few, Mahershala Ali as Vector, Jennifer Connelly as Chiren and a near unrecognizable Jackie Earle Haley as the cyborg nemesis Grewishka do an alright job as foils for Alita (Chiren and Grewishka are characters created for the OVA). Mahershala Ali unsurprisingly does a great job playing Vector whose personality closely resembles a futuristic Nino Brown while Connelly’s Chiren is passionless and slightly aloof most of the time. Haley’s Grewishka does a nice job making you hate him and feel sorry for him at the same time. For what essentially should be a henchmen character, even under all the CGI, Haleys performance was spot on and I found myself wanting Alita to destroy him more and more as the film went on. Ed Skrein plays Zapan, a fellow hunter and sort of rival for Alita for the latter half of the film. Unfortunately for Skrein, he tends to play the same character no matter what movie he’s in and this isn’t much different. Imagine Ajax from Deadpool…but with cyborg parts and you’ve got Skrein’s Zapan.
Visually, this movie is spectacular. Iron City is a very different place than that of Ghost In the Shell’s futuristic depiction of Japan and with good reason. After a war referred to as “The Fall’ Iron City seems to be born from a mix of Middle Eastern style architecture mixed with some sci-fi influenced technology. The people who make up Iron City are a multicultural mix of humans and cyborgs living near harmoniously under Zalem. My only criticism is that while Iron City was built from the trash of Zalem it’s a little too clean but that’s not a huge issue and it’s doubtful anyone not scrutinizing the film is going to notice. The Motorball sequences are a masterwork in CG and make up some of the most beautifully stunning imagery in the film.
Something must be said for the visuals of the character of Alita specifically. Even among the other CG heavy cyborg characters Alita is a standout. The decision to give Alita “anime eyes” was a bit of a issue at first, especially when the first trailer was released. I’m happy to report that this becomes less of an issue fairly quickly as the film goes on. You’ll barely notice her eyes after about a half hour…it’s her other facial qualities that might be a cause for pause. Specifically for me it was Alita’s smile and teeth. When I stopped caring about her eyes I couldn’t stop focusing on her teeth whenever she gave an awkward smile.
Having been a fan of the original manga and the two episode OVA that was produced in 1993, I was seriously apprehensive about supporting Alita Battle Angel. Japanese manga/anime hasn’t had the best track record being adapted to the big screen but somehow director Robert Rodriguez manages to interrupt that cycle. There’s so much here to like! Iron City is fantastically fleshed out. The characters, both main and support all get attention, the world feels lived in and real and the adaptation is surprisingly faithful to the anime, with a few additions thrown in to keep the less informed audiences happy.
With as much as I liked about the movie I have to say is it probably going to be divisive between the people who are familiar with the property and those who’re just looking for a good movie. I personally prefer when film adaptations work within the established material versus altering it, but I think for the first time I feel like an adaptation leaning so hard on the source material may not have been the best idea for every viewers enjoyment. There are scenarios and dialogue that play out in places that the less familiar will find unnecessary or just flat out silly. Almost as if Cameron had bullet points for things he saw in the original that HAD to make the film no matter what. That includes the abrupt way the movie ends.
Lastly, I almost never recommend movies in 3D but this movie seems made for it. Where some other films seem to just play with perspective trivially to be able to sell it in 3D Alita is drenched in it. Every single scene, from the falling trash from Zalem in the opening scenes to Motorball to the triumphant emergence of the Battle Angel, this is 3D done well.
Eric Snell
esnell@comicattack.net
