A cyborg that is found in the dumps of a giant flying city, Zalem, is taken by a cyborg mechanic, Ido, to start a new life. The cyborg, Alita, wants to figure out who she really is and wants to play in Motorball, a fast paced sport of the future. Many cyborgs and people try to get in her way, but she prevails with her fighting style. As she finds out more, she decides to go for the real enemy of the future, Zalem and the villian, Nova.
Alita: Battle Angel (2019) is directed by Robert Rodriguez and stars Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Keean Johnson, Mahershala Ali, and Jennifer Connelly.
To be honest, I didn’t really want to see this film when it first came to theaters. And I didn’t. The trailers looked promising, but Alita’s eyes were off-putting. I just kind of forget about it after that. Since we are basically taking it easy and trying to stay in the house, we decided to give it a watch. I almost regret not seeing it in theaters.
The cast did amazing. They really sold the audience on their parts and passion for their characters. Christoph Waltz is always a pleasure to see on the screen and Rosa Salazar, Alita, was mesmerizing. I don’t know the particulars about this film, but I think the Alita character was all CGI based. I mean, that’s pretty cool and it turned out great.
There were some moments that didn’t make sense. Some spoilers coming, so i would back off now for this paragraph. Ido’s daughter was wheel chair based, so he makes a body for her, but she gets murdered. They do a flashback of a cyborg desperately coming in for drugs and pushing Ido out of the way to just kill his daughter in one swoop. It just doesn’t make sense, at least the way they did it. Just an excuse for his daughter to be murdered. And what’s the reason for Hugo, Alita’s boyfriend, going to Zalem? The film didn’t even show what Zalem truly looked like.
I didn’t read the manga that this film is based on, so I can’t say for sure if this was a good adaptation from it, but based on others reviews, it is. So if you like the manga, there is a good chance that you will like this film.
I will say that it was very engaging from start to finish. I was rooting for Alita the whole time. I wanted her to win. I wanted her to be happy. The action was great and was a fun ride to watch since it was very face paced. Her fighting style was top-notch.
Another issue is the script. It’s not great. Not bad though. There’s a romance between Alita and Hugo, but it’s very cringe-worthy and almost force fed to the audience. As if she needed more motivation to destroy Zalem…. but not really. Without the romance, she has enough motivation. Also, there’s a lot of underdeveloped characters. There’s so much they could of explained and done with these really interesting characters to make them even better, but they didn’t. Ido is a hunter-warrior, this badass bounty hunter with the backstory of him being a doctor/mechanic. On the outside, he is very interesting. It would of been great to see more layers of him. Same with Zapan, another hunter-warrior. Very cool character, but I wanted to know more.
I didn’t know that this was going to be a series of films. I was waiting for her to finally reach Zalem and kick ass, but the ending got me. She never makes it. We have to wait for the next film, which I am very excited for now.
If you haven’t seen this already, I would. It’s fun, entertaining, and fast. The script is fine. Nothing special in there and there are going to be characters that you will want more from and won’t get. But the main character, Alita, is amazing. So go for the heroine, plot, and action. I give Alita: Battle Angel (2019) a 7.5/10.
All pics from imdb.com
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