Welcome back to another episode of Extremely Late Film Reviews, a show that leaves you questioning “Is this movie even relevant anymore?” and the answer is almost always “Probably not.” This week, we’re going to be talking about “Alita: Battle Angel,” an action flick based on the manga “Battle Angel Alita” that was produced by James Cameron and directed by Robert Rodriguez. The story in both the movie and the manga takes us to a distant future where most humans are half robot, and the rich live in a luxurious, floating city (Zalem), while the rest of society ekes out a meager existence in the blasted out wasteland of Iron City, which exists in the shadow of Zalem, living off the waste of the rich.
Our story opens when Dr. Ido, who helps cyborgs maintain their robot bodies, finds an armless and legless full-replacement cyborg (meaning only the brain is human) in the garbage heap under Zalem. When he fixes her up, he dubs her “Alita” and our adventure begins. Not only does Alita have no recollection of who she is, or where she came from, she also has immense strength and fighting prowess of unknown origin. Throughout the movie, we learn more about who she is and where she came from. But honestly, all of that meant astonishingly little to the overall plot.
I’ll be the first to say that I am in no way a fan of action films, but I conceded that I would see this movie almost solely because I read the manga a few years back and was interested to see how the story would play out on screen. While they pretty much stuck with the same storyline, which follows Alita as she fights villains as a bounty hunter, falls in love with a human boy, and attempts to bring down Zalem, the plot was in no way the best part of the movie. It was predictable and focused too much energy on elements that weren’t even resolved in this film (leaving room for a series of sequels, I’m assuming). It was the visuals that had me absolutely entranced. I mean, the film was gorgeous. The city was alive and breathing, and Rose Salazar’s computer-generated face and body looked so natural and real, I almost forgot that she wasn’t. Honestly, y’all. I would see it just for the well-choreographed fight sequences and the motorball scenes (their most popular sport.)
“The fight scenes were very well done, though there were not nearly enough of them,” Jaden, who saw the film with me, recalls.
“It was over the top, but not so much so that it warranted an eye roll. Every time Alita figured out something new about her hidden combat expertise looked like something straight out of my favorite anime, which I suppose is appropriate given the source material for the movie.”
One of the worst aspects of the film was definitely the dialogue. Jaden and I had to roll our eyes on several occasions after a particularly bad line, they were just that cheesy.
“Here’s the thing though: I don’t think the lines would have been perceived as being as cheesy if they were in a Japanese production or had they come from the manga,” said Jaden.
“As we have seen many, many times before, the type of over the top, dramatic, trope-filled dialogue seen in Japanese media just does not fit the live action genre on the big screen most of the time. This glaring problem really sticks out in Battle Angel. “
But, where the film blundered in the character development arena and dialogue arenas, it certainly made up for in immersiveness and pure fun. In fact, Cameron and Rodriguez have created such an immersive world, they even put together the Alita Experience- Passport to Iron City, an interactive, in-person game that takes participants through a miniature version of Iron City to play games and earn credits. After learning that one of these experiences was located in Austin, Jaden and I decided to go on a whim after seeing the film and enjoying it, and we had a blast! It really did a lot to make you feel like you were a part of their world, and offered a ton of challenging puzzles and feats of teamwork to keep your heart pounding for the entire 45 minutes.
“It should be noted that my opinion of the movie was bolstered significantly with my attendance of this event, so take some of my opinions with a grain of salt,” Jaden adds.
Overall, the film was generally fun, easy to follow, and visually stunning- definitely worth checking out if you like action films or anime adaptions. And if you happen to live in New York, Los Angeles, or Austin and the Passport to Iron City event is still happening, go! The experience is almost better than the film itself. Here’s to hoping that James Cameron doesn’t take 10 years to make the next film in this series.