Alita: Battle Angel Review

Alita: Battle Angel
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast Headliners: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connolly, Mahershala Ali, others
Original Release Date: February 14, 2019


(Saw this early and I feel I can now properly talk about it with the rest of the world I feel) I had not heard of the original manga and other Japanese works but had known that Alita: Battle Angel has been in the works by James Cameron for multiple decades since before so many other things he had done. In the end he set Robert Rodriguez as director but still had a hand in producing and envisioning it. One may wonder what is that made this so appealing to these filmmakers. It has an ambitious, epic science fiction scope so that is no surprise. It tries for many things but ultimately it has some steps downs for everything it does right but there's some entertainment within.
In the far, far future humanity for the most part lives in one last terrestrial location Iron City which is watched over by the high society in the world above of Zolum. It's a world of advanced technology set between trash piles. There's people with cyborg parts to entire AI beings.  One day roboticist Dr. Dyson Ido(Christoph Waltz) finds the wreckage of Alita (Rosa Salazar) who he raises as a daughter and apprentice. Little do they both know that powers lurk in the underworld beyond their control.
They find themselves dealing with various folks whether the noble likes of “motorball” pit worker Hugo(Keean Johnson) , the mysterious Vector(Mahershala Ali) and Ido's ex-wife Dr.Chiren(Jennifer Connelly), or ruthless “Hunter-Warrior” cyborg warriors like Zapan(Ed Skrein), Grewishka(Jackie Earle Haley), and Nyssiana(Elza Gonzalez).  Somewhere around there's Gelda(Michelle Rodriguez) and Nova(Edward Norton) who's roles must be seen firsthand in this attempted epic tapestry.
    For all of the star studded ensemble of a cast it has a very, very mixed bag of delivery. There'll be more on some of them who are more robotic, especially Alita, in a moment. In the human court Waltz's Ido is a genuine highlight for the most part. He brings a warmth and kindness to the role that has just the right amount of charm and intentional overbearing. He suffers from the cheese of the script which transcends robotic and human lines. Connelly's Chiren and Ali's Vector deliver dry exposition while wearing silly outfits.  Johnson's Hugo, and his friends, come across as more lame and annoying than anything. It's not a movie for character.
        In terms of the titular Alita and others there's a connection to what the film, at times does very well. Perhaps the touch of James Cameron can be felt for how much motion capture is used. Anyone with robotic parts has those added in via CGI. This can be cool but also distracting or into the uncanny, cheesy valley. Alita herself is entirely CGI with the now infamous “big eyes” look perhaps attempting to match the original manga. One wonders why this needs to have occurred since Rosa Salazar looks the real part in this world but it's a bit of an impressive job how life-like it looks. Spectacle aside her performance is no better than her peers at least to this reviewer's opinion. She has a bit of a child-like innocence to her that grows with her arc over the film and thus makes it perhaps jarring when she becomes competent in combat. There's some alright stuff in terms of her true backstory (with some tantalizing backstory scenes) but it's seldom at times.   The uncanny sleek sheen effect can be even more noticed from her foes with the likes of Haley's Grewishka and Gonzalez's Nyssiana being cheesy brutes. Skrei's Zapan brings a bit more of a swagger with him and an interesting x-factor to happenings but it's still with melodrama.
However this is a movie of the big, big picture. The background scenery and world-building can be quite interesting looking. There's the floating city above layers of junk. There's an underworld of trash. There's the motorball arenas with their giant mix of racing tracks and battling bots. At glances this film can seem quite visually neat. This is where perhaps the touch of working director Robert Rodriguez  is felt. He's no stranger to CGI-overload whether in Spy Kids or Sin City. However this can feel a bit more like Shark Boy / Lava Girl than Avatar due to a budget and fidelity that seems to fluctuate as it does with the robotic personnel. 
It's good that the action, and there's plenty of it, can be quite thrilling. It comes in spurts and usually ends too quickly but is as visceral as PG-13 can get with lots of quick jumps between at times silly slow-mo.  The action ramps up with the plot in some fun mashing of situations. This may be what the movie is worth checking out for. Tom Holkenburg's electronic score also helps, at times.
For the fun in action, grit intensity the way the film ends kind of sours ones' taste of it. Various revelations and battles happen with a small skirmish after that. Then just as an act 3 climax feels it's beginning it ends on such a cliffhanger and sequel bait. One imagines that with just a bit more of run time it could have been worth it but instead its trying to be part of a franchise that may or may not exist. Cliffhangers can be good in some cases but here it isn't when the build-up is some of the few redeeming factors of the piece.
Thus as a whole it's a journey more than a destination. There's some disappointing aspects given the talent involved but there's also a couple bits of heart, whether delivered or attempted.  The action can be fun and the ideas can be big but so can the cheese as well. 6.8 out of 10