When Alita awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido, a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell i...
Alita: Battle Angel ambitiously falls from Zalem and lands in a trashy mess. James Cameron is a household name. Attach his name to any project and audiences will flock to see it so that they can be visually assaulted with state-of-the-art effects. But is it another case of style over substance? Yes. Completely. Alita is a muddled mess, but there are various enjoyable moments to be had. A cyborg scientist reassembles a disembodied body, and in the process creates Alita. She discovers she was a warrior, and was tasked in destroying the sky city Zalem, putting a stop to an antagonising puppeteer named Nova. That's the gist of the story, but there is so much more. Too much even! And that is half of this film's problem.
It is a culmination of several chapters from the manga with so much world building and exposition, that its two hour runtime had no space for genuine character development. The first half of this film nearly bored me to death with constant explanations. Hunter-Warriors, Zalem, Motorball, "Panzer Kunst" and "The Fall". I didn't have time to whip out a notepad to write all this down! The screenplay sacrifices natural conversations and relationship bonding for world building, and it didn't work. The romance between Hugo and Alita was undercooked, with them bonding over exposition. Her relationship with Dyson was probably the most developed, but again was severely lacking in depth. The few moments of enjoyable thrills and dialogue, including the Motorball tryout race and initial battle with Grewishka, were then proceeded with dull dialogue that disabled any lasting impression. Several characters, particularly Chiren, instantly changed motives with minimal processing. We get it, Alita rejuvenates her motherly instincts but atleast give her time to develop this and not just immediately change within the snap of a finger. I will say that the Hunter-Warriors had personality and were led exceptionally by Skrein's menacing performance. The whole YA approach reminded me of last year's failure 'Mortal Engines', and that's not a good sign.
As with any blockbuster produced by Cameron, the visual effects typically transport audiences to a new world. Fortunately this depiction of the 26th Century is bursting with environmental details that surprisingly gives the world life. The dirty metropolis of Iron City looked and felt trashy, whilst the ominous Zalem provided a utopian city that acted as an overbearing symbol of wealth. The motion capture, especially Salazar as Alita, was exceptional and impressed me for the most part. The effects do lose detail when the action starts, with characters jumping and weapons flying becoming very noticeable, which does consequently take you out of the film. Hugo as a cyborg in particular looked incredibly rushed and unpolished. I did appreciate the level of gore and violence. Limbs were flying off in every direction!
The performances were all fine. Salazar maintained the lead role well and was supported by Waltz who gives the best performance. Johnson wasn't great, and was clearly employed for his good looks. The biggest crimes though were underutilising Connelly and Ali. Their antagonising characters held no power or menace, and more development should've been on them. Rodriguez' directing techniques were adequate, however the Motorball hunt sequence was exhilarating and gave me a sense of hope that this film might just be good. Alas, that hope was squandered when the film suddenly ends of a cliff hanger in a bid to open up to a sequel. Nope. The likelihood, considering the budget, is slim and therefore Alita will remain as an unfinished story. I will always support new adaptations, particularly of Japanese source materials, and I do praise the effort that Rodriguez put in. But it falls short with its explanatory story and one-dimensional characters. Alita still remains a fallen angel.
