I saw ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL on Friday night in IMAX 3D with my boy John. Here is my first blog post giving a more detailed analysis of my thoughts on the film! Enjoy!

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL is the newest film from director/writer Robert Rodriguez (SIN CITY, SPY KIDS). His co-writers included Laeta Kalogridis (ALTERED CARBON on Netflix), and James Cameron – yes the same James Cameron behind THE TERMINATOR, AVATAR and TITANIC. The story is based on the Japanese Manga series Gunnm, which when translated means “gun dream”. That fits this story nicely because they really stretched the PG-13 rating on the violence. It doesn’t hold back, so maybe it was a good thing that most of the characters are cybernetic.

THE STORY

ALITA tells the story of a deactivated female cyborg who is revived, but cannot remember anything of her past life and goes on a quest to find out who she is. It is really a modern-day Pinocchio story that was done with such skill by the two heavy-weight film directors. The story arch given to Alita was such a fun journey for the audience. They answered a lot of questions about our protagonist. A lot of films seem to forget that when there is a lot of plot development, they need to remember to flesh out our protagonists backstory a little too.

CHARACTERS

Our title character Alita is played by Rosa Salazar (MAZE RUNNER). She plays her with such innocence, yet when she is forced to fight and stand up for what is right – it’s on. Strong female characters are quickly becoming a bigger part of the Hollywood mantra. Gone are the days when the buff dude with a strong jawline were your only protagonists – and honestly that is a good thing. We get to see a wide range of new characters and stories instead of the same old junk over and over again.

Dr. Ido is played by the great Christoph Waltz. He is the Geppetto of the film who discovers quickly who Alita really is and knows what she is capable of. His character’s backstory was sad, and we see why he takes Alita under his wing.

Probably the weakest aspect of the movie for me were the villains. TBH I thought they were over the top and campy. The main villain is played by Edward Norton and is only onscreen for about 1 min. He has no dialogue except through other characters. Marhershala Ali plays the right hand man, but he was grossly underused in this film. He is in about three scenes and the main one he is in disappoints. The main character that Alita keeps fighting was a tank character named Grewishka, played by Jackie Earle Haley. The character just doesn’t seem to have any motivations other than to beat up people.

TECHNICAL

Wow – I mean WOWWWWWWWW! This film is everything I want in Scifi. Great CGI work mixed in with practical effects. It was also rendered to 3D exceptionally well – no eye strain for the audience.

The sound design, editing, and cinematography all helped to create a world that really feels lived in, and futuristic (which is a good thing since it was set in the 26th century).

The stunt work done for all of the fight sequences is outstanding. Some really great choreography has you gripping the edge of your seat until the end of the fight. The scene in the trailer of Alita in a battle arena – that right there was worth the IMAX ticket.

KID FRIENDLY

I found the film to be very kid friendly, despite the violent nature of the fight scenes. They are cybernetic characters though, but we do see heads and body parts chopped up. If that is too much for your little one, you might want to skip it. Other than that, language and sexual references are kept to a minimum.

CONCLUSION

Great technical and stunt work make for a fun scifi film that is sure to please most fans. While I don’t know how the film translates from the source material, it works for me on its own. The acting by the leads was just average, with a slight deduction to our villains who don’t seem to have any motivation for what they do (although that was kind of explained in the film’s last act). Go support this movie so we get to see more of ALITA!

I give ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL a 9/10