A story taking place in the distant future
The famous manga Battle Angel Alita tells a story that takes place in the distant future, when a teenage cyborg is found in a giant scrap heap, which discovers who she and who she wants to be through exciting action scenes one after another. It is a fascinating work of fiction, which has now turned into a visually fascinating feature film but is packed with so much plot and events that there is virtually no room for the actual target.
The film was renamed Alita: Battle Angel, starring Rosa Salazar (who played the role in Bird Box) as Aletta, the crappy cyborg that sees this devastating world with vast eyes full of amazement and wonder. Christophe Waltz will star in her role as Edo, the gentle cyborg repairer who repairs Aletta and becomes her surrogate father. Edo wants Aletta to look for herself, free of all the burdens that come with her high-tech body. No one seems to know where she came from, why she is so sophisticated or why she has an unparalleled experience in the long-lost cyborg martial arts.
The story
The story in Alita: Battle Angel is so intense that it can fill several films. Throughout just one film, Aletta investigates a serial killer, becomes an award-winning hunter, joins the cyborg team of a deadly and professional sportsman, and reveals the truth of her existence. Meanwhile, villain Victor (Mahershala Ali) and his scientist Cherine (Jennifer Connelly), who run Motorball races, kidnap, mutilate, and other illegal things, face.
These events cover almost the first 4 volumes of the Battle Angel Alita manga, and although co-authors Eta Callogridis and James Cameron are trying to bring all of these parts together, the film suffers from a ring-like structure. We see Aletta rushing through a story, which rises to a giant climax, then the movie takes a break and moves to another story that builds another big scene, and then it starts again.
It's like watching the first third of a TV series in one go and then suddenly stopping, but Alita: Battle Angel is limited to only 122 minutes, so everything seems to be in a hurry. The existential crisis at the center of the original story, in which Aletta struggles to find out who she is and where she came from, is quickly resolved, because everything must be clearly revealed in order to reach the next spectacular action scene. So the film is more like a huge Hollywood action-filled film than a powerful science fiction film.
Amazing production
But even though the film does not fully live up to the source of intelligent and philosophical source material from which it takes, it remains a stunning production. It offers a vibrant world full of details from cyber populations and stunning locations that look very realistic and at the same time the latest technology. It is this kind of surprising extravaganza that makes movies first of all charming. Where you will find yourself moved to another stunning world full of strangeness and interesting details. Alita is a visual splendor.
In the midst of all this, Rosa Salazar is performing exceptionally well. In spite of the artificially generated limbs and artificially inflated eyes, they succeed in bringing warmth and humanism to the mechanisms. Her serious humanities merge over the course of the film into a harsh warfare shell, but her feelings for Hugo (Kean Johnson), who will become her boyfriend, are full of tenderness that fits into young people's films. Their story grows from the ashes of a devastated world like a flower that emerges from cracks in marble.
Aletta's relationship with Edo is passionate and warm, but poor Christoph Waltz is marginalized for half the film, so his character is not adequately navigated. He is Aletta's teacher, her father, her doctor, her professor and her conscience, and this is a long responsibility. Fortunately, Waltz is playing a great role, and you will never get bored with the Oscar winner's double image with a giant rocket-powered ax.
Alita: Battle Angel is a major change in the style of director Robert Rodriguez, who spent much of his career bypassing the studio system in favor of large-scale, independent, low-budget projects.
But despite this big move, he knows how to make studios satisfactorily. What's more, his love of exoticism and unique action gives the film a touch of renewal and excitement at a time when many of the huge CGI movies (containing computer-generated images) are becoming familiar.
My thoughts
Although Alita: Battle Angel does not reach the technical, emotional and objective level of the original manga, it is a good attempt to take Yukito Kichiro's work to the film industry.
With the director's enthusiasm to put as much of the manga story on the screen, the film's companions were forced to abandon the quieter moments that gave all of these events even more meaning.
But everything managed to access the film is, at least, incredibly wonderful.
