20th Century Fox
While the world awaits James Cameron’s Avatar sequels, Cameron took some time to help shepherd another visually dazzling project to the big screen, the Anime/Manga-inspired Alita: Battle Angel, directed to Robert Rodriguez, who knows a thing or two about visual spectacle after directing the Sin City movies. And from working with Frank Miller on those projects, he’s well tuned to handling an adaptation like this which is based on the graphic novel Gunnm by Yukito Kishiro.
Alita: Battle Angel takes place in the distant future, 300 years after ‘The Fall’ which I also assume is some time after our present what with its floating cities which were all but destroyed during The Fall (only one remains in the film’s present). A doctor, Dyson Ido (Christophe Waltz), specializes in rebuilding human with mechanical parts and one day while scavenging through junk and debris from the floating city Zalem he discovers a cyborg head. With a fully functioning human brain … and he conveniently has a robotic body handy to attack it to. His new cyborg creation awakens, with no real memory of her past, and he gives her the name Alita (Rosa Salazar).
But all is not well in Iron City as someone is ‘murdering’ cyborgs and after seeing Ido come home late one night with an injured arm, Alita fears he may be the killer. She follows him the next night and discovers he is in fact a registered Hunter-Warrior, and he’s almost killed by three cyborgs. Alita suddenly springs into action, killing two of them and injuring Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley) … making an enemy in the process. Alita is now a target of Vector (played by Mahershala Ali on the surface), who lives on Zalem but is able to inhabit the bodies of others on the surface, and must also keep an eye out for cyborg Zapan (Ed Skrein) who is also in the employ of Vector, who is also aided by Chiren (Jennifer Connelly) … who also happens to be Ido’s ex-wife. And with all this going on, Alita becomes enamored of a sporting event called Motor Ball, and falls in love with a human, Hugo (Keean Johnson). There is also a secret about the body Alita was given, a bit of a reveal about her past (such as how she became such an accomplished fighter), and her mission to make it to Zalem, where only a chosen few are invited. It’s a lot.
I’ll just state right from the beginning that I have zero knowledge of the graphic novel upon which the movie is based. I’m also not a fan of Anime or Manga, so I was at a huge disadvantage going in to this movie, but I hoped that it would still be accessible to myself and others who just want to see this highly touted film. Others who were in attendance at the screening who are familiar with the material praised the film for its adherence to the story and for bringing the Manga style to life. Your mileage may vary.
For me, there was just too much going on and it felt like a mash-up of Ready Player One and Speed Racer. Now that’s not to say the movie isn’t very well made, it definitely is spectacular as far as the production design and visuals, but the story is so densely layered that it becomes an overload of information. That’s better than just being vapid, but I would have liked the film to stay focused on the main story of Alita and save something for the planned sequel (and I say planned because the movie really doesn’t have an ending).
The movie really lives or dies on its CGI-created characters who realistically inhabit the very real world that is constructed for the movie (actual sets and locations as opposed to everything being filmed against a green screen), especially Alita. Some of the cyborgs look a little goofy and cartoonish, especially during the Motor Ball tournament, but the characters of Alita and Zapan do work for the most part (interestingly, Ed Skrein seems to be the only actor whose actual face was used for his cyborg character). Zapan moves like a human. Alita also does for the most part, and the rendering of the skin textures of her face will make you wonder if that is a real face with just those overly large eyes. The hair, though, really doesn’t move naturally and I found it very distracting … and if the hair is going to become a focus then something’s not working in the story. The human performances are fine enough. Waltz maybe over-plays the doting father, and Connelly is almost a bit too cold and distant, but Johnson gave a very good emotional performance full of conflict over his character’s nature while he falls in love with Alita. He and Skrein were my two favorites as far as their performances and having better fleshed out characters.
As mentioned, the film’s production design is spectacular and 20th Century Fox is really hoping to take full advantage of the 3D process for this movie much in the same way they did with the original Avatar which basically started the most recent 3D fad that fell out of favor (at least in the US) because of bad conversions from 2D to 3D (not to mention the overuse of the process and the needless upcharge for tickets). It used to be terribly expensive to shoot in 3D because the process originally required two film cameras running simultaneously, which then had to be exhibited with two interlocked projectors. The process has advanced far enough now that it only requires one camera with two lenses shooting to a video capture card (3D cameras were even available on a consumer level for a brief time), so there really is no reason a studio should be spending extra money to convert something that wasn’t shot for 3D.
Fox, Cameron and Rodriguez went native with their 3D process and it shows. The studio has demanded that any theatre screening the film must meet their requirements for projection as far as their projector light levels. If they can’t meet the specifications, they get a flat print. I was fortunate enough to see the film in Dolby 3D and I can say it was one of the most beautiful presentations I’ve ever seen. Wearing the dark 3D glasses often muddies the image, but here the picture was as bright as any flat film. It was crisp and clear and shows what true 3D should and could look like. (The addition of the Dolby seat rumbling added to the immersive effect.) The question is though — and coming from a 3D fan, it’s a tough question to ask — is the 3D necessary for this movie?
Unfortunately, for as great as it looks, I have to say not really. Rodriguez has taken that ‘looking through a window’ approach, giving the film a lot of depth to the landscapes but using the pop out effects very sparingly, if at all. There are a lot of missed opportunities here, such as when Alita first looks at her hands. They could have easily extended out beyond the edge of the screen, but Rodriguez decided to hold back. There are other times when you expect something to pop out, like the blade of a sword, but again everything goes more parallel to the screen instead of perpendicular to allow for the pop out. Again, your enjoyment will vary, but for me I like the 3D to give depth and extension. That would be a fully immersive experience.
I know a lot of people are going to like the movie, especially if they are familiar with the material and style upon which it is based. I found it mildly entertaining, a bit too jam-packed of story with performances that ranged from fine to very good. The lack of a real ending — and I’m surprised it didn’t say ‘To Be Continued’ (and there is nothing to stick around for post-credits) — perhaps was the biggest issue I had leaving the movie because I felt I had just wasted two hours and got no resolution to Alita’s quest to reach Zalem. But, I think it’s important to support the movie, particularly the 3D version, so Hollywood will understand how a 3D movie should look. Just use the process to its full advantage.
Alita: Battle Angel has a run time of 2 hours 2 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language.
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