In a post-apocalyptic 26th Century, a non-functional cyborg Alita (Rosa Salazar) is discovered by a cybernetics doctor (Christoph Waltz) who takes her back to his workshop, fixes her up and brings her back to life but it’s not long until her past life and true purpose catch up with her.
Combining the talents of James Cameron and director Robert Rodriguez was always going to be an exciting prospect. The long awaited adaptation of Battle Angel: Alita is certainly not a project you would immediately associate with Rodriguez but if think about it, his flair for kinetic actions should actually make him a decent fit, but does the film live up to the talents of its creators?
Initially the answer is unfortunately, no, the film’s narrative is certainly clumsy in places and it feels like they are perhaps trying to squeeze too much world building into a two-hour film, certain character motivations don’t make a lot of sense and a lot of what is going on is left unexplained. Some of the dialogue too certainly feels clunky and whilst it may be faithful to the source material the constant use of the term ‘Hunter Warrior’ is likely to elicit an awkward chuckle before it builds any mythos for the characters.
As you may expect the set pieces and the vast majority of the visual effects though are absolutely superb and James Cameron’s involvement pays dividends here and also in the use of 3D. It might be too little too late to win over any doubters over but it is certainly one of the most impressive uses of the third dimension since Avatar hit cinema screens way back in 2009.
Alita’s eyes have attracted some controversy and undergone some re-working since the initial promotional material was released. There is no arguing it’s a bold design choice, but if you can suspend disbelief to embrace the futuristic setting and lots and lots of cyborgs it really shouldn’t be a concern and if anything, coupled with an excellent performance from Rosa Salazar, they add some much needed emotion to what could have been fairly dry proceedings.
It’s far from a perfect film and with the pedigree of the creative team that worked on it perhaps audiences aren’t wrong to have expected more from it, but if you want some beautifully rendered, high octane sci-fi action you can’t really go wrong, embrace you inner twelve year old and you should have a great time.
Author: Paul, Bath store
