I wanted to see Alita: Battle Angel from the second I saw the trailer. It looked amazing. Except those eyes – Alita’s big giant eyes freaked me out but the rest of it was promising. This is from director Robert Rodriguez who gave us From Dusk till Dawn, the series and Sin City but neither of these (or anything else he’s done) really reminded me of the tone here, so I wasn’t sure what Alita: Battle Angel would actually be like.
A deactivated female cyborg is revived, but cannot remember anything of her past life and goes on a quest to find out who she is.
The thing about Alita: Battle Angel that really stood out was how beautiful it was. The world they lived in was detailed and engaging; I really got a sense of a ruined world that was still teeming with human culture. Also gorgeous was Keean Johnson (thank you for your Fan Service). But where this movie really comes alive is in its action sequences. My goodness they were pretty. And exciting. Not just the fight sequences (which were amazing) but there were chases and a sport I actually enjoyed watching. Motorball leaves Quidditch in the dust as far as I’m concerned. I always thought there should be more out-and-out fighting in fictional sports.
I was surprised that, at the time of this writing, Alita: Battle Angel only had a 59% on Rotten Tomatoes. I can sort-of see it, the film definitely had some flaws; a lot of things were lost in translation. The dialogue was pretty awkward in a lot of places and the pacing was a bit uneven. Some of the plot points and character motivations were a bit…off. I don’t know if that’s because this was adapted from a different medium or because they were condensing a manga series into a movie, but it was definitely obvious this movie came from something else and didn’t completely make the jump. It doesn’t matter, though, these little things are easy to see but also easy to ignore.
So is Alita: Battle Angel worth watching? Yes. My goodness yes. I will absolutely be watching this again and I’ll be looking forward to the sequel. The world reminds me of the Fifth Element and that’s a really good thing. Next time maybe I’ll be better with those giant eyes.
Rating: [star rating=”4″]