Movie Review - Alita: Battle Angel

When it comes to blockbuster films or big-budget studio projects that feature robots, androids or cyborgs, it's rare that the film will center around a female character of that type. Ex Machina (2015) was one such but even that wasn't a big-budget project meant to be a blockbuster. Ghost in the Shell (2017) was another such but that film had other issues or controversies, namely the female protagonist was Asian but the actress portraying her was white. This film is based on another Japanese property, but, unlike Ghost in the Shell, the protagonist isn't as racially identified. The look and the design in the Manga on which this is based could be interpreted as either white or Asian. The Manga, written by Yukito Kishiro, sets the story in a post-apocalyptic version of the American Midwest and American Southwest. The character could be Latino, which is who the actress is portraying her.

Director Robert Rodriguez is certainly Latino. The charactrer's ethnicity though isn't a factor. Her gender seemingly is. It helps that James Cameron is producing and co-writing. Cameron has a history of utilizing the female gender in empowering and even in kick-ass ways. He certainly did so for Aliens (1986) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). How he did so was in the middle of all the science-fiction and special effects, he had a sense of humanity and heart that anchored or at times drove the action of his films. Maybe it hurts this film that he's not actually directing it, but this film certainly feels like it's lacking in both humanity and heart.

It's not as if Cameron is perfect. Avatar (2009) also felt lacking in both things. Avatar unlike his other films though has been the most reliant on visual effects and CGI. Arguably, CGI dominated that film, just as it does here. Yet, Avatar works better than this because it was longer. It had longer time to do world-building and develop its characters, such as they were, which were still rather thin. This film doesn't have that kind of time. With the time it does have, it doesn't do enough to make us feel the stakes and even the plot, although that might have been a victim of editing.

Rosa Salazar (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Parenthood) stars as Alita, the titular character who is a cyborg in the year 2563. She's found in the scrapyard in Iron City. She's still intact. She's simply lacking limbs. Her entire body is robotic, except for her head, but even her head seems like it's part robotic too, namely her inordinately big eyes, which give her this baby doll quality that makes her feel more like an object, infantile and/or sexual. Her discovery of her power and abilities is supposed to move her out of that objectified status.

There are certain problems because there are three things encircling her that aren't fully developed. The first thing is her history and how she came to end up in the scrapyard. Essentially, she's a soldier in a war, but the reasons for the war or the back-story for it are never explained. The only thing that we get is a possible socioeconomic battle where Alita champions the poor who dwell in Iron City fighting against the wealthy who live in the sky, literally. The wealthy apparently reside in a city that hovers above the ground but is tethered for some reason to the Earth by large cables that seem connected to Iron City. Why that connection is never explained either.

Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained and Inglourious Basterds) also stars as Dyson Ido, a cyber-surgeon or basically a doctor for cyborgs or people who have robotic parts or even whole bodies. In this society and future, people with robotic parts is more than common. Dyson is also what's called a "Hunter-Warrior" or a kind of bounty hunter. However, how the criminal justice system works in this world never seems clear, as how the government works in this world never seems clear. Therefore, I never really understood what was law enforcement and what wasn't.

The mystery consists of people getting killed and cyborgs getting assaulted and having body parts removed. The group doing so sell the body parts for scrap, but given that the opening scene is Dyson finding Alita in a giant scrapyard, why the people stealing scrap are doing so also is never explained. With a lot of these cyborgs, it's not even clear how human they are  or how much human they are. There are hints of some people being bigoted toward cyborgs but generally the cyborgs seem accepted in society, but that bigotry or acceptance isn't really explored.

Keean Johnson (Nashville and The Fosters) co-stars as Hugo, a young man who's revealed to be part of the group that's assaulting cyborgs and selling their body parts for scrap. He meets and has a romance with Alita, a cyborg. He hides the fact that he's assaulting cyborgs while at the same time, he's dating one. He has a dream of going to the city in the sky. He needs to earn a lot of money to do so. That's why he's involved in these crimes. Unfortunately, the film doesn't delve too much into Hugo's character to help us understand why he wants to go to the city in the sky or what he thinks is up there, since we never see it for ourselves. We have no clue.

Because we don't delve into his character, it was difficult for me to care about him. Alita's later actions are motivated because of him, so if I can't care about Hugo, then I couldn't care about Alita. The romance between the two of them is so superficial anyway that it was hard to get invested. The film's only saving grace are the action sequences, which are basically Alita fighting cyborgs bigger and seemingly tougher than her. The sequences are entertaining. They would be even better if there were more developed characters or a more-developed narrative upon which to hang them.

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some language.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 2 mins.

Available on DVD and VOD.