Summary
A visually stunning film that dips in and out of the uncanny valley is a technological marvel – even if it all gets a little disturbing later on.
You couldn’t find two filmmakers who sit at polar opposites more than James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez. Cameron, one of the Master of Modern blockbuster filmmaking, goes for long stretches between films and has quietly built an empire. Rodriguez, on the other hand, still makes his movies with the same intensity of the indie filmmaker who crafted excitement on a shoestring budget. ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL represents the coming together of those minds and the results are a spectacular but uneven visual effects marvel.
Based on the manga Gunnm by Yukito Kishiro, we are introduced to the post-disaster world of 2563 as Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz) digs through the scrapheap. There he finds the mostly intact remains of a young cyborg girl that he soon dubs Alita (Rosa Salazhar). After she befriends the teenage Hugo (Keean Johnson), Alita begins to learn things about her past, Ido’s true calling, and the connection with enigmatic Vector (Mahershala Ali) and Chiren (Jennifer Connelly), Ido’s ex-wife.
ALITA is an ambitious film. When Rodriguez joined the production, he reportedly condensed Cameron’s 186-page shooting script and 600 pages of notes into something more manageable. Cameron and co-writer Laeta Kalogridis’ script definitely bites off a lot more than it can possibly chew through in the final 2-hour edit, pinging from moment to moment in an episodic and sometimes disjointed fashion.
It’s a good thing that those individual sequences are pure cinema, baiting the audience with the principal of escalation. A neighbourhood game of ‘Motorball’ – a hybrid of basketball and a roller derby – is a dynamic and fluid showcase for the titular character’s CG, one that pays off in the climactic final act. When the fighting starts, the CG-heavy violence employs every inch of the lessons Rodriguez learned on El Mariachi through to Sin City, rarely relying on the spectacle to replace thoughtful choreography.
It’s a hell of spectacle though. Given that Cameron’s Avatar popularised modern 3D, this is one of those rare instances where it adds layers to the world-building. Crowded city streets are layered with the same amount of detail Cameron put into the crockery choices on Titanic, and this extends to every scene in the film. Then there’s Alita herself, one of the most advance combinations of motion capture and CG the screen has ever seen, exaggerating her facial features just enough to avoid the uncanny valley. We’re a long way on from Jar Jar Binks (who turns 20 this year!)
So, it’s disappointing that the second and third acts of the film get a little muddled, trudging through these episodes rather than the possibilities of the handsome environment. What’s most disturbing is the way the narrative rapidly descends into a teenage robotic sex toy fantasy. Following her characterisation as someone who will “do whatever you want for you,” Alita’s body is literally replaced with something more adult and “more touch sensitive.” It gets a little icky when you consider that actor Johnson has been crafted as Rodriguez’s avatar, complete with bandana and leather jacket.
The rest of the cast don’t get nearly as much attention. Ido’s backstory is sputtered out when needed, while Connelly and Ali mostly get to stand around looking alternatively cool and annoyed. There’s some serious talent here, but the bulk of the heavy lifting is done by Salazar. It would have been nice, for example, to give the accomplished Idara Victor more than three or four perfunctory lines in the whole film.
If ALITA is a success, and the sequels roll out like so many Motorballs, then we make reflect on this film as an accomplished first act in a large story. After all, it has over 9 volumes of manga and other stories to pull on. The late reveal of the actor portraying the uber villain certainly indicates there’s bigger plans for this battle angel. Despite the weaknesses in story structure, this is a fun ride if you’re willing to switch your own brain circuits off for a few hours.
2019 | US| DIR: Robert Rodriguez | WRITERS: James Cameron, Laeta Kalogridis (based on the manga by Yukito Kishiro)| CAST: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keean Johnson | RUNNING TIME: 122 minutes | DISTRIBUTOR: 20 Century Fox (AUS) | RELEASE DATE: 14 February 2019 (AUS)
