Alita: Visual Spectacle Struggles to Get Off the Ground

Based on the manga series Battle Angel Alita, Alita: Battle Angel is directed by Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) and produced by James Cameron (Avatar). Rosa Salazar (Bird Box) plays the titular character, a cyborg trying to discover the purpose for which she was created. Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained), and Mahershala Ali (Green Book) play the supporting roles. Alita: Battle Angel is rated PG-13.

As the popularity of anime and manga has grown in the United States, so too has the demand for adaptations of these properties across other mediums. Alita: Battle Angel is the latest series to get a big budget film, and brings with it a great deal of promising talent to the big screen. Alita is an ambitious piece of visual filmmaking, the effects department was tasked with creating a vast futuristic world and melding human and machine parts to create various cyborg characters.

Set in the 26th century, nearly 300 years after civilization was nearly destroyed, Alita is rescued from a scrap heap and pieced together by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz). Through a series of flashbacks, Alita discovers she was built originally as a soldier. The powerful technology within her is extremely valuable, making her a target for bounty hunters and others trying to survive.

The world shown in Alita is a bleak depiction of our future, yet never feels fully authentic. The grimy streets and dark underground caverns make great action set pieces, but appear empty and staged. Once the glossy facade of CGI falls away, it is apparent the film lacks the grounded details that make any science-fiction setting legitimate.

Aside from the monochromatic jumpsuits worn by the villains, the costume design seems to be absent entirely. Despite being set 500 years in the future, none of the clothing on display has progressed at all. The lack of costumes was made up for in part by the detail and variety of some of the cyborg characters, yet others still looked cartoonish and fake. I found myself distractedly wondering why, if we are capable of connecting human brains with regenerative robotic bodies, are leather jackets and Hawaiian shirts still in style?

I don't fully understand the reasoning behind the magnified eyes on Alita, but the visual effects involved in creating the main character were very well done. Rosa Salazar’s entire performance was recorded using motion capture technology, and her facial expressions and features were incredibly detailed. The action sequences greatly benefit from the effects, combining the intricate designs with slow motion shots to create vivid and stylish scenes.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of adapting any piece of fiction is knowing how to present the story to new audiences, without boring fans with mundane details. The film often jumps to inexplicable conclusions (presumably less foreign to fans of the manga), while sometimes feeling like nothing more than a prologue to something greater. The stakes never seemed especially high, and the story often needed to be artificially pushed forward.

Fans of the source material may be able to fill in the gaps, but to me the story and world never quite fit together in a coherent way. I understood what the characters were trying to accomplish even if I failed to grasp their motivations. The great cast (particularly Ali and Waltz) seemed wasted in their roles, and were too generic to be at all memorable. Granted, Alita was a unique film, which in today's world can count for a lot. I only wish it could have managed to support its brilliant exterior with a bit more substance.

Final Verdict: ⭐⭐

Reel Recommendation: Wait until DVD release

Alita: Battle Angel opens in cinemas Feb. 14