ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (2019)

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (2019)

In this one, we are shot over 500 years into the future, and a LOT like GHOST IN THE SHELL, a lot of people are ending up with cybernetic enhancements or repairs when they get injured. Dr. Dyson Ido is pretty much your go-to guy on this, and he ends up finding a discarded cyborg that he fixes up very much in the likeness of his deceased daughter. He even names the cyborg after her. However, now we’ve got some issues because Alita can’t remember anything that has happened to her in the past and she needs to piece all that together. It’s going to take at least 20 minutes. Meanwhile, she runs into a guy who is making a living and knows the streets. This dude and his crew are going to show her the ropes, but he is in way over his head. Alita is more powerful than anyone but Dr. Ido imagined.

Overall the effects in this thing just look a little wonky throughout. I am not anti-CGI, but the mixes in blends in this almost give it a “goofy” aesthetic. This isn’t your typical big exciting dumb popcorn movie though. The storyline is intriguing, well thought out, and leaves you wanting more. In fact, I would have loved to have seen a movie that dives into what happened to Alita before Dr. Ido finds her a bit more.

What we do get is an incredibly satisfying movie that deserved a far better box office response than it got. These are the movies people…these are those movies you need to get out and see if you don’t want reboot after reboot after reboot with tons of been there done that ideas. This isn’t to say that ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL isn’t ridiculously similar to GHOST IN THE SHELL, but both movies are outside of the mainstream and are the kinds of things fans complain about “not happening” then when they do…. Fans don’t show up at the box office.

Casting wise I wasn’t crazy about Christoph Waltz as Dr. Ido or Keean Johnson’s mostly (there are some exceptions) emotionless performance. The rest of the cast was over the top superb from the legendary Masharshala Ali as Vector and Rosa Salazar’s brilliant performance as Alita. Jennifer Connelly also stood out in her brief time on screen as Chrien. Robert Rodriguez does an excellent job bringing this thing to life, but overall I can see why some potential movie goes might have been turned away by the look of these characters in the previews and Alita’s character in particular, looking a little more “big-eyed” than the rest of the characters in the movie. This may have been intentional due to the character's origins and the fact that this whole thing is based on manga, but then why not apply the look to everyone in the movie for consistency if the idea was to have a "manga look".  Overall this is a real thrill ride in spite of the few issues I’ve mentioned, and I really hope we get a second installment.

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