Alita: Battle Angel (2019) - Movie Review

 

Well, this is one hell of an unexpected team-up. On one hand, you’ve got director Robert Rodriguez, one-man film crew, vanguard of modern exploitation and the guy behind the film that got into cinema in the first place. And on the other, you have co-writer James Cameron, a filmmaker responsible for some of the greatest 90’s action flicks and the guy behind the two highest-grossing films of all time. Of course, since Rodriguez hasn’t been in the director’s chair for a few years now (and his last couple of offerings were quite inconsistent) and Cameron is apparently dedicating himself solely to building an empire of unnecessary backwash off the back of Avatar, this could easily turn sour. But man oh man, am I glad that this film is as entertaining as it is.

For a start, there’s no sense that Rodriguez was brought in simply as a gun for hire; this feels like something he would put together. The depiction of Iron City has a lot of south-of-the-border aesthetic to it, helped by some sprinklings of English/Spanish signage in the background, and the contrast between that and the seemingly-unreachable sky city Zalem feels like a cyberpunk-tinged version of similar cultural frictions that populated his more Mexican-centric fare like Machete and the Mariachi trilogy.

It also helps that this is the best he’s been in the action realm in quite some time. While sticking to his usual wheelhouse for staging fights (right down to including an all-out bar brawl, hearkening back to From Dusk Till Dawn), he and cinematographer Bill Pope show a ridiculous amount of kinetic energy to make everything from the back alley fights to the underground throwdowns to the carnage-crammed Motorball games land on very firm ground. Not only that, this is a very hard M-rating we’re dealing with here, so expect some deliciously gruesome dismemberments.

From there, the acting is really damn good. Rosa Salazar is incredible in the titular role, embodying pure cyberpunk aesthetic in regards to the usual sci-fi ponderings on the mind-body problem and absolutely selling all the action trappings she’s given, from the fight scenes to the potent one-liners. Everyone around her is on their A-game too, from the more recognisable faces like Christoph Waltz as Alita’s father figure Dr. Ido and Mahershala Ali’s chilliness as the Motorball head honcho Vector, to the less immediately-familiar like Jackie Earle Haley as the gargantuan cyborg assassin Grewishka. Oh, and Ed Skrein playing another slimy piece of shit helps too, since he sells smartarse thuggery like a true deplorable.

Then there’s the writing… and wow, am I definitely surprised that this is as good as it is. Cameron and co-writer Laeta Kalogridis give a lot of urgency to the plot at hand, letting the main themes of secondary identities and pining for a better life to ring through pretty much everyone on-screen. The quieter moments let Rodriguez do his thing, but when dialogue gets involved, it all works. This reads like Cameron is back to how he was in the 90’s, where he was the champion of female-led sci-fi action flicks, and with Alita as the strong-willed "all or nothing" protector, he can safely add another notch to that belt that I seriously hope he wears again when it comes time for Avatar 2 next year.

Hell, her story being told now actually strengthens this film’s existence, since the notions of body modification and reshaping the physical image to match the mental image… well, let’s just say that it's nice seeing trans imagery get given this large of a platform.

And then the credits roll. I refuse to say that this film ends because it honestly doesn’t, and it’s here where we get into the serious monkey wrench in this production. Now, this is an adaptation of a five-year-stretching manga, and to the credit of the writers, they manage to fit a lot of material into a two-hour space. With everything mentioned above in mind, this film has a sturdy pace to it and none of the smaller points like the inclusion of Motorball or the Hunter-Warriors or even the involvement of the big bad Nova feel out of place.

However, what seems to be a side effect of that much condensing is that we end up with a film that is essentially the first two acts, with the rest of it being reserved for a sequel. I guess Kalogridis is still in Terminator: Genisys mode, since this shares the exact same problem with plot resolution. As a result of this, it honestly left me rather cold by film’s end, and considering both this film’s less-than-ideal box office returns and Cameron’s reputation as a billion-dollar receipt magnet, part of me doubts if we’ll even get a follow-up to this. Maybe the higher-ups won’t see this as much of a priority compared to something like the Avatar sequels.

I mean, I definitely want one just so I can see more of Rodriguez doing what he does best… but mainly, I want it because I want to see an actual conclusion to this. And the fact that this doesn’t have that in any substantial capacity makes it difficult to recommend. It’s still a fantastic action flick, but man, that lack of an ending still bummed me out.