Alita: Battle Angel
2019
***
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keean Johnson
In 2563, 300 years after an apocalyptic event, wealthy people live in the floating city of Zalem. Down below in Iron City, where the poor masses reside, robotics specialist Dr. Dyson Ido discovers and rebuilds a disembodied female cyborg who has lost her memory. James Cameron bought the rights to Yukito Kishiro's Manga series Gunnm back in 1999, but he only takes writing and producing credit in this live action adaptation. Unfortunately the screenplay turns out to be the weakest aspect of this uneven science fiction action movie, which ranges from absolutely brilliant to utterly stupid, sometimes within seconds. Rosa Salazar gives a lovely performance as Alita, who is a wonderfully layered character, simultaneously strong, naive, and vulnerable. The set-up is compelling if not terribly original (Elysium and Ready Player One are just some of the recent releases that spring to mind), the action set pieces are thrilling, and the visual effects are stunning. On the downside, the story should spend more time on worldbuilding and character development and less time on the Twilight-style teen romance and long scenes of Motorball, a boring sport in which Rollerball meets Transformers. As a result, some of the supporting players, like the bad guy Vector (Mahershala Ali) and Ido's ex-wife Dr. Chiren (Jennifer Connelly) barely register as characters.
