“Alita: Battle Angel” 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colin’s Column: MOVIE REVIEW!

By: Colin Bauer

Staff Writer

Cast: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Synopsis:

This adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s “Gunnm,” features cyborgs and humans coexisting in the 26th century. An unconscious cyborg, Alita, is found and rebuilt by a doctor specializing in cybernetics. Alita holds no recollection of who she is or what her past is. Yet, she adapts to her new life while attempting to understand who she is.

Review:

“You made the biggest mistake of your life…underestimating who I am,” these words by Alita takes the audience on a journey of self-discovery in what makes a person unique. This movie features masterful visual effects, cinematography and score. However, it suffers from the telling and pace of the story.

The visual effects of this movie fully engage the audience, similar to 2018’s “Ready Player One.” From the intricate work of Alita’s cybernetic body to the landscape of the wasteland setting of Iron City, audience members will be amazed by just how detailed and transformative Rodriguez has made his world. Hollywood’s increasingly advanced visual effects are illustrated through Alita’s robotic hand which features knuckles, joints and other tiny details identical to humans’. The film draws audiences into the mesmerizing darkness of Iron City at night and the beauty of the wasteland in the daytime.

Cinematography is key to the captivating power of the film. The film understands how to utilize the characters in their environments. Due to this, characters clearly stand out within the foreground of the images, but audience members will also be intrigued as to what is going on behind them.

Tom Holkenborg’s score enhances the scenes without overpowering them. Although the picture illustrates what is happening, the score enhances the action greatly.

The film falters in its story and pace. The first half will throw audience members into Alita’s world, set after “The Fall”. “The Fall” is never explained in detail, glossed over in favor of following the story of Alita. While this is the point of the movie, audience members are left to question why we should care about Iron City and Alita at all. There is essentially no backstory about the system of government, nor how humans and cyborgs came to coexist. Modifications and artificial intelligence are two hot topics right now and this film misses a major opportunity to tackle those subjects. The film chooses to focus on Alita and on her alone, not attempting to describe the world she inhabits.

The pace of the story is problematic as well. Audience members must suffer through a very dialogue-heavy first half of the film. The film is two hours and dialogue scenes make up a good forty-five minutes of the first hour. Wordy scenes are sporadically cut, too infrequently, by impressive action sequences. The second half of the picture is more evenly paced.

“Alita: Battle Angel” isn’t perfect, but it is a way to escape reality for two hours and have a look into what the 26th century may hold for humans. Impressive visual effects, cinematography and the score outweigh the story and pacing issues that the film exhibits.

SCORE: 6.5/10