After a 29 year long journey, James Cameron's passion project based upon the popular Japanese manga 'Alita: Battle Angel' has finally arrived on the big screen. The wait was worth it, and while Cameron is only a co-writer here, his talents are clearly there and director Robert Rodriguez does a fantastic job bringing this world to life. The film stars Rosa Salazar as a young cyborg woman named Alita, who was discovered and brought back to life by the brilliant Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz). As she slowly begins to discover more about her previous life, she begins to find her and her loved ones in serious danger.
The screenplay is a collaboration between Cameron & Laeta Kalogridis and as far as an anime film adaptation goes, 'Alita' remains very faithful to its source material even taking direct inspiration for the various action sequences. But while the film is based upon a manga, it explains the basic background clearly and gives the audience plenty of exposition to keep them on track. The world of Iron City is a character of its own, showing life and cultures from various parts of the world. It's a typical trope of the future, but I feel that it has more personality here than in your usual science-fiction fare. The special effects are as good as you'd expect from a Cameron project, taking the previous technology from his 'Avatar' film and making it better than before. Granted, it doesn't always work as some actors' CG enhancements can look a bit too obvious the overall presentation, particularly on Salazar's character is near perfect.
Speaking about Rosa, she is truly the anchor for this film and luckily she handles it well without and real hiccups along the way. She is one of the best written characters I've seen in an action film because she's a real person. Although a cyborg, she isn't invincible, she feels love, loss, and compassion from those she interacts with, and above all she's a great character without feeling forced which for some reason is a hard thing to come by as of recent days. Salazar's co-stars are pretty good too, with the obvious standout being Christoph Waltz, yet again giving his best here. Jennifer Connelly is sadly not in the film as much as I'd like, but her character is nicely layered rather than just being the typical heavy. That is sadly left for our weakest aspect of 'Alita': the villains. They are pretty typical brutes and the big boss is really underused. I won't spoil the ending of the film, but it belittles the villain even more when you discover their true intentions.
I never thought a movie like 'Alita: Battle Angel' would ever be made: a well made anime film from the US. James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez obviously had a love & respect for the material and have given us a much richer and deeper action film than you're probably used to. I highly recommend it if you're just looking for a good action adventure & especially if you are an anime junkie like myself. It's one of the better flicks this year.
8/10
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