With a face of an angel and the skills of a berserker, Alita: Battle Angel was an incredible and ambitious film to make.
Having been in development for over twenty years, this James Cameron produced film finally makes it to the big screen and the real question here, was it worth the wait?, does this film hold true to the themes and characters of the original 1990 Japanese manga, by mangaka Yukito Kishiro, “Gunnm” (known in the us as “Battle Angel Alita”) and do I need to know the original source material to enjoy this film ?, the answer like its development is complex.
To me this film is finally the one i been waiting for, the first true US made live-action anime film that I can consider truly great, after a long string of failures such as “Dragonball Evolution” and that misunderstood Netflix attempt of “Death Note”. Alita succeeds where the others fail because one can easily see that the makers behind this latest film actual took the time and effort to understand and convey the essence of what made the original story great in the first place, its a coming of age story set in a dystopian future, and i know we all heard that premise before, but Alita doesn’t forget to show us the heart behind the machine.
From the simple innocent scenes of her eating chocolate or petting a dog to the loving emotional scenes between her relationship with Christoph Waltz’s father-like figure Dr.Ido or the lovable rogue character Hugo played by Keean Johnson, Alita’s childlike smile and passion shines through, thanks to the wonderful acting talents of Rosa Salazar, who make Alita feel like a real person, you might soon forget all your preconceived notions about the large CGI-doe eyes they went for and soon just get lost in the narrative.
While there were some minor alternations from the manga, this adaption is fairly faithful to the source material, and best yet, you don’t have to be familiar with the Japanese series to enjoy this film (unlike Scarlett Johanson’s dull “Ghost in the Shell” ), Battle Angel finds the proper balance to be entertaining and engaging without overwhelming you with tech-babble or overly complex set up.
Alita is a great film with tons of great action sequences and enriched with the charm and heart of a simple tale of nature versus nurture in a failed scrapyard of a future city where bounty hunter cyborgs rule and the only way out of this hellhole and towards a literal paradise in the sky is to win a barbaric roller derby death race, all incredible elements brought to life by the talented director Robert Rodriguez, make sure to check it out when you can folks.
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