Iron Maiden - Alita: Battle Angel

It’s been a long time coming, but without hesitation I'm thrilled to exclaim that I loved Alita: Battle Angel. James Cameron has been simmering his Alita screenplay for decades. Based on Yukito Kishiro’s 9-volume manga series (which debuted in 1990), it was followed by a 2-episode video animation series and became powerfully influential. After directing Titanic, Cameron was intent on directing Alita, but then Avatar took development pole position and eclipsed everything else.

So with Godfatherly generosity, Cameron asked Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Planet Terror) to take a crack at bringing Alita to life, working off Cameron's script, co-written by Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island, Terminator Genisys, Altered Carbon).

It's the apocalyptic 25th Century, and the denizens of industrialized Iron City toil in a society where cyborgs and robotic replacement limbs are ubiquitous. Above them hovers the mysterious utopia of Zalem, which everyone dreams of reaching, but few actually do. Cyberneticist Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz) hunts for spare parts in massive derelict junkyards, when he discovers the intact remnants of an impossibly advanced cyborg. He takes her back to his lab, and painstakingly crafts a body for her.

When "Alita" (Rosa Salazar) awakes, she has no memory of who she was, what she did, or where she came from. She's a wide-eyed newcomer who marvels at everything, yet her reflexes and instincts are intensely attuned, and seem to naturally gravitate towards violence. Shades of The Long Kiss Goodnight. 

Alita: Battle Angel has a strong late-eighties, early-nineties Paul Verhoeven vibe, like it could have come out right after Robocop or Total Recall - except the digital effects are (for the most part) state of the art. An insane amount of Alita is computer-generated, including Alita herself, who Cameron and Rodriguez chose to give unnaturally large manga eyes to. It's initially a little jarring, but the effects are so great, and you quickly accept it (Alita's hair isn't always quite as successfully animated).

As Alita learns more about the world she now inhabits, she quickly learns there are crime lords and cyborg henchmen everywhere, none more menacing than Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley), a delirious behemoth who reminded me of the Cain cyborg from Robocop 2. In fact Alita is full of visual touchstones to those 80s/90s sci-fi thrillers, with callbacks that evoke everything from Demolition Man to Star Trek: First Contact. Cinematographer Bill Pope (The Matrix, Baby Driver) gives the picture a subtle nostalgic hue that feels like a grindhouse B-picture, only stuffed with Baroque robotic effects of incredible detail. As the plot moves forward, the more Alita remembers. It's a fun cyberpunk mythos, peppered with "Hunter-Warriors," Panzer-Kunst martial arts and Berserkers.

Newly minted Oscar winner Mahershala Ali seems to be doing an evil Wesley Snipes impression, as the predatory mogul behind the sport of Motorball, a cyborg carnage bread and circuses that captivates everyone in Iron City. It's a wild, pulpy universe - much of which we've seen previously in countless other films, but Alita is the story that helped sire them all, plus the energy on display is fast and captivating. Rodriguez does a masterful job with the action. A scene that begins with an awkward Inspirational Speech quickly descends into an off the rails bar brawl with cyborg bounty hunters including Zapan (Ed Skrein) and an awesome dog-loving old fella (Jeff Fahey) I'd love to see a whole movie about.

Supporting characters fare less well. As Alita's love interest Hugo, Keean Johnson is from the buff Taylor Lautner school of acting, and comes off a little bland. Jennifer Connelly is icy cool, in an awkward role that never quite takes off. Big props to Salazar, as you're always waiting for Alita to come back and lock horns with Zapan and Grewishka. It's crazy and derivative, weak on dialogue, and let's be frank - is guilty of unabashed whitewashing - but Rodriguez knows how to find the fifth-gear in action sequences, and Alita herself is an appealing and ferociously fun character to root for. 

So if you're fond of that pre-digital heyday when kinetic mayhem ruled the movies, you definitely want to see Alita on the big screen. It's apocalyptic action and cyborg steel in a collision of crazy I suspect you'll really enjoy the hell out of.