Big Eyes, Little Payoff

I’ve been a fan of Japanese pop culture since before I knew what Japan was. I loved Voltron as a child of the 80s, but I didn’t know it was a heavily edited version of a Japanese anime, called Beast King GoLion. I figured the animators were just too lazy, or the animation studio was too cheap, to properly time the lips of the characters to match what they were saying. Thanks to anime watching blocks like Cartoon Network’s Toonami, anime found a fanbase here in America, including creating beloved followings for series like Cowboy BeBop, that were otherwise overlooked in Japan. And anime inspired movies like The Matrix, only cemented the format as something that can be highly profitable.

Unfortunately, Hollywood doesn’t know how to do anime adaptations justice. Yes, the Wachowskis knew how to make live action anime work with the Matrix trilogy, but they then dropped the ball with Speed Racer. The best case scenario was Guillermo Del Toro’s fine job in a pseudo adaptation of such mecha themed animes, like Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion with Pacific Rim. The worst case scenario gave us unwatchable trash like Dragonball: Evolution, a movie so insultingly bad and disrespectful to the source material, that the creator of the original manga invented Dragon Ball Super, in order to do damage control for the franchise. And of course, there’s the whitewashing issue, in the cases of Netflix’s Death Note, and Paramount’s Ghost in the Shell. Because, you know, when it comes to Ghost in the Shell, and your story takes place in Japan, follows a secret organization, under the Japanese government, and the lead character has an extremely Japanese name, like Motoko Kusanagi… you hire a blonde haired, blue eyed, caucasian actress like Scarlett Johansson to play the role! Because, you know, hiring a Japanese actress, who is fluent in english, having her wear blue colored eye lens, and surrounding her with a cast of well known actors, would be just too hard to do.

That mini-rant aside, I was curious to see what producer James Cameron and director Robert Rodriguez would do with Alita: Battle Angel, an Japanese OVA (original video animation) based on a 90s era manga (Japanese comic book). This film was a passion project for Cameron, dating back to 2000. How’s that for devotion? Rodriguez also happens to be one of my favorite writers and directors, and his outrageous, yet entertaining action movies like Desperado, Once Upon a Time In Mexico, and From Dusk Till Dawn, are among my all-time favorite guilty pleasures. To coin a line from Ghostbusters (the 1984 version), “Cameron has the technology tools, Rodriguez has the filmmaking talent, it’s Miller time!” But was the movie any good?

Alita stars Rosa Salazar as the title character. She’s a cyborg, whose severed head is discovered in a junkyard, by Dr. Dyson Ido (portrayed by the great Christoph Waltz). Ido transplants the head onto a body, that was intended for his daughter, and also gives this new cyborg the name of his daughter, to boot. Alita wakes up to find herself living in Iron City, a type of slum, placed under a floating city in the sky, Zalem. Living within Iron City are Hunter-Warriors, high-tech bounty hunters who police the streets. A big aspect of the culture is a violent, roller derby like sport known as Motorball, a game that promises the “ultimate champion” to be granted passage into Zalem. Along the way, Alita falls in love with Hugo (played by Keegan Johnson), encounters scheming villains in Vector and Chrien (Mahershala Ali and Jennifer Connelly), and fight other cyborgs like Zapan, Grewishka, and Nyssiana (Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, and Eiza Gonzalez).

Salazar does a great job in her motion capture performance. The character’s large eyes (a staple in the manga and anime artstyle) was a concern to most people. However, this appearance is easily overlooked, or could be seen as being adorable after a few minutes. And you’ll fall in love with her, just by watching her eat food. But in all honesty, the true star of this movie are the visual effects. The character designs are quite impressive, especially how seamless the cyborgs all look. The crew of this movie also worked with Cameron on Avatar, so that would explain why everything looks amazing. Sadly, this movie will probably be long forgotten, by the time the Oscars are considering contenders for Best Visual Effects, for the 92nd Academy Awards.

In terms of story and dialogue, the movie is lacking. While there is some world building, it could go into greater detail with flashbacks. Instead, the people around Alita just give her information dumps about the history of Iron City, Zalem, and a great war called The Fall, and it's all the cliffsnotes version of events. The screenplay was co-written by Cameron, and you can tell, as his trademark corny dialogue is spread throughout, although I’m convinced the best one-liners were Rodriguez's ideas. And the plot is rather to the point, with Alita getting invited with both the Hunter-Warriors and Motorball, in order to get the Zalem, and face the mystery antagonist named Nova. This is all very close to the plot of the OVA, almost beat for beat, except for the addition of Motorball, which is from the manga.

Waltz, Ali, and Connelly all give fine performances, even though they aren’t given much to work with, but they all have their charming moments. If you’re not a fan of forced romance subplots, then you’re probably not going to like Alita’s relationship with Hugo, and that’s including the fact that Keegan Johnson gives the weakest performance of anyone in the cast. There’s also a big twist with the actor who is playing Nova, at the very end of the movie, which surprised me that he would agree to be in a movie like this. But the biggest sin of this movie is that the ending is just a set-up for a sequel, that may or may not ever happened, because heaven forbid that movies be stand-alone stories, they must all be three picture deals.

Overall, Alita: Battle Angel is a stunning movie to look at, and warrants being seen on the big screen. However, the movie’s story is nothing all that groundbreaking. Because of this, I give the film a solid three out of five stars. By all means, see it in theaters if you have matinee prices, or add it to your Blu-Ray or 4K collection, if you want a showcase movie for your personal home theater. I would say without doubt that Alita: Battle Angel is the best movie to be adapted from an anime, and if the first good Hollywood adaptation of an anime is what you’re looking for, then this is worth the price of admission. That ends this fanpicked review. And remember, when it comes consuming your media, be like Indiana Jones, and chose wisely.

Short Version

Pros:

• Best CGI and character designs since “Avatar.”
• Good supporting cast.
• Great action sequences.
• Fun cameos from actors (especially during the ending).
• Very loyal to the Japanese OVA.
• Christoph Waltz weilding a rocket powered sledgehammer!

Cons:

• Love interest character has the weakest performance.
• Romance subplot is hit or miss.
• Cliffhanger ending that sets up a sequel that may not happen.
• Dialogue could be more clever.
• Needs more world building.
• Animal death for cheap, emotional motivation.
• Verdict: *** (three out of five stars).