ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (2019) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

alita: battle angel (2019) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   122 minutes

Released         |   14 February 2019

cast

​Rosa Salazar ... Alita
Christoph Waltz...Dr. Dyson Ido
Jennifer Connelly ... Chiren
Michelle Rodriguez ... Gelda
Ed Skrein ... Zapan
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director

Robert Rodriguez

writer

​James Cameron ... (screenplay by) and
Laeta Kalogridis ... (screenplay by) and
Robert Rodriguez ... (screenplay by)
 
Yukito Kishiro ... (based on the graphic novel “manga” series: “Gunnm)

cinematographer

​​Bill Pope

music

​Junkie XL

film editor

Stephen E. Rivkin

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box office result

Worldwide               $? million

Australia                 $? million

North America        $? million

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the best dialogue

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ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (2019) MOVIE IMAGES

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ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (2019) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Visionary filmmakers James Cameron (AVATAR) and Robert Rodriguez (SIN CITY) create a groundbreaking new heroine in ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, an action-packed story of hope, love and empowerment. Set several centuries in the future, the abandoned Alita (Rosa Salazar) is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate cyber-doctor who takes the unconscious cyborg Alita to his clinic.  When Alita awakens she has no memory of who she is, nor does she have any recognition of the world she finds herself in.  Everything is new to Alita, every experience a first.  As she learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of Iron City, Ido tries to shield Alita from her mysterious past while her street-smart new friend, Hugo (Keean Johnson), offers instead to help trigger her memories.  A growing affection develops between the two until deadly forces come after Alita and threaten her newfound relationships.  It is then that Alita discovers she has extraordinary fighting abilities that could be used to save the friends and family she’s grown to love. Determined to uncover the truth behind her origin, Alita sets out on a journey that will lead her to take on the injustices of this dark, corrupt world, and discover that one young woman can change the world in which she lives.

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (2019) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 13 February 2019

​Pop ​Movee Rating

If recent past efforts in the arena of first-time, effects-driven science fiction cinema are any guide, ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL will struggle to find an audience...

In 2017, GHOST IN THE SHELL was met with mixed response despite the presence of Scarlett Johansson, while the Luc Besson conceived VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS almost bankrupted the French filmmaker’s EuropaCorp production company. The Idris Elba led THE DARK TOWER did a little better, but the feature film adaptation of one of Stephen King’s best-loved novels was narratively challenged, struggling to fit the author’s epic tale into a two hour running time.

In 2018, the Peter Jackson produced MORTAL ENGINES scraped together a worldwide box office take of $81 million against a production budget of more than $100 million. The film’s franchise-building aspirations weighed on its plot and an over-reliance on sub-standard visual effects made viewing hard work.

Let’s face it, ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL has its work cut out for it…

The “Alita” of the title is a cyborg teenage girl, played by Rosa Salazar, discovered by Christoph Waltz’s Cyber Surgeon Dyson Ido in the film’s opening scenes. Ido is able to give the cyborg a new body, but he is unable to help retrieve her lost memories...

Based on Yukito Kishiro’s 1990 manga comic GUNNM, ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL doesn’t lack for talent or experience behind-the-scenes. Robert Rodriguez, whose most notable works include the two SIN CITY adaptations and the SPY KIDS franchise, directs from a script by James Cameron (whoever he is…) and SHUTTER ISLAND scribe Laeta Kalogridis. (Yes, she was also one of the writer’s on TERMINATOR GENISYS but let’s not get into playing the blame game!)

James Cameron’s involvement has been heavily touted and the fact he has taken a writing & producing credit on the film connects him very directly to the success or failure of ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL.

The screenplay certainly has a James Cameron structure and anyone who’s analysed his writing knows that he loves action set-pieces and a penchant for the “two-step finale” in order to layer his story and provide a last-minute twist that adds to his protagonist’s physical dilemma.

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL is no different.

There’s plenty of action, but there’s also plenty of quieter moments. Some of these “moments” work, while others are superlous to the story’s needs. At 122 minutes, ALITA feels about twenty minutes too long. The reality of ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL is that the film is one long, elaborate visual effect, veering into pure animation for most of its set pieces as it tries to do justice to Kishiro’s source material.

It’s worth drawing some cinematic comparisons to highlight the space ALITA inhabits...

The one feature film that has succeeded both critically and commercially in the “first-time, effects drive science fiction” space over the last couple of years is Steven Spielberg’s 2018 READY PLAYER ONE.

There are two reasons why it succeeded;

One: the presence of Spielberg himself. His reputation is enough to still interest the moviegoing public all around the world.

Two: the distinction between physical reality and a visual effects created reality. READY PLAYER ONE had an in-built plot device - OASIS - that drew the line between the real world and the computer simulated.

It’s an important distinction for audiences and demonstrates that a visual tipping point exists between the eye and the brain that alerts conscience to “real” and computer-animated “real”.

This tipping point exists in ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. The constant presence of isolated visual effects in the foreground -Alita’s computer-generated face as but one example - providing a contrast to the live-action performance of Christoph Waltz, distracting the viewer’s attention away from “the moment”, the dialogue and overall performance in favour of something that is computer-animated “real” and is processed as such by the human eye.

Yes, it’s important to create a character’s visual signature, but there’s a reason why films like GHOST IN THE SHELL, VALERIAN and ALITA originated as animated stories. To convince the reader/viewer to accept the “reality” of these worlds, the characters had to interact in a medium that does not challenge the visual tipping point. Comic book style animation is one such medium.

Perhaps the best example to highlight the challenges that confront ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL is the cautionary tale of the Wachowski’s MATRIX trilogy…

THE MATRIX is now regarded as a science fiction classic; a film that brought together myriad film, anime, pop culture and philosophical elements to deliver a finished product that resonated with moviegoers around the world.

Take a moment to think about that film’s narrative and visual structure…

Despite the Wachowski’s fascination with French philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s work Simulacra and Simulation, the story and the settings maintain the discipline between the “real” world and “The Matrix”. The two do not merge. The extraordinary visual gymnastics of “The Matrix” are confined to the electronic prison that control the minds of its inmates...

Now, think about THE MATRIX RELOADED...

It’s a great attempt to “go further”, but it loses the discipline of the first film. RELOADED concludes with a cliffhanger ending that see Neo’s powers escape beyond the boundaries of “The Matrix”.

Audiences were left scratching their heads.

“How come Neo can now use his powers in the real world? It doesn’t make sense…”

THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS added to viewer confusion...

The narrative power of “The Matrix” was lost because, by the time the third film concluded, anything seemed possible regardless of where the characters were. The visual effects that had made the film’s key setting such an important story element had seeped into the “real” world and the viewer’s suspension of disbelief of accepting what they were seeing as part of a filmed reality was sorely tested.

The visual tipping point had been reached.

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL exists in this dangerous place, flirting back and forth between “real” and computer-animated “real” and the combined talent of Rodriguez and Cameron are hell-bent on forcing the viewer to accept their version of “real”.

Box office success has been elusive for this type of film.

For the bravery of the experiment, ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL deserves to find an audience. Despite the inherent challenges associated with its visual design, the story makes an effort to provide motivated, developed characters. Cameron and Kalogridis do get a little caught up in the franchise-building sub-plot, but, unlike a number of the aforementioned films, the “flashback” exposition used is directly linked to Alita’s character arc.

Cameron uses the same device in ALITA that he employed all the way back in 1984 with THE TERMINATOR, depicting a future war scenario in flashback style that piqued the viewer’s interest to the point that a genuine desire was created to see how those events unfolded for the character (in the case of the 1984 film, Kyle Reese) in such a way that fully explains how they find themselves in their “current” predicament.

The future war scenario of ALITA, and the role the film’s titular character play in that story are ripe for a sequel, but, a lot needs to happen for that to occur...

It was reported before the film’s production got underway that 20th Century Fox would not greenlight its start unless the budget was between $175 million and $200 million USD.

That’s a lot of money just for production.

Throw in somewhere between $50 million and $100 million for marketing.

For a film of this financial undertaking, it can’t just recoup those costs, it has to considerably exceed them with a big global box office performance. Somewhere in the $750 million plus range would be considered a success. Anything less than $500 million and expectations for a follow-up would need to be tempered.

The one big hope for Rodriguez, Cameron and 20th Century Fox will be China. The film has secured a 22 February release date for China and, more than once, the sheer number of people going to the movies there have rescued films that looked as though they were going to be box office disasters elsewhere.

For Australian audiences, ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL is neither overwhelming nor underwhelming. It doesn’t have a Western pop culture mythology mechanism providing potential viewers motivation to rush to their local cinema complex, so that’s a challenge.

The film’s association with James Cameron is the key to its success both here and in other Western film markets, including North America.

There’s one big problem with that...

In spite of all his critical and commercial success, the general public do not recognise his name and connect it to a film in the same way they do with Steven Spielberg.

There’s no reason to believe that ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL will change that...

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL MOVIE (2019) USEFUL LINKS

​Alita: Battle Angel (2018) - IMDb
​Alita: Battle Angel - Wikipedia
​Alita: Battle Angel | Fox Movies - 20th Century Fox

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