Alita: Battle Angel

Official Australian release date: 14/2/19. Viewed: 17/2/19.

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Actors: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Keean Johnson, Mahershala Ali

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

‘Alita: Battle Angel’ is set 500 years in the post-apocalyptic future and is based on the ‘Gunnm’ manga. Alita (Salazar) is an amnesiac human brain found by Dr Ido (Waltz) and put into a robot body. With the help of Hugo (Johnson), she then sets out to try and piece together her past, which obviously isn’t what it seems, as she’s a warrior cyborg.

The world-building is OK, but a bit too derivative – there’s the unseen “higher class” up on Zalem, a floating city, and everyone else on the ground is basically in the slums. All very reminiscent of ‘Ready Player One’, ‘Mortal Engines’ and ‘Blade Runner’. Vector (Ali) is the bad guy, but both he & Chiren (Connelly) are controlled by Nova (Norton). Some of the bounty hunter bits, especially Zapan (Skrein), seem pointless.

Overall, a lot of it looks good and Alita’s CGI fits in well to the rest of the world, but there’s a few too many convenient plot points (i.e. new body). It probably would’ve worked better as an MA-rated film, seeing as Rodriguez is the director, they get one F-word in and there’s a fair bit of violence. It makes me want to see the ‘Red Rising’ novels turned into films even more. The ending is a blatant set up for the sequel, making the whole film feel slightly undercooked.

Overall: OK, not great, futuristic robot film.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.