Skip to main content

Alita: Battle Angel Movie Review

“I do not stand by in the presence of evil.” - Alita
Alita: Battle Angel is the new film by director Robert Rodriguez.  It is a cyberpunk sci-fi action movie starring Rosa Salazar as the title character.  Also starring are Christoph Waltz, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jennifer Connelly, and Jackie Earle Haley.  The film is about Alita, a young cyborg girl rebuilt by Dr. Dyson Ido (Waltz), who just wants to know more about her past, and where she came from.  Ido is very protective of her, as there is a lot of crime happening in the streets. Nonetheless, the curious Alita goes out exploring every day, and meets a boy named Hugo who she falls in love with.  Meanwhile, there is some villainous activity going on involving a man named Vector, and a mysterious figure called Nova who lives in Zalem, a giant floating city where all the upper-class people live that hovers above the city below that is home to all the lower-class citizens.
Alita: Battle Angel is a very inventive film that really understands the source material, which in this case is a manga called Battle Angel Alita, or as it’s known in Japan, Gunnm.  You could tell that Robert Rodriguez really cared about making a good film when he made this movie.  It is evident that Rodriguez knew what he was doing with Alita.  
The acting in this film is overall pretty good, but the standout performance here is most definitely Christoph Waltz as Dyson Ido.  His character is really well developed, and his line delivery is fantastic. Rosa Salazar is also great as Alita, and you could really see that she was committed to the role she played.  
One thing I have to mention when talking about Alita is the visual effects.  They are honestly spectacular.  Everything just pops out at you, and the colors are all so beautiful and bright.  The visuals reminded me very much of the Blade Runner films.  I really liked the futuristic setting, and found the locations very interesting.  Probably my favorite aspect of this film was the excellent Motorball sequences. I thought that the sport was really thrilling to watch.  It obviously drew heavy, heavy influence from the little-known 1975 sci-fi sports film Rollerball, starring James Caan.  Watching Alita play this game was riveting.
Some of the things that I disliked about the film had a lot to to do with the acting.  There were some supporting roles whose performances were a bit lacking. Some of the line delivery was very flat, and some scenes just could’ve been acted better, to put it bluntly.  Overall though, Alita: Battle Angel is a very enjoyable film that I found myself having a good time with.
Rating: PG-13

Grade: B

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tenet Movie Review

  “We live in a twilight world.” - The Protagonist         Tenet is the latest film from legendary director Christopher Nolan.  It stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Elizabeth Debicki.  The film tells the complicated story of a man known simply as the Protagonist, as he and a group of others attempt to stop a Russian oligarch from destroying the world using a process known as inversion.  From there, the characters are led to different locations across the globe as they grapple with enemies both in the future and the past. Tenet was one of my most anticipated films of this year.  It was supposed to release over the summer, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was delayed multiple times.  I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to see the film in a theater setting as opposed to watching it at home like so many other people have been doing for films t...
3 comments
Read more

Ralph Breaks The Internet Movie Review

“There’s no law saying best friends have to have the same dreams.” - Shank Ralph Breaks The Internet is directed by Phil Johnston and Rich Moore, and stars John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot and Taraji P. Henson.  The story takes place six years after the events of Wreck-It Ralph, where Ralph and Vanellope find themselves in the internet, trying to find a replacement steering wheel for Vanellope’s game, Sugar Rush. I was a little nervous going into this movie, because I really loved the the first one, and didn’t want to be disappointed by a mediocre sequel.  Thankfully, this movie was not a disappointment at all. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise in more ways than one. To start out, the animation is truly something to behold.  It’s so crisp and clean, and it is very pleasing to the eye. The colors really seem to pop out at you, and the set pieces and characters look very nice. This is a very beautiful looking film.  Besides just looking good, i...
3 comments
Read more

Meet Joe Black Movie Review

“Be deliriously happy or at least leave yourself open to be.” - William Parrish Meet Joe Black is an inventive romance directed by Martin Brest.  It stars Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt. To start off, this film has really good music from Thomas Newman, and a very cool concept about a woman who falls in love with death. Both Pitt and Hopkins are excellent in this film.  However, there is some very poor acting on display from Marcia Gay Harden, Jake Weber, and Jeffrey Tambor. Speaking of Tambor, his character, while fun, bumbling, and humorous, is ridiculously, unbelievably stupid. There are many things in this film that just do not work.  There are painfully awkward moments in the script, and the dialogue is very poorly written, and sloppy at times. They tried to cram as many subplots into the story as they could to keep it interesting, but it was all a convoluted mess. It would’ve greatly benefited the film if the writers and the director simply realized that s...
2 comments
Read more