Alita: Battle Angel is the 2019 film adaptation of the 1990 Japanese manga series Gunnm by Yukito Kishiro. Directed by Robert Rodriguez, and written by James Cameron it follows Alita, a cyborg who awakens in a new body with no memory of who she is.
Cameron found the series through fellow filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, and though he loved the idea and wanted to make it into a film, his work on Avatar left the concept in development limbo since 2003.
Famed Sin City and Spy Kids director, Robert Rodriguez, was brought in after expressing interest. He was officially announced as director in 2016 and the film began actual development. Rodriguez had actually been brought in by Cameron to condense his 186-page screenplay and 600 pages of notes into something actually useable.
The majority of the time these adaptations tend towards bad, see the live action Ghost in the Shell for example. This movie, however, turned out surprisingly well! When I first saw the trailer with a CGI main character given weird giant eyes I decided it wouldn't be worth going. My curiosity got the better of me though and I'm really glad it did.
The film captures that anime feeling really well, almost like a condensed DBZ but in a good way. The story is like watching arcs in a manga or anime; here is the competition arc, here is the bounty hunter arc. A lot fits into 122 minutes but it never dragged or had me looking at my watch. Even the look that made me want to avoid it ended up not being an issue, practical and CGI work well together to give a consistent style without falling into the uncanny valley. I wouldn't say it added anything to give her realistic anime eyes, but they didn't distract from what was happening.
For a PG-13 film it gets away with some gruesome scenes. It interests me how giving characters blue blood because they are cyborgs somehow allows you to go hardcore and not be considered over the top for your rating. Not a complaint, the opposite actually, I really like that it didn't feel toned down.
Rosa Salazar as Alita was very good. If you look up the rig she wore while acting, it is a miracle she was able to emote so well. The focus on practical sets more often than not meant she was dressed in a motion capture suit standing with others dressed in regular costume. But she acts very well.
Christoph Waltz is the master of Techno Jargon, and Mahershala Ali and his associates are menacing.
Obligatory Meme
I think about the god awful Dragonball: Evolution and how these groups express an interest to adapt but end up changing so much or simply losing the spark when they enter 3D. Adaptations should take a bit of liberty, but it often ends up a mess. Alita is a stand out among its contemporaries and if Japanese works can be adapted this well in future there may be hope!
Have you seen it? Like it or no? Any classics you think would be a good fit for live action in the future?
