Review: Alita is a visually dazzling Sci-Fi epic

As video games and visual special effects have continued to evolve over the years, it often becomes hard to distinguish exactly what is “real.” Is your favourite Marvel hero an actor in a suit, or simply a CGI creation? In most cases it’s a little bit of both, an amalgamation of real-world acting and computer wizardry that may just have reached its zenith with Alita: Battle Angel, a CGI-enhanced Sci-Fi blockbuster from the minds Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron.

Based on the Manga of the same name, Alita is set in 2563, in the aftermath of a great war known as “The Fall.” While out scavenging for parts in a junkyard, scientist Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) discovers the remains of a female cyborg, which he promptly brings back to his studio to repair. Connecting her system to a young humanoid body, Ido revives her and names her Alita (Rosa Salazar), after his deceased daughter.

With no memories of her past life, Alita discovers her surroundings with (literal) wide eyes, taking in the claustrophobic environment of “Iron City,” a dense and over-populated district which has outlawed guns following the war. In their place are battle cyborgs, vaguely humanoid beings enhanced with all sorts of mechanical weapons, the strongest of which compete in the hugely popular Motorball tournaments, a ramped-up and occasionally deadly version of roller-derby. The champion of the game is sent away from the dregs of Iron City up to Zuma, the last of the floating cities that survived the war, a lumbering presence over the residents of Iron City that promises a better life for those exclusive enough to be granted entry.

While following one of Dr. Ito’s mysterious late-night walks, Alita finds him being ambushed by a gang of vicious cyborgs, and suddenly turns into the titular Battle Angel, easily dispensing with the crew with furious and violent fighting techniques. Alita begins getting flashes of her former life, and quickly comes to realize that she was no ordinary girl in her previous incarnation — she was a rare breed of soldier known for their brutally efficient fighting style, which makes her one of the deadliest cyborgs in Iron City.

Hooking up with a dopey human teenager named Hugo (Keean Johnson) who exposes her to Motorball and the ways of Iron City, Alita devises a plan — she will enter the Motorbal championship and win the grand prize, a chance for her and Hugo to be sent up to Zuma and away from their scrappy existence in the trenches of Iron City.

There is a lot of plot going on here — we haven’t even covered Vector (Mahershala Ali) who runs the Motorball league, and his assistant Chiren (Jennifer Connelly), who also happens to be Dr. Ito’s ex-wife, let alone the government sanctioned league of assassins, the underground network trading of forcefully removed cyborg weapon parts, and the two enhanced cyborg villains out to destroy Alita.

The script throws in enough story to cover a good 3-4 feature films, and often feels very scattered as a result. There is likely a good chunk of excised deleted scenes that would help fill in some backstory here, but Alita nevertheless moves at a rapid pace, even with some clunky exposition dumps. That said, the world-building here is nearly unparalleled — this truly looks like a lived-in world, and feels authentic despite the CGI additions. It’s clear that Alita was actually filmed (at least partly) in some semblance of the real world, which gives the film some added grit and heft that a phalanx of blue screens haven’t yet been able to properly replicate (maybe in those upcoming Avatar sequels).

What really pushes the film over the edge is the remarkable performance by Rosa Salazar as the title character. She does an incredible job of conveying such a wide range of emotions here, from a demure young girl discovering this vast new world, to the fierce warrior that ends up dispensing with the baddies in some genuinely gruesome ways. Much of that emotion is conveyed through her over-sized CGI eyes, but a behind-the-scenes piece following the credits illustrates just how much of the role is actually Salazar’s own performance, modified with the motion-capture wizardry of the team at Weta Digital. The end result is truly a sight to behold — there were a number of times throughout the film where it’s easy to forget that this isn’t a 100% human performance, especially in scenes where Alita interacts with human characters like Dr. Ito or the dead-faced Hugo.

Alita: Battle Angel is far from a perfect film. The script (co-written by James Cameron) is often clunky, and throws in a head-spinning amount of plot and characters into one 2-hour movie. That said, the technological aspects of the film are astounding, and there are some stunning sequences here, from the deeply layered world of Iron City, to the senses-rattling Motorball sequences. Director Robert Rodriguez knows how to put together a killer action sequence, and the fight scenes are real crowd-pleasers, and pretty brutal for a PG-13 film. Alita often feels like it’s simply moving from one boss battle to the next, but each fight is unique and exciting, and actually propels the story forward.

Alita is clearly set up for a sequel, but that all depends on how many people come out to support this strange film. Manga readership across the globe is huge, and this is one of the best adaptations to date, retaining the absurd energy of the comics while pushing the technological aspects further than we’ve ever seen. Go see Alita in the biggest (and loudest) theatre you can find — seeing this film twice in one week on a 3D IMAX screen is one of the most immersive experiences I’ve had at a screening in some time. This is why we go to the movies.