Reviewed by Victor Rebikoff.
Director: Robert Rogriguez, 20th Century Fox, M 122 Minutes.
The latest teen movie heroine to hit the big screen is an exhilarating sci-fi thriller helmed by Robert Rodriguez (‘Sin City’) having adapted the screenplay fashioned by filmmaker James Cameron (‘Avatar’) and based on Yukito Kishiro’s graphic novel Battle Angel Alita.
Apart from co-writing the script, Cameron also co-produced the production together with Jon Landau (from the forthcoming ‘Avatar’ series of films) using CGI and motion capture performance technology to create the special computerised character of Alita (Rosa Salazar –Insurgent’).
The story’s setting is the 26th century following a catastrophic interplanetary war and opens with cybernetic surgeon Dr Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz –‘Spectre’) searching for cyborg parts in a deserted scrapheap when he comes across a part-human female face.
Noting that the core brain and heart are still intact Ido rushes back to his workshop to reconstruct the rest of the robotic body, enabling the cyborg to function as a human and naming her Alita after his daughter.
Unable to remember her past life, she is later befriended by the young man, Hugo (Keean Johnson –‘Heritage Falls’) and like Alita is keen to move to the sky city of Zalem after becoming a hunter-warrior like Zapan (Ed Skrein –‘Deadpool’).
After saving Ido from certain criminal cyborgs, Alita – with her newly-acquired fighting skills – is introduced by Hugo to the fiercely-competitive and violent Motorball sport controlled by arch villain Vector (Mahershala Ali – ‘Moonlight’) and assisted by Ido’s ex-wife Chiren (Jennifer Connelly – ‘Shelter’).
As a result of some violent fight scenes Alita recalls her life as a warrior with incredible abilities and powers (through a series of flashbacks) which finally leads to an exciting battle royale with Vector and his robotic followers.
Rodriguez’s rendition of a powerful young cyborg woman reaching her potential in a dystopian future is both engaging as it is enjoyable realising that she must fight those battles against certain enemies if she is to eventually survive.
Despite the brief presence of Ali and Connelly the main entertainment is derived from Salazar’s performance in many splendid action scenes and some spectacular special effects, not to mention that of Waltz playing a supportive role as the paternalistic patron.
What is quite surprising about this cyborg movie is that it took 20 years for Cameron to have it made – with the possibility of a sequel!
Vic’s Verdict: 3 ½ Stars
