Here’s something with an interesting history—anyone who’s
taken a glance at film titan James Cameron’s career will know that for almost twenty
years now, he’s had a thing for adapting Yukito Kishiro’s manga Battle Angel
Alita. I’ve never seen the manga and only glanced at the animated flick, which was
one of those somewhat obscure 90s video anime releases wedged between your Cowboy Bebops and Jin-Rohs, so as to what grabbed him, I can’t tell you.
But with ol’ Jimmy C having spent that time drowning
DiCaprio and filling swimming pools of money from lavishly animated blue
people, and then actually diving to the very bottom of the sea… well, I guess
he’s also now busy making sure every leaf on Pandora is properly animated for
the ever-delayed Avatar sequels. So the job of realizing this passion project went
to Robert Rodriguez, who I know from all the intestine-ripping, blood-spraying
action of Machete and Planet Terror. Still, between Sin City and Spy Kids,
Rodriguez—a filmmaker’s filmmaker if there ever was one—certainly isn’t afraid
to mix things up with tone and style, so let’s have a look at what the result
of this long-awaited adaptation is.
Starting off with the positives—the movie definitely scores
solid points for visual flair, and from what I’ve glanced at, seems reasonably
close to the source material, surprisingly so in fact. The ramshackle and
overbuilt nature of the main city setting works very nicely, and Rodriguez
seems to have done a good job translating it as he did with Sin City. There’s
plenty of distinctive cyborg characters, from punk-looking maniacs to this one
cool fella with robot mastiffs. It all works to create what feels like its own
living world, though some things feel less standout than others, like these
mechas that are basically just ED-209 with an extra set of legs.
The action is also fun—you can tell Rodriguez wants to just
splat the walls with gore and chunks, but instead settles for bright blue
cyber-guts and wire-like innards being ripped out. Some moments did actually
take me aback for a film like this, such as seeing a limb coming apart in slow-motion
flying through the air—even if it’s just a mechanical part, it feels pretty
ballsy for something that’s aiming to be a mainstream all-comers flick, which I
don’t mind at all. There’s enough variety to keep things mixed up, from alley
fights, to bar brawls, to these big gladiatorial fights that mix combat with
high-speed racing, which I enjoyed fine.
The story is more of a mixed bag. Christopher Waltz plays a
machinist that uncovers an old battle android in the dumps of a future city
that lies under its ruling elites, who dwell on top of an opulent floating
platform. This android becomes Alita, and there’s some of your typical scifi Pinocchio
vibes as she has to learn her humanity and destiny and all that. She even meets
a bad boy boyfriend who has his secrets, which you’ll probably see coming. Infused between all this are surprisingly complicated conspiracies involving this stratified society, puppetmaster villains, and their assorted henchmen, who range from freakish machine killers to adjutants apparently trying very hard to exert Blade vibes.
I’ll say that it feels close to the source material in more
than just the visuals—there’s plenty of funny anime tropes like weird mangled
German terms (‘Panzerkunst’—so, er, armor-art? Tank-art?) and place names I’m
not sure how to spell, as well as lots of cheesy dialogue! Waltz makes it work
through his great acting chops, but with the rest of the cast, it’ll either add
to the charm or get your eyes rolling depending on how cynical you are.
And then there’s the ending—it’s a sequel hook. And not a
hugely satisfying one either—I’ll also say that in this day and age, you should
only go for this sort of thing if you’re damn sure you’re guaranteed to have
one, like Marvel. Cameron has the clout and cash to pony up for that sort of
thing if the movie flops, but even so, I would’ve preferred something more conclusive.
Still, if you enjoy fast-paced cyborg fights as interpreted
by the man behind El Mariachi and want to see more anime/manga represented on
the big screen, this is definitely a step above the Dragonball and Ghost in the
Shell flops. Probably the best one since Edge of Tomorrow, in fact, and like
that film, has the advantage that it’s not dealing with a well-known property
like Akira. At the least, you can definitely feel that there’s that twenty-year
passion behind it with the attention to detail and the indulgent visuals you
expect from Cameron. I wouldn’t urge people to see it right away, but if any of
the above sounds fun, I say go ahead.
One more thing--for a Rodriguez flick, there was also a shocking lack of Danny Trejo. Now there's someone to put into a machete-covered mech suit for next time...
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