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Alita: Climbing the Cables to Zalem


My partner, Kaiti, and I went to see Alita: Battle Angel a few weeks ago on February 19th. We had both watched the 1993 anime OVA version before, so we both had some knowledge of the source material. Both productions are actually based on a Japanese manga series called Gunnm that started back in 1990 and continues today in a follow-up series. Gunnm was pretty big, spawning the previously mentioned OVA, spinoffs, a video game for the original PlayStation, and even a novel. James Cameron has owned the film rights for nearly two decades with the movie finally coming out last month directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Rosa Salazar as the title character.

The cyberpunk movie opens up familiarly in a huge scrapyard with an older man looking through the debris. He comes upon the top half of a human-like figure, a small, female android with huge eyes, and brings her home. With help from his assistant, Dr. Ido gives the android a new body and christens her "Alita". Alita is amazed by the busy world of Iron City and makes some friends with some teenagers, but her own past eludes her and remains a mystery. Meanwhile, the city is enraptured with the fast-paced, android sport Motorball and on edge due to numerous crimes occurring at night.

The film takes quite a few twists and turns, from light to dark, happy to sad, triumph and failure, and it is exciting throughout. It is pretty reliable to the source material from what I know about it. Rodriguez makes good use of the cityscape with his camerawork, and, despite all of the CG, the setting feels alive. Iron City is a strange place; another city of shining chrome, Zalem, hovers above it. Even still, Iron City feels like a real place, reminding me of the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars or the futuristic Los Angeles of Blade Runner but also with its own character. The city can be gritty at night and friendly and cosmopolitan during the day. Sometimes the same people traverse both worlds, some hoping to make it to the upper world.

The actors do an excellent job, particularly Keean Johnson as Hugo, Christoph Waltz as Ido, and Rosa Salazar as Alita. If you have seen the trailers, you already know that quite a bit of processing power went into enlarging Salazar's eyes to anime proportions. It looks really jarring at first, especially in the trailers, but the effect is actually really interesting overall. Some other android characters incorporate a lot of CG with only their heads remaining. This does not always work the best, but it was interesting to see; this is basically what is happening with these characters in the setting too, so it fits well. Watching the movie really begs the audience to envision such a world, and it does not disappoint.


Kaiti and I both enjoyed Alita: Battle Angel. I recommend seeing it if you are a fan of cyberpunk science-fiction. The movie really reminded me of watching 80s films like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Big Trouble in Little China, and the aforementioned Blade Runner and Star Wars films. This film was able to recreate the weird underground other worlds that I haven't seen done well for a long time, and it recreated the magic of going to the movies when I was a kid.

Alita: Battle Angel receives a Good.

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Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

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