71. Alita - Battle Angel: movie review

ALITA - BATTLE ANGEL
Cert 12A
122 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence, bloody images, infrequent strong language

Why does every superhero-style movie have to spark a series?
Even the James Bond films, of which I am a big fan, leave audiences with questions or enticements towards the next movie in the franchise.
I am giving nothing away in reporting that there will be at least three Alita films because producer James Cameron and director Roberto Rodriguez have already publicly said so.
Despite knowing this, my heart sank at such an unsatisfactory conclusion to the first movie which Mrs W and I watched at Nottingham Cineworld's IMAX screen.
Based on Yukito Kishiro's manga series Gunnm, Rodriguez's film stars Rosa Salazar as the title character who is seen through the same facial performance capture that Cameron used in Avatar.
Indeed, much of Cameron's learning from previous projects is evident in Alita Battle Angel.
Here, the heroine first appears as just a head and shoulders of a cyborg found by a scientist (Christoph Waltz) who is scouring a junk tip.
He detects that there is still brain activity and proceeds to create her a body which enables her to combine amazing speed and fighting prowess.
Alita Battle Angel is set in a 26th-century Blade Runner-style dystopia where only the fittest survive and hunter-warriors have a licence to kill.
Meanwhile, big crowds are drawn to the sports arena for Motorball, a game in which cyborgs seek to smash each other to bits in pursuit of a ball.
And above them all, is the floating city from where the rules of their world are dictated.
There are plenty of baddies out to get Alita, led by Mahershala Ali as the quiet link-man between the floating city and the hell on earth, Jackie Earle Haley as a huge killer cyborg and Ed Skrein as a hunter-warrior.
Meanwhile, Keean Johnson is Alita's love interest.
It all makes for a dazzling, computer-generated assault on the senses which is so typical of modern superhero films.
I was surprised when Mrs W said she enjoyed it because she isn't a fan of Marvel and DC and while this is from neither camp, it has echoes of both with a slither of Avatar chucked in.
Meanwhile, it made a perfectly passable couple of hours but wasn't different enough to truly excite me.

Reasons to watch: James Cameron inspired superhero
Reasons to avoid: Not enough difference to Marvel and DC

Laughs: A couple of chuckles
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? Alita began as a manga created by Yukito Kishiro. James Cameron and longtime producing partner Jon Landau went to Japan to acquire the rights and Kishiro’s blessing. 

The final word. Roberto Rodriguez: "It’s a different kind of film making and that’s why Jim Cameron's movies stand the test of time and are so easy to invest emotionally because his science fiction is more based on science fact."

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