An action-packed story of one young woman’s journey to discover the truth of who she is and her fight to change the world.

Robert Rodriguez brings to life the world of Yukito Kishiro’s manga series with the action-packed thrill ride that is, Alita: Battle Angel (2019). This project has been over 10 years in the making, with Rodriguez receiving the directorial reins after co-writer James Cameron, who initiated the project, decided to focus on his upcoming Avatar sequels. As expected from Rodriguez there is a lot of violence, but it is not so much like Sin City with tech-director Cameron stepping in as producer to heavily influence the setting and aesthetic, similar to his work done with Avatar. That this is a good team is an understatement, and they have lovingly adapted this graphic series to film using a mix of live action and CGI to capture the layered, cyberpunk world surrounding the title character, Alita. Admittedly, I did not follow this 90s manga so I cannot definitively speak on the faithfulness to the source material, but with high-intensity fight sequences and thrilling race scenes that ALMOST rival that of Tron, if you’re looking for some action, this is the movie to see. And see it in 3D.

The film takes place in 2563 A.D. amidst the ruined metropolis of Iron City, where 300 years after a battle resulting in the collapse of technology, referred to as “the Fall”, the world and many of its inhabitants are left broken in its wake. The last vestige of technology is a city in the sky called Zalem, which rules over Iron City and houses the pure and elite. The film quickly dives into the story; it opens with Doctor Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) rummaging through a trash heap for cyborg parts where he stumbles upon the miracle of finds, a half-dead “total replacement” cyborg with a very human brain. He brings his treasure back to his clinic, where he outfits it to a cyborg body he had built for his tragically deceased daughter, and also gives it her name – Alita. As it turns out, when she wakes up she doesn’t remember who she is, where she came from, or even how to eat an orange, but she is soon forced to relive her memories and rediscover herself as enemies aware of her past begin closing in on her. Through a series of knock down, drag out fights, Alita becomes battle tested and ready to complete her mission – destroy the floating city of Zalem.

Though they are not exactly re-inventing the wheel with an amnesiac assassin, or an elite floating city vs. the poor below storyline, this movie was very fun thanks to all the action and the unstoppable badass that is Alita – I fully enjoyed watching her dodge mechanical tentacles and kick cyborg butts. The action sequences are punctuated by an exhilarating musical score from Dutch DJ and seasoned video game music composer, Junkie XL (who also scored my favorite 2015 movie, Mad Max Fury Road). I had the pleasure of watching this in Dolby 3D, so with the visually stunning choreography and booming sound mixing I felt like I didn’t miss a single punch.

The animation and styling of Alita looks hyper lifelike, yet because of those bigger eyes I did not get that uncanny valley effect that so many complained about with movies like Polar Express. This character is realized through the incredible motion capture acting from Rosa Salazar (Bird Box), whose skill may even rival Doug Jones as she comes off warm and real through CGI, and only stumbles with the romantic bits opposite her love interest, Hugo (Keean Johnson), as their chemistry felt unbelievable…and unfortunately unnecessary. Some of the sequences were just flat out jaw-dropping, which is to be expected when the graphic auteur (but usually low-budget) Robert Rodriguez is given a $200 million budget.

Overall I thought this was a good and fun movie to watch in-theater, though it is not really anything new. A couple minor gripes: I would appreciate more exploration into the existential crisis that human-machine creatures go through for their humanity (see Alex Murphy of RoboCop or even android Data from Star Trek TNG), I feel she was only interested in her warrior/machine side. Also, though this pretty much does standup as a movie on its own, it very clearly forces itself into a sequel(s). The movie came off at a rushed paced in its attempt to fit everything in, and there were many threads being pulled on many of which were left frayed at the end. It is obvious that the narrative was squished together to package this into an origins movie, and it will be disappointing if they end up only getting to do this chapter. That being said, I am still here for any sequels that may be born of this. I imagine both newbs and fans of the anime/manga will be impressed by the aesthetics and storytelling, and will be fully entertained by Alita: Battle Angel.