Alita, Battle Angel (2019)

Usually, when Hollywood tries to adapt something Japanese to the big screen for Western audiences, they tend to not get it right. There are some exceptions and these stem from the fact that whoever made it, was in fact a fan of the original. Robert Rodriguez is a big fan of the manga this is based on, and it shows. Because this is a pretty truthful and great adaptation of a slew of manga that are pretty tough to translate to the screen at times. Yet, Rodriguez pulled it off.

Doctor Ido finds the remains of a girl cyborg in the Scrapyard of Iron City. He repairs her, but it turns out she has no memory of who she was and now she's just learning everything all over again. When she finds Ido in danger, she appears to unconsciously know of an ancient fighting technique called Panzerkunst. The plot thickens when she discovers an old spaceship, dating from the war that ravaged Earth 300 years ago. She finds a new body that in itself is a weapon. After going up against a killer whom apparently has protection from higher up, her original body is destroyed and Ido reluctantly fits her with the new one. And then there's Motorball, the main sporting event of th future, a mix between a race, gladiatorial combat and rugby.

There's a ton of stuff happening, which makes sense, as Rodriguez pretty much tried to cram in all the essentials from the first two and a half volumes of the manga. That might feel like a bit much, but because Rodriguez knows what he's doing, it doesn't feel too bloated. Most of the events happening here make sense and are fairly logically tied together. In the manga, Alita's Motorball escapades just suddenly happen, here there is an arc. The best one is the growth Alita goes through. She starts of as a curious child, becomes a rebellious teenager before finally realizing who her friends are. This works best in her relationship with Ido, her surrogate father and Christoph Waltz plays Ido so wonderfully as well. Rosa Salazar as Alita was also a good choice, because she looks the part and can get this mix of badassery and frailty down. They made her eyes a lot bigger to closely resemble the manga and even though she's the only one that has this feature, it doesn't feel out of place. It gives Alita that otherworldly look she needs, even though it might take a little getting used to at first.

The story might feel a bit cramped at times, but there is no denying that the design of everything here is spot on. The city looks great an grimy, the floating Zalem es exactly like the manga and so are most of the designs of the people. It all looks so wonderful, you really feel as though you're transported to another world, a future Earth.

I love it.

If I have gripes, they are minor. I also love the manga and the character of Makaku is one of the great villains. Here, he is reworked so he fits better in the story, which I can understand. But he often feels more like an afterthought, which is a shame. They needed him for key scenes (for example in the world below), but in all fairness: this film wouldn't suffer if they had cut him out and replaced him with someone else (for example: gave Zapan a larger role). I know they went for familiar beats for the fans, but still. Also, the idea that Nova controls everything is a little easy and it is hard to discern when he is taking over people's minds. I didn't get a few of those scenes the first time I saw the film. After several viewings, I did get it, but it comes a little out of left field and makes for a few weird parts.

So, yes, this film has its flaws and is not perfect. But I love it to bits. This is probably in part to my adoration of the manga, but this one just looks and feels right. The ending hints at a sequel, which I sincerely hope will get made one day.

You hear me, Robert Rodriguez? You had the patience and balls to do this one, now finish the story with a sequel!