Alita Battle Angel (2019) Review

 Alita Battle Angel (2019) 7.5/10

Hello everyone and welcome back to another movie review. Today, I’ll be taking a look at Alita Battle Angel. Alita was released on February 14, 2019 with the director being Robert Rodriguez. This movie was competing against Captain Marvel as both movies released around the same time and both deal with a strong female lead. I hate comparing the two as they are both different movies, but Alita was the better film. Now this movie is an adaptation of the manga and anime OVA called “Gunm”. I have not seen or read Gunm but after watching this, I am very curious about the source material. Anyway, let’s jump into this.

The year is 2563. 300 years have passed since The Fall, a great war which resulted in all the flying cities of Earth to crash into the ground, except for Zalem. Zalem is the last flying city that is heralded as a paradise in which only those with high connections can live there. Enter Alita, a cyborg that was found in a scrap heap and put back together by Doctor Dyson Ido. When Alita awakens, she has no memory of her past. After going out and exploring her new home, Iron City, she discovers a sport called Motorball and the underground bounty hunter ring. Through these connections, Alita starts to remember her past and her original mission to kill this guy named Nova, who lives in Zalem.

I love the narrative for this movie. The world building and character development is off the charts amazing. The best character in this is of course Alita herself as she slowly remembers her purpose. I also have to give props to Doctor Dyson and Hugo (Alita's love interest) as they were excellent supporting characters and helped drive the plot. The main villain, Vector, was honestly ok at best. Nothing too major from the guy besides being a lackey for Nova.

The visuals for this movie are outstanding. Alita herself looks great and not too creepy looking (you'll get used to the eyes, trust me). The world and the setting of Iron City looks beautiful and rabid at the same time. I also love the whole sci-fi dystopian world that this world gives off. I love the vibe and busyness of Iron City. The overall art direction for the film is fantastic and needs to be commended. Also for Alita’s prosthetics, the art direction reminded me of Deus Ex’s, with the way the limbs were designed. The animation for this movie is insane too. From the simple movements of Alita's arms to the intense action scenes in the Motorball fights, the animation is flawless.

The music is honestly a letdown. There's nothing memorable within this score. It all just sounds like basic pop music. Yeah sure it fits the situations of the movie, but I was expecting more. Also the end credit song “Swan Song” sucks. I really don’t know why that song caught on the way it did.

The fight scenes are arguably the best parts of this movie. There's so much acrobatics and flipping with massive blows, each fight kept me on the edge of my seat. My favorite fight has to be the final Motorball fight. The action for this movie is very violent. Limb dismemberment, massive gashes and cuts, and a good amount of blood. But it's cool though since all the fights are with other cyborgs. Kinda reminds me of Samurai Jack where Jack is slicing up robots left and right but it’s okay since they’re just robots lmao.

The movie does have its share of problems, but not too many. My main issues are the mediocre soundtrack, lack of development for some side characters, and pacing issues near the end of the film. But overall this is a fantastic film that everybody should check out. The story is well done, the visuals are fantastic, and the action is very entertaining. I highly recommend this to everyone and I really hope we get a sequel soon.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, singing off.