Alita: Battle Angel (2019) review

In the early 2000s, James Cameron acquired the film rights to the popular manga series Gunnm, also known as Battle Angel Alita. Created by artist Yukito Kishiro, it told the story of a young female cyborg named Alita who struggles to understand her past but then gradually learns that she comes from a line of powerful warriors with martial arts training. This nine-volume series ran from 1990 to 1995 and sold around 50 million copies during that time, later spawning several manga spin-offs and a two-part animated short film (or ‘original video animation’, as it’s referred to in Japan) in 1993 that was based on the manga’s first two volumes. And in 2005, it was announced that Cameron would be directing an adaptation of the manga alongside another project of his that was initially codenamed Project 880. Ultimately, though, the latter came first in 2009 and would go on to become the highest-grossing film of all-time, Avatar. And because of its success, Cameron decided to start developing sequels to his $2 billion-grossing blockbuster, resulting in Battle Angel being pushed back several times over the next few years. It wasn’t until 2016 when the project finally started to move into production, but by this point, Cameron was already well underway on directing the sequels to Avatar. Thus, a new director had to be found, and Cameron quickly found his choice in Robert Rodriguez, making this the biggest-budgeted film that the Texas-born director has ever made at around $200 million. But after nearly two whole decades of development, Alita: Battle Angel finally graces the big screen in a highly ambitious but still all-around engaging sci-fi adventure that is visually stunning.

The year is 2563. After a devastating war known as ‘The Fall’ left the planet in a state of total ruin, the people of Iron City struggle to survive in their harsh environment while floating paradises like Zalem loom large in the skies above. One day, while rummaging through the scrapyards full of Zalem’s trash, scientist Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) comes across the head and torso of a female cyborg whose cybernetic brain is surprisingly still intact. Ido then proceeds to give the cyborg a new body and calls her Alita (Rosa Salazar). Alita, however, finds herself in quite the predicament as she’s unable to remember anything from her past even when aided by Ido and a charismatic young man named Hugo (Keean Johnson) who shows her the ins and outs of Iron City. This begins to change, however, when Alita learns that Ido secretly moonlights as a member of Iron City’s elite faction of bounty hunters known as ‘hunter-warriors’. While helping him fend off a bunch of vicious cyborg assassins, Alita finally starts to remember that she comes from a line of cyborg warriors who were trained in the zero-gravity based martial art form known as Panzer Kurst on the planet Mars. This, along with the discovery of a more powerful cybernetic body that also originated from Mars, prompts Alita to become a Hunter-Warrior herself so that she can combat those who threaten the good people of Iron City. In doing so, she runs amok of Vector (Mahershala Ali), a businessman with ties to Zalem who promptly puts out a bounty on the girl who’s been putting a dent in his criminal operation.

James Cameron has noted that the film primarily serves as an adaptation of the manga’s first four volumes. As such, it’s safe to say that this film attempts to cover a lot of ground in its two-hour runtime and not every major plot-line or bit of character development that’s introduced here gets as much attention as they probably should. But aside from what the film does to set up future installments of this potential franchise, it does do its job when it comes to immersing you within this dystopian future. A lot of this comes from the overall handling of Alita’s origin story, which is arguably the best aspect of the plot as it does a nice job of showcasing her transition from innocent cyborg girl to confident warrior while also providing the film with some genuinely effective emotional depth. The biggest draw to the film, however, is its excellent visual effects. It’s been said that one of the reasons why the film took so long to get made was so that visual effects technology was advanced enough to properly tell this story, and it does indeed show in the final product. From the seamless integration of CG-based characters into a live-action setting to the truly visually stunning action sequences, this film boasts the amazing visual polish that one can expect from a James Cameron production. But, of course, it was Robert Rodriguez who was behind the camera for this one, not James Cameron, and while it’s quite arguably the most streamlined outing of his career, Rodriguez’s direction is still excellent, and he does provide the film with the same energy that’s defined many of his independently-produced directorial efforts.

Ultimately, though, one of the most talked about aspects of this film is how it brings the title character of Alita to life. Actress Rosa Salazar portrays the character via motion-capture and the film maintains a key artistical aspect of the manga by giving Alita large anime-style eyes. However, this decision was initially met with skepticism when the first trailer was released, with many pulling the ‘uncanny valley’ card when describing how it looked in a live-action context. And yet, as is the case with any film’s marketing campaign, this first trailer was clearly released before most of the visual effects were finished, and I can assure you that the larger eyes look far more natural in the final film than what they initially seemed. Simply put, Alita is another excellent addition to the growing cavalcade of mo-cap created characters, and Rosa Salazar shines in what will surely be her breakout role as the sympathetic, badass heroine. The other big standout of the cast is Christoph Waltz, who gets some solid character development as well through some gradual reveals regarding Ido’s past and how it connects him to Alita. Salazar also works well off Keean Johnson as Alita’s love interest Hugo, even if his character arc is sometimes waylaid by everything that the film tries to cover over the course of its run-time. Everyone else in the film admittedly plays more of a supporting role by comparison, though they’re all solid as well. This includes, but is not limited to, Ed Skrein as Zapan, an extremely cocky cyborg bounty hunter who’s a constant thorn in Alita’s side, and Jennifer Connelly as Dr. Chiren, a scientist who works for Vector but also has a deeply personal history with Ido.

As I’ve probably made it clear in the past, I don’t have a lot of history with manga and anime, meaning that I don’t have the same connection that others do with franchises like Dragon Ball or Ghost in the Shell. And this was certainly the case with Alita: Battle Angel, as I went into this film without any prior experience with its source material. Ultimately, though, this scenario didn’t have any sort of effect on what I found to be a solidly entertaining sci-fi adventure. Granted, I wouldn’t necessarily call it ‘perfect’ because it does feel like it’s trying to cover a lot of ground when it comes to setting up its world and characters despite it being only two hours long. In other words, the amount of story material that’s introduced here could practically be enough to fill at least two whole films. However, that doesn’t mean that what’s there doesn’t make for an engaging story that boasts some gorgeous visuals and excellent action sequences. And thanks to an excellent performance by Rosa Salazar in the title role of Alita, this lavish sci-fi action flick about a cyborg girl from Mars who was trained in martial arts does indeed have a genuine heart to it. Thus, while Alita: Battle Angel is perhaps a bit too ambitious for its own good, this Robert Rodriguez/James Cameron collaboration is a visual spectacle unlike any other. Obviously, I can’t say much about whether this film does complete justice to its source material but considering some of the most infamous live-action adaptations of popular manga and anime like Dragonball: Evolution, I think that this one will fare much better with fans of the medium.

                                                                    Rating: 4.5/5       

Jim Henson Double Feature

Back in January 2015, I did a big retrospective on the eight theatrically-released films from one of the most famous franchises in pop-culture history, the Muppets. The Muppets, of course, were the creation of Jim Henson, who first conceived the characters along with his wife Jane Nebel in 1955 as part of their show Sam and Friends. In the years since, these characters have gone onto become some of the most beloved icons of both the big and small screen. However, this isn’t the only major franchise that Jim Henson was known for, as he and his titular company, the Jim Henson Company, were also responsible for hit shows like Fraggle Rock, Dinosaurs, and Bear in the Big Blue House just to name a few. And, of course, Henson was also famous for playing a major part in the development of one of the most iconic kids shows of all-time, Sesame Street. But today on Rhode Island Movie Corner, in anticipation of his company’s upcoming film The Happytime Murders that will be hitting theaters this August, we’ll be focusing on the feature films that Henson himself directed. And because we’ve already looked at his feature-length directorial debut, 1981’s The Great Muppet Caper, we’ll instead be looking at the two other feature films that he directed, which happen to have one major thing in common. While neither film was a major critical/commercial success upon their initial releases, both have gone onto become some of the biggest cult classics from the 80’s to the point where ‘follow-ups’ to both are currently in development. Thus, it’s time to ‘remind you all of the babe (“What babe?”) the babe with the power (“What power?”) the power of voodoo (“Who do?”) you do (“Do what?”) remind me of the babe!’… ahem, sorry… as we look at the two films that Jim Henson directed in the 80’s that weren’t about his most iconic creation, the Muppets.

THE DARK CRYSTAL (1982)

One year after he made his official feature-length directorial debut with The Great Muppet Caper, Jim Henson teamed up with fellow Muppet performer Frank Oz to co-direct The Dark Crystal. In this dark fantasy (no pun intended), two young elf creatures known as ‘Gelflings’ named Jen and Kira embark on a journey to restore a powerful crystal that had split 1000 years ago and led to the creation of two species, the wise Mystics and the terrifying vulture-like creatures known as Skeksis. And I do mean it when I refer to this film as a ‘dark fantasy’ because it is very much an example of an 80’s PG-rated film that far exceeded the boundaries of what one would normally see from a film that’s targeted towards younger audiences. Whether it’s through a scene where one of the Skeksis crumbles into dust or another where a young creature known as a Podling has his life essence sucked out of him, it’s easy to see how this film left quite a psychological impact on kids back in the 80’s. And while I personally don’t have any major nostalgic connections to this film, that doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the visual mastery that is on display here. While some of the film’s blue-screen effects have aged a bit, the puppetry and animatronic work to create its wide array of creatures is superb, which is then paired perfectly with the film’s excellent visual designs that come courtesy of illustrator Brian Froud. Really, the only thing holding this film back is that while its visuals are impressive, the writing is a little more problematic. Some scenes feel a little unfocused and drag on a bit while character development is rather light. Still, for what its worth, The Dark Crystal is an engaging and imaginative fantasy adventure, and I am interested in seeing how this universe will be explored further courtesy of an upcoming prequel series on Netflix directed by Louis Leterrier.

Rating: 3.5/5

LABYRINTH (1986)

Just like the 3-D short film Captain EO that was produced for Disney parks, Labyrinth was a huge collaboration between three titans from the world of pop culture. Not only was the film directed by Jim Henson, but it was also executive-produced by George Lucas and starred ‘Ziggy Stardust’ himself, David Bowie, in the role of the main antagonist, Jareth the Goblin King. Plus, it served as another collaboration between Henson and illustrator Brian Froud, who once again worked as the film’s main conceptual designer. Sadly, upon its initial release, the film was not a big hit with critics and it bombed at the box-office. This proved to be an extremely demoralizing moment for Henson and it was ultimately the last feature film that he ever directed before his death in 1990. However, just like Dark Crystal, Labyrinth has gone on to amass a sizable cult following; in fact, Labyrinth’s fandom is arguably even bigger than Dark Crystal’s. It got a manga sequel in 2006, Return to Labyrinth, and an official film sequel is currently in the works that is set to be helmed by Evil Dead reboot director Fede Alvarez. But as for the original Labyrinth, while I once again don’t have as big of a personal nostalgic connection to this film compared to those who grew up in the 80’s, I do appreciate it just as much as I do Dark Crystal when it comes to its visuals. Sure, this film also has a few visual effects that haven’t aged well (e.g. the sequence involving the ‘Fireys’ that even Henson wasn’t fully satisfied with), but the puppetry and animatronic work from Henson’s crew is still top-notch all around. And whereas Dark Crystal truly lived up to the first half of its name as an extremely ‘dark’ fantasy, Labyrinth sports a much lighter tone by comparison that’s very much in the vein of classic films like The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. This ultimately produces a lot of Muppet-esque humor that is handled effectively enough to keep the film’s proceedings from becoming ‘too goofy’.

But, of course, the biggest highlight of the film is David Bowie in the lead role of Jareth the Goblin King. Simply put, the same great stage presence and charisma that made the late performer the icon that he still is today is on full display here, as he perfectly embodies the role of the film’s seductive villain. He also wrote much of the music for this film, which paves the way for some enjoyable musical numbers highlighted by the iconic ‘Magic Dance’ (which I alluded to in the intro to this post). Jennifer Connelly is solid as well in one of her earliest film roles as the film’s main protagonist Sarah, a young girl who embarks on a journey within Jareth’s labyrinth when he kidnaps her baby brother Toby. Admittedly, Connelly is a tad bit wooden in the film’s early moments, though this quickly fades once Sarah enters the labyrinth. She’s joined along the way by an entertaining collection of side characters, including a lovable beast named Ludo and a grumpy dwarf named Hoggle. All of this makes up for the film’s only real shortcoming in that, like Dark Crystal, it does suffer from the occasional narrative lull. That and the film’s ending is, without spoiling anything for those who haven’t seen it before, rather anti-climactic. At the same time, though, the film also does a great job of handling its coming-of-age plot in what is a rare instance of a female-led fantasy story. Thus, while both films are enjoyable in their own unique ways, Labyrinth does sport a tighter narrative compared to Dark Crystal with the added benefit of a great lead performance from David Bowie. And even though this is the first time that I’ve ever watched the film in full, it’s easy to see why this delightfully weird fantasy adventure has spawned the following that it has. Jim Henson may not have lived to see this happen but, per his son Brian, he was at least aware of it before he passed away.     

Rating: 4/5

And that concludes this little ‘retrospective’ on the work of one of the film industry’s most beloved visionaries, Jim Henson. Thanks for following along and be sure to sound off in the comments below with your own personal memories of these 80’s cult classics. 

Noah (2014) review

One of the most controversial films of this past decade, if not of all time, was 2004’s ‘Passion of the Christ’, directed by Mel Gibson. The tale of the final 12 hours of Jesus Christ’s life sparked much debate due to its extremely violent content; regardless, it was actually a big hit commercially as it grossed over 600 million worldwide. This year we have ourselves another religious-based film that has also caused some controversy; ‘Noah’, an adaptation of the ‘Noah’s Ark’ narrative from the Old Testament. This film has already been banned in a few countries such as Pakistan and Indonesia. However, in the case of ‘Noah’, the controversy is not on the violence, but on the ‘creative liberties’ that were taken by director Darren Aronofsky in regards to his vision of the story; bottom line, it is a very bold take on the story of Noah’s Ark but controversy aside, this is still a pretty damn good film that is not only visually stunning but one that also gives us a fascinating different take on the story. It may not be completely accurate when compared to the original story but it is much more character driven than what some people might expect.

The titular Noah (Russell Crowe), the descendent of Seth, one of Adam and Eve’s offspring, receives a prophetic vision that God (referred to in this film as ‘the Creator’) plans to destroy the world by way of a massive flood in order to rid the world of the many misdeeds that mankind has committed over the years since Earth was first created. Noah realizes that the Creator had chosen him specifically to be the one who would save those who were innocent and so, with the help of his family; his wife Naameh (Jennifer Connelly), their three sons Shem (Douglas Booth), Ham (Logan Lerman), and Japheth (Leo McHugh Carroll), and their adopted daughter Ila (Emma Watson), Noah begins to build an ark in order for them to survive the storm. However, he soon finds himself dealing with his nemesis, Tubal-Cain (Ray Winstone), the same man who killed Noah’s father years ago who poses a threat to the safety of both him and his family both before and after the flood begins.

Like I said, there definitely are some creative liberties taken in telling this story. Probably the most notable aspect of these liberties is the portrayal of this group of characters known as ‘Watchers’ who help Noah and his family (these characters have been absent from the marketing). But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this adaptation of the story is how it is much more character driven than what one might expect. I mean, religious or not, we all know the story of Noah; he builds an ark, two of each kind of animal get on it, then Noah, his family, and the animals spend 40 days and 40 nights on the boat before the waters recede. But there’s much more to the story in this version, like how much burden is placed on Noah to perform this deed that the Creator has given to him or how sometimes he doubts whether or not he and his family are worth keeping alive. The latter dilemma especially becomes relevant during the final half hour of the film. I won’t spoil what the scenario is, but it does involve another ‘task’ that the Creator wants Noah to do and a pretty damn dark one at that. That’s another thing about this movie; it may be PG-13 but it can get pretty brutal at times. Regardless, it’s a fascinating character study showing how no one’s perfect and that there is darkness in all of us.

Religious aspects aside, this movie is very visually stunning and that’s mainly for two reasons; both the visual effects done by Industrial Light and Magic and the cinematography by Matthew Libatique. This film also benefits from a strong cast from top to bottom. Russell Crowe gives one of the best performances of his career as Noah, really capturing the personal struggles and sometimes anguish that the character goes through. Just like how the movie itself can get dark, this is not the Noah that some might expect but even with that in mind, Crowe is fantastic here. Equally terrific here is Emma Watson who, like Crowe, also gives one of the best performances of her career here, as she provides quite a bit of the emotion that arises during the final half of the film. Everyone is very good as well; Jennifer Connelly, despite sort of being stuck in a role that just has her stand around, works well alongside Crowe and Ray Winstone is quite intimidating at Tubal-Cain, a role that is actually a bit more substantial than what one might expect from watching the trailer.   

‘Noah’ is no doubt going to be one of the most controversial films of the year, but I get the feeling it won’t just be for the religious aspects of the film. For many, this will not be the Noah that they are familiar with. In fact, the trailers aren’t really conveying the real nature of the film at all. At times, this film can be very dark mainly in regards to some of the moral dilemmas that Noah faces during the course of this film, particularly the one he struggles to deal with right at the end of the film. But at the same time, these darker moments in the story make it a fascinating character study of how one man dealt with the monumental task of protecting the innocent while also questioning whether or not he is among those worthy to live. This is sort of a hard film to recommend because if you are a very religious person, you may find yourself not liking the way this story is told here. However, from a film perspective, ‘Noah’ is visually beautiful, well-acted, and well-directed. Again though, it won't be for everyone.

Rating: 4/5