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       

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) review

Ever since the Harry Potter film series became the global phenomenon that it technically still is today, many studios tried to capitalize on its success. And thus, several films based on novels from the young adult genre, which are often marketed towards the teen demographic, proceeded to get greenlit. However, several of these attempted franchises were unable to get off the ground due to their first installments often being critical/commercial disappointments, with the only major exceptions being Twilight, Hunger Games, and Divergent. And even then, of those three franchises, only Hunger Games managed to attract the same kind of critical success that Harry Potter had achieved. But in 2014, one attempt at a new ‘young adult’ film franchise surprisingly managed to succeed where several others had previously failed. The Maze Runner, which was based on author James Dashner’s 2009 novel of the same name while also serving as the directorial debut of former VFX artist Wes Ball, managed to fare quite well with both critics and audiences. And on just a modest $34 million budget, it grossed nearly $350 million worldwide. One year later, it was then followed by a sequel in Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. It too managed to do well at the box-office though its overall critical reception wasn’t as strong compared to its predecessor. Still, here are we now with the finale to this dystopian tale, Maze Runner: The Death Cure. While the film’s release had to be delayed for almost an entire year after series lead Dylan O’Brien suffered some serious injuries during its production, it also didn’t go the same route as franchises like Hunger Games and Twilight by being split into two films. It’s a good thing, too, because after the rather disappointing affair that was The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure allows this franchise to go out on a good note.

Throughout the course of this series, we’ve followed the adventures of main protagonist Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his conflict with the organization known as WKCD. After a devastating solar flare ravaged the planet, which was then followed by an outbreak of a virus known as ‘the Flare’ that turns its victims into zombified creatures known as ‘Cranks’, WCKD subjected those who were immune to the virus through a series of experiments to try and find a cure. When Thomas (a former member of the organization) opposed their methods, he was placed inside the very same experiments that he had a hand in working on. However, with the help of his fellow ‘Immunes’, Thomas managed to break them out from their maze-like prison while still being pursued by WCKD’s leader Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) and her military leader Janson (Aidan Gillen). Things came to a head at the end of The Scorch Trials when Thomas’ friend and fellow former WCKD employee Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) betrayed their group, leading to WCKD capturing several members of the resistance group known as the Right Arm and fellow Maze survivor Minho (Ki Hong Lee). In response, Thomas, Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Frypan (Dexter Darden), and ‘Scorch’ survivors Brenda (Rosa Salazar) and Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito) embark on a perilous mission to both rescue their friends and to take down WCKD before they can harm any other children who are immune to ‘the Flare’. To do so, they must venture into WCKD’s heavily guarded main base of operations, which also happens to be the ‘Last City’ currently left standing on Earth.

Two of the best aspects of this franchise have been its production design and its action sequences, and both have managed to improve with each new film due in part to an increase in budget since the first film, effectively allowing the opportunity for more elaborate visuals and grander-scaled action sequences. But, of course, a lot of this is also thanks to Wes Ball’s continually solid direction, as he once again proves to be quite an effective director when it comes to action sequences. But then there’s also the writing, which is a lot better than what we got in this film’s immediate predecessor. Whereas the first Maze Runner managed to have a surprisingly engaging mystery plot, especially for those going in who weren’t familiar with the source material, it felt that, with The Scorch Trials, the story began to play second fiddle to the franchise’s action set-pieces. And as good as those action sequences were, they ultimately weren’t enough to make up for The Scorch Trials’ numerous narrative shortcomings. Thankfully, that’s not as big of an issue here. While the film is still primarily action-oriented like the second film, there’s also a lot more focus on the plot and its characters. In other words, The Death Cure feels a lot more like the first Maze Runner in terms of its overall execution. And given that this is the final installment of the series, it does manage to end it all on a generally conclusive note even if some plotlines and character arcs don’t exactly get proper conclusions to them. Heck, the film even manages to have a few genuinely solid emotional moments here and there.

With that said, though, it’s understandable if some may find this film to be rather bloated, and this is largely due to it being the longest entry in the series by far at nearly two and a half hours long. But while I do agree that it is perhaps a tad bit overlong, at the very least it never felt as emotionally empty as The Scorch Trials often was; trust me, if it did, then that hefty runtime would’ve been a far bigger problem. And this is mainly thanks to the franchise’s solid ensemble cast, which has been another key element to its success. Since the beginning, this series has relied heavily on its cast of young leads while the bigger names in the cast (e.g. Giancarlo Esposito, Barry Pepper, etc.) were given noteworthy supporting roles. And these young leads are once again excellent in their respective roles, highlighted by the main duo of Dylan O’Brien (who, as a lead actor, has matured just as much as this franchise has) and Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Thomas and Newt. Newt, especially, gets some big character moments in this entry that are incredibly well-handled. On that note, the film also makes sure to atone for one of the biggest shortcomings of The Scorch Trials by delving further into Teresa’s decision to betray her friends and work with WCKD again (something that was barely touched upon in that film due to the character’s limited screen-time) in the hopes of finding a cure. This, in turn, results in stronger character development for Teresa and arguably Kaya Scodelario’s best performance in the role. Finally, as for the film’s main villains, Patricia Clarkson and Aidan Gillen are also solid once again in their respective roles as Ava Paige and Janson, but without giving anything away, one ends up having a far more substantial role in the plot than the other.  

(P.S. There’s also a surprise cameo that I can’t talk about that much due to it being a big plot spoiler, but I will say that it too helps this film regain a lot of the spirit of the first film that was lost during the second film.)

Looking back, the original Maze Runner was truly quite the success story, and not just because it was part of a genre that usually yielded mixed results. It had a far smaller budget than most franchises of this genre, served as the directorial debut for a then-untested director, and was almost entirely centered on a cast of young leads. And yet, it ultimately turned out to be quite good; at the very least, better than most recent YA film adaptations. With that in mind, The Death Cure mainly serves as one thing; further proof as to why The Scorch Trials turned out to be quite disappointing. Seriously, the best way that I can describe the second film is that it was basically what many people feared the film version of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was going to be like, a ‘middle chapter’ without much focus. By comparison, The Death Cure boasts stronger emotional stakes for its main characters that yield some incredibly effective poignant moments. And despite some of the series’ biggest plotlines ultimately going unanswered, the film does serve its purpose of being a proper finale for the story that was initially set up in the first film while still maintaining the franchise’s knack for solid action sequences. With that said, though, I will agree with the consensus on Rotten Tomatoes in that those who weren’t already invested in the Maze Runner franchise, to begin with, aren’t going to get much out of this film. But for those who are fans of this series and were rather disappointed with how The Scorch Trials turned out, like I was, then I bet that you’ll be far more satisfied with The Death Cure as it’s far closer to the quality of the first film than the second… arguably better even…

Rating: 4.5/5