************************This review contains mild spoilers****************************
Visionary director James Cameron’s name has become synonymous with visual wizardry and innovation and he has once again lent his expertise on pushing the limits of what cinema can look like with Alita: Battle Angel, only this time as a producer with the great Robert Rodriguez sitting in the director’s chair. Chock full of incredible CGI and visual effects, Battle Angel (which we will call it in this review so as not to confuse the character with the movie) also seeks to take viewers’ eyes past the surface level, and into questions surrounding destiny, self-realization, and documentation of what it is like to love as a parent.
Set in the 26th century, Alita: Battle Angel takes us on a journey alongside the cyborg Alita (Rosa Salazar), whose torso is found in the scrapyard of Iron City, a poor, treacherous city set below a luxurious floating city named Zalem, by Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz), a cyber-doctor by day, bounty hunter by night who takes the cyborg to his clinic and repairs her. After coming to, Alita has no memory of who she is or where she comes from. As Alita adjusts to life in Iron City and tries to access her old memories, she and Ido are beset by his ex-wife and fellow doctor Chiren (Jennifer Connelly) and Vector (Mahershala Ali), wealthy owner of the popular sport and league Motorball who both want Alita for mysterious reasons that slowly become more clear.
While Battle Angel is chock full of the action and visual thrills you’d expect from a modern blockbuster, the movie also sports a sturdy emotional core, starting with its main character. The journey that Alita embarks upon throughout the movie highlights the importance of knowing one’s total and complete self; not just who you are in the moment, but where you came from, what makes you you in full. Despite not being human herself, Alita’s aching need to know who she is in order to feel whole and complete is a base human desire and, as she gradually begins to piece her life together, it’s no coincidence that this coincides with her growing strength within the movie. As a black American and descendant of slaves, Alita’s journey struck me as being reminiscent of the blank space most black people have with their family history pre-slavery. Tracing back the lives of our ancestors before they were property and knowing who exactly we come from on the west African continent is nearly impossible for most of us, with DNA having only recently made it possible to link black Americans back to specific west African tribal areas. This uncertainty leaves many black people with a sense of incompletion, the feeling that something is missing and that they don’t know in full who they are. The agony of having a piece of you missing and the emotional toll this can take is characterized through Alita, as is the feeling of self-assurance when those questions are answered.
The movie’s second examination of the emotional spectrum comes through the story of Dr. Ido and Chiren, who have react in completely opposite ways following the tragic death of their daughter. Dr. Ido handles his grief first through the pursuit of revenge, finding and killing the former patient responsible for killing her. Despite his success, he finds it doesn’t help with his grief and instead seemingly throws himself into his work, repairing the maimed and injured for free. Through Alita, he sees a second chance at being a father again, quickly taking her in as if she was his own. Chiren however, responds to the heartbreak by becoming a mercenary doctor assisting the powerful in Iron City for a chance at returning to Zalem, ridding herself of any compassion or feeling and only snapping out of it once confronted face to face with what it is like to love and lose someone. Chiren’s about-face serves as a reminder of the power of a parent’s love and how, no matter how it may seem, it never truly leaves a parent no matter the circumstances.
Battle Angel features a stellar ensemble cast including many notable, recognizable names from the main supporting cast like Christoph Waltz, Mahershala Ali, Jennifer Connolly, and Ed Skrein to quick cameos from other stars like Eiza Gonzalez, Jackie Earle Haley, and Michelle Rodriguez. Despite this firepower, it is the performance from fresh faced lead Rosa Salazar that stands near the top of the list and carries the movie. Salazar follows in the footsteps of the great Andy Serkis and his great motion capture (mocap) performances in challenging us to think about where this type of acting stands in the pantheon of great acting and how we compare it to those who appear onscreen in a fully human form. The emotion presented by Salazar and the facial movement she provides through mocap is palpable and translates in full, pulling in viewers and making us care for Alita as if she were flesh and blood. Serkis’ previous performances in the Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes trilogies left both fans and critics wondering when a conversation should be had on greater recognition for the difficulty in performing as a mocap actor and Salazar’s performance here shows that the need for such a discussion may still be necessary. Conveying the full spectrum of human emotion without the benefit of using all that is at the disposal of the human face is not easy and Salazar’s execution of it is more than noteworthy.
Mahershala Ali is also his usual fantastic self in his turn as Vector/Nova, despite the fact he could have easily provided the audience with a normal, serviceable performance in a plain blockbuster film. Instead, Ali creates two distinct characters with distinct behavior and voice inflection between Vector, the powerful controller of Motorball, Iron City’s pastime, and Nova, the powerful being who uses Vector as a vessel when needed. This was an amount of care and attention to detail that most actors wouldn’t provide bringing to such a film and the fact that Ali did, and at such a high level, left me pondering whether or not he’s the best actor currently working. Christoph Waltz provides Battle Angel with a lot of its emotional heft as Dr. Ida, the bounty hunter with a heart of gold, pining for his lost daughter. His relationship with Alita, along with Jennifer Connelly’s arc as Chiren, explores parental loss and the need to care for young that never really goes away.
Battle Angel delivers on the visual richness and wonder one would expect from a project tied to James Cameron, featuring a motion capture performance from Rosa Salazar that continues to push the medium forward and test the limits of not only CGI technology, but how audiences and critics alike respond to and classify these types of performances. She brings a decidedly human touch and performance to the role in both her physical movement and emotional resonance. Mahershala Ali also continues his terrific run onscreen bringing a gravitas to his role that not many other actors would have bothered to. Despite the fact that the movie stuffed in a lot of world-building, the pacing and steady introduction of new concepts or people didn’t make it feel overwhelming and instead leaves you feeling excited for the future, a testament to the direction of Robert Rodriguez. Some of the dialogue is a little stilted and is distracting in spots, one of the few irredeemable flaws. However, Alita: Battle Angel provides just enough good story and substantive themes along with its dazzling visuals to make it a truly enjoyable cinematic experience.
Image: 20th Century Fox
