James Cameron has wanted to bring Alita: Battle Angel to the big screen for over a decade. Then he got distracted by Avatar and that was that. Until Robert Rodriguez was brought on board. Thankfully he was as Alita: Battle Angel is one of the most exciting and interesting movies to be released in 2019.
How to Stream or Download Alita: Battle Angel
When it becomes available you will be able to pre-order and download Alita from iTunes. To check the availability click on the Download button below the review. And if you like cyberpunk stories about androids you should also see Blade Runner 2049 and check out the game Detroit: Become Human.
The Film Review
The movie is set a long way in the future, the year 2563 to be exact. The world is a mess after a huge war that resulted in an event called “The Fall” As a result, most of humanity lives in one large city. However, there is a “better” place called Zalem that is high above the city.
Dyson Ido is a Dr who one day is rummaging around in the junkyard where he comes across the remains of a cyborg. He takes the cyborg home, brings her back to life and calls her Alita. Alita meets a guy called Hugo and the two of them hit it off.
Alita cannot remember much of her past, but Dyson and Hugo both bring her around in their own ways. Alita discovers that she has a major knack for kicking butt. Which comes in pretty handy as Earth in the future is full of people with cybernetic enhancements. Seriously I do not think there is one character in this movie without some kind of enhancement.
The city has these what are called “Hunter Warriors” and these are the baddest of the bad. These are bounty hunters who use their skill to take down anyone who has committed a crime.
Alita becomes one of these herself, not to mention a pro Motorball player. She does these things for love as well as to find out exactly who she is and let me tell you when you does figure out what she is it is awesome.
I really do not want to spoil much of the actual plot, but Alita Battle Angel is a fantastic sci-fi action movie. Alita is played by Rosa Salazar and she is fantastic. She is all CG, but at the same time, she actually looks like she is in front of the camera. It is done very well and her eyes are very captivating.
Hugo is a very interesting character as well, he is played by Keenan Johnson his desire to get to Zalem along with his love for Alita tears at him. He is one of the more interesting characters in the movie and his relationship with Alita brings a lot of heart to the movie. It is actually fair to say that all of the actors in the movie do a great job.
The special effects are just ridiculous and I mean that as a huge compliment. The way people look in the future is just crazy. Some people just have a cybernetic hand, arm or leg, but then others. Especially the Hunter Warriors can have nearly all their body replaced by machine. It looks super cool and it also makes for some really amazing fighting and action scenes.
Motorball is the game that people love in the future and this is one of the coolest parts of the movie. It is done really well and while it is featured heavily in the trailer, the movie does not overuse Motorball and as a result, it leaves you wanting more.
It would be so easy to just pass Alita Battle Angel off as another sci-fi movie, but it really is far more than that. It is well written, features some great performances and the action is 100 miles per hour all the way. Hopefully, this is going to get a sequel as it was so much fun. While it is only early into 2019 as I write this I have a feeling this is easily going to make my top 10 of the year!
