Alita: Battle Angel | Nonsense. Worst Film of the Decade?

Alita: Battle Angel- Written and produced by James Cameron.

Plot:

The film follows the story of Alita (Rosa Salazar) who awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognise. She is taken in by Ido (Christoph Waltz), who realises that Alita has an extraordinary past. As Alita learns to navigate her new life Ido tries to shield her from her mysterious history. It is only when the deadly and corrupt forces that run the city come after Alita that she discovers the key to her past. She has unique fighting abilities that those in power will stop at nothing to control. If she can stay out of their grasp, she could be the one to save her friends, her family and the world she has grown to love.

I wouldn’t hesitate to say that Alita: Battle Angel is probably the most overrated film of 2019 so far. It was uninspiring, heavily over-marketed and had little sense of direction. In truth, it made me feel like I’d wasted a few hours of my day and would not recommend it to anyone interested in more than just an afternoon of loud noises.

Now don’t get me wrong, this film was an absolute treat for anyone expecting an aesthetically explosive James Cameron sci-fi flick. The film cannot be faulted for its ambitious CGI scenes or star studded cast. However, when watching the film, I couldn't help but feel that something was missing.

The start of the film was promising, seducing the audience with the appearance of actors such as Christoph Waltz, Mahershala Ali and Jennifer Connelly. Indeed some of the acting was good and deserves credit. Ali and Waltz did their best to salvage life from the lacklustre writing, but this does little to take away from the underwhelming general feel of the movie. The first half of the movie genuinely had me intrigued and invested in the characters and story. Despite that, and as the film progressed, I still couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the overall structure. The script was unimaginative and very flat in places. Alita gives a totally cringeworthy speech to her fellow hunter warriors that is completely rejected and feels badly written. She is then seen smearing the blood of a dead dog on her face before fighting a villain, which seems somewhat unnecessary as well as unnerving. The comment ‘I guess he doesn’t like dogs’ feels out of place and lazy. These parts were completely frustrating; I was enjoying the film until this point… this is where it began to go downhill.

The final blow was when Hugo (Keean Johnson) tells Alita that she is the ‘most human person’ he has ever met. Ew. I’m not annoyed that there’s romance in this film, there are plenty of fantastic examples of romance being perfectly executed in movies like this. I was perplexed that the writers felt the need to add in such a horribly awkward line and character in an attempt to regain the audience’s interest. The film has shown that the romantic sub-plot is not necessary to the overall plot. So why is Hugo there? It doesn't make sense. This only fuelled my argument for lazy writing and shows the concoction of mismatched ideas that is Alita ultimately leaves an audience with nothing to take away from the film.

The ending of the film was a total mess, and by ending I mean around the last 40 minutes. There were so many loose ends that needed to be tighter and the direction of the film was not clear at all during these last scenes. I almost walked out of the cinema during a scene with Hugo and Alita after screaming “JUMP!” in my head for about 30 seconds. This scene like many others in Alita: Battle Angel made me notice a distinct lack of attention to detail within the film’s plot. I know it’s Sci-Fi and of course fantasy elements are to be expected but this movie had me constantly questioning very basic elements of the characters/plot/direction. Walking in to see a hotly-anticipated Sci-Fi epic I wanted to be engrossed in the story and enthralled by the visual effects. Whilst the latter may be true all other elements of the film are so dull that it completely nullifies any positive review I could have given on Alita: Battle Angel.

I think what disappoints me most about this film is that is simply did not live up to the hype. Clearly the marketing and distribution teams worked hard to get their film out there and augment interest in Alita: Battle Angel. The trailer was the tool that completely hooked me to go and see it in the cinema. It was fantastic. So fantastic in fact that it completely overshadowed the movie. Watching both one after the other almost feels like seeing two different films. I’m not accusing this film of false advertising, I simply think that the trailer showed the promise of a great James Cameron film, Avatar always sticks in my mind, but in fact it was worse than any other Sci-Fi/ fantasy film I have seen in the last decade.

Alita: Battle Angel was berated for delaying its filming time. Cameron was so busy completing his Avatar trilogy that he simply didn’t have enough time to be able to work on the set of this film, which is why Robert Rodriguez ends up directing it. This explains why the film feels rushed and quite empty in places. The fact is the film was not ready for release: the script wasn’t finished and the plot was completely hollow. They clearly didn’t allocate enough time to perfect each section of the movie; it’s bitterly disappointing. For a film that held so much promise it really let the audience down. I left the cinema feeling like I had been played by the production team. All Alita: Battle Angel did was flex the use of CGI and set themselves up for another average money-spinning sequel. I understand why they would want to make another film- there are many loose ends to tie up and they obviously want to recoup the funds spent on the first film, but I think it is a total waste of time.

The fact is, the film doesn’t stand up on its own as an enjoyable cinematic experience without people clamouring to remind you of the CGI and the popular manga series. That for me, shows how awful Alita: Battle Angel really was. It did not convince of a story in which I could invest and I am not convinced by the ‘buzz’. I for one, will not be going to see the next instalment of this fragmented and deluded franchise.

Rating: 3/10

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