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Alita: Battle Angel Review – Spoiler Free

By Bryan Weatherall | February 16, 2019

Alita: Battle Angel is a film which comes directed by Robert Rodriguez who some may know as the director of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For or Spy Kids.The film stars Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Conelly, Mahershala Ali and Ed Skrein. Alita: Battle Angel’s screenplay comes written by James Cameron, Laeta Kalogridis and Robert Rodriguez.

Alita: Battle Angel was teased with many trailers throughout much of 2018 and each time I would see one of them, I thought wow that movie looks great! But the release date was always so far away that I was left waiting for such a long time to see it. Going into the cinema last week to see Alita: Battle Angel, I was quite excited to finally get a chance to see this film.

There are very few films out there that I can say have truly good cgi and while I could tell this one was looking good from the trailers that I had seen, I really had no idea what I was in for once I saw the whole thing on the big screen. After coming out of the film this week, I have to say, that Alita: Battle Angel has probably the best CGI and special effects I’ve seen in any film in recent years and I doubt anything released from any of the major blockbusters this year will look better than Alita: Battle Angel, in fact I doubt anything will even come near. Watching the film and seeing Alita alongside some of the real life actors, you really can believe she is standing right there with them. It’s amazing how far this technology has come in recent years.

The film takes place in a futuristic cyberpunk dytopian world in which humans and technology have become essentially one and the same thing. There are people walking around with body augmentations and special abilities. There are also cyborgs, which is what Alita (Rosa Salazar) is. The story of the film is that Alita is a cyborg who was found in a dump essentially destroyed, but is revived by Dr. Dyson (Christoph Waltz). Alita doesn’t really remember who she is and the film is basically a story where Alita needs to go on a quest to discover who she is and what her past was.

Christoph Waltz and Rosa Salazar in Alita: Battle Angel

I thought that the story of Alita was a very interesting one. In these big blockbuster films, it’s rare actually that I come to actually care about the the character that is in one. There’s usually not much effort put into a characters backstory or development as the film progresses as this is often let go in favour of action set pieces of long special effects sequences. Alita: Battle Angel has every opportunity to ditch its character building in favour of special effects sequences and it can easily do that because it has the best effects I’ve seen, but it doesn’t do that. The writers and the director of the film have ensured that there is a solid blend between the two. This makes Alita: Battle Angel quite a good film experience. I loved the character of Alita and I loved seeing her discover who she was and watching her fight as she went on her journey in the many action scenes she participated in. It was awesome!

Rosa Salazar is Alita in Alita: Battle Angel

The acting in the film is quite good. There are some great actors in Alita: Battle Angel including both Christoph Waltz and Mahershala Ali who both do very well in the film. The two were amongst the few non cgi actors in the film. But it was Rosa Salazar who I thought did exceptionally well as Alita. The actress is basically all cgi because that’s what Alita is, but her voice acting and movements were all recorded to make the character move and talk. Rosa did bring Alita to life and as character on the big screen, she really stood out and made Alita one of my favourite characters in recent years. This film probably cost a fortune to make, but if they can make another one, I’d be very happy to see a sequel and Alita on the big screen again.

Overall I really enjoyed seeing Alita: Battle Angel at the cinema this week and I highly recommend for you to go and see it as well. It’s got a great cast of actors including Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz and Mahershala Ali, all of which were very impressive. The story is well told and the character of Alita is very likeable and well developed. Where the film really does stand out though is with its special effects, which I doubt will be topped by anything else in 2019 and probably well past 2020. It’s rare that you get to see truly good cgi in a film which is also very well made. A lot of care went into making this by its filmmakers and it shows. Alita: Battle Angel is definitely a film worth seeing at the cinema this weekend.