ALITA Battle Angel Review (Sci-Fi)

REACTION

We thought we had it all with Titanic and Avatar but Alita is just another epic wonder which shows what super computers in the movie industry can make happen. Watching the unification of animation with real human actors is just another breakthrough in Hollywood movie industry. Alita is a Science fiction movie which tries to explore the undying possibility of aliens and robotic humans living amongst men.  We love good movies especially the once with good story line and animation wizardry. James Cameron is a Gandalf of Sci-fi movies looking at what he did with Avatar and Titanic. He is totally awesome especially when he is working with his movie wizardry team of Jon Landau, Nick Peterson, Eric Saindon and Mike Cozens. ALITA Battle Angel Review is rated 7/10 because of the good story line, directing and almost flawless animation and sound synchronization.

 

STORY LINE

It’s a story about an old but rare Cyborg abandoned in the scrap yard of iron city, but found by a kindhearted cyber-doctor (Robot Designer and Builder) named Dr Dyson Ido. Ido brings Alita back to life in his clinic with a new body meant for his late daughter. Alita could not remember anything about herself when she woke up due to memory lost and went about living her life as a normal human being till she started hearing voices in her head and having flashbacks. She later finds out who she was after her little amnesia was cured. She realizes that she is a Cyborg but with a functional human brain. Things however gets complicated because just like a human, she falls in love with a real guy and just as things are settling down her enemies from the past come hunting her with her biggest enemy “Zapan”

We will like to inform you too that the story has a concluding part.

 

PRODUCTION

According to Jon, working on Alita was kind of different from other productions that James Cameron has done. In Titanic they tried unifying real humans with faked ship wreckage.  In Avatar, they had to create a whole new life and city which made it look more like the production of a cartoon movie. But with Alita they had to bring real life and synthetic characters in one frame. This made the visual effects (vfx) of the movie a little trickier and harder however the Directing, cinematography and Animation was on point. Robert Rodriguez did a good job in helping Roza Salazar feel comfortable with the Animation suit she was wearing. Shooting a movie with a green or blue screen behind could be hard let alone when you are shooting wearing a suit fitted with gadgets like five 4D cameras, boom mic with motion and movement censors on it. Although we have little issues with the audio due to clarity and instrumentals, we could conclude that Alita really defines what a sci-fi movie should be. Because it has a good story line with mind blowing science magic.

 

THE CAST, SET DESIGN AND COSTUME

The choice of Rosa Salazar as the lead actor of this movie was okay especially when you marry her face to the face of the Alita character design. She kind of did well with her stunts but the beauty of her acting goes away in more emotional scenes like when she is talking to her adopted father Dyson Ido which is played by Christoph Waltz. There is this displacement which makes their scene a little bit unrealistic. Looking at the scenes it seems like Waltz not blending to the role of acting with an animated figure. His direction of gaze was not really planted on Alita when they were discussing. This removes the emotion and from the scene because Waltz seems to be talking to the air.

The Villains of the movie from Zapan to Vector which was played by Ed Skrein and Mahershala Ali respectively is really on point. Ed kind of wears the role and makes the most of it. His Zapan character allow the scene designers to play with a lot of modeling and innovation. He brings in some of the best facial movements to the movie.  As for Vector character, his wardrobe was good especially with his Indian jackets.

The set of the movie was good but not as elegant or mind blowing like that of Avatar. It was good for a movie like this. But the machinery designs used in shooting the fight scene are worthy efforts to mention. The modeling and creation of these pieces of equipment were really superb.

 

Credits: Gbenga Adene