Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

Rating: 9/10

Genre: Sci-fi

Related Titles: Ready Player One, RoboCop, Ghost in the Shell, 

By Leanne Harragan

When Alita is found in the scrapyard of Iron City she is fixed up by kind doctor Ido. Once awoken she has no memories, she has to weave her way through her new life.

The story follows Alita who awakes in the care of Doctor Ido. She has no memories and no idea who she is, watching her find her feet is pretty entertaining. She trusts everyone she meets and learns lessons the hard way. Alita learning the ways of the world was pretty entertaining, like eating an orange with the skin on! From the get-go, Ido is set up at the good guy being paid for treatments in fruit. Along the way his allegiances are questioned but he stands as a solid guy no matter what. I loved how he cared for Alita being the tough guy when necessary and calling her out on her stupidity

One of the plots involves a sport called Motorball, it's kind of a mash-up between roller derby and basketball - it's very cool! While it's not especially necessary for the plot, it's a nice addition and ties things together neatly. It's also provides for plenty of great opportunities for this film to look slick and show off some of the special effects. 

There are of course plenty of totally cliche and cheesy moments accompanied by an uplifting score, including the cheesy love story line where Alita says 'we don't belong anywhere except together.' While this is completely lame and a little embarrassing, it's hard not to take these lines in their stride because Alita is an incredibly polite and cute character. One of the highlights of her cheesy lines is when she calls out the towns 'heroes' despite being considerably smaller than the majority of them and then proceeds to absolutely beat down Ed Skrein's character of Zapan (Skrein proves yet again he's a good choice for a villain!)

I loved the attention to detail and the little bits added in, these are things that make these films stand out. A good example is the 20th Century Fox logo at the beginning being changed to a destroyed 26th Century logo setting the scene for when the film is set. It's such a little addition but personally I think it makes all the difference! The attention to detail is what make this film stand out for me, the intricate designs of costumes and the city itself are very well done.

While it's not especially original and the ending isn't particularly shocking it's a classic motivator and a perfect segue into the sequel. I think it'd be hard for any audience not to love the character of Alita or love the attention to detail and the impressive accompanying score! 

Rating: 7.5/10

By Rebecca Mannick

Not going to lie I expected a tiny bit more from this picture - only because there was a pretty big promotional campaign highlighting that James Cameron was directing it. To be fair he does an incredible job however I just left wanting a tiny bit more. Saying that though I did thoroughly enjoy Alita Battle Angel. The futuristic aspect of it is super interesting to me, just the way that movie makers and writers not necessarily predict the future but they just create their own version of a possible world in time. 

Christoph Waltz plays Dr Dyson Ido who brings Alita to life. He finds her in the junkyard and creates her to be a cyborg with a human brain. Alita discovers life in her new body and surroundings where she befriends a guy named Hugo who dreams of moving to the city in the sky Zalem. Their friendship progresses however Hugo secretly robs cyborgs like Alita for their parts to give to Vector. Vector is the owner of the Motorball tournament and creates super machines to build an unbeatable champion. It becomes Alita's mission to win the tournament. Meanwhile Dr Ido is a Hunter-Killer to get money to keep open his repair shop open. Alita keeps getting flashbacks of her past and she soon realises that she lived in Zalem. 

The visuals and effects were honestly amazing. Even the way that Alita looked like she was half human and half cyborg was super trippy - the detail was so precise. The only real issue I have is that it was dragged out quite a bit especially in the middle hour. It felt like all the excitement from the beginning had worn off and it was just a stepping stone to get to the ending which was a big fight scene and then the Motorball match. Also the love story between Alita and Hugo was way too predictable! It has been set up very nicely got a sequel as there is quite the cliffhanger to end it.