My plane headset had a bad case of feedback, so I missed at least a third of the dialog herein. I almost opted on that basis not to review the movie. But I had chosen it partly because I suspected that it was the kind of spectacle that didn't count on viewers paying close attention to dialog. Besides, for anything important I missed, I could (and did) check a synopsis later. Which confirmed my suspicions.
By the mid-26th century, technology has greatly advanced, not least for cyborgs, but if you're living in Iron City rather than the floating metropolis of Zalem, things look rather gritty. It is in the former location that a nearly dead cyborg who doesn't remember her name (Rosa Salazar) finds her human brain in a mostly new body thanks to scrap-hunting engineer Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz), who calls her Alita in honor of his departed daughter. As Alita seeks an identity—not necessarily her old one—she discovers her knack for fighting as well as a few good contexts for her to do so, from joining the aggressive motorball races to hunting criminal cyborgs. But she still has some key things to learn, including what her incipient boyfriend, Hugo (Keean Johnson), has gotten himself mixed up in....
I'm being a little cagey here, partly to avoid spoilers and partly to convey that there isn't a whole lot of plot worth knowing. The villains don't seem to have compelling reasons for villainy. Of course, cyberpunk does tend to be full of jerks, the only justification being that the world's gone sour. Even Alita, whom I usually found somewhat charming, can come across as a bit bloodthirsty. Or...thirsty for whatever fluid runs through mechanical bodies, which, being easier to repair, are not afforded the same respect as organic bodies.
I might like Ido best. He tries to be to Alita what the Minister of Science is to Astro Boy, tho his fatherly obsession has him veering toward Dr. Tenma. Alita has mixed feelings about this pseudo-dad, who is a good provider but can be protective to a killjoy extent. We don't even know how old she is on the inside.
In case you haven't figured it out, this flick has adolescence written all over it. I'm not used to seeing that from director Robert Rodriguez, whose works I usually sort between the R-rated, Quentin Tarantino-type fare and the prepubescent kid stuff. Well, his own kids have grown, so why not something halfway? Anyway, I understand that this was going to be James Cameron's project before he devoted himself to an Avatar series. I have to wonder what would have differed under him.
When A:BA came out, I think the main factor that turned me away was Alita's freakishly large pair of eyes. Once I understood that her face wasn't supposed to be natural, my position softened. Before long, I got used to her appearance and found her moderately cute. To the filmmakers' credit, they didn't try to make her hot, at least not with evident fan service. She looks decent with no clothes on.
More engaging to me than the character design or even the action sequences were the sets. I had trouble deciding which part of the modern world Iron City most resembled, but it's not the U.S. Lower the crime rate and I might want to visit less virtually. Zalem remains largely mysterious, aside from housing a nasty leader with a worse border control scheme than any president has had.
The ending is designed to make us crave a sequel, if only for more resolution. I'll pass on both that and the manga issues that started the franchise. Still, it wasn't a bad way to occupy myself on a sleepless flight.
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