Alita: Battle Angel & Screen X
Ten Second Review: A fun film that sadly rushes through so much content that you never feel fully satisfied with the results. Between the awful dialogue and amazing fight scenes, you’ll be left wondering if you actually enjoyed it or whether you were just briefly taken in by its charm.
This is an odd dual review. I saw Alita: Battle Angel in this new Screen X format and thought I’d quickly express a few opinions about what I thought of it. Screen X is a bit of a bizarre idea but in this ongoing tradition of diversifying the cinema going experience to add little chargers here and there it makes sense. It’s got a catchy name (although the Screen X near me happens to be screen ten so I suppose it has always sort of been screen X) and a cool idea: 270 degree viewing. That description conjures up an idea of an immersive viewing experience that surrounds you in film but the reality is a slightly squat main screen and walls that occasionally have distracting panning landscapes on them. Maybe if you sit in the perfect seat, wherever that is, and saw the perfect film for it, whatever that would be, you’d love it. As it stands, this trend of retroactively fitting films into novelty screens continues to be a laugh but generally at the expense of the film you are seeing. When 3D was becoming popular you’d see really egregious moments in 2D films that you understood were just meant to make someone in a different screen go “ooooh”. Instead, these re-fits just distract you from a film that, at least in this case, didn’t benefit at all. Also, it’s not constant (!) and instead of some clean wipe transition that reveals the screens they just smash cut on! I think that this new screen format needs a little time to mature and develop.
Turning toward the film itself, Alita: Battle Angel is an adaptation of japanese manga series of the same name. I grew up reading manga and, while I never read Alita, I really enjoy a lot of the style of storytelling that manga implements. In part, this film delivers on that but both for the better and the worse.
Set five centuries in to the future, Alita: Battle Angel sees Dr Ido (Christopher Waltz) find the head and torso of a cyborg who he fixes and names Alita (Rosa Salazar). Alita then begins to explore Iron City and makes friends but soon learns of the dark side of the city. As she learns about her own abilities, and the needs of the city, Alita will do her best to help rid the city of its criminals while making the best life she can for the people she has met.
This film really is a case of “for every good thing there’s a bad thing”. The design of the characters and the environments is amazing but the story is far too busy and rushed. There are endearing characters present but there are also lots of bland ones too. The CGI is incredible and results in amazing action scenes but the dialogue is almost painful and results in some awful expositional scenes.
Where the film thrives is in these beautifully constructed action scenes. Once it had gotten you away form the cluster bomb of plot lines and and onslaught of different characters, you are entranced by these great set pieces that are nothing less than thoroughly enjoyable. I also think that there is a solid character in Alita herself and if the film was a lot slower and more focused I truly believe it would be a very good film.
I think this rush throughout probably comes from a western production team not giving the story the time that type of narrative style needs to breathe and develop. Manga are often set over many books and therefore each plot line can grow over time and each character is given the space to develop an emotional resonance with the reader (regardless over whether that feeling is positive or negative). You can tell that the relationships and plot lines in Alita are clearly more developed in the source material and it feels bland when done in this manner. Having never read it, I don’t know for sure if they complied lots of volumes into one single film but that is the impression that the film gives of.
I would be interested in seeing a sequel but I would hope that the pace is drastically reduced. I think I would be much more interested in just reading the manga. Judging form the tone and themes of the film it seems like the original manga would probably be really interesting and I’d be able to enjoy each character and plot line more. It is worth seeing for the set pieces and the design of the settings and characters but there is little else ere that could recommend.
