#Alita: BattleAngel
Can a heart beat in the cold body of a cyborg? Can love and human compassion exist in a world of deadly carnage?
The recent sci-fi film Alita: Battle Angel poses these questions in a futuristic cyberpunk world based on Yukito Kishiro's popular manga series Gunnm, which came to be known as Battle Angel Alita in its English adaptations. The film follows an engineer and a cyborg he discovers in a scrapheap that he rebuilds, only to find out that she's more than what she initially appears to be. However, despite the beautiful animation and dynamic action sequences, the film failed to offer coherent answers to the questions the narrative is built upon.
From an aesthetical point of view, the film was great. The worldbuilding was incredibly fleshed-out, and the consistency of the post-war cyberpunk aesthetic provides a vivid backdrop for the progression of the narrative. The action sequences - especially the fight ones - were engrossing to watch and well-animated.
With that being said, the lack of a strong narrative and a moving character arc made the film itself somewhat of a hollow spectacle. Alita, the main character, undergoes a transformation from a naive young girl to a hardened and determined fighter. Although this transformation was semi-evident, it was personally difficult to root for her character because it felt like her struggles were too unrelatable. Through the lenses of a more political type of criticism, Alita was meant to be an empowering character who breaks free of the influences of the people in her life who wanted to shape it in a way that suits theirs. However, this struggle felt almost shallow.
Doctor Ido establishes himself as a parental figure that becomes increasingly controlling. However, his actions did not make him sinister enough to alienate the audience's sympathy for him. Alita's struggle to break free of his restraints would have been more moving if Ido's hand on her life was more oppressive.
The same goes for her boyfriend, whose name I've already forgotten. His role in the film - opening Alita's eyes, allowing her to grow as a person, and giving her someone to love - increases his importance in the narrative. However, his character flatlined: it was difficult to root for someone whose struggles weren't emphasized and whose motives weren't justified until towards the end of the film. By then, it was too late to establish a connection to him, and this contributed to making his death feel almost anti-climatic.
All of this contributed to the lack of raised stakes. In fact, what were the stakes? Did Alita want to get to Zalem? No, her new life was here. Aside from her boy-toy, who we didn't even like that much anyways, what did she have to lose? The stakes weren't high enough to be suffocating, and this made the climax of the film less cathartic than it meant to be.
Despite the months of hype, Alita: Battle Angel feels like a hollow spectacle and a disappointment that failed to live up to what it promised to deliver. Would I recommend it? No, unless you're only going for the animation/aesthetics.