j* Movie Reviews 2019

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

The big eyes were surprisingly lovely and Alita is pretty kick-arse and engaging.

I went in expecting to hate this because I generally don't like manga/anime and those BIG EYES looked ridiculous. But I was drawn in by Alita's excellent cutesey-pie killer vibes... super emotional and yet deliciously violent. I was surprised I wasn't hating it, and when we hit the big and excellent bar-fight I knew I liked it a lot. Bar room brawls aren't done enough, and when they are they're rarely done this well.

Where this differs to something like Ghost in the Shell, my previous anime experience that I hated, is that this is a solid action movie. Characters don't just have existential angst whilst walking and talking, they express it by acting it out through physical actions.

I really loved watching teen-Alita being drawn in to the exciting and violent world of Motorball... this is basically Rollerball crossed with Robot Wars. The way she physically responds to things she sees is pretty cool - she's such an engaged observer.

I also really loved the action sequences and fight scenes in this - it's the kind of action I imagine superhero movies should deliver but rarely do. It's super clear, has liberal use of slow-mo so you can really see the redunkulous closeness of the calls, and really shows you that you're not watching a normal human being at work.

The droid-ish baddies were glorious, both cartoony and excellently human. Just like John Wick, a dog gets killed. The world wasn't drawn too deep... that is while it looked amazing and post-apocalyptic, the CGI reality didn't go too far back in terms of depth of view.

There's a love story, but heaps of great action relies on love story. It's a story of a girl becoming a woman... it just so happens this woman is a particularly violent droid-esque warrior probably from another planet. She's also funny. I laughed at a lot of her more flippant lines... that bit where she gives her love her heart... OMG. Hilarious.

Action based live-action anime and it rocked pretty hard.

J* gives it 4 stars.

PS. I really wanted to give this a half-star... but having sworn off halfies I've committed to the 4.