I was in for a treat when I was invited to preview the upcoming film, ‘Alita Battle Angel’. The movie is slated to show on February 6, but a few of us were treated to an IMAX showing at the SM Mall of Asia of thirty minutes worth of screen time. In this time, the movie showed us stunning visuals and state of the art CGI accompanied by a very intriguing mystery that accompanies the story. The main character, Alita, is thrust into a situation she knows little of, and, as the story progresses, she puts pieces of the mystery together to lead to an unknown conclusion. The preview does little to provide answers to the overall enigma of the film, and it does more to entice you to watch on to story’s end. Unfortunately for those present that was not the case, and the preview provided more questions than answers to the overall arching endgame of the film. It just gave us a taste of what to expect, but not too much to dissuade a future viewing. And boy does it salivate you for more footage.
Set in a fictional futuristic cyberpunk version of Earth, the film is based on the manga and later anime Battle Angel Alita created by Yukito Kishiro in 1990. It has elements of Philip K. Dick, Pygmalion and Galatea, and Pinocchio all rolled into one. It’s not your typical ‘robots vs. robots’ or ‘robots vs. humans’ type of story. One of the core elements of the Japanese versions was the humanity found in the cyborgs of the story, particularly Alita. How she relates to humans, and almost embarrasses many of the human characters and other cyborgs in the film with her degree of humanity is a central theme to the development of the story. From what I’ve seen, this movie version by James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez captures that feel. It’s a mix of action, science fiction and humanism at its finest, albeit, from the perspective of Alita who isn’t even human. Kudos to James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez for capturing that feel. I was geeking out from scene to scene. Does this mean that if you’ve seen the anime or read the manga that you would probably get less excited or entertained? No. I’ve experienced both, and let me tell you that for the entire preview I just sat back and watched this interpretation of the story. It is a beautiful piece of art.
So why did it take so long to make this beautiful piece of art? I mean, 20th Century Fox has been sitting on the rights to this property for some time now. Well, as someone once told me, ‘you can’t rush art.’ It took some time for the technology to get to a level where we could properly produce a Japanese icon this accurately. A lot of this fell on the shoulders of WETA Workshop for the CGI of the film. The CGI was seamless and flawless. The studio has evolved from its early days of Gollum to Smaug and now Alita. The motion capture technology used for the film is cutting edge, and I even begin to wonder if the ‘real’ actors there are just CGI as well. Hell, the CGI characters don’t even look CGI anymore (or do the human actors look more CGI now?). In any case, a huge part of the beauty of the film is the integration of CGI technology to the story. I think it’s also the reason why this film is best viewed in IMAX 3D. Don’t get me wrong, you can view it without the benefit of 3D, but the best viewing would be watching it in 3D. However, whichever way you experience ‘Alita Battle Angel’, you’ll surely enjoy this cyberpunk story.
I can’t wait for it to come out in its complete form, fully armed, on February 6. Till then, I’ll review my anime and enjoy predicting what might or might not happen in the film. Set your date with an angel for she’s ready for battle and coming soon.
Obskura And Then Some 