Director: Robert Rodriguez
Screenplay: James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis, based on the manga series Gunnm (aka Battle Angel Alita) by Yukito Kishiro
Starring: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keean Johnson
Running Time: 122 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, action, cyberpunk
The year is 2563, three hundred years after a catastrophic war known as "The Fall" decimated Earth. The vast majority of the inhabitants of Earth live in huge decaying metropolises, such as Iron City, while the chosen few ascend to the wealthy floating city of Zalem. While scouting an Iron City junkyard, cyborg scientist Dr. Dyson Ido (Waltz) discovers a dismembered humanoid cyborg (Salazar). Ido is able to rebuild and reactivate the cyborg who he dubs "Alita", and who has advanced combat skills but no memory of her true identity or previous life. As she tries to recover her memories and identity, Alita has to survive in the deadly Iron City, particularly when she discovers that powerful people will stop at nothing to see her dead.
The Japanese manga series Gunnm (known in the West as Battle Angel Alita) was first published in 1990, and had already produced several spin-offs and animated adaptations. Writer, director and producer James Cameron had been a long time fan of the manga series, and after a long period in development, handed the reins to director Robert Rodriguez.
I have never read the manga or seen any of the previous adaptations, so I cannot speak to how faithful or not the film is. It is visually stunning, creating a grimly beautiful new world in Iron City, and incredible, cyborg creatures. The action is frenetic, spectacular, genuinely exciting, and surprisingly violent. Despite sometimes cliched dialogue, and a lack of a conclusive ending (it's almost bound to lead to sequels), this is a beguiling and fascinating new world, and Rosa Salazar is brilliant in the title role, being both heartrendingly vulnerable and a ruthlessly efficient warrior.
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