Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Alita: Battle Angel Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 24, 2019

To paraphrase (and slightly tweak) a famous quote by a certain Dorothy Gale, one way or the other, we’re not in Grindhouse territory any more. A lot of people have referred to Alita: Battle Angel as “a James Cameron film”, and while it’s true that Cameron was a guiding force and co-producer of the project, Robert Rodriguez received the directing credit, and so it’s probably at least as instructive to look over Rodriguez’s previous outings in a science fiction environment as it is to look at Cameron’s arguably better remembered achievements. Rodriguez has often offered something approaching futuristic high tech visions, albeit often laced with pretty substantial amounts of whimsy, in such films as Spy Kids, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, but Alita: Battle Angel is a significantly more ambitious enterprise, one that brings with it a whole field of hazards courtesy of the fact that it was adapted from a well beloved manga. In that adaptive regard, it's kind of interesting to compare Alita: Battle Angel with the largely disparaged live action film version of Ghost in the Shell, at least insofar as both properties offer a heroine who may be as much machine as she is human. Alita: Battle Angel seems to have escaped much of the controversy surrounding certain casting decisions made in the case of Ghost in the Shell, perhaps ironically at least in part because the lead actress in this instance is Rosa Salazar, who, despite some impressive credits (American Horror Story: The Complete First Season) probably doesn't have quite the name recognition that someone like Scarlett Johansson does. The fact that the character of Alita is a "composite" presentation utilizing aspects of motion capture and some obviously CGI elements may have also provided a subliminal discounting of any similar outrages. And thankfully perhaps, that's the only controversy Alita: Battle Angel managed to escape, for while the film has some occasional stumbles, it manages to capture at least some of the spirit of the original manga while also creating an immersive 26th century world that is impressively rendered in an often surprisingly beautiful way considering the post-Apocalyptic emphasis of the film.

Ghost in the Shell may not be the only other film some viewers may think of when watching Alita: Battle Angel, since at least some of its aspects are definitely “old hat”. Any number of films have posited a future where technology has arguably outrun Man’s moral compass, and other elements like a “city in the sky” may evoke memories of films like Elysium, and even the fedora and overcoat getup that Alita’s mentor Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) wears could have been ripped right out of Dark City. What’s kind of interesting about the post- Apocalyptic ambience of Alita: Battle Angel is that it is way post-Apocalyptic, in that The Fall, as the story refers to the calamity, happened centuries earlier, and Mankind is still attempting to pick up the figurative pieces.

That “Fall” has left the Earthbound citizens in a world of ruin and huge heaps of trash dumped from Zalem, the “sky city” in this tale. Ido, scavenging through the garbage, finds the “core” of a cyborg which has a human brain still showing activity. Ido is a cyborg repairer of some note, and he takes the head and torso home, where he attaches it to a robotic body he had fashioned for his paralyzed late daughter Alita. When the cyborg awakens with no intact memories, including her name, Ido dubs her “Alita”. Alita is a bit of a naif as the story gets underway, learning the ways of the teeming urban environment both from Ido and from a guy named Hugo (Keean Johnson), who sparks more than a casual interest in the girl.

A number of sidebars intrude into the main mystery of whom exactly Alita may be, with one of the arguably strangest being an epic “game” called Motorball that is more or less the gladiatorial combat of the 26th century, albeit in “another” ball, namely Rollerball, style. The carnage the game creates has resulted in a need for body parts, and Ido’s estranged wife Dr. Chiren (a rather severe looking Jennifer Connelly) is in cahoots with a Motorball impresario named Vector (Mahershala Ali) to “engineer” more dominant players. Hugo also is involved in scavenging activities, and there’s an underlying tension throughout the film as to which side of the hero-villain aisle he might come down on (and — minor spoiler alert — he does come down rather spectacularly, as those who have seen the film will know).

These brief plot points barely hint at other things the film addresses, including the long ago interplanetary war that led to The Fall, and Alita discovering a cybernetic body in a crashed spaceship that ultimately gives her even more power than she had already*, something that aids in her development as a so-called Hunter Warrior, a bounty hunter of sorts. And there's one which I personally feel could have used a bit better explication within the film itself — a kind of telepathic supervillain named Nova (Edward Norton) who lives in Zalem and is able to more or less “possess” people. It’s all unabashedly gonzo most of the time, but there’s perhaps unexpectedly at least a glimmer of honest human emotion suffusing the film, considering the robotic character at its “core”.

There is an unabashedly "cartoonish" ambience to Alita some of the time, something that may, as alluded to above, remove casting decisions from the realm of controversy. But despite the "computer aided" aspect of the character, Salazar's performance genuinely shines through. I also found it fun to see Christoph Waltz in a role that is perceived (correctly as it turns out) as a decent, even noble, sort, but who goes through moments of believable suspicious activity (from Alita's point of view), where Waltz gets to kind of toe a fine line between "mad" and "scientist". The film's production design won't really surprise anyone fond of the kind of "retro futurism" that has been seen going back to at least Brazil, but it's rendered (in both senses of that word) with real depth and interest, and even for those who may find elements of the story rote or even slightly ridiculous, the visuals are often very engaging.

*This is another moment where fans of anime, mecha outings in particular, may be thinking of any number of offerings where a young hero(ine) discovers a "magical" connection to some kind of battle technology, and in fact that same plot point has been used in a fair number of relatively recent science fiction films like Kin.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf was considerably less excited about Alita: Battle Angel when he reviewed the film during its theatrical exhibition. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Alita: Battle Angel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Alita: Battle Angel is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa Mini as having digitally captured the imagery, and while the IMDb is silent on a DI, some other online sources state that everything was finished at 2K (as always with my reviews, if anyone has verifiable authoritative data to the contrary, let me know, and I'll post an update). This is another pretty stunning looking Blu-ray from the folks at Fox, and in fact aside from a bit of blurriness in high action scenes and an overall softness in some aspects of the CGI, it's really often quite remarkable to watch. A lot of the film is graded either towards buttery yellows or cooler blues, but fine detail levels remain remarkably consistent throughout. Textures on practical props and costumes look precise and inviting, and even some of the computer rendering, like the soft down on Alita's face, is at least relatively "realistic" looking. That said, there is definitely a "cartoonish" aspect to some elements here, including Alita herself, as mentioned above in the main body of the review. The softness of the some of the CGI is probably exacerbated by some of the hyperbolic Motorball sequences where extremely fast action and whipsaw camera moves don't tend to support great levels of fine detail or clarity.

Alita: Battle Angel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While some audiophiles may carp about the absence of a Dolby Atmos track, especially since the closing credits feature a mention of that very technology, the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track on this disc is really quite excellent in and of itself. Yes, there are certainly moments here where it's obvious engagement of Atmos channels may have given a greater vertical presence, but the surround activity in the sound design is near constant, and often incredibly visceral and immersive. The bustling environment of the crowded cityscape where Alita finds herself provides bounteous opportunities for what is almost a cacophonous array of ambient environmental sound effects, and as might be imagined, the Motorball sequences are similarly complex and well rendered. The battle scenes (aside and apart from Motorball, that is) also provide great engagement of the side and rear channels. LFE is often extremely forceful and even floorboard shaking. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout, and the entire track offers excellent fidelity and extremely wide dynamic range.

Alita: Battle Angel Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Alita's World aggregates some brief animated features that give background information on various aspects of the story and characters.

  The Fall (1080p; 5:05)

  
  

  Iron City (1080p; 3:19)

  
  

  What It Means to be a Cyborg (1080p; 2:28)

  
  

  Rules of the Game (1080p; 2:52)

• From Manga to Screen (1080p; 20:47) is an interesting piece documenting the adaptive process.


• Evolution of Alita (1080p; 19:43) is an overview of the character.


• Motorball (1080p; 6:02) is a brief piece examining the violent game in the story.


• London Screening Q & A (1080p; 26:38) features James Cameron, Robert Rodriguez, Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz and Jennifer Connelly.


• 10 Minute Cooking School: Chocolate (1080p; 5:28) is only five and a half minutes, but who's counting?


• 2005 Art Compilation (2019) (1080p; 14:20) is a kind of confusingly named piece that features paintings that tell a story of sorts courtesy of some narration.


• Scene Deconstruction (1080p; 10:47) is an interesting piece that allows you to use the color buttons on your remote to toggle through various levels of rendering.

  I Don't Even Know My Name

  
  

  Just an Insignificant Girl

  
  

  I'm a Warrior, Aren't I?

  
  

  Kansas Bar

Alita: Battle Angel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There is kind of the unavoidable feeling as Alita: Battle Angel comes to a putative close that the bottom line may well be "OK, now that we have that out of the way, let's move on to the real story, OK?" Assuming this is just the opening gambit in a longer strategy, Alita: Battle Angel manages to trot out an almost insane number of plot points with little to no expositional trouble, with well defined characters and a believable creation of a pretty dystopian future society. There's nothing too groundbreaking here in terms of actual content, especially for any devoted anime fan, but Alita: Battle Angel is often energetic, if just as often kind of silly. Technical merits are solid, and the supplemental package enjoyable. Recommended.