This film is a Hollywood adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s manga released in the 90s. For almost two decades, James Cameron tried to develop it, but unfortunately stopped when he chose to focus on Avatar which later became the best-selling film of all time. Now he only only acts as (one of) script writers and producers, with Robert Rodriguez as the director. You might be surprised to see how Rodriguez, the director who gave us Desperado, Spy Kids, and Machete, could easily enter the realm of a massive scale blockbuster.
It should be a city called Iron City in 2563. Iron City is a slum city that survived after a major disaster called the Fall. The population is crowded and it is said that all people from all corners of the earth gather here to find work. His job is anything, whether it is supplying energy, gardening or becoming a mercenary, the main thing that contributes to supporting Zalem’s operations, the mysterious city that hovers over Iron City. In other words; Iron City is a slave to Zalem.
At the Zalem dump in Iron City, our main character is found by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz), a mechanic who specializes in making and repairing robotic organs or cyborgs. Iddo put his body to the head of our main character who turned out to be active, then gave him the name Alita. Alita doesn’t remember anything, but somehow her muscle memory holds tremendous fighting ability.
Alita is not a cyborg with the appearance of Ghost in the Shell, say, Scarlett Johansson. Thanks to the sophistication of cinema technology today, Alita is presented as a photorealistic CGI creation, perhaps coupled with motion-capture assistance, which has a thick body and superbelo eyes. Maybe all of you want to pay homage to the manga. It looks strange, but a few minutes later I got used to it. The expressive delivery of dialogue from the cast, Rosa Salazar, enlivens Alita to be more than just a flat character.
