Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Writers: James Cameron, Laeta Kalogridis
Actors: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali
The only way I could describe Alita: Battle Angel is with this analogy. You are at a modern art museum. There is a new grand installation and everyone is gathered around the piece. It is a well crafted piece of art. It is visually appealing, it looks new, and it has everything you want from a modern work of art aesthetically. A couple of minutes in as you are trying to focus on the piece itself, a tour guide walks in and starts giving you the backstory. He stumbles his words, gets on a podium and blocks your view of the pretty piece. You try to move around to take a look at the aesthetics but he prompts your attention. “The story is what you need to know, you don’t need to see it just yet, we have 5 minute viewing intermissions in between chapters of this epic backstory”. The viewers sigh and continue to listen to the mumbling tour guide, as his incoherent story sounds like every other backstory. People slowly start to take out their phones, they are waiting for the intermissions. The story goes on and on. But finally it is time to look at the piece again, the tour guide moves aside and everyone gets what they wanted, to see it. But something is not the same. It did not look as it did when everyone first came in. Nothing about the piece changed. The lighting is the same and the colors haven’t faded away. What happened? Suddenly the tour guide pops back up, blocking everyone’s view. Everyone lets out a grunt, and this goes on for the rest of the tour. As you go home, you get asked about your experience. You remember the first moment you saw the piece. It looked flashy, colorful, and clean. As you are reminiscing, the tour guide pops in again and a frown forms on your face. Suddenly the colors fade, and the piece is never as it was before. You shrug and say “it was fine I guess”, and you move on with your life.
