Going into Alita: Battle Angel I knew quite a bit about it. First announced in 2003 this movie has been 16 years in the making and is yet another CGI-dependant, sci-fi motion picture co-written and co-produced by James Cameron. This film was set aside so long due to Avatar and now the long-awaited Avatar sequel slated to come out sometime in 2020, 10 years after the first instalment. Alita: Battle Angel started off as a 3 hour screenplay adapted from the manga series of the same name by Yokito Kishiro. With the help of director Robert Rodriguez, the film was packed into a 2 hour and 22 minute epic that, although entertaining at times, does feel overwhelming with too many plot lines, sub plots, and plot holes that leave the viewer with a lot of questions. The movie is packed full of story, adventure and action and this is my take of as much of it that I can touch on.
The film begins by briefly giving us the history of Iron City, a post apocalyptic civilization set in 2563, three centuries after “The Fall”, a war that wiped out half the population. This new dystopian world is separated in two. The Iron City metropolis where the poor survive amongst cyborgs and bounty hunters and Zalem, a city in the sky where the wealthy elite reside that we never get to see. The two cities are run by Nova. The big bad guy in all this, clouded in mystery until the very end when he is revealed. I’ll admit now that I had to stifle a laugh at the casting choice. He’s not a bad actor or anything, just not what I expected considering how evil he is suppose to be.
Considering how poor and horrible Iron City is described by the characters they really do a terrible job selling the danger and poverty of this place to us. I mean the building themselves look like a bunch of old air conditioners piled on top of each other with terrible wiring amongst old 20th century buildings made of stone but the climate looks great and the air looks clean and sustainable. From the film, cyborgs and humans live in unity, many languages are spoken and people seem happy. Other than Zalem using the Iron City to dispose of their waste the city doesn’t seem all the bad. The landscape reminded me of the favelas found in Brazil which I felt was one of the many Latinidad nods given by Rodriguez throughout the film. He has a reputation of adding his culture into his movies and as a fellow Latina I’m here for it.
When Alita is finally introduced she is found in a scrapheap by cybernetic doctor Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz). She is just a humanoid head with an intact, living organic brain. He takes her back with him and rebuilds her with the help of his assistant played by Idara Victor who had so few lines in the film – she has little need to be part of the film at all. Not her fault of course! I blame the writers and maybe editors.
When Alita wakes up she’s not scared or confused but a happy-go-lucky, typical teenager that even eats an orange – which I have so many questions about. Why become a humanoid if you still need to eat food to gain strength? Why become a teenaged humanoid at all?! Even though she doesn’t have a memory of who she once was she doesn’t seem to care to know, which really off sells why we as the viewers should care. As soon as she steps out of Ido’s lab she is not well liked by others for reasons that aren’t entirely hashed out. She also soon meets human Hugo (Keean Johnson) who becomes her love interest in all this but not until her young teenage, robot body given to her by Ido, based on his late daughter, is upgraded to a high-tech body that reshapes itself to the subconscious image of herself that includes a sweet rack that catches Hugo’s eye. Even as a cyborg, the male gaze is alive and well.
The films incorporates so much more that I am hesitant to touch on, like bounty hunters who kill people who are wanted for whatever reason. Alita eventually becomes a bounty hunter herself but becomes a target because of her skills as a trained fighter and good nature. Or the people who rob cyborgs of their parts to sell in the black market for money. I also can’t forget to mention this world’s sport of choice: Motorball. It’s like a cool mix of roller derby and rugby. It’s a lot, which might as well be the theme of this movie: A LOT! We soon learn Alita is awesome at it. But how? But why? Does it matter? It does. See, the winning player of the Motorball Championships gets to ascend to Zalem. I smell foreshadowing! Of course this sport is run by super villain Vector played by Mahershala Ali and Ido’s ex-wife and also amazing cybernetic doctor Chiren played by Jennifer Connelly. These two are out for Alita as well. The Motorball scenes are fantastic and a lot of fun. This sport could have been its own film frankly. I found it one of the most entertaining and stronger parts of the story.
I do want to point out that Alita as a character is really likeable. She’s sweet, adorable and bad ass AF. She a dog lover, fights for what is right, pure, generous and good beyond belief. She’s a character that overall heightens this film and keeps it afloat throughout even if she’s practically perfect with no flaws what-so-ever. I guess it comes with being a humanoid? Played by Rosa Salazar we learn Alita is a 300 year old, skilled warrior from another planet trained in a special martial arts that has long since extinct. Her model is also extinct with a heart that could power Iron City for a year alone. The job of “battle angel” doesn’t even exist anymore since the War on the Moon—another long story I’m not going to delve into.
The fight scenes were so well choreographed and beautifully done it really took away from all the plot holes found throughout. One scene that really stood out for me was a fight where she’s left severely damaged by her opponent. With just one arm left and a bit of her torso she springs into rage to finally defeat her cyborg enemy and I couldn’t help but cheer along with the crowd. I felt so immersed and invested during the action scenes. The film is also viewed in 3D which is not really a selling point for me. Call me a purist but I’ve never felt the need for it to enjoy my film watching experience and I don’t think it adds much more to the film.
Alita: Battle Angel ends on a cliffhanger. I guess Cameron and Rodriguez are really hoping for a sequel from this one. It was something I felt was a bit overzealous and arrogant of them. The film has very little working for it. It comes off as an ambitious project that didn’t quite pan out.
Not even the incredible cast full of a diverse, star studded actors could attract enough momentum to pursue that sequel they are promising us at the end. Alita herself is a strong, wonderful character that I really enjoyed and fell in love with, but sadly her world and life is too overpacked and complicated to follow along in a 2 hour feature film adaption.
There were a lot of impressive documentaries this year but nothing beats Won’t You be My Nieghbour which is about the beginnings of Mr. Rogers and how he came to be a staple in children’s television for 33 years. I grew up with Mr. Rogers myself as he was one of the few television programs my grandmother approved. I feel like I’m a kinder person because of the simple, moral based lessons he taught and stories he told. I learned some interesting facts about him like how he was an ordained minister and came from a wealthy family and was a lonely child himself growing up. It was a beautiful documentary I ended up seeing twice because I enjoyed it so much. If like me you were lucky enough to catch some Mr. Rogers Neighbourhood programming growing up you’ll enjoy the nostalgia of learning what it was like to work for Fred Rogers, be on set and the origins of Daniel Striped Tiger. You will need some tissues handy though.
This character-rich and striking cinematography film that is compiled of six short films told in story book manner by the genius Coen Brothers is worth a view. All the stories are quite tragic with a sprinkle of dark humour and a life lesson that may be hard to watch at times. I love my dark humour clearly! All of them are based in the Old Wild West in 19 century post-Civil war era. The anthology also speaks to modern day even though it’s set in the past and the cast is incredible. Some stories resonate and are more engaging than others but overall it’s a beautifully done anthology. Look out for performances by Zoe Kazan, James Franco, Tom Waits and Liam Neeson. You have no reason to miss out on this one as it can be found on Netflix as well! This film has two Oscar nominations!
I’m a huge horror fan! However I’m also a bit of a snob when it comes to my scary content. I want well thought out storylines and characters, clever and shocking gore and a satisfying, unpredictable ending if possible. I’m not much into slasher films which is why Halloween is not making this list—-sorry, not sorry—-but Hereditary is a MUST mention for me. This film is a slow burn I would compare to 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby. The film starts in a much slower pace and intensifies as you watch but climaxes at the end and leaves you thinking about what you just saw for days after. The film revolves around the death of the matriarch of the Graham family who happened to be a very secretive woman in life. The film begins to unravel when her daughter played by the talented Toni Collette begins to uncover the cryptic and disturbing secrets about her ancestry and tries to outrun the sinister fate her family has inherited. There is a lot of disturbing imagery and the ending was something I would not have predicted completely although I did begin to catch on where it was headed closer to the end. It still gets a pass and if you’re a horror buff you need to watch this one.
This film was probably the most anticipated on my to-watch list during the Toronto International Film Festival. After a failed attempt to get tickets I rushed this film twice before finally being successful and getting my own chance to view it. Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron’s 7th feature film follows a live-in housekeeper named Cleo who works for a middle class family. The film chronicles a year as the family and Cleo face unexpected changes in the household, Mexican landscape they live in and her own personal life. The film is a semi-autobiographical take on Cuaron’s upbringing in Mexico City and captures the raw and real situations going on in the 1970s. The film is completely in black and white and is achingly beautiful, tragic and hopeful. As a Latin American woman myself who has been fortunate enough to spend a majority of my summers growing up in El Salvador where my parents are from this film was both familiar, fantastical and nostalgic. It reminded me of home and the hardships I would see not fully understanding myself at that age I saw them what exactly was going on until I got much older and would reflect back. This film was my absolute favourite of 2018 and would recommend it to everyone. This film has TEN nominations at the Oscars including Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director and Best Lead Actress.
We have been getting quite a wave of sequels for films made decades prior. Disney is no exception to this fad. 2016’s Finding Dory came out 13 years after the success of Finding Nemo back in 2003. The Incredibles 2 literally picks up where it left off 14 years ago when the original installment was released. This brings us to Disney’s latest, Mary Poppins Returns. This sequel has been in the works for some time. When it was announced the film was in production, I was skeptical of who they could get to play Mary Poppins after Julie Andrews’ rendition. When I heard Emily Blunt would be filling her shoes, I couldn’t be more excited.
I first heard about Anna and the Apocalypse during the Toronto After Dark Film Festival back in mid-October. It was being advertised as Shaun of the Dead meets La La Land and even though I wouldn’t call myself a fan of musicals I was intrigued. My relationship with musicals has been a rocky one. Growing up, I was part of all the music programs my schools had to offer and even sang competitively. Obviously, the odd musical number was thrown in during my time performing, but between all the Rent and Joseph and the Technical Dream Coat covers, I tended to lean more towards the darker musicals like Evil Dead the Musical and Sweeney Todd. Musicals with ends that weren’t such a fairytale and songs that would make you cry instead of make you want to sing in the rain.
As celebrated and talented as Steve McQueen is in the film world, I have always felt his films are the kind I can only watch once in my life. Dealing with topics like starvation, addiction and enslavement and watching his characters punished on screen is not necessarily what I want to revisit on a Friday night. That said, his previous works are definitely masterpieces worth a viewing! He’s an incredibly talented filmmaker with a lot to say but the films that test the hand of time are those that can be enjoyed over and over.
I knew going into The Hate U Give that it would be a heavy one. This film doesn’t shy away from the tough topics currently being spoken about in the United States and Canada. This film further lifts the need for the #blacklivesmatter movement. Through a tragic and beautifully, strong story the viewer is taken on a ride of the injustices that are being fuelled in between. Originally based off a best-selling novel titled Thug Life: The Have U Give Young Infants F*cks Everybody by Angie Thomas, a title based off Tupac’s song with the same name. This film is told through Starr Carter and displays the conversations, experiences and social ills that go on after a white police officer wrongfully shoots down a black teenager for grabbing a hairbrush out of the front seat of his car.
While attending a neighbourhood party in Garden Heights over the weekend, Starr bumps into a childhood friend she hasn’t seen in awhile named Khalil. After the party is abruptly cut short, she ends up driving late at night with Khalil. They share a tender moment where they kiss, and she tells him she has a boyfriend. “We’ve been together a long time, we got time,” he tells her before they are suddenly stopped by a police cruiser. The film opened with Starr’s father Maverick (played by Russell Hornsby) giving his three young children “the talk.” Not the birds and the bees talk but the one about what to do as a person of colour when you’re stopped by a police officer. Starr was only nine years old then.
If you watch Assassination Nation, you’re in for a wild ride! This horror-satire has the femme and queer-centric, exploitation sass similar to 1989’s Heathers with the grotesque, un-apologetic, mindless violence in America outlook like The Purge. With a satirical trigger warning montage that starts off the film, the viewer is prompted with what to expect. Things like “drug use” and “sexual content” to the “male gaze” and “fragile male egos” are among the massive list. While entertaining and action packed until the end, writer-director Sam Levinson overwhelms this story with a messy progression and worthwhile concepts not properly fleshed out.
The Catty Critic 