James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez helped craft something special with Alita: Battle Angel. It wasn’t just a thrilling cyborg-action spectacle, but a type of sci-fi we never thought we’d see. Alita: Battle Angel was an anime/manga adaptation done right, and we need adaptations like this one, especially from such accomplished directors.
There certainly are plenty of places to go with the central cyborg Alita. Based on the manga by Yukito Kishiro, the 2019 film was set in a cyberpunk, dystopian Earth. The damaged and abandoned Alita (Rosa Salazar) is rebuilt by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate scientist. But his home, Iron City, is anything but kind, harboring corrupt officials and violent cyborgs.
The wait for a sequel might be as long as the wait for the first film. James Cameron had been talking about adapting Kishiro’s work as early as 2003. Some of that influence even appeared in Cameron’s TV series Dark Angel, which shared thematic elements with his later work. Unfortunately, it would be many years before we saw Alita: Battle Angel hit theaters.
Should We Blame the ‘Avatar’ Franchise?
The culprit for the initial delay was another project that had a long road to completion: Avatar. James Cameron focused all his efforts on the 2009 blockbuster, forcing the Alita script onto the back burner. But Cameron didn’t forget, as he explained soon after the release of Avatar, that the Alita script was ready, despite another decade of waiting for the film to debut.
James Cameron made the smart call to tap Robert Rodriguez as a director. Rodriguez did far more than condense Cameron’s massive script into a firm two-hour movie. The Sin City director also embraced the stylish action and brutality of the original story, pushing that PG-13 hard with vicious cyborg violence. It was a match made in heaven, combining Cameron’s groundbreaking penchant for motion capture with Rodriguez’s hallmarks of gritty and giddy action.
Alita’s Story Must Continue
Although Alita’s dramatically enlarged eyes took some getting used to, the film delivered an exciting and grim dose of cyberpunk. The visual effects were stunning, and the film wasn’t afraid to go dark with its daring tale of a young cyborg who could amputate her towering competition. It was also an astute adaptation, though it omitted some material from the manga.
As fans of Battle Angel will note, the movie cuts off at about the same point as the animated adaptation for home video. The two-part anime series from 1993 was faithful in script and visuals but unbearably short, ending in tragedy as Alita lost the boy she loved. If one were to see only the anime series, Rodriguez’s film would seem to complete the entire story, even though there’s plenty of material left in the manga.
Will There Be an ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ Sequel?
Alita: Battle Angel can’t end the same way as the anticlimactic anime, and it’s looking like a sequel might be happening. In an interview with Empire, Cameron said he is still working on another Alita with Robert Rodriguez, currently in the script phase. So while fans can look forward to a sequel that, hopefully, will eventually come to fruition, they should also be patient.
James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez are committed to the projects they want to develop, especially with sequels. Cameron would return with Avatar: The Way of Water 13 years after the first film, and Rodriguez made good on his Sin City sequel, A Dame to Kill For, 9 years after Sin City hit theaters. Alita won’t be forgotten because these two directors don’t let their sequel ideas die; they just take a long time to get them to the theater.
- Release Date
-
February 14, 2019
- Runtime
-
122 minutes
- Director
-
Robert Rodriguez
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
