Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

There’s something about the future these days where it usually involves humanity’s downfall.  It’s odd how many movies have the planet’s population technologically worse off and a lot smaller than it is today.  In Alita: Battle Angel, there seems to be one city left.  There aren’t many people living there and the ones on the ground (Iron City) seem to live in relative squalor.  However, there is a great city in the sky (Zalem) where the people have it good.

It’s the 26th century.  The residents of Iron City produce goods for those in Zalem.  Many live in hope that they my get to move up, but that sort of thing doesn’t usually happen.   In fact, the only way to get up there is to be the best a roller derby-like competition.

Enter Alita, or what’s left of her.  Dr. Dyson Ido finds her head in a scrap heap.  By head, I mean a cybernetic skull and face with a human brain.  Amazingly, the brain has suffered no damage, despite having been there for who knows how long.  Dr. Ito is able to attach the head to a robotic body and revive her.  Unfortunately, she has no memory of her past life.

The movie comes across as the first part of a larger story.  The movie is based on the first few of a series of books.  Even if I didn’t know that, there would seem to be too many loose ends and not enough of a resolution.  Alita wants answers about her past.  We also never get to see much of Zalem.  (Everything is a wide shot and is usually from below.)

Comparisons to other movies aren’t undeserved.  Whenever I saw Zalem, I thought of Elysium.  The big difference is that we don’t actually see how the people live above.  The entire movie takes place on the ground.  The movie sets up a sequel and I have read that more movies are planned, so we probably will get to see Zalem at some point.  Still, having a population that’s divided based on class is nothing new.

The entire movie seems to be a vehicle for the 3D format.  I’m not saying it wasn’t entertaining, but it seemed to rely more on the visuals than the narrative.  In fact, I probably would have been disappointed if the movie wasn’t setting up Part II.  There are too many unanswered questions, like where Alita came from or how she managed to survive 300 years without a body.  This would seem to be the first act of a larger plot rather than a self-contained story.

I do think it’s a good start and is worth seeing in the theater.  I just wouldn’t go in expecting it to be like other movies.  In this regard, I think it’s a little unfair to compare it to other movies.  It does seem to be setting up a larger experience.

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Tau (2018)

I think many of us have had a teacher or boss that valued quality over quantity.  It’s better to have one great idea than a lot of bad ones.  I’ve noticed the same thing about Netflix’s movie.  They seem to be putting out mediocre movies.  (Bright comes to mind.)  Tau is a movie along those same lines.  It has a decent concept that has potential, but the movie is undermined by a weak story.

When I read the premise, I imagined it would be someone trapped in their own head and forced to go through a series of trials to escape.  It turns out that I was very wrong.  Instead, it’s about a woman who is kidnapped and used as a test subject.  Her kidnapper is Alex, who we gather is working on some new form of AI.  Alex is basically hoping to cheat by scanning people’s brains to use as a template.  Julia is simply the latest such person.

We get to see very little of Alex.  Most of his time spent is spent coming home and going back out again.  (He also has to rebuild the lab that Julia destroyed.)  Instead, she spends most of the movie with Tau, the house’s AI.  Tau is programmed to obey only Alex, but Julia is able to find ways around this.  He has an interest in learning more about the outside world, which she can use as leverage.

The problem is that the story and characters have very little depth.  All we know of Julia’s life before the movie is that she stole stuff for money.  It’s just enough that we know no one will call the police on her.  We know that Alex is some sort of egotistical genius because of all the magazine covers on the wall.  Also, Julia’s not far off when she calls him a psychopath.  He likes to torture Tau and has no reservation about doing the same to Julia.

This is where the character development ends.  Julia makes several attempts to escape, but we learn very little about where she came from or how she grew up.  We have a device that can actually read her memories and all we see is scenes from earlier in the move.  Alex seems motivated only by coming out with the next great AI product.  He’s not conflicted about it.  It’s not from some outside pressure or anything.  He’s just the guy that Julia has to escape from.

It’s almost like someone found a template for a movie and deviated just enough to make it their own.  There’s no real reason to care about anyone.  When a character was hurt or threatened with death, I didn’t react with any sort of panic or empathy.  I would say that this could have been part of a series, or even a pilot.  It does generate some interest in the characters, but doesn’t really deliver on it.


IMDb page