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Alita, Battle Angel

I would like to recommend you to watch one of the best films of 2019 so far. It’s title is ALITA BATTLE ANGEL and it`s an action science fiction movie in cyberpunk style. It was directed by Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron based on the eponymous manga written by Yukito Kishiro. 20th Century Fox was responsible for its production, and as for me that studio always makes quality production. Film revenues amounted to 404 775 671 $.

I saw it with my friend at the movie theatre right after it was realised, however at first I did not dare to watch it because of its source. Japanese culture very often seems to Europeans strange and chaotic; fortunately James Cameron coped with the adaptation task. I liked the movie so much that I watched it two more times in the cinema and even showed to my parents. My opinion on Alita Battle Angel is that it`s an underrated masterpiece.

The plot is the following. The story is set in 2563, three hundred years since the “Devastation” war between the United Republic of Mars and the Earth, which left the Earth deserted, with the exception of the huge flying city Zalem and the scum settlement beneath it, named the “Lower World”. In the lower world hunter warriors (volunteers who catch perpetrators), criminals and police fighting robots centurions operate. In the lower town, firearms are prohibited in order to simplify the work of centurions and other representatives of Zalem. Punishment for owning a firearm is death. Zalem is ruled by Nova, a powerful being capable of penetrating and controlling the minds of any person. He spies for lower world`s life with the aim to protect himself. Dr. Ido, local cyborg “surgeon” in the lower world, finds the remains of a cyborg girl in a garbage dump from Zalem, takes her to his office and repairs her. Dr. Ido gives her the name Alita and the body that was meant for his dead daughter. After Alita has regained consciousness, she cannot remember anything, but discovers that she owns cyborgs fighting techniques, after which she begins to search for her lost memories. While getting acquainted with the new home, Alita meets Dr. Chiren, Ido's ex-wife. She does not share the enthusiasm of her husband and believes that by repairing the girl, Ido is trying to create a replacement for their daughter. Chiren herself now works for a local rich man and producer of a motorball (gladiator fights between robots) Vector, who promises to return her to the upper city of Zalem in exchange for her hard work. Vector is often controlled by Nova and also his embodiment of orders for the lower world (when it`s happening his eyes turnblue).

Meanwhile Alita meets a young man, Hugo, who secretly participates in attacks on cyborgs and disassembles their bodies, without killing them. The young man supplies these parts to Vector and Dr. Ido. Hugo, meeting with Alita, shows her various iconic places in the lower city, teaches her to play motorball, introduces to her the taste of chocolate, and gets tickets to motorball match, which delights Alita.

Alita learns from local media reports that a murderer has appeared in the city and has killed several women. She begins to suspect Ido, who once returned home with a bloody hand, and then begins to follow him. But she learns that the doctor is a hunter warrior and has been trying to catch the murderer. The murderer turns out to be a gigantic cruel monstrous cyborg Grewishka, whose crimes can`t be punished due to Nova`s support. Together with his two companions, he tries to kill Ido, but Alita does not allow them to do so. Deep in her subconscious is the fighting nature and Alita easily eliminates criminals and drives off Grewishka, who promises to take revenge. During the fight, Alita recalls that she once participated in the battle on the Moon. Ido tells Alita that he became a hunter, because a cyborg drug addict, who has taken Ido`s services before, killed his disabled daughter named Alita, for which he created Alita’s body. On the next day Hugo goes with Alita out of town and shows the downed spacecraft of the forces of the United Republic of Mars, which once entered into a battle with the Earth. In the spacecraft, Alita finds the cybernetic body of the same model in which she once functioned. Alita understands that she is a soldier from Mars, but still asks Ido to scan her in order to understand who she really is. She learns that she is 300 years old and has a heart beating in her chest on the basis of lost technologies powered by nuclear elements that can power the whole Lower World. Alita asks Dr. Ido to connect her to new body, but he does not want Alita to be a fighter, even though she was created for these purposes. Alita gets angry and quarrels with Ido, runs away from home and goes to the Zalem police station in the Lower Town and gets a hunter's license. Together with Hugo, she visits a bar for cyborg hunters and delivers a fiery speech aimed at combating Grevishka, who just received an upgrade from Dr. Chiren and Vector and also got Nova`s order to deliver the powerful heart of Alita to him. Hunter warriors don`t take Alita`s speech seriously, because she looks cute and innocent. Then Alita decides to huff the hunters, scoffs at the narcissism of the hunter Zapan, who is very worried about the beauty of his face. He has a sword with the lost technology of Mars and also fear of all city. Zapan tries to beat Alita, but she defeats him humiliating in front of the eyes of other hunters. Alita arranges a massive punch-up, according to the rules of which the defeated will side with her. Fight is stopped by Ido, who has threatened not to help anyone with free repairs. Then Grewishka appears to complete his task. Hunter warriors don`t want to help Alita because there is no reward for his head. Demonstrating his upgrade Grewishka immediately kills the little dog that barks at him. At this moment, Alita ceases to be an angel. With the blood of a dog she painted war paint on her face and goes into battle. Grewishka manages to cut Alita’s body into pieces, leaving her one hand. Alita is visited by a vision from the past in which her co-mentor teaches how to fight to the end. Mocking Grewishka takes the girl by the hair and brings her to his face, but Alita with the remaining hand knocks out his eye. The monster runs away. Ido brings Alita's head with the remnants of the body to his laboratory and connects to the combat body. It`s significantly superior to the previous in speed and flexibility. New body can produce blue fire, which can be used for battling.

Gradually Alita falls in love with Hugo. She discover about his dream to live in Zalem and offers him to take her heart and sell it, fortunately Hugo refuses. Vector finds out about their romance and persuades Hugo to send Alita to play motorball, if she wins final league he and she will be sent to Zalem. Alita agrees to help her boyfriend. But it`s a trap to kill Alita for Nova. Ido acts like a real father and carefully prepares Alita for motorball, but warns her that she can refuse at any time. Alta doesn`t retreat and comes out on the arena. Suddenly Ido notices hunter warriors among the participants and feels amiss. He warns Alita about them. The deadly race begins in which Alita is leading. Meanwhile, Hugo goes to meet his friends, whom he announces his departure from their business. Suddenly, Zapan kills the cyborg that has been sorted out for parts and dumps the blame on Hugo, which gives Zapan the legal right to kill him. That`s how he decided to take revenge to Alita for his humiliating. Hugo runs and contacts Alita for help. The girl, hearing a request for help, pierces the wall of the motorball and hurries to rescue her love. Alita is ahead of Zapan but unfortunately he accuses Hugo in murder and injures him before Alita has taken decision. Alita takes Hugo to the church nearby to protect from Zapan, Dr. Chiren follows Alita to complete Nova`s order but changes her mind and helps her. Alita comes out of the church carrying the severed head of Hugo. The centurions award her a reward for capturing a criminal, but Zapan manages to notice that Hugo’s head is attached to Alita’s heart, which supports life in him. The hunter grabs the girl by the hand that the centurions perceive as an attempt to take away the reward and give Alita the right to defense. Alita takes the sword from Zapan and cuts off his face. Dr. Chiren returns to Vector, but he knows what she has done. Ido cures Hugo and gives him cyborg body. He says that Vector fooled Hugo and the man of the Lower World cannot get to the Upper. Alita recollects her memory about mission on defeating Zalem and decides to complete it. Alita sets off for Vector, defeating everyone on her way, including Grewishka. The girl speaks with Nova in Vector`s mind, she says that he made a mistake by underestimating her. Then she kills Vector calling him a puppet. Returning to Ido, she learns that Hugo decided to get into Zalem on one of the pipe-ropes leading into it. Having caught up with Hugo, she begs him to stay with her in the Lower World, knowing about the security system of the rope, but Nova activates the system, and, despite all attempts to save Alita`s love, the damaged Hugo falls from a great height to Alita’s grief. It takes 2 months for Alita to become the champion of the motorball, which gives her the right to legally sneak into Zalem, and she raises her sword upwards, looking at the upper world, from the edge of which Nova looks at her with a smirk.

Unfortunately critics didn`t appreciate that film and there are two explanations for this. The first one is that 20th Century Fox competes with Disney, and during Alita`s release, there was a similar movie from Disney called Captain Marvel, that had no chances to be in competition with James Cameroon`s masterpiece. Disney paid critics to write negative reviews of the movie, these way Disney pushed many people away from watching Alita. The second reasons are lines with subtext about injustice over ordinary people from superior people. Alita covers the problems of our time society. Zalem personifies the government. The presence of “upper” people is almost invisible, like in our world, however they see everything. Everything is arranged so that most people do not even notice what they are used for Superior people’s purposes. Also I really enjoyed the way how nowadays situation is shown through characters. The residents of the lower world live – it will be more correct to use the word “survive” - in a dump from Upper World. Their living conditions are so terrible, that they can be easily manipulated with a fairy tale about better life. Hugo died only because he understood that his dream was myth too late. His happiness in form of Alita always was near, but he still chased the fictional happiness behind the clouds. Drama of DR. Ido shows us an intelligent person who is forced to work for system and create monsters, who in the end take his daughter away. And finally - Alita. Fate allowed her to forget the anger, cruelty and pain she once had known. She was reborn and became a pure angel. But system isn`t in need of angels. In the end of the film she became ruthless warrior, she started to play according to the rules, “played motorball”. And the main “celestial” watch her throwing her sword with a smile, excellent final according to me. In addition Vectors phrase that a lot of money, won`t help to get to the upper world is brilliant. Because money is not a value instead it`s a tool of exploitation. Even our disingenuous critics acted according to this rule.

So as for me film makers created a gripping plot with true-to-life characters. Rosa Salazar`s acting was stunning, she incredibly showed innocence of her character .I am silent about special effects, that were also underrated, but it`s a lie. They made the movie thrilling; the main character of the film is recreated using motion capture technology. The sound track “motorball” composed by Junkie XL has become a real hit.

All in all, I recommend you to watch that film and don`t trust critics, they are just a part of the system.