Alita: Battle Angel

DIRECTOR: Robert Rodriguez

LEAD CAST: Rosa Salazar, Cristoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley & Keean Johnson

SCREENWRITER: James Cameron & Laeta Kalogridis

PRODUCER: James Cameron & Jon Landau

EDITOR: Stephen E. Rivkin

MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Tom Holkenborg

GENRE: Science fiction/Fantasy

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bill Pope

DISTRIBUTOR: 20th Century Fox

LOCATION: USA

RUNNING TIME: 122 mins.

Technical assessment:  4

Moral assessment:  3.5

CINEMA rating:  V 13

MTRCB rating:  PG

After the cataclysmic war known as “The Fall”, Earth has become a monumental trash heap where everyone scavenges to survive, kept alive by the thought of one day finding relief in Zalem, a city of the elite high up in the sky.  One day as the compassionate cyborg scientist Dr. Dyson Ido (Cristoph Waltz) scavenges for treasure among the trash, he finds the bust of a female cyborg with a human brain, half dead.  In his his clinic he succeeds in giving it a robotic body.  The cyborg awakens but can recall nothing about her past or identity; Dr. Ido then names her Alita (Rosa Salazar), after his deceased daughter.  Alita becomes comfortable with her new body and as her unique skillset surfaces, the curious cyborg discovers that Dr. Ido is a warrior-hunter.  As the story unfolds, layer upon layer of secrets are peeled off, revealing the surprising depth of each character.

Alita: Battle Angel is the big-screen adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s manga, “Battle Angel Alita”.  With its great attention to detail and character development, the film has created a world where viewers may easily get carried away, especially if it is watched on a giant screen.  While the bleak setting, Iron City, is a veritable junkyard, the movie is not depressing; while the lead female is a robot, she is not cold.  The visuals are breathtaking; the action, wow!  Director Rodriguez’s eye for action is complemented by cleverly placed close-ups that give the story its heart.  Waltz as a kindhearted man proves his acting mettle once more in a role that’s the opposite of his usually villainous, ruthless film persona.  Salazar, on the other hand, inspires sympathy—is it due to her role, or her soulful eyes?

An aspect worth pondering in Alita: Battle Angel is the wide range of human emotions depicted.  The story is set centuries into the future—year 2563—and yet, the characters’ responses to emotional stimuli remain the same as ours today.  Note the relationship between Alita and Dr. Ido, Chiren’s maternal instinct causing her change of heart, Alita’s self-sacrificing love for Hugo, etc.  Whether it is anger, love, ambition, or hatred fueling their actions, the characters—human or cyborg—are so like us, responding the way we do now, or even as our counterparts did centuries ago as history proves.  The desire for power or dominance is still there, so is the human longing for love.  Also, man still itches for greener pastures, as the gap between society’s rich and poor, the elites and the scavengers, remains unbridgeable.  If only the externals are changed 500 years from now, is the movie saying that the human brain is the same yesterday, today and forever?  What about human existence, purpose, or destiny—will it be forever a mystery?—TRT

The legend of Tarzan

DIRECTOR: David Yates  LEAD CAST: Alexander Skarsgård, Christoph Waltz, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Hounsou, Jim Broadbent  SCREENWRITERS: Adam Cozad, Craig Brewer  STORY: Craig Brewer, Adam Cozad  BASED ON THE ‘TARZAN’ STORIES CREATED BY: Edgar Rice Burroughs  PRODUCERS: David Barron, Tony Ludwig, Alan Richie, Jerry Weintraub, Mike Richardson  ART DIRECTORS: David Allday, James Hambidge

MUSIC BY: Rupert Gregson-Williams  FILM EDITOR: Mark Day  GENRE: Action, Adventure  CINEMATOGRAPHER: Henry Braham  COSTUME DESIGNER:  Ruth Myers  PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Stuart Craig  PRODUCTON COMPANIES: Warner Bros. Pictures, Dark Horse Entertainment, Jerry Weintraub Productions, Riche/Ludwig Productions, Village Roadshow Pictures  DISTRIBUTED BY: Warner Bros. Pictures/Time Warner  COUNTRY: United States   LANGUAGE: English  FILMING LOCATIONS: England, U.K., Gabon  RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes

Technical assessment: 3.5

Moral assessment: 3

CINEMA rating: V14

MTRCB rating:  PG

In this latest spin on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ well-loved story of a man raised by the apes, Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) now leads a gentrified life as John Clayton III, Lord Greystoke, married to his beloved Jane Porter (Margot Robie).   Eight years after he left the African jungles to come to settle down in England with Jane, nobleman Clayton is now being urged to travel back to the Congo by the Belgian King Leopold II on behalf of Great Britain.  Preferring to lead a quiet life of an aristocrat in his London estate, Clayton refuses but is subsequently persuaded by the American president’s envoy George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson) who discloses that the Belgian king might be promoting slave labor in the Congo.  Like Tarzan/Clayton, Jane loves the people in the land they both grew up in, and so joins her husband and Williams to Africa.  Meanwhile, the king’s emissary, the wicked Captain Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) is hatching a sinister plot to betray Clayton.

While nothing seems outstanding about the sounds (including music) in The Legend of Tarzan, the sights are a visual treat.  Of course, it’s largely CGI, but there is a marked difference between the pleasure offered by Tarzan’s CGI and that of, say, Transformers or Terminators.  Somehow there is more soul when the action involves God-made creatures being their natural selves than when it shows man-made robots kicking metal ass.  The sight of hundreds of wildebeests stampeding through town is simply awesome, and the ape-man’s eye-popping vine-swinging makes trapeze artistry sans safety nets look like kindergarten stuff.  (Incidentally, not one animal in this movie is real).  Straightforward story-telling serves as the strength of the plot, supported by a well-chosen cast of actors that are a perfect fit for their roles.  The legend of Tarzan preserves the essence of the source material while presenting completely new fiction by incorporating flashbacks of Tarzan’s past into the narrative.  Thus, viewers need not be bored by another re-interpretation of the ape-man classic.  (Besides, how can a film with Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz in it ever be boring?)

There are two things in The legend of Tarzan that might bother the cause-oriented and/or pious viewer.  First, that it is “racist”--in fact, some outspoken film critics have slammed the movie for its white-savior character. It must be noted that while the "savior" figure is a white man, the oppressors (of the black slaves) are also white, therefore he is merely trying to heal the wound that his fellow white men have inflicted.  Second: that it is sacrilegious, since a rosary is used in unholy ways.  The owner of the rosary constantly fingers the beads, giving the impression that he is such a pious man.  Well, as he says, the rosary is made of “Madagascar spider silk”, practically indestructible and tightens as it is pulled loose, and so comes handy when you want to strangle someone to death.  But don’t blink—see what happens when you fake praying the rosary?  He is devoured live by crocodiles.  That’s poetic justice for you.