Alita Battle Angel (4½ Stars)

This is a film based on a Japanese manga series. It takes place in the year 2563, 300 years after a global war which led to "The Fall", the collapse of society. A small elite lives in a floating city called Zalem, while the majority of mankind lives on the ground in a slum-like society called Iron City. Humans still exist, but the majority of the population are cyborgs, with more or less of their bodies replaced by artificial parts.

The film begins with a scientist scavenging a junkyard for spare parts. He refers to himself as a doctor, because he repairs or replaces damaged cyborg limbs. He finds the upper half of a female cyborg in which the heart and the brain are intact. Based on the technology of the heart he surmises that the cyborg was built before the Fall. He rebuilds the cyborg using parts that he had intended to heal his daughter's crippled body before she was murdered. He wants to know who the cyborg was, but she has no memory of her past. He calls her Alita, the name of his daughter.

Maybe Alita has no memory of her past, but her instincts show that she's a highly skilled fighter. She fights and defeats other cyborgs much bigger than herself. As the mystery of her origin is unravelled she discovers love and she begins to stand up for what she considers unjust in the world.

I greatly enjoyed "Alita Battle Angel", despite my aversion to post-apocalyptic films. The film was directed by Robert Rodriguez, but it has more in common with the films of James Cameron, who wrote the screenplay. Even though James Cameron was only the producer, the film shows so much of his handiwork that I suspect he shared the work as director.

The new sport of Motorball is typical for post-apocalyptic films. It's an extremely violent game played by cyborgs on motorised roller skates which frequently leads to the players being injured or killed. For me this is the weakest part of the film. It's such a cliche that I groaned as soon as it was shown. It's an integral part of the plot, unfortunately, because only the champion of this sport is allowed to ascend to Zalem.

What the film has in its favour is action, action, action. If you want a good night out at the cinema to see a film without a lot of deep philosophical baggage, this is a good choice.