Alita: Battle Angel Dvd

Alita: Battle Angel is a 2019 American cyberpunk-action film based on Japanese manga artist Yukito Kishiro’s 1990s series Gunnm and its 1993 original video animation adaptation Battle Angel. It was directed by Robert Rodriguez and produced by James Cameron, who co-wrote the script with Laeta Kalogridis. Rosa Salazar stars through performance-capture animation as Alita, a female cyborg who awakens in a new body with no memory of her past and sets out to uncover her destiny. Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, and Keean Johnson star in supporting roles.

Announced in 2003, production was repeatedly delayed due to Cameron’s work on Avatar (2009) and its sequels. After years of development hell, Rodriguez was announced as Alita’s director in April 2016, with Salazar cast as the lead the following month. Principal photography began in October 2016 in Austin, Texas, mostly at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios, and lasted until February 2017.

Alita: Battle Angel had its world premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square on January 31, 2019, was released in Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan on February 5, 2019, marking Chinese New Year and was released in the United States on February 14, 2019 by 20th Century Fox in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX and IMAX 3D formats. It is the first film produced by Lightstorm Entertainment since Avatar. The film grossed over $404 million worldwide, making it Rodriguez’s highest-grossing film, but with a reported break-even point of $350–500 million there is debate on whether it was profitable. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for Salazar’s performance, the action scenes and the visual effects but criticism for the screenplay.

Alita: Battle Angel is a 2019 American cyberpunk-action film based on Japanese manga artist Yukito Kishiro’s 1990s series Gunnm and its 1993 original video animation adaptation Battle Angel. It was directed by Robert Rodriguez and produced by James Cameron, who co-wrote the script with Laeta Kalogridis. Rosa Salazar stars through performance-capture animation as Alita, a female cyborg who awakens in a new body with no memory of her past and sets out to uncover her destiny. Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, and Keean Johnson star in supporting roles.

Announced in 2003, production was repeatedly delayed due to Cameron’s work on Avatar (2009) and its sequels. After years of development hell, Rodriguez was announced as Alita’s director in April 2016, with Salazar cast as the lead the following month. Principal photography began in October 2016 in Austin, Texas, mostly at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios, and lasted until February 2017.

Alita: Battle Angel had its world premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square on January 31, 2019, was released in Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan on February 5, 2019, marking Chinese New Year and was released in the United States on February 14, 2019 by 20th Century Fox in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX and IMAX 3D formats. It is the first film produced by Lightstorm Entertainment since Avatar. The film grossed over $404 million worldwide, making it Rodriguez’s highest-grossing film, but with a reported break-even point of $350–500 million there is debate on whether it was profitable. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for Salazar’s performance, the action scenes and the visual effects but criticism for the screenplay.

Plot

In 2563, 300 years after Earth was devastated by a catastrophic war known as “The Fall”, scientist Dr. Dyson Ido discovers a disembodied female cyborg with an intact human brain while scavenging for parts in the massive scrapyard of Iron City. Ido attaches a new cyborg body to the brain and names her “Alita” after his deceased daughter. Alita awakens with no memory of her past and quickly befriends Hugo, a young man who dreams of moving to the wealthy sky city of Zalem. She also meets Dr. Chiren, Ido’s estranged ex-wife. Hugo later introduces Alita to a local street version of Motorball, a racing sport also played by cyborg gladiators in town. Alita immediate takes a liking to the game and shows a knack for it.

One night, Alita follows Ido when he sneaks out at night; they are ambushed by three cyborg serial killers, led by Grewishka. Ido is injured, and Alita instinctively fights using “Panzer-Kunst”, a lost combat martial art for machine bodies. She kills two of the cyborgs and damages Grewishka, who retreats. During the fight, Alita has a brief flashback to her former life, where she remembers fighting with an army of others on the Moon, and knows Ido is hiding something. Ido reveals he is a Hunter-Warrior, a bounty hunter hired by the Factory, but he uses the bounty money to give free medical care to other Hunter-Warriors.

Alita attends a big city game of Motorball, where the winner is later seen exiting the back door, celebrating his victory with several women. He is ambushed by masked assailants and his trademark weapon, arms with cables that shoot out from his hand, are removed. It is then revealed that Hugo is one of the assailants and works for Vector.

Grewishka goes to Dr. Chiren, who is working for Vector, for help. Despite Alita believing that fighting will help her rediscover her past, Ido discourages her from becoming a Hunter-Warrior. Alita later travels with Hugo and friends outside of the city and he shows her a crashed spaceship from The Fall. Alita instinctively is able to enter the ship and retrieve an advanced-looking cyborg body. Recognizing that the body belonged to a Berserker — deadly shock troops of the enemy nation United Republics of Mars (URM) from the Fall, of which Alita was a member — Ido refuses to install Alita in it.

Frustrated, Alita registers herself as a Hunter-Warrior. At the Kansas Bar, she and Hugo are unable to recruit other Hunter-Warriors to help her take down Grewishka. Zapan, a cyborg Hunter-Warrior bully, provokes Alita, and she severely beats him in a fight, triggering a chaotic bar brawl until Ido arrives to intervene. Suddenly, an upgraded Grewishka appears and challenges Alita to a duel, revealing that he has been sent by Zalem’s technocrat overlord, Nova, to destroy her. Despite her combat skills, Alita’s body is damaged by Grewishka, before Ido, Hugo and Hunter-Warrior dogmaster McTeague arrive and force Grewishka to retreat. Ido apologizes and transplants Alita into the Berserker body.

Having fallen in love with Hugo, Alita enters a Motorball tryout race for the prize money to send Hugo to Zalem. Hugo’s relationship with Alita leads him to decide to quit his criminal job. He confronts his partner Tanji, but Zapan appears, kills Tanji and frames Hugo for the murder of another cyborg. Hugo narrowly escapes and calls Alita for help; she abandons the race and finds him just as Zapan does. Zapan mortally wounds Hugo. Dr. Chiren, having changed her mind about working for Vector, offers to help save Hugo by attaching his severed head to Alita’s life support system. When Zapan sees through the trick and attempts to stop Alita, she seizes his prized Damascus blade and injures him.

Ido transplants Hugo’s head onto a cyborg body and tells Alita that Vector’s offer to help Hugo reach Zalem was a lie; as an exiled citizen of Zalem, Ido is certain that citizens of Iron City cannot enter Zalem without becoming a motorball champion. Alita storms the Factory and confronts Vector, who reveals that Chiren has been harvested for her organs. Vector summons Grewishka, but Alita’s new nanotech body allows her to easily destroy him. She forces Nova to speak to her through Vector. When Nova threatens to harm her friends, Alita fatally stabs Vector.

Ido tells Alita that Hugo has fled to climb a cargo tube towards Zalem. Alita catches up to him and pleads with him to return with her. He eventually agrees, but a serrated defense ring dropped by Nova shreds his body and throws him off the tube. Alita catches him but cannot pull him up. Hugo thanks Alita for saving him before falling to his death.

Months later, Alita is a rising superstar in the Motorball tournament. Cheered on by the crowd, she pledges vengeance by pointing her plasma-charged sword toward Zalem, where Nova watches from above, smirking.

Cast

See also: List of Battle Angel Alita characters
Rosa Salazar as Alita, a revived female cyborg suffering from amnesia.
Christoph Waltz as Dr. Dyson Ido, a renowned cyborg-scientist, part-time bounty-hunter and Alita’s father figure.
Jennifer Connelly as Dr. Chiren, Ido’s estranged ex-wife, a masterful cyborg-engineer who works for Vector.
Mahershala Ali as Vector, an influential entrepreneur at the Factory with criminal connections who also serves as Nova’s proxy.
Ed Skrein as Zapan, an arrogant sword-wielding bounty-hunting cyborg who develops an egotistic vendetta against Alita.
Jackie Earle Haley as Grewishka, a huge criminal cyborg who works for Nova as his personal assassin and enforcer.
Keean Johnson as Hugo, Alita’s love-interest and a morally conflicted scrap-dealer.
Lana Condor as Koyomi, a teenager who is friends with Hugo and Tanji.
Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Tanji, Hugo’s scrap-dealing friend and accomplice in crime who is more underhanded and does not share Hugo’s ethics.
Eiza González as Nyssiana, a wanted criminal cyborg who is an assassin and Grewishka’s subordinate.
Casper Van Dien as Amok, a cyborg who is responsible for the death of Ido’s daughter.
Jeff Fahey as McTeague, a Hunter-Warrior who leads a pack of cyborg-dogs.
Idara Victor as Nurse Gerhad, Ido’s assistant.
Rick Yune as Master Clive Lee, a Hunter-Warrior who claims a record of 207 kills.
Michelle Rodriguez plays Alita’s cyborg-mentor Gelda, Jai Courtney cameos as motorball-champion Jashugan, and Edward Norton has a cameo as Nova. All three are uncredited.