Alita: Battle Angel

Dir: Robert Rodriguez

2019

**

In an interview late in 2017, Robert Rodriguez said of his Alita collaboration with James Cameron, "This just doesn't happen. Guys like Quentin Tarantino and Jim Cameron only write scripts for themselves to direct. When Avatar became the biggest movie of all time, he told me that he's going to spend the rest of his career making Avatars, so I said, 'What happens to Battle Angel then?', because as a fan I was just interested! And he said, 'I don't think I'll ever get to do that. Hey, if you can figure out the script, you can shoot it!' So I took it home, spent all summer working on it, cut it down to 130, 125 pages, without cutting anything that he missed. It was a great gift. We had a blast; anytime I had a question I could just call him or email him and he would send back these hugely detailed answers that were so helpful. He just loves being the producer that he always wants. The guy's just so freakin' smart. Getting to learn from someone like that was the greatest internship ever." While I’m glad the two film makers got on and had a great time, I find it baffling that the director of El Mariachi, Desperado, From Duck till Dawn and Sin City sees himself as an intern. I’m not sure whether it’s humble or shows a complete lack of confidence. Sure, some of his recent films haven’t been that great, but they’ve been a hell of a lot of fun and his self-indulgence in his work, in the Machete films for example, are exactly the sort of projects he should be working on. He doesn’t need to be directing films that James Cameron never found the time to make. Cameron was fair-weather fan anyway, Battle Angel Alita was brought to his attention in 2000 by friend and fellow film maker Guillermo del Toro. I can’t help but think del Toro probably thought about the possibilities of adapting it but dismissed the idea for good reason – it’s not that great a story. I’m not a fan of the original MANGA but I have been aware of it since the early 90s. I read the first part of the Gunnm story and it didn’t grab me. I see the early 90s as the last golden age of comics, there were some brilliant stories being released, not just through MANGA and anime in general but across the board. There were far more interesting comics to spend my time with, as far as I was concerned, Battle Angel Alita was a poor mix of Rollerball, Frankenstein/Pinocchio and Pokemon. Obviously there was more to it than that but I really didn’t want to start something in the hope that it would get better. To give the film some credit, it has been around for a while and it has been a clear influence on other comics and films. Unfortunately, this means that the story feels less original than it really is, which ultimately left me cold, and a little bored. The film is set in 2563, 300 years after Earth is devastated by a catastrophic interplanetary war known as The Fall. We follow scientist Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) as he discovers a disembodied female cyborg in a pile of junk spat out by the floating Sky city above them. With some analysis, the Dr discovers a human brain inside the head unit, completely intact. Ido attaches a new cyborg body to the brain and names her Alita (played by a semi-CGI’ed Rosa Salazar) after his deceased daughter. Alita awakens with no memory of her past and tries to fit in as best she can with her surroundings. She meets a boy called Hugo who introduces her to Motorball, a battle royale racing sport played by cyborg gladiators. Hugo secretly robs cyborgs of their parts for Vector (Mahershala Ali) owner of the Motorball tournament. Stories circulate about a spell of murders around town and after becoming suspicious Alita follows Ido as he leaves the house in the middle of the night. They are soon ambushed by cyborg serial killers led by Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley). Ido is injured, and Alita instinctively fights using "Panzer Kunst" (a German expression, meaning "the art of the armor" literally "armor art"), a lost combat art for machine bodies. She kills two of the cyborgs and damages Grewishka, who retreats underground. Ido reveals that he is secretly a Hunter-Warrior. Grewishka goes to Dr. Chiren (Ido's estranged ex-wife played by Jennifer Connelly) for help, who is working for Vector. Despite Alita believing that fighting will help her rediscover her past, Ido discourages her from becoming a Hunter-Warrior. Later, Alita finds a highly advanced cyborg body in a crashed spaceship outside the city. Recognizing that the body is a Berserker — deadly shock troops of the enemy nation United Republics of Mars (URM) from the Great War — she asks Ido to install Alita in it but he refuses. Frustrated with Ido, Alita goes off by herself and registers as a Hunter-Warrior. At the Kansas Bar, she and Hugo are unable to recruit other Hunter-Warriors to her cause of taking down Grewishka. Zapan, a Hunter-Warrior, provokes Alita, and she severely beats him in a fight, triggering a chaotic bar brawl until Ido intervenes. An upgraded Grewishka arrives and challenges Alita to a duel, revealing that he has been sent by Zalem's technocrat overlord, Nova, to destroy her. Despite her courage and combat skills, Alita's body is sliced up by Grewishka's chain-bladed fingers, but Ido, Hugo and Hunter-Warrior 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 secret job. He confronts Tanji, but Zapan appears, murdering Tanji and the cyborg and framing Hugo, though he escapes and calls Alita for help; she abandons the race and finds him just as Zapan does. Zapan mortally wounds Hugo but Dr. Chiren offers to save Hugo by attaching his severed head to Alita's life support system. When Zapan sees through the trick and attempts to stop Alita, the guard mech stops Zapan from stealing her claim on Hugo's bounty, and Alita seizes his prized Damascus blade and slices most of his face off. 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 unless 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 nanotechnological 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 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, as his arm is breaking off. Hugo thanks Alita for saving him before falling to his death. Months later, Alita is the star of the Motorball tournament. Cheered on by the crowd, she pledges vengeance by pointing her sword toward Zalem, where Nova watches from above, smirking. I can’t see the appeal of being both a revolutionary and a sports star at the same time, it doesn’t really make sense to me. In the early 90s I was reading Zenith who was a pop star and a superhero, but it was a brilliant satire and there wasn’t any Rollerskating or cyborg nonsense. I read that it was Quentin Tarantino who suggested Christoph Waltz for the role of Dr. Dyson Ido, which is unsurprising but very lazy, given that he is essentially the same character he played in Tarantino’s Django. Rodriguez may have dabbled in the sickly world of CGI in the past but he really mastered it with Sin City. Sin City looks far better than Avatar in my opinion and I feel the Mexican director could be focusing his time and creativity on better, more personal projects. I like that they made Alita’s eyes bigger but overall nothing looks right. It doesn’t look like the original MANGA and it doesn’t even look anime. It’s a headache-inducing, projectile vomiting adventure in CGI, special effects over story with absolutely zero character development. I’m not apposed to ‘switching off and enjoying’ but it’s hard to enjoy watching something that treats one’s eyes with such aggression while treating one’s brain with complete contempt.

From Dusk till Dawn

Dir: Robert Rodriguez

1996

*****

By 1996 Quentin Tarantino had sold his scripts for Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers and he had been able to direct two of the films himself. From Dusk till Dawn however was the first script that Tarantino was paid to write, for the mere sum of fifteen hundred dollars. Special Effects Technician Robert Kurtzman asked him to write a screenplay based on his story in return for providing the ear-slicing scene in Reservoir Dogs. Universal Pictures originally considered Tarantino's screenplay for From Dusk till Dawn as the follow-up to Demon Knight and the second in a proposed Tales from the Crypt film trilogy, but ultimately produced another vampire film, Bordello of Blood, instead. It is fair to say Tarantino took the idea and ran with it, adding his own unique signature to it wherever he could. Tony Scott and Renny Harlin showed interest in directing but it was up and coming director Robert Rodriguez who ended up getting the part, thanks to being Tarantino’s friend but also because the pair where making like-minded films and both were hot property. The name of the movie is taken from the signs found on drive-ins. These signs indicate the length of the shows, which ran "from dusk till dawn". The movie is full of references to midnight movies and films which were often intended for teenagers to watch late at night from their cars but also works as the place where most of the film happens is in a bar that is open from dusk till dawn. It is not the film that anyone was expecting from either Tarantino or Rodriguez and certainly not from heart-throb George Clooney. I was lucky in that I knew nothing about the film before watching it – I didn’t even know it was a vampire horror – so the twist came as a brilliant surprise. The beginning of the film couldn’t have been more Tarantino-like if it tried. Fugitive bank robbers Seth and Richie Gecko (Clooney and Tarantino – Tarantino was originally set to direct the movie, but decided not to, so that he could focus more on the screenplay and his acting) hold up a liquor store – although this isn’t initially obvious. The clerk and a Texas ranger (John Hawkes and Michael Parks – both on top form) talk through some typical Tarantino style dialogue before Richie steps in and makes clear that the ranger has interrupted the hold up by killing him and then argues with the clerk, accusing him of sending signals. He of course gets killed and the building is inadvertently destroyed. It is a great opener and it felt like the start of a great road movie or a chase flick. At the motel room where they are hiding out, the pair tie up a bank clerk they have taken hostage and watch the news about their recent escape from prison. Seth goes out for food and returns to find Richie has raped and murdered the hostage. Seth clearly hates what his brother is but still loves him. Meanwhile, Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel), a pastor experiencing a crisis of faith, is on vacation with his teenage children Scott (Ernest Liu) and Kate (Juliette Lewis) in their RV. They stop at the motel and are kidnapped by the Geckos, who force the Fullers to smuggle them over the Mexican border. In Mexico, they arrive at the Titty Twister, a strip club in the desert, where the Geckos will be met by their contact, Carlos, at dawn. Carlos will escort them to sanctuary at "El Rey," a place of safety for fugitives from justice whose admission fee is 30 percent of everything they have. They meet a host of characters at the bar including the doorman Chet Pussy (Cheech Marin) and barman Razor Charlie (Danny Trejo). The place is full of truckers and dancers and after a few near fights, the Gecko brothers calm themselves and begin to enjoy themselves and the company of the Fuller family. Once settled, the big show starts and the stunning Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek) dances around on stage with a giant snake on her shoulders. The characters, as well as the audience, are transfixed. So much so, that when the staff and dancers of the bar suddenly shut the doors and reveal themselves as vampires, it comes as quite a thrilling shock. They then begin to kill all of the patrons and within seconds the film stops being a gangster flick and becomes an amazing horror film. Richie is quickly bitten by a stripper and dies; after much fighting only Seth, Jacob, Kate, Scott, a biker named Sex Machine (horror legend Tom Savini), and Frost (Blaxploitation legend Fred Williamson), a Vietnam veteran, survive. The others are reborn as vampires, including Richie, forcing the survivors to kill them all. When an army of vampires, in bat form, assembles outside, the survivors lock themselves in, but Sex Machine is secretly bitten, becomes a vampire, and bites Frost and Jacob. Frost throws Sex Machine through the door, allowing the vampires to enter. Seth, Kate and Scott escape to a storeroom, followed shortly by an injured but still alive Jacob, brandishing a shotgun. In the storeroom, they fashion weapons from truck cargo the vampires have looted from past victims, including a stake mounted on a pneumatic drill, a crossbow, and holy water, which requires Jacob to recover his faith to bless. Jacob, knowing he will soon become a vampire, makes Scott and Kate promise to kill him when he changes. The group make their final assault on the undead. Jacob becomes a vampire, but Scott hesitates to kill him, allowing Jacob to bite him. Scott hits Jacob with holy water and shoots him. Scott is overwhelmed by vampires, who begin to devour him; he begs for death, and Kate shoots him. As vampires surround Kate and Seth, streams of morning light enter through bullet holes in the building, making the vampires back away. Carlos's arrives and his bodyguards blast the door open, letting in the sunlight and killing the vampires. Seth chastises Carlos for his poor choice of meeting place and negotiates a smaller tribute for his admission to El Rey. Kate asks Seth if she can go with him to El Rey, but he refuses, leaving her with some cash. Kate drives away in the RV, leaving the Titty Twister - revealed to be the top of a partially buried Aztec temple - behind. It is a great horror that is full of tributes but is very much a Rodriguez/Tarantino team-up. Both directors are famous for their signature moves and Dusk till Dawn sees them reaching their pinnacle, as well as begin new trends and mix them up. Earl McGraw became a recurring character in Rodriguez and Tarantino's works, later appearing in Kill Bill, Planet Terror and Death Proof – even though he dies at the beginning of the story. Chango Beer and Sex Machine's codpiece gun are references to Rodriguez's 1995 film Desperado. Seth also returns to the hotel with Big Kahuna Burgers, which were used in Pulp Fiction and mentioned in Death Proof. Seth Gecko also says the line "All right, Ramblers. Let's get ramblin'!", a quote from Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and, like in all Rodriguez films Danny Trejo features as a character named after a sharp implement. For some unexplained reason (was it Rodriguez suggesting that Americans see Mexicans as all the same?) Cheech Marin plays three characters; the Border Guard, Chet Pussy and Carlos the gangster. All the best horror films have quirks and Dusk till Dawn has plenty. As well as featuring some horror legends, it also featured Clooney who was huge at the time having just ended his run on E.R.. Antonio Banderas, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, John Travolta and Christopher Walken were all offered the role of Seth Gecko but all passed because of scheduling conflicts, which was quite lucky for everyone, as Clooney really pulled in the crowds. It is the perfect horror in many respects; full of gore, mystery, nonsense and humour. That said, it is also a clever idea and the twist is brilliantly handled. It was a cult hit the moment it was released. My only regret is that Erik Estrada, who was lined up to play Carlos the gangster, had to pull out at the last minute.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Dir: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
2014
***
Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez's Sin City 2 is a long time coming. Expectations were high for a sequel but it still seems strange that we had to wait 9 years, especially after the success of the first. The impact the first film had may have long gone and blue screen films made since haven't quite done the effect any favours but it still works for Sin City, indeed, it was invented for Sin City and still lends itself perfectly for the adaptation of Millers work. They needed a whole new cast, many characters had been killed off, a few actors didn't want to return and sadly a few of the actors had since passed away but I applaud all of their casting decisions. A few favorites return, which was great (Powers Booth and Mickey Rourke in particular) but the inclusion of Josh Brolin (instead of Clive Owen), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ray Liotta and (personal favorite) Christopher Lloyd were fantastic. I wasn't as sold on Eva Green as the 'Dame to kill for' though, as her performance was far more slutty than sultry and although I applaud Miller and Rodriguez for sticking with the comics and not aiming for a lower rating, the constant flashing of her breasts was a bit tiresome. I'm a warm-blooded male, but they keep it subtle in most scenes, using shadow to their advantage, and then they do full frontal and it seems a little cheap. As good as the effects are, it does seem a little rushed and a little cheap all round, I watched the film as I would read the comic but it's not as well composed as the graphic novels are and it certainly isn't as polished. I liked it a lot but the anticipation left me a little disappointed if I'm being honest.

Machete Kills
Dir: Robert Rodriguez
2013
***
Machete Kills begins with a trailer for the 3rd installment that at first looks like it is just for fun, until you realise it could actually become a reality. It's grainy, cut badly and everything you'd expect from an old Gringhouse film. So again, why wasn't the main feature done in this style? It can't have just been the trailers that were in bad condition back in the day? I feel the Grindhouse manifesto has been long forgotten, this isn't so much an exploitation film but more of a b-movie spoof. I can live with that but I would have preferred what made the whole idea great in the first place. It is what it is, I like it but there are parts I didn't much care for. To much of the film was current, I liked the inclusion of odd-balls of the year; Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga but commenting on subject such as Twitter (Machete don't Twitter) just weren't funny and didn't feel right. The cameos were great to revive interest along the way of the silly story (most notably from the great Tom Savini) but it was Demian Bichir who pipped Mel Gibson to the post for the title of thief as he really stole the show. It's really not great but it's hard not to like, especially if you have an interest in b-movies/Expliotation/Grindhouse films like myself. Long may it continue although I say that cautiously.

Machete
Dir: Robert Rodriguez, Ethan Maniquis
2010
***
Like many of the 70's Grindhouse/Exploitation movies, the film rarely lives up to the trailer. In that sense, the full length feature version of Machete is a fitting tribute. It's not all bad though, you can't take the film seriously when it doesn't take itself seriously - for the best part it's a fun and silly film. The only problem I had was that it seemed rushed. The intro was done in the Grindhouse fashion, grainy, scratched film, aged orange tint and bad cuts, so why this wasn't extended to the whole film is beyond me (or did Rodriguez only direct the first bit?). The cast is great and there are some excellent scenes but the classic scenes from the trailer seem to be an afterthought. Enjoyable, but it did seem like a way to make a quick buck rather than be a heartfelt desire from Rodriguez who is capable of much more. Mind you, after watching the deleted scenes on the DVD release it could have been a lot worse!

Planet Terror
Dir: Robert Rodriguez
2007
***
I think this film suffers from being separated from its intended twin (Death Proof) as part of the Grindhouse experience. Although I enjoyed Planet terror, it is no way near as good as some of the films it tries to mock/imitate/pay tribute to. Still, there are some original ideas here that I have to applaud, it is fun but it's just a shame that the years coolest poster turns out to be for the years most disappointing film! (not the worst, just the most disappointing considering the hype). Style over content unfortunately, cool but not really cool enough to warrant the cult status it seems to have reached.

Grindhouse
Dir: Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez
2007
****
What a great idea, make two films back to back in the old Grindhouse style complete with cheesy acting, jumpy pictures and overexposed film. It could have been awful but luckily it wasn't, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez know their films. The fake trailers, which were always part of the fun of Grindhouse pictures, were very well done although Rob Zombie's effort is a bit weak compared to the others. It's brilliant that some of the trailers have now been made in to full length features. I think Planet Terror is much better for being cut down in its original print than the extended release but I think, and it looks as if I'm the only one, that Death Proof is much better in its extended version. Still, they could have both been extras on the DVD, why the producers decided to separate these films is a mystery to me, stupid producers!

Machete - Played brilliantly by Danny Trejo and thankfully made into its own film.  

Werewolf Women of the SS - I like the overall idea but Rob Zombie is a horror fan, not a horror film maker.

 Don't - Edgar Wright hones the tone of British Hammer Horror of the 1970s to great effect

Thanksgiving - Eli Roth is a twisted genius, here is some proof.

Hobo With a Shotgun - filmmakers Jason Eisener, John Davies, and Rob Cotterill won a competition to have their short entered into the film and to great success. The full length version came out in 2011.

Sin City
Dir: Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Frank Miller
2005
****
Robert Rodriguez is obviously a fan of Sin City, so much so that he got Frank Miller, it's creator, on board from the very beginning, so it's no surprise that the film captures the feel of the comics perfectly. Robert Rodriguez actually got in trouble with the Directors Guild of America, ultimately leaving the association due to them not accepting Miller as a co-director. It is this passion and understanding of the source material that is at the route of the films success. Rodriguez said himself that it was a "translation, not an adaptation". We comic fans thank him for that. Its one of the only blue screen films I can watch without getting a headache, I'd still much rather read the graphic novels because I'm a purist but this is a great film.