It is easy to argue that Alita: Battle Angel has had the most “Production Hell” baggage to deal with of any major sci-fi movie of the last five years. Originally started as a project in 2000 by 20th Century Fox, five years after the comic had been a smash in Japan and relative obscurity outside of the global anime/manga scene, it had James Cameron as its producer since 2003. Finally shot under the direction of Robert Rodriguez under great secrecy at the end of 2016, the first trailers declaring a July 2018 release were circulated in December 2017, only to then have the movie go quiet till it resurfaced mid-2018 with a heavily de-mangafied look for Alita and a release date of the “dump month” of February 2019. So, has Cameron finally produced something well inside his wheelhouse that could only be justified as $200 million “passion project”? Well, maybe. But they’ve produced a charming little emotional ride and a fully realised world, regardless of what the box office says.
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