Alita Battle Angel: An exclusive sneak peek
I can’t pinpoint the day I fell in love with cinema, but I am pretty sure one of the driving reasons would be a little film called Titanic. I still remember the awe I felt as I saw the Titanic break in half on the big screen. Nearly 20 years later, James Cameron, albeit this time as a writer-producer, made me feel that way again as I got an exclusive sneak peek into Alita Battle Angel. Arranged by Fox India, this was an exclusive event that happened on Monday in only three cities — Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai – as part of Alita Day celebrations.
The show started off with a video of James Cameron telling us how he has always wanted to bring Alita to the big screen, but because his time has been completely spent on Avatar (the 2009 film has as many as three sequels planned), he couldn’t do it. He went on to say how happy he was when Robert Rodriguez approached him, and how he had handed over his script to the latter, along with over 600 notes he had made about the characters. He then handed over the reins to Rodriguez, who promised us seven special scenes as part of the exclusive sneak peek.
These scenes centred primarily around Alita and her journey in understanding herself and the world around her. The opening scene showed Alita waking up to a new body. Alita is a cyborg and the way she admires herself and her interactions with Christopher Waltz’s Ido and Keean Johnson’s Hugo make us form an emotional bond with the character.
I expect this will be the emotional anchor of the film. The other scenes were more involved in showing off the ‘Battle’ and ‘Angel’ parts of the film’s title. We get to see her learn the sport ‘motorball’ for the first time and it was quite surprising how this alien sport evoked a childhood nostalgia in me thanks to the way the scene played out. The battle scene that followed was hands down some of the best action choreography on film since probably Mad Max:Fury Road and it was quite something to behold in IMAX 3D.
As I handed back the 3D glass, the first thing I wanted to do was tell the world how good Alita Battle Angel looks and how I couldn’t wait for the full version. And I realised that Cameron and Rodriguez had achieved what they set out to do with this exclusive sneak peek. The film hits the screens worldwide on February 14, 2019.