Alita: Battle Angel is a 2019 American cyberpunk action film based on Japanese manga artist Yukito Kishiro’s 1990s series Battle Angel Alita and its 1993 original video animation adaptation, Battle Angel. It was directed by Robert Rodriguez, produced by James Cameron and written by Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis. Rosa Salazar stars through performance-capture animation as Alita, a 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 Leicester Square Theater in London on January 31, 2019, and was released in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan on February 5, 2019, marking Chinese New Year. It 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, and the last film released by 20th Century Fox before the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney. 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 over whether it was profitable. It received generally mixed reviews from critics, who praised Salazar’s performance, the action scenes and the visual effects, but criticized the screenplay.