Director’s return in cyborg story isn’t so riveting

Five years have passed since director Robert Rodriguez’s last feature film, “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” and he makes his return in a big way with the outlandish, over-thetop manga adaptation “Alita: Battle Angel.” No one can say the film is not a big swing — it truly goes for it, and does so with jaw-dropping vim and vigor.

But does it connect? Somewhat.

Second question — who is this massive, $200 million blockbuster film for? It’s unclear, as the film is incredibly violent, with a main character that espouses a decidedly innocent worldview.

It was obvious from the early glimpses at the film’s main character, Alita, that Rodriguez and company were not holding back with the aesthetic. Actress Rosa Salazar’s eyes have been digitally enlarged to mimic the look of the 1990 cyberpunk manga “Battle Angel Alita” by Yukito Kishiro. But the character’s entire face signifies she’s not like the rest of the citizens in the post-apocalyptic Iron City — she’s a cyborg, scooped up from the trash heap by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz), who implants her core into a robotic body salvaged from his dead daughter.

In Iron City, cyborgs and humans cheer on the wild professional sport that is Motorball, a cross between speedskating, auto racing and Quidditch. The champion gets the chance to ascend to Zalem, “the last of the great sky cities,” which floats above Iron City and sucks up factory goods through a giant tube.

Alita experiences everything in Iron City with a childlike wonder. She remembers nothing of her past

but possesses unique fighting skills that she puts to use defending her loved ones — and also as a bounty hunter.

Eventually, Alita finds the robotic body that fits her skills, a foreign piece of technology that’s essentially an alien weapon. Co-writer James Cameron has embarrassingly described “Alita: Battle Angel” as a metaphor for female puberty, and the filmmakers execute that symbolism in truly bone-headed fashion with her new, insane fighting body.

Alita isn’t like the cinematic warrior princesses and action heroines we’ve seen before. She’s emotionally a child, wide-eyed and filled with naive selflessness. But it’s easy to get frustrated with Alita, especially as she pours her talents into her good-fornothing boyfriend, a street scavenger named Hugo (Keean Johnson).

As a director, Rodriguez brings a go-for-broke sense of world-building and a wildly fantastical style that can be intoxicating, but the film is failed by the weak script co-written by Cameron, Rodriguez and Laeta Kalogridis. Unfortunately, any awe inspired by the movie is ultimately replaced with confusion.