My first geeky must see movie is set to drop on 14 February 2019. Alita: Battle Angel was a project that James Cameron (Titanic and Avatar) put on the back burner when he immersed himself in the blue alien world (Again, Avatar, keep up!). While he had most of the script written he wasn’t ready to take the movie forward. Robert Rodriquez approached him about the film and Cameron offered it to him to direct if he could write the script. So he did, Cameron produced and the now the movie based on Yukito Kishiro’s manga Gunnm (which goes by the name Battle Angel Alita as well) is said to drop soon! It’s a set in the future cyberpunk action film that had me hooked from the first time I saw the trailer. Which you need to watch before we continue:
While I haven’t seen the film yet I think there are already some lessons strong women can learn from Alita and her story (at least the bits we know so far). I’m trying to incorporate each of these into my day to day life and am hoping the movie will give me that early year reminder as well. Here’s the lessons (and why I’m so excited to see this movie!):
Look at the world with wonder
We first meet Alita way into the future. She is a cyborg and wakes up with no memory. Everything is new to her. Every experience is a first time experience as she does not recognise nor remember her world. While I’d hate to wake up with no recollection of who I am or where I am, I also think there is a lesson to be learnt in this. We take the smallest things for granted every day: the taste of a fresh Mango (YUM), or the crinkle of our sheets and the cool breeze as we stretch and get out of bed. We live in a world of rushing and madness but maybe we need to take a page out of Alita’s book. Take a moment each day to look at something through fresh eyes. Something as silly as an ant carrying a bread crumb back to its nest suddenly brings about wonder and fascination. It will brighten up your day too. Much like the visuals for the trailer of this movie pop off the screen and make me gasp, small things in your day to day life will offer up the same joy.
Be strong!
This is my 2019 motivation and goal. I realised in 2018 that I spent way too much time on my bum and not taking advantage of the incredible things my body could do. I want to be strong. I want to be able to climb, jump, run and swim through life. We see from the trailer how Alita’s muscle memory kicks in and that she is even surprised by the extraordinary fighting abilities she is gifted with. These pop up around the time the evil cyborgs come after her. While I’m never going to be cyborg level bad ass there’s something inspirational about Alita’s strength and ballet level poise. The lesson here is to keep moving… I might even give a barre class a go now.
Come from a place of love
We don’t get much to go on from the trailer, however there are small moments where it is very clear that the underlying thread sewing this story together is one of love and friendship. It’s always fascinating to me how these types of movies, set in the future, show a darker world where we seem to have lost our connection to one another. It’s no surprise really. I see it, even now, with social media. We’ve become somewhat obsessed with breaking people down. We celebrate in the failure of others. Mistakes from years ago are found, rehashed, celebrated and used to do nothing more than hurt one another. It’s a cruel and ugly environment that seems to only grow and develop as time moves on. While I’ll need to see the movie before giving you a definitive answer on whether or not the film is in fact a story of love and friendship – I’m going to take this lesson away from the Alita regardless: just be nicer.
A little inspiration from nothing more than a movie trailer. Who knew! Hopefully you get a little bit of inspiration from this. More importantly though, are you excited to watch Alita: Battle Angel? What do you think of the trailer?
