Alita’s Terrifying Transhumanism

Rosa Salazar as Alita. Ed Skrein as Zapan. Eiza Gonzalez as Nyssiana. Jackie Earle Haley as Ggrewishka. Rosa Salazar as Alita studies her new hand.

The global box office returns have spoken, and Alita: Battle Angel is a resounding success. Yet, some were disturbed by certain inhuman aspects of Alita and her enhanced enemies. Perhaps some moviegoers didn’t like being reminded that on just this side of the uncanny valley lies the potential for a kind of techno body horror?

Alita certainly appears to …read more

Jean-Paul Mavinga

A small cyborg child sits in a red rock landscape. A shapely woman crawls out of a very small tank. Two children fly though a desolate urban region. A woman with blond hair and a white cowboy hat casually stands. A young woman with a puzzle-cut head stares serenely.