Swan Song

You don’t expect James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez to make a manga adaptation and have it actually work. Alita: Battle Angel exists in this space where everything about it should fail - live-action anime, CGI cyborg protagonist, dystopian cyberpunk, self-discovery plot - but it’s actually good. Rosa Salazar plays Alita, a cyborg who wakes up in Iron City with no memory, trying to figure out who she is while people try to use her combat skills. It’s the kind of film that could’ve been soulless and instead is just genuinely solid.

Dua Lipa recorded the title track, Swan Song. The song works with the character perfectly - there’s this contained intensity that matches what Alita’s doing. Dua doesn’t perform strength; she just carries it, and that’s exactly what the character needs.

I grew up watching anime and manga adaptations fail spectacularly, so there’s something quietly satisfying about one that just works. It doesn’t try to be deeper than it is. It doesn’t reinvent anything. It’s just a well-made film about a cyborg becoming herself, with a title track that understands what that means.