Alita: Battle Angel

Scott Hardie: “It was ok.”

If you need proof that a movie's quality does not always correlate to the number of Oscar winners and nominees in its overqualified cast, this is it. This movie has some pretty good action scenes and some strikingly good effects (the entirely CGI protagonist looks photo-real), but as Roger Ebert used to say, beware of the scenes where the characters talk to each other. It creates a world full of cyborgs and does next to nothing with the possibilities, indulging in clichéd story beats and never-ending changes of allegiance. The biggest problem might be the lack of a dramatic arc for the main character, who goes on a journey of self-discovery but doesn't really learn or change in any way; the pretty-boy love interest gets a better arc than our heroine does. Jim Cameron has been working on this movie for something like 25 years, waiting for the technology to make it feasible, but not during all that time did he figure out a way to make the story worth telling.

− March 1, 2019 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply

Scott Hardie: This review was a little bit harsher than my reaction to the movie, so let me add: I really did enjoy the action scenes, which found surprising new ways to use the human body. And I cared enough about the characters and what they'd been through that I was moved by some turns of the plot. And I was impressed at the way that the movie made even the minor characters colorful and distinct, though that may have been a product of the original manga on which this was based. − March 2, 2019 • more by Scott

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