Review: Alita: Battle Angel

 This review arrives a little late, in fact a few weeks late as I went to see Alita: Battle Angel on the day of release at my local cinema. I've taken my time with this review as I wanted to get all of the negativity out of the way. In general the movie seems to be garnering a rather mixed response, with some reviewers praising the films special effects and action and others lambasting it for poor story and simple themes. So here goes.

 I really enjoyed Alita: Battle Angel. Like, REALLY enjoyed it. I'm by no means an expert or professional reviewer, merely a fat Northern man who knows what he likes and what I like is a lot of what makes up this movie. Firstly the special effects; As a general rule the special effects in this film have been received positively and I certainly wasn't disappointed. With WETA digital workshops and James Cameron involved it's hardly a surprise. In the trailers the face of the titular character with her giant anime eyes did kind of freak me out but in the movie itself everything looked pretty convincing. Whether it's a giant industrial City scapes, a human extensively upgraded with robotics or an energy infused sword slicing through robot tentacles the CGI looked very slick in all departments. It made the action look fluid and believable and the scenes and set pieces were breathtakingly impressive in places and made for a suitably raucous and exciting viewing experience, particularly during the films many fight/action scenes.

 In a sort of opposition of opinion with many reviewers I also found myself quite engaged with the story of the movie which surprised me as well. The premise IS admittedly a little bit cliche/typical; with a robot girl Alita found on a scrap heap and repaired by a friendly doctor where she then sets out on a quest to remember who she is and to protect those she grows to love it certainly isn't the most original plot, but is nevertheless engaging in no small part due to the excellent performance given by the films lead actress. Rosa Salazar proves to be a revelation as Alita, she delivers an extremely sincere, innocent yet strong performance that captured my attention throughout. Although there were a few strong performances from a few supporting cast members such as Christoph Waltz and Jennifer Connolly, Salazar remains the lone stand out in a movie full of fairly hit and miss performances which let down an otherwise exciting and interesting film.

 In terms of world building, Alita: Battle Angel doesn't pull any punches as it tries to pack in all of the fluff it can in 2 hours 22 minutes which DOES at times break up the pacing of the film in a negative way but DOES manage to get me invested in the world, to the point where I went home an read up myself on some of the things touched upon but not expanded in the movie. It felt like there was so much more left to explore by the time the movie ended and it was here where the movie faltered for me.

 The final 20 minutes of the film felt like a bit of a rushed mish mash of (good) action scenes intermingled with exposition at the speed of light, in what felt like an effort to set up a sequel as quickly as possible. Being totally honest, I didn't expect the film to end when it did and such clear sequel bait left an ever so slightly bitter taste in the mouth to round off an otherwise delicious experience.

 All in all, Alita: Battle Angel is a technical marvel, a beautiful and well made piece of action film making which suffers from a few average performances and a confusing final act preventing it from achieving true greatness. On a personal note, I enjoyed it a great deal and would hope for a sequel in the coming years but of course the possibility of a second movie remains to be seen. I highly recommend watching this film if you can, even just for the tight actions scenes and Rosa Salazars charm your pants off performance.


7/10

"I do not stand by, in the presence of evil"- Alita