“Alita: Battle Angel”

While working on the Avatar sequels, James Cameron took time out of his busy schedule to produce a very cool looking sci-fi film based on a Japanese graphic novel. The film has a lot of style and vision, plenty of action and is loaded with interesting characters. But what is this movie really about and who is this movie marketed for? The story is all over the place. We get a really interesting set-up, but nothing is really drawn out and I wanted to know more about some of these guys. It’s also quite violent for a PG-13 movie which I’ve seen marketed for kids. It’s not overly graphic to gain an R, but we get some pretty good kills including a guy cut in half. Appropriate for a graphic novel, however. This isn’t a bad movie, but it has lots of problems with the script and its too long. I wish the film was tighter and more contrite and you’d have a better film. I saw it in IMAX 3-D because that’s how it was marketed. You can skip the 3-D. It’s cool at times, but not really worth the extra coin. Suitable for 10 and up.

Rating (**1/2)