Ethan Yeo

Alita: Battle Angel is a beautiful creation sprung from the mind of the great James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar). Action, comedy, and just the perfect amount of romance mixed with a dash of gore, plus the good use of its one F-bomb, make Battle Angel into one of the best Sci-Films of the last 7 years. The movie also gets plus points for being one of most faithful anime to live action adaptations, Rosa Salazar's motion-capture performance as titular character Alita gives the cyborg girl a touch of life that is right up there with any of Andy Serkis's mo-cap characters. As for the characters, Alita is relatable and likeable from the moment she opens her anime-like eyes, the villains are established as complete villains from the offset and Doctor Ido is made into a father figure within the first third of the movie. CGI was absolutely breathtaking, everything had its own little movement going on to make the streets of Iron City come to life like a ruined version of New York City. The only two negatives I can think of is the use of the exact words 'panzerkunst' and 'Hunter-Warrior', and Keean Johnson's acting as Hugo. No offence, still a great performance, but I feel that his character was undermined by awkward dialogue reminiscent of Hayden Christensen in Star Wars Episode II. Breaking through critic's reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic with a score of 60% and 54% respectively, but achieving an audience score of 93% and a box office of 260M+ makes it an absolute winner in my book. I give it a rating of 9/10. An absolute must-see for any self-respecting Sci-Fi fan.