Evan Frisco

This was the first movie I watched with ScreenX, and I was pleasantly knocked off my ballance by the opening scene. I came into this movie expecting to be making fun of the big eyes and looking for problems with the background characters the whole time, but I quickly and unexpectedly found myself thoroughly caught up in the story and my disbelief in full suspension. I had read the comics before, but the story telling in the movie was easily solid enough to avoid constant comparison, while at the same time remaining pleasantly loyal. Rosa Salazar as Alita is empathetic and takes your feels with her on a few of the physical and emotional tumbles she takes in the film while also really making it fun to root for her as she beats up the bad guys. Not often does an action hero manage to make me feel like this. The rest of the characterizations work really well too and managed to capture the visual art of the comic in most cases without excessive CG or cosmetic manipulation. A lot of critics complained about the common tropes and generic plot elements, but I think this story can be mostly forgiven due both to it's origin in 1990, predating most other scifi pieces to which you might compare it, and to it's classic epic-hero style - a certain set of of tropes are required when setting up this kind of story and you can't hold them against the story-teller just because they're identifiable. It's really the characters and the world hung on these plot fixtures that make them enjoyable or lame. The ending is begging for a sequel, so I really hope others enjoy this movie as much as I did and share it with friends!