Warning: Minor Spoilers Ahead

Alita: Battle Angel, Number 99, Hunter-Warrior, and lover of chocolate. Alita is the hero of her story and made her big screen debut on February 14, 2019. With a budget of $200 million and the first trailer airing in 2017, fans have been waiting and expected a great deal. Can Alita live up to expectations, or will she make a fall from grace?

Alita: Battle Angel uses a seamless combination of CGI and live action to create this post-apocalyptic world in which a city in the sky rules over them and cyborgs are common. Alita is found by Doctor Ido in a scrap yard and is fixed up and given a second chance at life. Ido tries to keep Alita away from the dangers of the world, but Alita always rushes into battle without a second thought.

The style of the movie added a unique aspect to this futuristic world. It made all the cybernetic beings seem real but still different from the typical human. The CGI talent carried over into the breathtaking action scenes that were plentiful throughout the movie.

Alita: Battle Angel ends leaving the audience with a need for more. The action sequences are more violent than expected for a PG-13 movie. There were lots of deaths, decapitations, and dismemberments. If violence and blood make you uneasy, this movie is most likely not for you.  

Most of the movie follows Alita as she tries to remember who she once was and struggles to create a new life for her. She befriends a scavenger named Hugo who shows her the world during the daytime. At night Alita begins to sneak out of Doctor Ido’s house to explore on her own. She finds herself following the series of murders and other crimes that have taken over her new home.

Then Alita catches the attention of the beings of Tiphares, specifically the mysterious Nova. They recognize Alita’s fighting style and advance technology and send a series of cyborgs to collect her body. But our favorite Battle Angel won’t go down without a fight.

Hugo introduces Alita to a new sport called Motorball, and she quickly finds herself captivated by it. The Motorball scenes provide action scenes, and the scrimmages create a realistic way to build the future world. Motorball is a mix between Roller derby and Quidditch and was one of the best aspects of the movie.

Towards the end of the movie, right before the climax, Alita participates in a game that turns into a fight for her life. Hugo was an interesting character in the way that his development was extensive but rushed. In the beginning he seems as the perfect boy who sweeps Alita off her feet and shows her the world in a post-apocalyptic Aladdin style. But it is revealed that he works for one of Nova’s lackeys, Vector, in the ground city. When he grows too close to Alita, Vector sends a corrupt bounty hunter to kill him. Alita rushes to save him, but in order to save him Hugo becomes a cyborg.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The art style and complex world set helped to set it apart from other science-fiction movies. The fight scenes were breathtaking and unlike nothing I had ever seen. Alita was a very interesting character to follow and I am excited to see where her story takes her next. While Alita and Ido were fascinating and static characters, Hugo was not. He fit the mold for “bad boy” too well and this made it hard to connect and root for him. Because of this, I never really cared what happened to him.

If anything in this review interested you, go and see Alita: Battle Angel. Even if you aren’t typically a science-fiction movie person, you would be surprised at how quickly you fall into this world. Alita is a strong female hero that we can all look up to. The only way to form your own opinions about this movie is to go and see it. It won’t be in theatres much longer!