Soooo last week, I took myself (and my dad) to the movies, and we saw Alita: Battle Angel. I really didn’t know what to expect from it, but I know people were excited, and my dad wanted to see it, and since it’ll probably be nominated for something since it’s James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez, I figured I should see it.

I have…mixed feelings about it.

But we’ll get into all that later.

THE PLOT

The movie starts with Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz) finding the head and partial torso of a cyborg in the scrapyard of Iron City. He gives her a body since he is a cyborg clinic doctor of some sort, and the cyborg awakens the next morning to a brand new body (and also a head of hair? That’s never explained). This is Alita (Rosa Salazar). Alita talks with Ido and his assistant (Idara Victor), asking if they know who she is, as she has no idea. Ido claims to not know either, and he takes Alita out for a brief day on the town. This is where she meets Hugo (Keean Johnson) and he’s cute and saves her from oncoming traffic so naturally she liiiiikes him.

Because of this meeting with Hugo, Alita’s rebellious teenage phase kicks in fast, and she meets with him and his pals as often as possible, learning of a rather violent and popular sport called Motorball. She joins them for a scrimmage, and after she’s shoved aside by Hugo’s friend Tanji (Jorge Landeborg Jr.), her vengeful warrior phase kicks in fast and she absolutely decimates him in retaliation. Tanji complains about this to Hugo, and Hugo just goes “haha yeah she beat you up lol she’s pretty” (I mean that’s basically it, okay).

In other news, some…villain or something is apparently targeting women on the streets at night where he apparently destroys them and sells their parts (this is never fully explained in the movie, but apparently in the manga it’s common knowledge that the world has gotten to the point where humans can replace almost their entire body with cyborg parts, and if they could, why wouldn’t they? We see this in the film, but we never really get an explanation. Anyway). Because of this, Ido doesn’t want Alita out alone after dark. But she’s ~rebellious~ so she follows him one night and, based off of what she sees, assumes Ido is the murderer. She tries to stop him, but it’s revealed that he’s actually hunting the murderer, and this was actually a trap. They’re attacked by various cyborgs, and though Ido tells Alita to stay out of the way, Alita dives into combat to save him and absolutely destroys two of the three cyborgs (she cripples the third and he escapes screaming that he “NEVER FORGETS!!!!! EVER!!!!!!!”).

The battle brings on a sort of flashback for Alita, where she’s in a big battle on the moon, as you do. Ido reveals that he is a hunter warrior, which is kind of like Iron City’s version of police since they don’t actually have police. Anyone can apply to be a hunter warrior (or bounty hunter as they’re called during the other half of the movie), and they get paid for the marks they destroy. Alita, naturally, is all over this but Ido says it’s too dangerous. Alita, in response, runs away from him very maturely.

There’s a lot of other stuff that happens, basically Alita really wants to know who she is but she also becomes a hunter warrior, also she gets a new body. As you do. She does all this against Ido’s wishes but ~she doesn’t live by his rules~. Ido is initially upset by this but then he’s like “eh whatever.” His assistant has maybe three sentences the whole film. Hugo gives Alita sparkle eyes the whole film, but his main character trait is that he wants to get to the sky city of Zalem, which is where Alita probably came from since she was found in the scrapyard.

I can’t really say much more without spoilers, so let’s dive into it.

THE REVIEW

I really wanted to like this movie. Really!

I like robots. I like cyberpunk. I like beautiful scenery and well-choreographed fight scenes. I like intricate world-building.

But I also really like good characters. And I really…didn’t like anyone in this movie. I didn’t like the script (much of the dialogue was so cheesy that the actors couldn’t do much about it). I really didn’t like most of the plot.

Now, this movie is based off of a manga (Battle Angel Alita, or Gunnm). And from what I’ve read from fans of the manga, this is a relatively faithful adaptation, and they really like it! And that’s great. I came into this completely fresh-I’m an anime fan myself, but I’d never read Gunnm and I’d never seen the two OVA’s that were made based off the manga. All of this was completely new to me, and it was hard to follow, felt really disjointed, and just…bleh.

So it’s entirely possible that maybe I would have liked it if I’d been a fan of the manga first-it’s always fun to see something like that come to life in a new way. I think it’s why I’ll probably really like the Detective Pikachu movie no matter how weird it is.

But coming to this as an outsider, there wasn’t anything for me to like, really. I’ll go into each point in more detail, but I guess if you’re an avid Battle Angel fan, you might wanna stop reading now. I don’t have a lot of good things to say, admittedly. Except about the scenery and the character design (with the exception of those big ol’ scary eyes), both of which were delightful. But the acting? I don’t get why everyone is obsessed with Rosa Salazar’s performance in particular. The romance? Bleh. Not believable and sooooo predictable and just…there’s no basis to it. The characters? Anyone I may have liked is killed or has two lines of dialogue. The animals? HAHA RIP. The plot? It just felt very all over the place and just…I didn’t really care about it? The villains? The main big bad barely shows up, teasing a sequel, of COURSE. They build up this big fight and there is ZERO PAYOFF.

I did want to like it, really! It just wasn’t enjoyable for me. I’ll include things that would have helped, in my opinion, but again: if you did really like the film, that’s awesome! I’m happy for you! I did not, but that’s on me, it’s my personal taste, and ours differs here.

For everyone else, let’s get into it. Spoiler warning now in effect!

THE MUSIC

As always, we start with the music.

Meh.

Honestly it didn’t play that big a part in the movie. There were the occasional moments where the fun techno-y beat would come in and that was fun, it fit the cyberpunk aesthetic. But there was no particular score moment that really stood out to me. I’d probably have to listen to the soundtrack on its own so that I can be a better judge of it without my negative thoughts about the movie crowding my brain.

The credits song was a Dua Lipa song about being powerful, so that was good.

THE CHARACTERS

Alright, sit down with me, kids, as we discuss why I didn’t like anyone in this film. (actually, I take that back: I liked 3 people. We’ll get to that)

So much of the film hinges on the likability of three characters since we spend the most time with them, hands down: Ido, Alita, and Hugo.

Ido is probably the most likable of those three for me, but that’s not saying much. He’s interesting, at least-we learn that he runs this clinic where he does free repairs on people who have cyborg parts and can’t afford to go anywhere else. He keeps the clinic open with the payments he receives as a hunter warrior/bounty hunter. He had a daughter in a wheelchair (we never learn why she is in a wheelchair, if there was an accident or something she was born with, it’s never explained) named Alita who was killed by one of Ido’s patients. This is why his wife (?) Chiren (Jennifer Connolly) left him. He names Alita after his dead daughter, and her first body is one he designed for his daughter that she never got to use (I guess in the source material, he names Alita after a late cat he was very fond of, but I guess that wasn’t ~dramatic~ enough for the film). But while Ido has all these interesting traits, they never do a lot with him. He is a plot device used to put Alita and Hugo back together. He clearly is protective of Alita since he sort of accidentally replaces his daughter with her, but even after she disobeys his orders countless times, he never punishes her or argues with her, not really. He has one facial expression the entire film. Alita is able to manipulate him to do what she wants suuuuuuper easily. And it doesn’t even matter because she does what she wants anyway!

Hugo is ~cool~ because he wears a leather jacket and has long broody floppy hair and he rides a motorized unicycle (YOU THINK I’M KIDDING). But he’s pretty and thinks Alita is pretty and he’s a strong, developed character because he makes sure the audience knows he is not intimidated by how terrifyingly murderous Alita is. That’s a line. In the film. He says “you know most guys would be intimidated by a girl like you” BUT I’M NOT MOST GUYS I’M ~DIFFERENT~. We learn next to nothing about his backstory, except that he wants to get to the sky city. Honestly that’s like, everyone’s backstory. They all want to get to the sky city because Iron City is absolute hell. He’s almost interesting when it’s revealed that he and his friends work for Vector (Mahershala Ali) by paralyzing people and stealing necessary parts. He got into it in order to raise enough money to get to Zalem. However, once he and Alita are ~involved~, he wants to get out of the business. Especially before Alita finds out. BECAUSE WHY TELL HER HIMSELF, AM I RIGHT. So, I mean, yeah he feels bad about the part-stealing once he loves Alita, but we don’t even know him long enough to see where that would have gone because he gets killed. And then he’s alive. And then he dies again.

Alita is…annoying. She really is. I adored her in the beginning because it was super cute watching her discover the world. Oranges?? Amazing! CHOCOLATE??? Best thing ever!!!! Cute boys??? Ooooooooh! They could have done so much more with that! Like how does she know how to react around Hugo? How does she know about kissing or hand-holding or any of that? Can you imagine a scene where Hugo explains a kiss to her? (A la Mork and Mindy, of course) But we never get that. Look, I love that she is the main character of this film. She is a badass girl and the center of a major sci-fi thriller, which is awesome! But you can’t make a character like that be so invincible that they’re just not relatable. The fight scenes were almost never nail-biters because you know Alita will be fine-even when she’s nothing but a torso with a head and one arm, she somehow punches her way out and Ido rebuilds her anyway. They try to make it this big thing that Alita is starting over with a clean slate, only she can decide if she’s gonna be good or bad…which is fine, except she never really has that clean slate. Except for the very beginning when she’s discovering oranges and boys, she is never naive enough to have a choice. She is immediately drawn to the violence of Motorball because she was a warrior. She’s drawn to conflict and loves fighting because she was a warrior. She never had a clean slate-but she could have been a fascinating anti-hero choosing a new path. Maybe she did terrible things in the past, killed hundreds, maybe thousands, and being aware of that is what helps her change. But no, instead we get a forced narrative and an impossibly invincible hero we can never really worry about because of course she’ll be fine.

My other main issue with Alita as a character is that she never has to face the consequences of her actions. Not really. She never apologizes to Ido for going out at night against his wishes because she saved him so of course everything’s fine. She never apologizes for Ito for getting his dead daughter’s cyborg body destroyed in the second fight with Grewishka. She immediately gets the Berserker body she wanted after the fight, despite Ido saying she shouldn’t have it because of how dangerous and lethal it is. She never assumes that it is her fault that Zapan came after Hugo and killed Tanji because of the way she humiliated him. She doesn’t even have to face the consequence of Hugo’s first death because Chiren is there like a freakin deus ex machina and surgically wires him to Alita’s life force to save him.

“But what about Hugo’s death the second time??” Look, I get that this is from the source material, but the emotional impact of Hugo’s death is utterly destroyed the second he has to die again. Also, how do we even know for sure he’s dead this time? All we saw is him falling dramatically. I know he’s dead in the source material, but this is Hollywood. Do they ever really die?

I’m not saying it’s not awesome that Alita is so powerful- again, it’s great to see an ultra-powerful female character be the star and the center of a major sci-fi film. We should have more stuff like that! But it’s like filmmakers are so afraid to make anything other than a perfect, flawless female who’s way overpowered and has no weaknesses. That scene at the end where she slices her own tear in half? What, is she not allowed to feel? (Trick question-she’s a cyborg)

There’s nothing wrong with giving your hero characters some flaws-that’s what makes them relatable. We want to see them succeed when we know they’ve struggled to get where they are. We cheer for them when they overcome their own flaws because we want to do the same. People want to see themselves on the screen, especially as the hero: but it doesn’t seem attainable when the hero is perfect. Take my personal favorite Marvel hero Iron Man, for example: dude’s a mess. He’s narcissistic, a genius and he flaunts it, and absolutely riddled with PTSD. He has panic attacks in Iron Man 3. It didn’t weaken him as a hero-it made us feel for him and be happy for him when he pushed through his pain. He cries and we cry with him because that’s okay!

Alita is not allowed to mourn Hugo because she has to stay strong to make it to Zalem to fight Nova. Fine, but let her break down. That scream she gave when Hugo fell? Show her broken, alone in her bed crying. If she loved Hugo like she said, she would absolutely be torn apart by his (second) death. But we never see that. She sheds one tear and cuts it in half. She’s not allowed to feel because she’d be less of a hero if she did.

And that simply isn’t true! Let heroes be vulnerable. It makes their successes that much more powerful for the audience.

I could rant about Alita as a character forever (clearly) but I have to touch on some other characters:

First, let’s discuss some of the other bounty hunters: most of them end up dead, and we never really learn much about them anyways! Cool, that was fun. There is one bounty hunter who works with a whole lot of robot dogs, which like…give me a movie about him, please!!

Next: Ido’s assistant Nurse Gerhad, Tanji, and Koyomi (Lana Condor). Both Gerhad and Koyomi make it through the film alive (miraculously) but Tanji is brutally murdered trying to save Hugo. And all we get is one shot of his death and on mention from Hugo that he died. Alita (naturally) doesn’t seem to care that Tanji is dead-that would be facing the consequences of her actions and as we know, Alita doesn’t do that.

Gerhad and Koyomi have a couple sentences each in the film. And that’s it.

Fun fact: you can’t claim it’s diversity if your diverse characters all die or barely speak during the film!!

THE ROMANCE

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

When I read some reviews from people who knew the source material, I was hoping that Alita’s and Hugo’s relationship would be further developed in the manga, but it doesn’t really sound like it. I guess the major change is that apparently, Hugo was so blinded by his desperation to get to the sky city that he didn’t notice Alita’s feelings for him. That could have been fun, but instead, we get this.

Alita and Hugo are obsessed with each other, like, to a scary degree, and right from the start. Alita’s fixation on him kind of makes sense, he saves her from getting smashed in the street, and she’s a cyborg, it’d be fascinating to go into how cyborg “love” might be different from human love (and I feel like they sort of play with that in a later scene? But it’s never really…explained. Like she quite literally takes out her own heart and offers it to Hugo and when he refuses she’s just like “HAHA THAT WAS INTENSE, SORRY LOL” like…what), but nooooooooo. Hugo I guess just has a thing for big eyes? Idk man.

Look, I’m a huge romantic, I own this about myself. I think it’s absolutely possible for Hollywood to create a lovely, beautiful romantic relationship, but of course, the flip-side is also true. If you couldn’t tell, characters are important to me and can really make or break a film in my opinion. As previously discussed, none of the characters in Alita: Battle Angel really spoke to me (literally and figuratively since they died or had two lines in the entire film), and that includes our main pair of lovers here. I guess they’re going for a Hunger Games-esque relationship with these two-two teens in a dystopian world, battling their circumstances and their feelings for each other or whatever.

Now, everyone has their own opinions about how the Hunger Games romance(s) work(ed) out, but you have to admit that at the very least, we got some actual character development for our romantic leads. They all had scenes that showed all sides of them: good, bad, broken, and unique. Gale is Katniss’s best friend, her person, but he’s also easily blinded by anger and his personal desire for revenge, and he’s also incredibly selfish. Peeta is completely selfless in some ways, he would give himself for Katniss in an instant (they both would, really). He was abused by his parents and is also never not injured. Like…really. He’s also very quick to shut people (especially Katniss) out when he’s hurting. Katniss, as our narrator and main character, is the one we spend the most time with, so we know her the best. She’s incredibly caring and protective, and all of her most glorified actions in the rebellion are born completely out of her love for someone or something (placing bunches of flowers all around Rue’s body, singing the “hanging tree” song, doing the famous whistle and salute, and of course, volunteering to take Prim’s place). Katniss also has terrible PTSD, I mean, of course she does. Like Gale, she’s also easily blinded by anger. She often acts without thinking. Like Peeta, she’s willing to give her life in an instant because she thinks she’s not worth it.

Now, all of that is those characters at their most basic. Compare that to Alita and Hugo. What sides do we see of them? Hugo wants to go to the sky city. Okay…do we know why? He just wants to escape the “hell” that is the Iron City. I mean, okay, fine. He chooses Alita over his friends, specifically by telling them they need to stop stealing people’s cyborg parts for money. He gets framed for a murder he doesn’t commit. Alita wants to learn about her past, and she disobeys the father figure who rescues her time and time again to do it. She’s ruthless when it comes to people who are hunting her down, presumably because of her mysterious warrior past. She loves the little dog she befriends (I assume? They had two interactions before…we don’t talk about that scene).

Alita and Hugo are cookiecutter characters at best; they do the things they do because it moves the story along and the plot calls for it, not because of any specific character traits they possess that explains their actions.

Katniss is a rebellious teenager just as much as Alita is. But all of Katniss’s actions are motivated by who she is, not what she is. Alita doesn’t have any quirks (besides giant eyes and being a cyborg, I guess?) to help explain her behavior except TEENAGE GIRL!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!

All this to say, Alita and Hugo’s romance isn’t believable because they aren’t believable as whole, separate characters on their own.

Now, I realize that this is just one movie, and unfortunately, there’s a giant sequel-tease, so there will probably be at least one more of these. So Alita may very well be more developed in the future. I’m also sure she’s well-developed in the source material; anime and manga characters are (generally) consistently very, very well-developed and well-rounded characters with positive and negative traits alike. Hugo might even be interesting in the source material instead of just ~pretty~ and ~brooding~.

He reminds me of that violinist guy from that one…weird movie High Strung. Anyone see that? I think it’s on Netflix. It’s a trip. There’s a scene where guys fence with violin bows.

(also like…that whole second death scene is just…first of all, it takes away all of the emotion from the initial death scene, like Alita already went through this, but like…isn’t her body like super powerful now? Like it heals itself? Is there a reason she couldn’t just…let go and cradle Hugo as they fell so she took most of the brunt force of the landing? No? Is it…is it because of the drama and the sequel-baiting? Is that it? Yeah. Yeah that’s it.

It’s that stupid door from Titanic all over again.)

THE ONE MOMENT

We have to talk about it. They put it in here so we have to talk about it.

So listen, when I was reading reviews from people who knew the source material, I was disappointed to learn that this scene is also in the source material. I mean, I’m not surprised I guess, but…blech.

I knew there was going to be some moment where Alita put blood on her face like war paint (which is very unsanitary but you do you I guess) because of the trailer.

But I guess I thought the blood would be like, her father figure. For like real intense motivation, you know? Or like maybe, in her flashbacks, she would always be wearing warpaint or something, so this would be a way to connect with her previous self.

But no. What happens is that the pure, innocent, cute little stray dog that Alita befriended in the beginning stands up to Grewishka to protect Alita…and he gets slaughtered for it.

And it’s the dog’s blood that Alita puts on her face.

Look, I’m sure it’s supposed to represent some intense metaphor like the DEATH OF INNOCENCE because this is also right before Alita destroys her “younger” body (YEAH WHEN SHE GETS HER NEW BODY, it changes as it gets used to her, which basically means she gets more curves and bigger boobs onscreen. This causes the nurse and the doctor to be like “oh she was older than we thought. Haha!” GROSS. STOP. NO. WHY.)

Like, whatever, but leave innocent little dogs out of this. We already don’t deserve dogs and you’re making it worse. There has to be some other way to symbolize the DEATH OF INNOCENCE.

For example, that moment in Mulan? It’s when she replaces her father’s conscription notice with her hair comb. It perfectly symbolizes the DEATH OF INNOCENCE and the change Mulan goes through-she matures so much in that instance and she’ll never try to be a delicate flower again.

See? Beautiful, effective symbolism, all without the unnecessary death of lovable canines. Thanks.

THE “VILLAINS”

You could argue that this movie has multiple villains. You could try to do that, yes.

The big baddie is the mysterious Nova, who…we barely see during the film. He can somehow infiltrate the bodies of others, which is never explained, and while his reigning presence is brought up through the film, there’s never any pay-off because HEAVEN FORBID WE DON’T HAVE A SEQUEL.

Other villains include Zapan (pictured above), who only became a villain really because Alita made a big deal about showing him up at the bar. Like, he was obnoxious and rude and obviously not great before, but Alita’s insistence at humiliating him turned him into an actual villain. She is the reason he frames Hugo for murder and ultimately is the reason for his death. Alita slices his face off because, I mean, TEENAGE GIRLS AM I RIGHT.

There’s also Vector, who like, could have been a fascinating villain if he’d had…any development whatsoever. But he’s the villain because!! He…rigged the Motorball tryouts! And…he doesn’t like Alita! That’s…that’s about all he is and does. The rest of the movie, Nova is basically controlling him, and when Alita kills Vector? It’s not even Vector. She has no mercy for him and doesn’t even let him die as Vector. He dies as a Nova puppet. Which like…ooh, you go, Alita? You really…showed him? Vector’s not even her main enemy, but he’s built up as if he is, and then his death is like “meh, well, that’s done.”

WHAT IS HIS BACKSTORY??? WHY did he get into the nasty business of transporting people(‘s organs) to the sky city??? WHO IS HE??? We will literally never know. Now Mahershala Ali does great with the role, of course, for what little it actually is.

Grewishka is built up as this BIG, BAD BADDIE WITH NO FEELINGS!!! ONLY HATRED!!! KILL ALITA!!!! MRAHHHHHH!!! GET BIG EVIL CHAIN CLAW ARMS!!!!!

And then Alita kills him REAL quick in the final act. And that’s it.

Cool.

THE ART

Aight, there is a LOT I dislike about this movie, clearly. And I will own that. But I do have to talk about the scenery, the designs, and the general art of the movie.

Because DAMN, YOU GUYS.

While I was sitting there absolutely hating pretty much everyone who was on the screen, I was simultaneously in awe of the design of the movie. Because this is a LOVELY movie you guys, at least visually. The world-building of the Iron City is stunning and I loved whenever they were just walking around or showing different parts of the city. The character design? Gorgeous. The design of Alita’s first body is like, engraved ivory or something, it’s beautiful. The Motorball scrimmage scene is just fun-looking, it’s gritty and dystopian and perfect. The thought that goes into the design of every single different cyborg character is incredible.

Now, I have mixed feelings about Alita’s ridiculously giant eyes. It’s like we said “hey can we have an actually decent anime adaptation that isn’t white-washed and clearly shows love for the source material?” and Hollywood was like “so what you’re saying is…the thing we’re missing in these anime adaptations…is the biG ANIME EYES!! YES!!!” and we all said “no wait” but they did it anyway.

However, I read from one of the people who knows the source material, that apparently when Ido finds Alita in the scrapyard originally, her eyes are OPEN. Like that’d be super freaky of course, but apparently it’s because there’s this whole big theme in the original series about the importance of eyes-in the current world, it’s possible to replace almost every part of your body with cyborg parts. Eyes are incredibly valuable because of this. Plus there’s all that stuff we know about “eyes being the window to the soul” or whatever.

So like, from that standpoint? Super cool.

Did they actually explain that or go into that in the movie?

No.

At least everything was pretty to look at.

WHAT I WISHED HAD HAPPENED

I think this movie had a lot riding on it, and it had a lot of potential. Apparently, I am very alone in thinking it wasn’t good…at all. And that’s fine.

One thing that consistently bugs me the more I think about it is Alita’s characterization. Now, again, I don’t know how it goes down in the manga/OVAs, but when I liked Alita the most is when she had just woken up and was seeing the world for the first time-that was when she was actually vulnerable. That was when Alita was relatable. Seeing Alita freak out about chocolate? YES, GIRL, ME TOO. Seeing her lose her mind about a cute boy that saved her and smiled at her? SAME, GIRL, SAME. And this picture here, where she’s curled up like a kid with a cute stuffed…thing?

As soon as Alita becomes this invincible weapon, she loses any humanity she’d previously developed and Hugo apparently loved her for. And maybe that’s the point. But it was so quick.

She NEVER goes back to this vulnerable kid again-even when she loses Hugo (for real…”for real”) she doesn’t get to break down about it. Yeah, she screams for him in the moment, but like I mentioned before, she then slices her own tear in half and doesn’t let herself feel weak.

Now, okay, okay, this could be good setup for an interesting arc in the sequel. I agree! Maybe Alita learns that letting yourself feel the sad things makes you more human, not less, and isn’t that what Hugo would have wanted (I guess? who knows what Hugo wants. His character is never explained. Except big eyes? Is that what he wants?)? Sure!

My point is that you can’t give Alita all these vulnerable scenes and then rip ALL of that away from her-why does she have no remorse for those she kills? Why does she paint the dog’s blood on her face rather than cry for it?

Dear Hollywood,

You’re allowed to write strong female characters that also have emotions. Showing them breaking down and feeling sad and then working to overcome those feelings, watching them dealing with them rather than ignoring them…that’s what makes a strong female character.

Female characters don’t have to be either ALL emotion or NO emotion. They can be both.

Groundbreaking, I know.

All I want is a movie about a cyborg girl who discovers things like oranges and chocolate and then discovers she used to be a weapon and then spends time choosing to be a weapon again, not because she feels like she has to because she used to, but because she finds something to fight for. Let her feel something about the people she kills. It’s okay to. Or if she doesn’t explain why. Let her go through a journey.

As beautifully choreographed as the fight scenes in this movie were, maybe less fight scenes and more character development. It makes the story stronger.

Just me?

Okay.

“OOF” MOMENT

…can I say the whole movie?

Okay, okay, that’s mean. But really, there were so many moments that just…ugh it didn’t feel like I was watching a big blockbuster movie, it felt like I was watching a student film project. It’s the dang script. “You are the most human person I’ve ever met”? REALLY?

YOU HAVE REAL HUMAN FRIENDS, HUGO. NOT THAT YOU WOULD KNOW BECAUSE YOU IGNORE THEM MOST OF THE FILM AS SOON AS ALITA SHOWS UP.

Anyway. That dog death scene though. The one we don’t talk about. Yeah. That moment wins.

FAVORITE MOMENT

Hands down it’s when Alita tries chocolate for the first time.

SHOULD YOU TAKE YOURSELF TO THIS MOVIE?

Look, clearly, I am not the person to answer this question.

But, the general consensus seems to be that yes, you should. Do you like the source material? Great, you’ll probably like the movie. Do you like movies with lots of fights and a dead dog and poorly developed characters and terrible dialogue and did I mention the dead dog and also no pay-off because Hollywood can’t make a movie without baiting a sequel anymore? Cool! You’ll definitely like this movie!

I understand that people who are a fan of the source material are a fan of this adaptation, and that’s great! But coming into it as a fresh eye with no knowledge of the source material? I hated it. I really did. And I hate it more the more I think about it. A week has gone by and I’ve definitely settled on hating it. I used to just dislike it.

But if you like it, that is AWESOME. I’m glad you can appreciate things about this movie that I can’t!

But for me, I give Alita: Battle Angel…

1/5 VERY GOOD BOYS WHO ARE ALSO VERY ALIVE BECAUSE THEY DESERVED BETTER!!

Look at how happy and pure and not dead they are!

TRAILERS TO WATCH OUT FOR

We got a couple of repeats as usual (Us!!!! And Pet Sematary AGAIN), so here are the newbies: Captive State looks FASCINATING. When the trailer first started, I thought it was another Cloverfield movie (and let’s be real-it might still somehow be a Cloverfield movie), but it looks like it’s some sort of dystopian take on political issues but with ALIENS??? I really hope it’s as interesting as it looks, because it sounds like it might be really cool. Next is MIB: International WHICH. Y’ALL. FAM. I AM SO BEYOND EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE. I didn’t even know I needed Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth as MIB agents but I DO. I SO DO!!!! The Hustle looks…mehhhhhhhh. I so want it to be good, I’ve loved Anne Hathaway lately, but Rebel Wilson movies seem to be extremely hit or miss. Like it’s a fun premise and it could be really good, but it could also be a lot of physical humor revolving around “haha Rebel Wilson is fat and Anne Hathaway isn’t” which like…we need to stop doing that in female-led movies. In ANY movies, but especially female-led ones because we are better than that. Finally, there was Tolkien, which, as soon as someone figures out what that movie is actually about, please let me know. Like…is it about his life? How he came up with Lord of the Rings? The trailer is really pretty but it honestly doesn’t tell us much. Except that Lily Collins is in it, and I love her. Which means she probably dies.

And that does it for this review! If you made it this far and still want to see the movie, go for it. I won’t understand it, but you do you, pal.