Michael's Movie Grade: C+Review: A great lead character enhances a rather ordinary but enjoyable action film.
It seems strange to me that so many action movies have such boring lead characters. To me action is the genre that is in most need of great characters. To me the excitement of an action scene comes from wanting to see a character come out on top. If I don't care what happens in an action scene then why would I care to watch it. That's why I'm glad to say Alita herself is the greatest strength of the movie. Despite her having the line "Does it bother you I'm not fully human?," she is actually by far the most human character in the movie. She could have so easily just been a wide eyed (pun intended) innocent in a harsh world, but she is more than this. Due to her loss of memories, there is a bit of the innocent to her, but this only makes up a small part of her personality. She is intrinsically drawn to danger for reasons that are beyond her comprehension. While the rest of the world just accepts the dystopian world around her, she fights for what she knows is right almost as an instinct. This endears her to us because we want to be like that. Helping make this character work is a very good performance by Rosa Salazar. The character also makes the action scenes more exciting. The action scenes while nothing too special are quite good and I couldn't help feeling that excitement at times.
It is too bad the rest of the movie couldn't be as great as our lead character. The rest of the film is not bad by any means, but it is nothing that great either. The story often seems made up of movie clichés and there are quite a few moments when you feel you have seen what is happening on screen before. There are also so many lines of dialogue that are as cliché as can be. While Alita is great the other characters can feel more than a little bland at times. While the environment is visually pleasing, it is not anything unique. It looks like so many dystopian futures we have seen in so many movies before. Not visually pleasing however are the non-Alita cyborgs. The human faces on machines is just unpleasant to look at. It is strange that with how the filmmakers made Alita look good, that the other cyborgs should look so terrible.
By the way I am actually kind of shocked this movie got just a PG-13, it is pretty dang violent at times. I guess the MPAA is softer on violence to cyborgs than violence to humans.
Overall if you want an enjoyable little action movie, this is a good one, but if you are looking for anything more look elsewhere.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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