MOVIE REPORT CARD: ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL

Date: 2/14/19
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Mahershala Ali, Jennifer Connelly, Keean Johnson, Ed Skrein, Idara Victor

GRADES

ACTING: 70
DIRECTING: 70
SCREENPLAY: 55
CINEMATOGRAPHY: 90
EDITING: 70
SOUNDTRACK: 70

FINAL: 71/C

COMMENTS

Alita: Battle Angel is not great. It's not good. It's barely passable as OK. It does this because of two factors. The first, is Rosa Salazar, as the titular character. She is so good, so likable, and so charismatic as Alita, the film is salvaged; strike that, watchable because of it. The second, is the mind-boggling special effects. Alita, and her world, are so believable and brought to life stunningly. However, everything else here borders on an epic fail. The script is excruciatingly bad. Dialogue is beyond cringe worthy at times. Moments meant to be played out as serious, are laughable. Christoph Waltz, is the only other thing worth mentioning as a positive. He is solid, and plays off of Salazar, nicely. Mahershala Ali, on the eve of probably winning another Oscar, is so, so, so, bad in this. Jennifer Connelly, is beyond wasted here as well. I hope Cameron, used this as practice for writing a screenplay, as he needs to shake off all that rust before his bazillion Avatar sequels. This thing makes me nervous for those (and yes, I'm still a fan of the first). While Rodriguez, doesn't do him any favors (aside from getting the effects right), the biggest problems with Alita start and end with this dreadful screenplay. Salazar, is letdown by all of this. It's a damn shame.