<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Robert Rodriguez. Starring Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keean Johnson

Running time: 2 hours

If you want to go for a film where you watch the first half hour and then make out with your partner for the rest of it till the last 15 minutes while coming up for air intermittently, then Alita: Battle Angel is perfect.

Why James Cameron likes movies with so much violence I don’t know. He used to channel it better with movies like The Terminator and Aliens but now his films are so full of clichés and so formula that you can safely watch half the film and leave knowing full well how it ends.

In Alita: Battle Angel, Dr Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) finds a female cyborg head and attaches it to a cybernetic body, calls her Alita after his dead daughter and makes her play in a roller skating championship akin to Death Race. Along the way she must try and save… I forget actually since I wasn’t paying attention when I went to watch it at the theatre with my date. I’ve watched enough movies to know that this one uses big CGI to make up for the lack of story. Killing a little dog during the movie, doesn’t help you like it any more either.

The people who live below look up into the sky at the floating city that is meant only for the elite. Some try to get there, others are banished from its realm. Cyborgs and Hunters battle it out to gain some sort of prize money with no real goal to their lives. Alita falls for a pretty boy who she wants to give her heart to – literally and figuratively! Absolutely no depth to this relationship, even with the minor twist of good guy/bad guy becomes good guy.

I don’t understand this genre of film; I think the writers and director are living out some childhood fantasy in repeat. Where are the intelligent sci-fi films like The Abyss and A.I.?

Like I said, if you’re looking to waste some money and time or just want a movie that you don’t mind missing while you’re making out with your lover, then Alita: Battle Angel is a winner!