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Rating: 4.3/5
Review: "Alita: Battle Angel IMAX movie review" (122 minutes)

This is Robert Rodriguez's biggest movie yet and costs a staggering US$200 million. It is easy to see why. The sets are massive loaded with CGI and even many characters are CGI. Alita: Battle Angel has everything a Blockbuster has; action, romance, drama, CGI, epic music. Robert's direction is confident despite him handling a large-scale movie for the first time. As this is based on the manga, it suffers the cram condensation of a few volumes.

The story: The start is surprising as it has no big opening action scene (we are used to seeing a big opening action in most Blockbuster). The sets may be big scaled but the opening feels intimate in terms of emotions. We see Dr. Dyson (Christoph Waltz) finding and rebuilding a female cyborg, Alita (Rosa Salazar). The first 20 minutes are engaging as we discover Iron City from the eyes of Alita. From then on, the pace quickens as we are introduced to more characters, villains and subplots. It is entertaining but the whole film feels it compromises of a few episodes. It doesn't help with the slow fade out transition. With the reasonable runtime of 2 hours 2 minutes, at times, it feels rushed as there are many things to be covered. Acting wise is alright. Many characters are in a form of CGI model so there is nothing outstanding. Rosa does a decent job in emoting as Alita. Music by Tom Holkenborg is epic but somehow generic. It is not as distinctive as his other scores. CGI and sets are great. The last half of the film is packed with well-shot and well-choreographed action.

IMAX 3D: It is not outstanding but it still creates an immersive experience with the extra dimension. It is effective during some of the slo mo scenes. Other than that, it is not particularly mind-blowing but it is worth the extra bucks.

Overall: Alita: Battle Angel is very enjoyable even if it feels rushed especially towards the ending. It could benefit with less subplots and more focus on one aspect (either the Motorball or bounty hunter). I hope it does well in box office to warrant a sequel.  It is worth watching on big screen and IMAX 3D.

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