10 Most Divisive Movies Of 2019

7. Alita: Battle Angel

Alita: Battle Angel wasn't quite the box office bomb everyone expected, though it nevertheless failed to strike a chord with mainstream audiences as producer-writer James Cameron clearly expected.

Even accepting the pre-release hand-wringing over Alita's (Rosa Salazar) uncanny valley bug eyes - which were altered in post-production to look less "alien" - this is a textbook example of a style-over-substance movie, and audiences were sharply divided on whether or not that was good enough.

Undoubtedly, Alita is a gorgeous-looking movie with stunning cutting edge VFX front-and-center, but this technical mastery is pitted at all times against a hollow, at times genuinely awful script.

Beyond the hokey dialogue and avalanche of cliches, the romance between Alita and scrap dealer Hugo (Keean Johnson) was one of the worst blockbuster love stories since Padme and Anakin in the Star Wars prequels, soaked in unearned melodrama and excess sentiment.

Alita certainly delivered as a pretty pyrotechnics display, but if you were hoping for the strong characterisation or propulsive storytelling which define Cameron's best works, this just wasn't good enough.