Alita: Battle Angel Review - 7 Ups & 3 Downs

Alita: Battle Angel is a film that has been in varying stages of pre-production and full-blown production for over a decade. Between various stages of reshoots here and there, the release date being pushed back from December of 2018 to February of 2019, and all of the extensive work that had to be done on the effects shots that make up the bulk of the movie's runtime, it's really no wonder that the editing can feel a bit jarring at times.

This can be in the film's smaller moments, such as intimate conversations where you can practically feel the various takes of performances being spliced together, leading to moments that should be emotionally rousing feeling a bit lost and without proper context. But it's also present in some of the film's action sequences.

Specifically, an early action sequence set in an alleyway just feels a bit off. The choreography, staging, and the action beats themselves are all wonderfully executed, but the marriage between CGI and practical effects doesn't quite line up and can lead to the sequence feeling oddly slow in pace, as if there's an unintentional delay between the action and the reaction.

Likewise, there are a handful of scenes (mostly quieter conversation-driven moments) that feel as if they are cut away from midway through an actor delivering a line of dialogue.