Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

Alita: Battle Angel is the latest big budget sci-fi franchise hoping to be the new "Star Wars" or "Harry Potter" cash cow for 20th Century Fox. With James Cameron's name associated with this as producer and a USD200 million budget, the stakes are high for this to succeed.

Sigh .... sad to say, for me, this one's only a near hit at best. The computer graphics as expected were great, and Alita's facial and body performance was flawless. The IMAX 3D effects were often put in good use in the many action sequences, and it was fun being engaged in the 3D format as objects are sent flying outwards towards the viewers. The camera work and cinematography is generally impressive as the future city is portrayed in great detail and with depth (from the 3D). Plus I love the movie theme song "Swan Song" played during the end credits sung by the wonderful Dua Lipa.

So what's wrong? Unfortunately when I see a movie like Alita with its huge production values and ambition, I am expecting it to be great. I am hoping it would make me feel the way such movie classics like Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings did. Alita's big production values just couldn't be matched by the film's weak and unimpressive and a little muddled storyline. The actors are great but they were quite one dimensional and had little to do apart from getting into one action scene to another. And I am also not a fan of movies with open ended conclusions that serves only to provide the path to a sequel offering no proper closure after over two hours. It just makes the movie feel a bit "insincere"! If the movie fails to reap in the profits, we the audience will be left hanging without a sequel being made.

So bottom-line is .. don't expect a Star Wars or even, more recently, a Ready Player One. It's nice eye candy and fun but I don't think I will remember much of this by the time this year's summer movies kick in.