The only thing I was really expecting with Alita is for it to have some big action set pieces and dazzling effects, and it’s able to stand and deliver on that front; however, it never really captured my full attention. For turn-your-brain-off entertainment, it fares pretty well (it’s no Ready Player One though), but there’s very little narratively or visually to truly sink your teeth in.

The curious thing about Alita is that it’s basically the Baskin Robins of sci-fi blockbusters, in that there’s 31 flavors of films you’ve likely already seen before crammed into its story and aesthetic. You’ll see shades of things like RoboCop, Blade Runner, Rollerball, Elysium, The Running Man, Idiocracy, Children of Men, and Star Wars sprinkled throughout. Of course, all of these things are also in the manga series, but cinematically speaking, it sucks the wind out of the film’s sails quite a bit because we’re not seeing much of anything new or groundbreaking. Although, as far as anime adaptations go, Alita is near the top, or at the top of the list.