As far as performances go, everyone in the film does their best and it shows. Salazar brings a childlike innocence in the film’s first act, but is more than capable of going full action-star once Alita starts becoming “The Battle Angel”. I first saw her on Man Seeking Woman (a truly underrated show), and I did not even realize it was the same person until a few weeks ago when I was checking her IMDB page. Keean Johnson plays Hugo, Alita’s friend and love interest, and is also weakest of the entire cast. That is less on Johnson and more on the writing of the character as a whole, but he is fine, just nothing special.

Christoph Waltz in Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

The rest of the supporting cast is made up of Christoph Waltz (Ido), Mahershala Ali (Vector), Jennifer Connelly (Chiren), Ed Skrein (Zapan), Jackie Earle Haley (Grewishka), and Idara Victor (Nurse Gerhard). Waltz is easily the standout among all of these actors, as he gets the most screen time out of them, but his performance is also a cut above the rest with him bringing a lot of the emotion of the film. Skrein and Haley are great as the two side antagonists, each feeling just the right amount of evil.

Mahershala Ali in Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

Ali and Connelly are both interesting in that they give really good performances, but could have equally benefited from increased screen time, even by like 5 more minutes. Mahershala chews scenery and looks cool while doing it as Vector, the film’s main antagonist, while Connelly just kind of sits on the sidelines until she is needed for plot purposes. Again, both of them are good, they just would have been better if given more time to be as fleshed out as other characters.

Jennifer Connelly in Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

The film also features some interesting cameos. This next paragraph will contain SPOILERS, so if you have not seen the film, I suggest you either skip this section entirely or come back after seeing the movie.

The first cameo is Jai Courtney, who plays the Final Champion in one of the Motorball sequences. From what I have read since seeing the film, he will apparently play a big role in the sequel, if/when that gets made. Michelle Rodriguez, a Robert Rodriguez regular, plays Gelda, the woman who trained Alita in her previous life. She actually has a speaking role, which is the only way to even recognize it is her.

Gelda from Gunnm and Michelle Rodriguez

The big shocker is something that would most likely have acted as a post-credits scene had it been in a Marvel movie. In the closing moments of the film, I do have to say my jaw dropped.

As Alita is about to challenge for the right to be Motorball Final Champion, she lifts her sword toward the Sky City of Zalem, and the camera shoots up to reveal Nova. He was shown earlier in the movie during a flashback, but was only there as a static hologram. With this being the first actual look at him, he is draped in all white clothing along with accompanying white hair, as well as a pair of goggles concealing his identity.

Nova from Gunnm

The way they build up to the Nova reveal throughout the film sets it up to imply that when he is finally shown, that it would be some big-name actor as a surprise. My initial thoughts were that it was James Cameron himself at first, and then shifted to it being James Cromwell. However, the goggles do come off finally and it is revealed that Nova is played by… Edward Norton! This was a shocking turn of events to end the movie on, and immediately got me wanting a sequel with Norton playing a scenery chewing supervillain. It’s also shocking due to the fact that the reason he left the role of the Hulk was due to not wanting to be tied down for a franchise, which one has to assume is the plan for Alita: Battle Angel. Either way, the manner in which this film builds the want for a sequel is enormous, and it is hard to come out of the theater without wanting to see Alita’s story continue.