Alita: Battle Angel
Twentieth Century Fox | Release Date: February 14, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 49 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
24
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The PlaylistCory WoodroofFeb 13, 2019
Alita lays out her empathetic groundwork early and rarely diverges from it. How wonderful to have a hero that always follows through with what she fights for. How wonderful to have a blockbuster that aspires for so much and mostly delivers on those ambitions. Read full review
83
IndieWireMichael NordineJan 31, 2019
Alita: Battle Angel is [Rodriguez’s] best film since he brought Frank Miller’s graphic novel to the screen, a sci-fi epic that does something rare in an age of endless adaptations and reboots: lives up to its potential while leaving you wanting more. Read full review
80
The AtlanticDavid SimsFeb 14, 2019
True to its origins, Alita is a living cartoon of a film, which only makes its ridiculousness easier to absorb. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFeb 11, 2019
If you’re in the mood for a movie like “Alita,” “Alita” is the movie you’re in the mood for. Read full review
80
CineVueMartyn ConterioFeb 4, 2019
Not without flaws, but nothing to get too worked up about, Alita: Battle Angel is cynicism-free, first-class popcorn entertainment spearheaded by a knockout performance from Salazar. A star is born. Read full review
80
IGNWilliam BibbianiJan 31, 2019
Alita: Battle Angel is Robert Rodriguez’s best film in many years. It’s an ambitious, impressive, visually spectacular production with great performances that make its strange world seem real. Read full review
75
The Associated PressMark KennedyFeb 12, 2019
The film crams in so many plot lines that it risks being overstuffed but somehow stays true to its mesmerizing vision and emerges as a sci-fi success, if not a triumph. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 8, 2019
"Alita” is an action movie, and some of that is who-cares. But the bigger thing about this film is that it makes us think about humanness, what it means, what it is, and what it might be in the future. Read full review
70
SlateSam AdamsFeb 16, 2019
It’s goofy as hell and borderline inexcusable at times, but it’s also kind of glorious. Read full review
70
Film ThreatAlan NgFeb 14, 2019
If you approach Alita: Battle Angel like a standard action film, where you’re there just for the stunts, you will have a good time. The world created by James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez is visually stunning. Rosa Salazar is fantastic as Alita, and she shines in her mocap performance. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaFeb 1, 2019
The only reason any of this works at all is Salazar and, I hate to say it, those goddamned big eyes. They’re the windows to the soul, after all, and this ungainly, lurching cyborg of a would-be blockbuster has more of that than meets the eye. Read full review
67
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerFeb 14, 2019
Like its unstoppable heroine, Alita: Battle Angel is something strange and unique and special, built from the finest repurposed parts. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerFeb 1, 2019
Like so many expensive fantasies, Alita: Battle Angel feels burdened by dreams of a franchise that may never materialize. But if a series does come to pass, Rodriguez should stick around. However briefly, big-budget filmmaking has synced up with his playground aesthetic. Read full review
65
The VergeSamantha NelsonFeb 1, 2019
It’s a shame that the film doesn’t stand on its own, with a story as creative and engaging as its setting. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloFeb 14, 2019
The visual bonanza cooked up by Rodriguez, cinematographer Bill Pope and editors Stephen E. Rivkin and Ian Silverstein is enough to power through any narrative bumps with quickly paced action and bleak, yet colorful, imagery. Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonFeb 13, 2019
It’s a story with too many influences, no cohesion, no apparent narrative purpose. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoFeb 13, 2019
For all of Alita’s she-Pinocchio charm — and her Cameronian estrogen-charged badass-itude — she can’t quite carry the audience all the way across that pesky uncanny valley. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittFeb 12, 2019
For all its whiz-bang goodness, “Alita” is almost completely undone by its flawed script. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 12, 2019
Rodriquez nails the pacing – it’s slow enough to allow for character development (at least where Alita is concerned) but ramps up during the well-choreographed battle and chase sequences. Everything moves along fine…at least until the final few minutes when it becomes apparent that we’re about to be victimized by a story that requires multiple installments to play out. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)John SemleyFeb 11, 2019
Viewed in the despairing environment of the big-budget sci-fi blockbuster, Alita is likely to find a cult of core fans drawn in by the persuasive digital animation, and pick-and-choose, smorgasbord world-building. In the longview, though, it’s likely to enjoy much the same fate as 2000s cine-technological milestone Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. And that, perhaps, is the ultimate case of damning with faint, highly relative praise. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJake ColeFeb 1, 2019
Battle Angel is by some distance the most entertaining of the recent crop of would-be franchise starters, exciting on its own merits while leaving just enough of its world tantalizingly unexplored to actually fuel our interest in wanting to see where its characters go from here. Read full review
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