If I’m being completely honest, I had no interest in seeing this movie back when it first came out. Part of it had to do with me not being familiar with the original anime or manga. But some of the clips and trailers used in advertising gave me the impression it was going to write the main character the same way Blumhouse’s “Black Christmas” remake wrote all of it’s female characters. Over a year later and I gave in and checked out this cyberpunk action film. And I’m happy to be proven wrong about my assumptions.

Alita is a cyborg body containing a human brain with no memory discovered by Dr. Dyson Ido in a scrapyard. She wakes up to a world where the wealthy live in a floating city named Zalem and the rest live in Iron City. One thing to note about this movie is that while we do get a little history about past events of this world, we aren’t explicitly told about important events such as “The Fall”. But later on we can gather the gist of Alita’s past and more history about the world that gives us a better understanding. Thankfully, the details this movie is focused on is not long backstory but rather in the visuals and the little complexities of the main characters.

It is kind of crazy how much care and attention is given to certain moments and scenes. The little changes in facial expressions convey the wide variety of emotions someone like Alita or Dr. Ido go through. The CGI used to bring Alita to life is also impressive. And while some may be a little freaked out by the large eyes, they do weirdly help define Alita as her own person. It also helps that she gives a strong performance. Every character gives strong performances throughout the film. Whether it’s Hugo, Alita’s new friend trying to survive or Dr. Chiren, Ido’s ex-wife who starts off as an enemy but ends up helping Alita at the cost of her own life.

But the movie isn’t flawless. I have gathered online that certain scenes in the movie have more of a punch in the manga or anime. Such as when Hugo has an emotional breakdown and tries to crawl his way up one of the tubes connecting Zalem to the ground in an effort to get in the city. Another part of the movie that isn’t particularly strong is the plot involving Rollerball. While it is one that connects all the characters in some way, Rollerball itself doesn’t leave much of an impact visually or emotionally. But that part does at least lead us into some fun action. There are several times in the movie where if the people being hurt and bleeding where regular humans and not cyborgs, it would have definitely been rated R. Which is pretty damn cool.

I’m glad I finally got around to watching it. Alita herself is charming and goes through complex emotions and situations where I root for her. There are so many other characters that also give charming performances. Visually, the movie is a marvel to look at. Especially when it comes to bringing Alita to life. The story is simple and helps gives us what you want to see from a movie like this. And it resulted in the only good Hollywood anime adaptation. One that I find myself liking a little but more every time I look back on it.