SMELLS LIKE TEEN CYBORG............"ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL"......

Alita: Battle Angel (2017)   Astonishing admission........I can't even believe I'm writing it.......

             I kinda liked this........

              Nobody's more surprised than me.........having sat through one too many overlong, overpraised, overproduced CGI-bloated Marvel/D.C. superhero bashes........

               So how come I fell for this one?

               First, it's in the hands of two natural born storytellers, James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez.......(Cameron long had this on his agenda before deciding to devote the rest of his life to 'Avatar' sequels.....he wisely turned it over to Rodriguez, who miraculously streamlined Cameron's epic-length script into a lightning paced 2 hour movie....)

               Second, under Rodriguez's command, it's ruthless, straight-ahead filmmaking, devoid of the meta snark and convoluted backstory you have to wade through in today's comic book hoo-hahs........the setup is simple and you don't need a flow chart to keep up with the logjam of superheroes, their powers and whatever the hell it is they want to achieve or destroy..........
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               Third, precision in the action - unlike the Marvel and D.C. directors, whose only watchword is overkill, pounding you over the head with endless bash-o-ramas, Rodriguez keeps his action sequences swift, to the point, and intricately staged.  His fight scenes never wear out their welcome.........or you, the viewer as you enjoy the hell out of 'em.

                Fourth....(and most important)....as the song in "Damn Yankees" goes,....you gotta have heart,,,,,,for all of its dystopian world-building  and spectacular effects, "Alita" remains a simple primal tale of a teen girl's awkward attempts to figure out who she is.........(it's basically every teenager's story, only wildly enlarged into a sci-fi fantasy epic....)

               With actress Rosa Salazar digitally animated into this strangely affecting character, the film seduces you into rooting for her.........even as she ferociously battles her fellow metallic cyborgs, she remains a sweet, conflicted kid......(and best of all, unlike Spider-Man, for example, she's free of that inexhaustible supply of Marvel quippy one-liner sound bites)

               This may be the first super-girl I've seen who wears her heart on her sleeve......literally.

               BQ visitors know I'd rather hurl myself off a cliff than to launch into a point-by-point examination of a film's plot.........(for that, there's 300 million other sites or folks you could sample on IMDB or MRQE,,,,,)

                 I can only go with my gut reaction,,,,,,,,,what can I say, other than I had a real good time with this one. Unlike, the Marvel movies, "Alita: Battle Angel" opened, closed and fell off the radar pretty damn fast for a movie that cost in excess of 200 million.

                 Don't care........any single minute of it is more effective than the entire running time of "Captain Marvel"......3 stars (***).