'Alita: Battle Angel' review — A messy, but fun cyberpunk sci-fi adventure

Alita: Battle Angel boasts exhilarating action scenes and a breakout performance by Rosa Salazar, but buckles under the weight of its complex plot.

Alita: Battle Angel gets one very important thing right: robots fighting. Director Robert Rodriguez — best known for the Spy Kids and Sin City franchises — knows how to direct an action scene. Even though they’re hyper-stylized with seemingly endless slow-motion CG shots, all of the setpieces have forward momentum, grounding in character, and are easy to follow — no Bourne Identity shaky camera to be found.

That’s why he was the perfect fit to tackle the long-gestating adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s classic manga Battle Angel Alita. Taking place in the 26th Century as the cheeky opening logos set, Alita: Battle Angel follows a disembodied core — think of it as a brain and heart in one — who is found and given a new body by Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz). With no memory of the post-apocalyptic world she wakes up in or her name, Dr. Ido names her A…