I have never recommended seeing a movie in 3-D, let alone IMAX 3-D, because films should either succeed in 2-D or they aren’t worth seeing. But for Alita: Battle Angel, I will—for the first time—tell you to splurge on the IMAX. I can’t stop dreaming about the glimmering city in the clouds that hovers above the film’s sci-fi setting.
Alita is as much about what’s in the distance as it is about what’s coming toward you—which, BTW, is a giant robot with finger knives! The story (cyborg woman is found comatose in trash heap, makes heroic journey to rediscover her past and her martial arts skills) lovingly smooshes at least three story arcs’ worth of plot into a single 122-minute film. People might say that’s too much, or complain that there are weird scenes where characters point at hunter-warrior bounty hunters and say things like: “That’s a bounty hunter. We call them hunter-warriors.”