Alita: Battle Angel

In doing away with the manga’s episodic nature and attempting to mash the first two story arcs (along with the most recognizable elements of the third) together, “Gally: Battle Angel” loses the focus afforded in that format and spends an absurd amount of time meandering to its plot points while ham-fistedly introducing characters who’ll be important later. The result is a film whose straightforward narrative only comes together in its final thirty minutes. The action is fun, at least, successfully translating the bonkers violence of the manga to a PG-13 project without it feeling neutered. This was fine, I guess.

5