I’m a sucker for a great sci-fi flick, but the fact that this title was bumped from the crowded Boxing Day release schedule did not bode well for me.

Mahershala Ali starred in Barry Jenkins Moonlight picking up an Oscar and he is at the centre of Alita: Battle Angel, the new film from writer James Cameron the brains behind Avatar, The Terminator and Titanic and director Robert Rodriguez, known for El Mariachi, Spy Kids and Machete.

This is a sci-fi steampunk apocalyptic tale that is easy on the eye with stunning visual but light on the script which is cliched in every conceivable way.

Alita is a cyborg trying to remember her past, and is able to piece it together with help from a scientist Dr Dyson Ido played by Christoph Waltz and a young love interest Hugo all in the year 2563.

This is the last film for 20^th Century Fox before they are taken over by Disney, and sadly it looks like being a commercial flop unless it is big in China. The visuals are stunning but the story leaves a lot to be desired. This is a difficult genre to nail and cinema history is littered with the corpses of sci-fi flicks that didn’t connect on release. From Blade Runner to Jupiter Ascending and Dune, some have found life after death…and some haven’t. Alita has stayed at the top of Australian Box Office since release so at least people are getting out to see it, but for me it fell short.

2 Stars – Sick Pics. Crook Script.