Recommend: YES! if you love anime, cyberpunk, and how to use CGI for storytelling. I loved it, my kids loved it, my wife liked it, 4 thumbs up. Alita was off-putting to my younger kid at first but once she got the story she liked it. All and all its a great movie.

My thoughts: Amazing movie! This is how you take manga and make it live action. You speed up the pace, add things for your audience, and most of all trust the source. The story is good so USE IT. Yes, skip years of motorball if it tracks better for pacing. Make thoughtful changes for the medium.

Visuals: So here's the thing, mediums matter. Manga to Anime to Live Action, its all interpretations of what we see. Alita's body isnt human but close, thats a key point. Such a key point it need to be in the movie... but when ppl dont get it, it looks weird to them, uncanny.

Plot: The movie honestly follows the manga close enough. The key points are there, yes with some changes but the heart is there. Are all the changes they made truly needed is the key word. Its hard to condense this GIANT series into 1 movie but they do a great job.

Background: Battle Angel Alita is a cyberpunk manga from the 90s. One of the "big 5" to me. To make a LONG story short; Alita, a cyborg, is found with no memories and over a bunch of cool stuff learns her is a super badass from the past, gets upgrades and wants to take down the evil ruler.