'Alita: Battle Angel' Receives PG-13 Rating

Alita: Battle Angel will be hitting theaters in just under a month, and it looks like the film’s [...]

By Megan Peters

Alita: Battle Angel will be hitting theaters in just under a month, and it looks like the film's final details are settling into place. After all, the Major Pictures Association of America has given the movie a rating, and it is probably what you guessed.

Thanks to Exhibitor Relations, netizens were informed of Alita: Battle Angel's rating not long ago. It turns out the film will be rated PG-13, and it is for the usual bag of sci-fi tricks.

"ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL is rated PG-13: sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language," the site revealed before making a well-time joke about Alita's big eyes.

So far, there are no box office predictions out for Alita: Battle Angel, but the film will cater to a larger audience with this PG-13 rating. A higher rating would have kept the crowd to a minimum, but a lower rating would have left diehard fans feeling put out. After all, the original Alita manga has some gnarly scenes, so it looks like some of that sci-fi violence will keep in this adaptation.

Thanks to its epic scale and action, Alita: Battle Angel may make an appeal to the superhero crowds following Marvel Studios and DC Films. However, in a recent interview with ComicBook.com, star Christoph Waltz stressed the film doesn't introduce another Iron Man or Cyborg.

"I think that's what really sets this apart," he said. "Because it's not. It's a human story. The fact that there are, let's say, improved humans, is secondary. It's a human story, and that's really what makes it so approachable, and you can identify."

If you're unfamiliar with Battle Angel Alita (GUNNM in Japan), the series was originally created by Yukito Kishiro. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic future and follows Alita, a cyborg who is found in a garbage heap by a doctor and rebuilt. Completely devoid of her memory, all she has to cling to is a legendary cyborg martial art known as Panzer Kunst. With this knowledge, Alita decides to become a bounty hunter. Originally published in Shueisha's Weekly Business Jump in 1990, the manga was collected into nine volumes and licensed for an English language release by Viz Media.

Are you surprised by this MPAA rating? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime! Alita: Battle Angel opens in theaters on February 14, 2019.

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