What’s with those eyes?
Are American anime live-action adaptations a bad idea? The answer has been a resounding yes, but studios just keep trying, hoping to be the first to get it right. 20th Century Fox is taking a swing at it with their new trailer for Alita: Battle Angel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqYfXOYqzy4
Based on Yukito Kishiro’s Battle Angel Alita, the film will follow Alita, an amnesiac cyborg who is brought back to “life” by the scientist Dyson Ido. She finds, however, that she’s being followed by enemies who want to take her down. We do see in the trailer some of the weird tactical transformations she does to defeat her enemies.
As, I am sure a few of you have noticed, Alita’s most striking feature is her massive, overly-detailed eyes. It’s also the first thing you see when the trailer starts, so the creepy uncanny valley effect can begin immediately. In fact, everything about her looks like she’s in some video game cut scene meant to be seen only in the highest definition, and when placed alongside regular actor, it feels even worse than bad CGI trying to recreate young people’s faces. And, just so those not familiar with the manga know, that’s not actually part of the original design, it was the adaptation’s choice. A terrifying choice indeed.
There are a lot of big name actors in this film – Christoph Waltz as Ido, Jennifer Connolly as Chiren, Mahershala Ali in two mysterious roles, Michelle Rodriguez as Gelda, Ed Skrein as Zapan, and Jackie Earle Haley (Freddie Krueger himself!) in an unnamed role. Rosa Salazar, who played the title character, is best known as Brenda from The Maze Runner franchise but is actually more of a comedic actress, so it will be interesting to see her in a lead dramatic role.
The movie is produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau, who worked on Titanic together, and directed by Robert Rodriguez. The screenplay was written by Cameron, Rodriguez, and Laeta Kalogridis, the last of whom is working on the Sword Art Online live-action adaptation.
Alita: Battle Angel will premiere in theaters on July 20, 2018.
