Alita : Battle Angel first trailer

For the uninitiated, Battle Angel Alita was a manga written by Yukita Kishiro.

From wikipedia:

The series is set in the post-apocalyptic future and focuses on Alita, a cyborgwho has lost all memories and is found in a garbage heap by a cybernetics doctor who rebuilds and takes care of her. She discovers that there is one thing she remembers, the legendary cyborg martial art Panzer Kunst, which leads to her becoming a Hunter Warrior or bounty hunter.

The property is being adapted into a live action film produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau. Helming the director's chair is Robert Rodriguez.

Two days ago, the first trailer was released to the public:

Video credit : 20th Century Fox

If you are like me, the first thing that comes to your mind while watching the trailer will be "WTF is wrong with her face!?". Yes, as a homage to the source material, they have modeled the face of the titular character to reflect the "Big Eyes Small Mouth" (BESM) anatomy common in manga / anime characters.

In case there is any doubt, the face is CGI. Thankfully the actress portraying Alita - Rosa Salazar, did not have to undergo some horrific plastic surgery to look the part.

Rosa Salazar plays Alita (image credit : imdb.com)

Usually, I would applaud the filmmaker's desire to stay faithful to the source material, by that I mean faithful to the story and the essence of the property, like how Scarlett Johansson's Ghost in the Shell wasn't.

Adopting a non-realistic approach to character design in a live action film rarely works well, unless said character is explicitly understood to be non-human or at least not the same type of human being that we know to be real, but inhabiting the same universe of real humans in that film. Granted, Alita is a cyborg and not really a human, but in the source material she was supposed to look like a human and is expected as such in the film. 

Even if I accept whatever in-film explanation of why she looks like that, I just cannot get over how freaky and creepy she looks!

Fine 

(image credit : Manga Entertainment)

NOT FINE. 

(image credit : 20th Century Fox)

I don't understand the thought process that made the filmmakers arrived at the decision to go for the BESM look for the main character. As it is, from the trailer, it is simply just jarring, out of place and....did I mention freaky and creepy?

Reminds me of that two girls who undergo extreme makeup everyday to look like a barbie doll and an anime character. I leave you with the image of them so you can ponder the wonders of pop culture.

(image credit : weirdasianews.com)

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