Why So Blu?

Looks fantastic. I don't remember if they were going for an R-rating, but I could totally see this one going for some of the YA crowd.

Can't wait to hear about the "brown washing" with this one, though.

fujishig

What the heck is that?

Did they really spend money to make her eyes more "anime" when in the manga, she just looks like everyone else? Why? Not only is it really creepy, but just why? Who the heck thought that was a great idea to make the film stand out?

I mean you already have a film with (presumably) a much lower budget that perfectly captures the look that you should be going for in Ex Machina.

Why So Blu?

Well, maybe that's why they went this route instead of that one? Why make a clone of what's already out there?

Here's what she looks like in the animation:



Here's a manga drawing:



Here's a pic from the film:



I'm guessing they wanted a middle ground in there somewhere. I think it's fine and emphasizes that she's neither all human or all robot.

I also didn't realize that the film has a 200 million dollar budget. I think this will be RR's biggest budget of all time. Not bad for a kid who made his first feature for 7 grand.

fujishig

I've seen the anime and I regularly read the manga and its reboot/sequel. Just because the author's style includes drawing big eyes on his main character, it doesn't mean that he meant the main character to look anything but human. I realize you can point to her "father," Ito, who is always squinting, and say she looks different, but there are many characters in the manga that have the same eyes as her, and in the anime it's even more uniform.

Yes, she's supposed to be a cyborg, but she's supposed to have a human face, that's pretty much the only part of her that still looks human...

You seriously aren't weirded out about the eyes? It looks ridiculous.

Why So Blu?

Nope. I think it looks like a "real life" anime character. You don't think anime characters look weird with their over exaggerated features? I do.

brayzie

Is Alita supposed to be a specific ethnicity?
Wikipedia says that the anime takes place in the "former" United States.

CGI-ing her face like a Bratz doll/bobble head is really distracting. Salazar has a nice face, it's stupid that they messed it up for the film.

The trailer's not too interesting. I might check out the manga though.

Why So Blu?

I don't know. I just know that a Latina is in the lead role.


EDIT - and a lot of her is actually CGI, so I assume that she's mocapping most of her performance:

fujishig

Sure, but they live in a world where others look like that, and I'm used to the style by now. It's similar to how I'm not bothered that everyone looks like a bodybuilder in American comics.

Her real name is "Yoko" in Gunnm, but ethnicity doesn't really play a role in the story, in fact she may be part German even.

This thing cost 200 Million? It's going to bomb so bad...

inri222

I don't he's made anything worthwhile since the 90's and yet someone not named Weinstein put him in charge of a $200,000,000 project.

Ash Ketchum

Totally in agreement.

And nothing in that trailer would lead me to think this cost anywhere near $200 million.

And that cast list sounds like something you'd see in a DTV release. Paging Casper Van Dien! (Oh wait, he's IN the movie!)

This would need AVATAR numbers to be a hit. It may do better than GHOST IN THE SHELL, ASTRO BOY, or SPEED RACER numbers on the strength of the Cameron/Rodriguez team-up, but not by much.

RichC2

It was proposed to be $200m which is why it wasn't made for such a long time. I'm pretty sure it got a fraction of that and so they went with a (generally) budget friendly director.

E Unit

If this fails (which based on all movies like this released in the US the past 10 years, it will), it'll be a very long time after that we'll see Rodriguez do anything worth seeing. This looks fairly generic and throwaway.

But hey, maybe we'll get another 10 minute cooking school extra on the blu.

Perkinsun Dzees

Eye thought the trailer looked promising. There might have been something about it that threw me off, but eye can't quite put my finger on it. Anyway, Eye'm definitely checking this one out on the bigscreen.

Why So Blu?

Not really since RR works with low budgets. If it fails it will not kill his career, if that's what you're alluding to. I doubt he decided on the 200 million budget AND I noticed he has a co-screenwriting credit, too.

E Unit

He’s just a director for hire, not much more. I loved the El Mariachi movies, but he can’t write beyond that. He won’t die out or his career will die, but he’s not a main player by any means, unless he has the likes of Cameron bankrolling him. I’m just alluding to the fact that after this fails, he probably will stick to the low budget stuff he’s better apt to do. Maybe continuing to run the El Rey network and create a ton of shows for that.

OldBoy

So Alita is a real person and only eyes cgi? Her face looked completely cgi and unnatural...

fujishig

No, she's all cgi, probably motion capped over the actress. But what a bummer for the actress since she doesn't even look like this cgi monster.

dex14

I believe he is already planning to go back to his routes and do a film for only $7k ala El Mariachi.

inri222

I got the $200m figure from google & IMDB. If that has changed, I cannot find it anywhere.

RichC2

Same, but the reports about it being $200m also reference the studio trying to go lower and RR being hired after all that. I think there will be a better idea of cost down the line, I'm just saying I don't think it wound up with anything near that.

Nick Danger

Mrs Danger points out that they took a character who, although she has big eyes, looks fierce and confident. They made her look wide-eyed and vulnerable. It's basically what Hollywood did to The Major from GITS all over again.

Josh-da-man

The movie looks awful.

Those eyes... jeezus... we're rolling down the uncanny valley.

While I generally think the movie looks bad, I see this falling into the same trap as Ghost in the Shell, in that, while anime and manga have a lot of geek cred, it's not something your average Joe knows anything about. Manga an anime adaptions are going to struggle to find an audience.

fujishig

This has way less name recognition in America than GiTS, which at least had a couple of full anime seasons as well as a few movies. It's a passion project, and I can't help but feel like being unfamiliar with the original actually helps people come to grips with what Alita looks like. I've seen people say that it's fine she looks like that since she's a robot anyway, and that this is intentional uncanny valley stuff to make her stand out.

It seems really dumb to me to make your main character look horrific, especially when the actress you hired is gorgeous, but maybe that's just me.

Why So Blu?

It's context. It will depend on how long it will take Alita to gain that confidence in the film. I am not even second guessing the direction, because I am a fan of RR in general, it will have to be solely based off of the script and considering James Cameron co-wrote it with RR and Laeta -- I am quite optimistic.

McHawkson

I haven't read or watch this Battle Angel. But I'll watch it anyway.

Ghost in the Shell had tough crowd, but I liked the movie. I might like this one.