Alita Battle Angel Movie Trailer!

[gcoppini]

I am bummed about Gonzu but at this point I not only have accepted certain changes I am looking forward to seeing them. As long as the changes are like the Manga vs the Anime, where emotional landmarks are still honored, then I am very optimistic. I noticed that in other ways the shots were extremely faithful I didn’t expect the Victorian detailing on her arms to be something that would be reproduced! If Hugo’s death scene is faithful at least as much as the OAV, then this has won my heart. Otherwise, yes, I will be disappointed. Again, the eyes, they show more emotion enlarged, and that will be a very emotional scene... Fingers crossed big time!

[kamugin]

I think I should go back to my cave asap, otherwise I'm gonna jump from my window pretty soon... (5th floor)

[HECTOR4]

How do I feel about the eyes? I 1000% LOVE THEM! At first they were strange, then I grew accustomed and now I am in love. The ballsy decision, at risk of disaster, to have her eyes like that serves many purposes. 1st, it actually makes her Alita. But it also does something more important, since no one else in the live action has them, which honors Kishiro’s narrative in a profound way. I t distinguishes Alita from everyone else in the Alita universe. She is special. The eyes were a brave and brilliant decision.

The eyes are a disastrous disaster. That is not Gally. Gally wasn't special because of her big eyes, she was special due to many other factors, but not due to having some kind of alien eyes. And not at all help the narrative, rather you get out of it, they disturb you. Gally has beautiful eyes, not those of an stay up late drug addict. If for Gally to be special and can be distinguished from the others must have the horrible eyes of the Gollum, I'm sorry, but I prefer millions of times before it doesn't stand out.

[gcoppini]

@kamugin... I’m curious how many times did you watch the trailer? :^)

[kamugin]

@kamugin... I’m curious how many times did you watch the trailer? :^)

Three or four times until I decided that the eyes are unbearable for me.

[gcoppini]

They are being used as a narrative tool! This is film attempting to do what the manga style has been doing for ages, which is to provide a visual exaggeration to amplify emotion in an otherwise heartless universe. Remember how strange it seemed to come across the style itself in the first place, it takes some digesting! In this case however, yes, I think it’s also a way of distinguishing her from the others. It’s also weird to think that most people who might watch this will never know what we know, which is that she is an extracted tumor from Mars!

[kamugin]

The eyes are a disastrous disaster. That is not Gally. Gally wasn't special because of her big eyes, she was special due to many other factors, but not due to having some kind of alien eyes. And not at all help the narrative, rather you get out of it, they disturb you. Gally has beautiful eyes, not those of an stay up late drug addict. If for Gally to be special and can be distinguished from the others must have the horrible eyes of the Gollum, I'm sorry, but I prefer millions of times before it doesn't stand out.

Thank you, man, really! I was kinda freaking out due to the last comments! "Gollum's eyes" well said... I loved Alita cuz she kicked ass pretty bad, cuz she was a panzerkunst master, a cyborg hunter warrior, not because her average manga face.

[HECTOR4]

Unfortunately this Gally is carnaza for memes:

They are being used as a narrative tool! This is film attempting to do what the manga style has been doing for ages, which is to provide a visual exaggeration to amplify emotion in an otherwise heartless universe. Remember how strange it seemed to come across the style itself in the first place, it takes some digesting! In this case however, yes, I think it’s also a way of distinguishing her from the others. It’s also weird to think that most people who might watch this will never know what we know, which is that she is an extracted tumor from Mars!

I repeat: " In the manga her eyes are big due to the drawing style, all the characters in the manga have big eyes, but if you make a film of realistic style you must understand that the eyes in the comic are big because of that, due to the drawing style, but it represent NORMAL eyes."

And yes, she is from Mars, but on Mars colonies of humans, humans of different races and ethnicities were established: Chinese, Japanese, Germans, in fact the Panzer Kunst that Gally uses is constructed with German words. The colonies of Mars are colonies of humans (normal humans) of different races of the Earth. In the original Gally is a normal human of Asian ethnicity whose face has been recreated, with normal features, in a cybernetic body and not an alien spawn or anything like that.

And we already know that she is a cyborg, nope have camouflaged her body, people do not need anything else to know that she is different.

[Alestorm]

I would really really like to get used to the eyes but I just cant! It looks fucking creepy in contrast to the live action actors with normal eyes! I would love for them to just change the size of the eyes to something smaller but given that it costs millions of dollars for this work I highly doubt it...

But if you like the eyes then good for you because this really is a fantastic trailer for the most part!
Cast is solid, Waltz looks great as Ido (hopefully the reason his Tipharean mark is missing is explained)
The city looks awesome.
The action looks bad ass despite looking too much like obvious cgi.

Some gripes I have though is the trailer music is lame. Somber music playing over action with the hollywood *thwomps* and *bwong* sounds just seems cheap and lazy.
The background extras also seem half assed. Just based on looking at the manga you would expect the city denizens to look more dirty, grungy and just look more like druggies, yet they mostly just look like well off urbanites.
Kind of bummed that the OVA is taking precedent over the manga (at least from what I can tell from this first trailer). Makaku isn't in the movie and is instead replaced with Grewcica or whatever from the ova which kinda sucks.

But anyways we still have the second trailer to kind of look forward to so we can see how Motorball will be handled.
Was originally gonna see this with a group of friends regardless if it looked like Ghost in the Shell levels of mediocrity but the big creepy eyes have really turned everyone off from it so much that I'm probably just gonna go see it by myself just out of morbid curiosity at this point.

[kamugin]

We clearly see that Gollum had prettier eyes!

Alita Gollum by Kamugin, no Flickr

[HECTOR4]

Cast is solid, Waltz looks great as Ido (hopefully the reason his Tipharean mark is missing is explained)
The city looks awesome.
The action looks bad ass despite looking too much like obvious cgi.

Yes, Ido is perfect, and Vector, and Yugo (Hugo), and Zapan...Well, Zapan...maybe he has a too archetypal design, but it's passable. Even Makaku (or Grewcica?) is a very decent design. But Gally... I really don't understand that decision with her... Well, yes, I understand the decision. It's an attempt to make her look like the Gally of the manga (with big eyes), with the excuse that she is a cyborg, but the result, for me, is horrible.

[kamugin]

Was originally gonna see this with a group of friends regardless if it looked like Ghost in the Shell levels of mediocrity but the big creepy eyes have really turned everyone off from it so much that I'm probably just gonna go see it by myself just out of morbid curiosity at this point.

I won't give them a cent even! I'll just wait for a camrip... the worst I can find, since BD 1080P I reserve for watching the actual good stuff.

[bhaal]

ughhh... is this trailer a summon ritual? because it is bringing back from the bottom of hell, the forgotten wastelands, the deeps of the void and the endless lands of despair many of the old users of this forum
For me the only thing more disturbing that the people defending the choice the director made in only using in Yoko/Gally the aesthetic of the manga and in other characters a realistic one are the eyes themselves.
Good to see many of the old crew back.

Oh man, 12 years since I joined this forum? really????
I'm so old.

[kamugin]

ughhh... is this trailer a summon ritual? because it is bringing back from the bottom of hell, the forgotten wastelands, the deeps of the void and the endless lands of despair many of the old users of this forum

Ya gotta use a demon to lure out other demons I guess... Welcome back, sempai

Where the fuck is Sergio? He is always among the very first to comment anything! Did he really pass on due to his advanced age??

[jjaquinta]

They are being used as a narrative tool! ... I think it’s also a way of distinguishing her from the others.

Well, at least someone gets it.

This is a movie, not a manga or anime. They have to present the character using the tools they have. And it's the character of Alita that she's different, an enigma. Most of the plot line they are covering is about Alita trying to fit in and be normal, failing, and coming to terms with that. If she just had a normal face and wore a sweater, she's look the same on film as everyone else and the internal difficulties she is facing would be masked. Here, they are right out in the open. We look at her and think she looks like a freak, which is exactly how the other characters see her. It makes it easier for us to empathize and feel both the other's revulsion and her pain.

If they just gave her a bad-ass brass CGI boobs, then it would be clear that this was just window dressing stealing some visuals from a comic. But given the cinematographic choice they took, I think it telegraphs they are actually paying attention to the character they are representing.

[HECTOR4]

They are being used as a narrative tool! ... I think it’s also a way of distinguishing her from the others.

Well, at least someone gets it.

This is a movie, not a manga or anime. They have to present the character using the tools they have. And it's the character of Alita that she's different, an enigma. Most of the plot line they are covering is about Alita trying to fit in and be normal, failing, and coming to terms with that. If she just had a normal face and wore a sweater, she's look the same on film as everyone else and the internal difficulties she is facing would be masked. Here, they are right out in the open. We look at her and think she looks like a freak, which is exactly how the other characters see her. It makes it easier for us to empathize and feel both the other's revulsion and her pain.

If they just gave her a bad-ass brass CGI boobs, then it would be clear that this was just window dressing stealing some visuals from a comic. But given the cinematographic choice they took, I think it telegraphs they are actually paying attention to the character they are representing.

She doesn't feel like a weirdo because of her physical "appearance", or her rare eyes, on the contrary that part of her becomes seductive and beautiful in some moments of the original manga. She feels different because of her cyborg status, is a pretty girl (AN ANGEL) trapped in a metal body. She is a battle ANGEL, not a battle alien or a battle Gollum or a battle weirdo. It isn't that kind of empathy with her physique that they should provoke us, the invented subtitle of "Battle Angel" now has no meaning, Gally is anything but an angel.

[kamugin]

This is a movie, not a manga or anime. They have to present the character using the tools they have. And it's the character of Alita that she's different, an enigma.

Contradiction! If this is neither anime nor manga nor videogame, why the fucking freaking huge eyes?

What did put Alita in another class among Scrapyard dwellers was her complete cyborg body (actually not odd for their standards, but to the eyes of the reader, yes!), her mysterious origin and her panzer kunst above all, not because a freaking deformity! The best way to make a character stand out is by good acting, not by putting some squid eyes in her face!

[00_unit]

This is a movie, not a manga or anime. They have to present the character using the tools they have. And it's the character of Alita that she's different, an enigma.

Contradiction! If this is neither anime nor manga nor videogame, why the fucking freaking huge eyes?

What did put Alita in another class among Scrapyard dwellers was her complete cyborg body (actually not odd for their standards, but to the eyes of the reader, yes!), her mysterious origin and her panzer kunst above all, not because a freaking deformity! The best way to make a character stand out is by good acting, not by putting some squid eyes in her face!

whether you agree or disagree (i disagree btw), those giant eyes are meant to represent the doorway to the soul of something like that it's in this interview https://www.empireonline.com/movies/fea ... breakdown/

[HECTOR4]

whether you agree or disagree (i disagree btw), those giant eyes are meant to represent the doorway to the soul of something like that it's in this interview https://www.empireonline.com/movies/fea ... breakdown/

It's what we already knew, they just had the whim to create big eyes to look like manga style:

It was always Jim's intention to create a photo-realistic version of the manga eyes that we're so accustomed to seeing. We really wanted to honour that tradition and see that look standing next to any human character.

The part of "the doorway to the soul" is to embellish the decision... And they wanted it to be "uncanny and striking. And captivating!" They seek to captivate by creating a standard of bizarre beauty of big eyes XD

For me it is nothing more than an aesthetic caprice to try to be excessively faithful to the original manga style.

[urza]

I think the big eyes should deepen the doll impression.
Ido treats her as such at first, and she begins to rebell.

But if you look at her face i think they editet her headform too, the actress actual shape looks a bit diffrent to me.
Probably the whole head is CGI.

[HECTOR4]

But if you look at her face i think they editet her headform too, the actress actual shape looks a bit diffrent to me.
Probably the whole head is CGI.

Yes, I think that the whole head has been edited, maybe the part that most maintains the features of the actress are the mouth, the nose and the chin.

Things that worry me most are if they have maintained the nuances of the characters. For example, Ido is a sadist who enjoys killing. It's a kind of Dexter XD. And he's quite jealous and possessive with Gally, almost obsessive. Will they have maintained that or will they have changed it for a totally fatherly and comprehensive role? Because those kind of details are the ones that make the difference and turn the story into something different, those things take away the story of the typical existencialist "Ghost in the Shell".

[Alestorm]

It was always Jim's intention to create a photo-realistic version of the manga eyes that we're so accustomed to seeing. We really wanted to honour that tradition and see that look standing next to any human character.

The part of "the doorway to the soul" is to embellish the decision... And they wanted it to be "uncanny and striking. And captivating!" They seek to captivate by creating a standard of bizarre beauty of big eyes XD

For me it is nothing more than an aesthetic caprice to try to be excessively faithful to the original manga style.

Ah yes because when I think of Alita I most definitely do not think about her attitude, crazy strength/tenacity, or octopus lips. I think of her eyes of course! smh...

I find it Bizarre that they wanted to make a photo realistic representation to honor the tradition of that artstyle, yeeeet only for Alita and no other character in the movie..
(Grewcica didn't even look that exaggerated in the trailer tbh)

But it makes me wonder if her eyes are truly aesthetic or if they gonna tie it in with her being from mars and give Michelle Rodriguez (Gelda) those big creepy eyes also haha.

[HECTOR4]

Ah yes because when I think of Alita I most definitely do not think about her attitude, crazy strength/tenacity, or octopus lips. I think of her eyes of course! smh...

It is what they have achieved with that horrible CGI characterization. ALL internet is full of comments of the eyes of the protagonist, and I have seen almost none positive, just some people justifying a little the matter.

I find it Bizarre that they wanted to make a photo realistic representation to honor the tradition of that artstyle, yeeeet only for Alita and no other character in the movie..
(Grewcica didn't even look that exaggerated in the trailer tbh)

It's what Rodriguez said. Literally. And if it was not a worrying issue he would not have devoted an entire entry to justify this element. And yes, only for Gally, the protagonist, the most important character in history, with which they want to captivate us.

But it makes me wonder if her eyes are truly aesthetic or if they gonna tie it in with her being from mars and give Michelle Rodriguez (Gelda) those big creepy eyes also haha.

Hahaha, it would be curious. In the original, on Mars there is no race of big eyes, they are normal humans, but for the film they can invent whatever they want XD. By her face I always imagined Gelda as a Korean woman with a big and strong body XD

Anyways just to change things up so the whole thread isn't about eyes can we talk about wtf is going on with Vector???

So I guess Vector is going to be an alternate Nova or just be mind controlled by Nova for portions of the movie? I just assumed Nova wasn't going to be in the movie at all.

I believe that Vector will be a character who will control certain matters of the Iron City and will be allied with Nova to provide him with bodies for his experiments. It will be our first contact with the element "Nova", since Makaku (Grewishka) seems to have a much less important role in the story. This or, as you say, Nova will control Vector and will be the villain in the shade during the film. Maybe we will not see Nova in the film and only discover that he was the one behind everything.

[gcoppini]

Hmm... Hearing stuff like nova “possessing” Vector does worry me a bit more, for the sake of having a SHOT at loving this movie I’m definitely willing to trust to some degree, but for example I would eventually love to see Zapan’s transformation in a later adaptation but if they screw around too much with the plot certain events may never have a chance of occurring. Again, the make or break for me will probably be how they handle Hugo’s death scene which I think should be as identical as possible to add least the Anime...

[MrFaber]

I fear there won't be a beserker body in the movie at all.

I also wonder: Will Ido still be a serial killer (though legal and bounty hunting)?