The live-action adaptation of the Battle Angel Alita manga, Alita: Battle Angel, is due out in December and new footage of the film recently screened at CinemaCon. However, it sounds like that new footage was met with mixed response.
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If you have been keeping up with Alita: Battle Angel‘s saga, you know it’s been a long road to get to this point. James Cameron secured rights to the manga franchise several years ago but struggled to get the project off the ground. Robert Rodriguez was eventually called in to direct the movie with Cameron serving as co-producer. Rodriguez, who is perhaps best known for his work on Sin City and Machete, brought is unique, stylistic feel to the first trailer for the film — a trailer that was met with mixed response from fans with some struggling to deal with the “anime eyes” Alita has while others had nothing but praise. The new CinemaCon footage seems to have been met with the same response, if the reactions on Twitter are any indication.
Two scenes: Alita waking up and looking at her robo-body in a mirror, and Alita fighting a big-ass robo-dude who had clawed metallic tentacles. Still not feeling it.
Not being funny: I just don’t like looking at Alita. Forget the uncanny valley, this is uncanny Marianas Trench.
— Scott Wampler™ (@ScottWamplerBMD) April 26, 2018
Alita looks like a legit love letter for fans of anime. Over the top, well-choreographed action, not scared of going a bit silly. Still have no idea if the world on the whole is ready for this, but I’m already positive it’s going to have a very dedicated fanbase once it comes out
— Eric Vespe (@EricVespe) April 26, 2018
For those unfamiliar with Battle Angel Alita, 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, it was collected into nine volumes and licensed for an English language release by Viz Media.
For Cameron, Alita: Battle Angel is an opportunity to dig into what it means to be human.
“Battle Angel, I think, is a science fiction movie that begs the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’ It takes place in a future world, a world that has cyborgs, but are you human if you have a mind, if you have a heart, if you have a soul? It’s a journey of a young girl who tries to discover herself and what she learns upon that journey,” Cameron previously told SyFy Wire.
Alita: Battle Angel is set to open December 21st.
