10 Movies Changes Influenced By The Fans' Feedback
5. Changing Alita's Appearance - Alita: Battle Angel
The key to being a learned critic is to be able to have a good eye for picking up on things, as is exemplified by this example. When the trailer for this James Cameron passion project was released, many viewers had a significant issue with one specific aspect of Alita's look- her eyes.
The common theme among the viewer criticism was that the eyes were too big and disproportionate to the rest of the character. But as was noted by the visual effects supervisor for the film, Eric Saindon, the issue wasn't that the eyes were too big at all, and if anything were too small.
As Saindon explained in an article for The Insider, after consulting with his creative team, including Cameron and director Robert Rodriguez, the decision was made to enlarge the eyes iris. The idea of making the eyes bigger was strongly considered, but the changes to the overall look of the eyes did the trick. There were subtle lighting changes that also added to the effect, but it was the changed size of the Iris that proved most effective.
The final product was definitely enhanced from this modification, and while it was slightly more subtle than changes made for Sonic the Hedgehog, not having the audience consumed by the lead character's 'weird eyes' proved a major benefit.