Movie studios have long done stunts of various kinds to generate interest in their new movies. A common practice, for movies like “Black Panther” and “Captain Marvel,” is to play up the identity politics angle and dole out free tickets to particualr groups. Another approach, exemplified by “Ghostbusters 2016” and “The Last Jedi,” is to actively insult fans of the franchise in hopes of generating buzz.
But then there’s “Alita: Battle Angel,” a sci-fi flick set hundreds of years in the future. Produced by James Cameron, it is about cyborgs… people who have had bits of them – up to and including everything except for the brain – replaced by machines. And so one of the PR stunts that has been done for the movie was to create bionic arms for a girl who lost her hands.
Unsurprisingly, “Alita” has been accused by the usual suspects of “whitewashing” by having a lot of non-Asian actors. Which is amusing since the original versions of “Alita” were set around Kansas City.