Sadly, they're trying to stick to the manga. Alita was Martian. People remarked about her big eyes and "octopus lips" more than a few times.
Alita in general frustrates me because an extremely large plot point came up and then the creator ret-conned and rebooted the series.
I guess he wrote himself into a hole?

"You Were Never Really Here" has a grit to it very similar to the original Frank Miller Sin City novels.