Dragonball Evolution's effect on the franchise

[Xyex]

I think the issue is Fox themselves needing more faith in source material. Many of the lousy comic adaptions come out under their watch, and quite often it seems to be from interference. I'm not saying that DB:E would have been any good without Fox, but a more daring studio is the only one where it would have stood a chance. Fox are notorious for interference.

Yeah, Fox doesn't know when to let material speak for itself, and always insists on chaning something. The X-men movies come to mind, and while they turned out pretty good in the end, it's largely because the people actually making it said no when Fox tried to mess things up (Storm X Wolverine, comes to mind).

Fox has shown improvement lately with their newest movies like X-Men: First Class, Prometheus, Predators and Rise of Planet of the Apes. Fox could make a good DB movie now possibly if they can learn from their mistakes.

Depends who, exactly, in the company is involved, really. Some of them know what they're doing, but there are still a lot of meddlers in there.

What's needed for a good Live Action DB movie isn't just a better studio, though. They need a really good director.

[Hellspawn28]

I think giving credit to Evolution for lowering interest in the franchise is giving it too much credit for doing anything.

I think DBE would make people stay way from Dragon Ball. Some reviews that I've read said that they never watch Dragon Ball and the movie was bad enough to make them stay way from it.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

The truth is that unless Fox wants to lose the rights to DB; they HAVE to eventually make another DB movie (just like how Constantin Film made a crappy, lunch money budgeted, live-action Fantastic Four movie in the 90s, just so they can make an EVEN MORE crappier FF movie only with an actual budget, a decade later).

Also, let me ask up you guys a question: Between DBE, X3, and FF2, what do they have in common?

Well, asides from having bad acting, bad writing, and bad directing they also have another thing in common: They all have giants in their source materials, which was adapted into the movie, but they're either shorter, on a different form, or only parts of their body was shown.

You probably wondering "Why do they decide to change their appearances?". Well, it's because the former Fox executive Tom Rothman (who were in charge of all these 3 movies) HATES giants. He thinks that giants looks stupid, and he doesn't want them in his movies. This is of course before Transformers came out, which made more than all these 3 movies COMBINE.

I also heard a rumor that says the only reason why DBE was even made to begin with, was because the Writer's Strike was going on and that they need a property that already has a bulit-in fanbase for their next year line-up.

So my point is that: It's more of Tom Rothman's fault than it is Fox's fault as a whole. And because they recently fired his ass, I hope this will give DB a chance for a more faithful adaptation in the future.

[Hellspawn28]

I remember reading that they made DBE because Fox was going to lose the rights to the franchise if they didn't had the movie go in production before their deadline. They got the rights to the movie in 2002 most likely because X-Men was a huge hit and they wanted to make more movie franchises. The reason why LXG and the F4 movies end up being made as well.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

Honestly, if I were put in charge of a live-action DB movie, I would've probably still cast a white kid, only tan and I would've digitally make his eyes bigger.

I do give DBE some credit for not making the movie into a total CG fest similar to Transformers. At least the movie did had some practical effects used in the movie.

What's wrong with CG? Practical effects? Bad effects if you ask me.

Simple.
Great CG only lasted about a decade or so, Great Practical Effects lasted forever.

[bleed0range]

The effects had nothing to do with why DBE sucked. I know that for a fact. It's definitely got more to do with getting EVERYTHING ELSE wrong.

[Chuquita]

Well, if word coming out of Jump Festa is true, DBE's awfulness inspired Toriyama to work super-hard on making BOG as awesome as it could be. To actually be enough of an impetus to get him back in gear, DBE had to have affected him quite a bit.

[Gyt Kaliba]

Which means, if Battle of Gods turns out to be amazing, does...does that mean we owe it to Evolution for being terrible?

I have conflicted feelings about this.

[TheGreatness25]

I know how much impact Evolution had on my views of the franchise...absolutely none. Same goes for any Special and "movie" coming out. The series is done and everything else is like the filler to the filler to try to milk out some more money from the series. I think the magic is gone, leave it alone, let it be nostalgic. But they try to reinvent it and make it current and "hip and cool" for today's era and...that makes it uncool.

[Chuquita]

Which means, if Battle of Gods turns out to be amazing, does...does that mean we owe it to Evolution for being terrible?

I have conflicted feelings about this.

I guess in a weird, indirect way we do. At least as far as Toriyama getting fired up to create more new DB stuff, anyway. XD

It is conflicting. I want to try and look at it as something good (BOG) coming out of something bad (DBE).

I mean, it was always possible Toei'd do a new DB movie for Jump's 45th, but I think it's Toriyama's involvement more than anything else that's changed had DBE not been what it is.

[Bussani]

I know how much impact Evolution had on my views of the franchise...absolutely none. Same goes for any Special and "movie" coming out. The series is done and everything else is like the filler to the filler to try to milk out some more money from the series. I think the magic is gone, leave it alone, let it be nostalgic. But they try to reinvent it and make it current and "hip and cool" for today's era and...that makes it uncool.

It's a shame you feel that way. Almost everyone else seems really excited about new content, but you basically have to ignore it to be happy, and that must be hard considering just how much attention it's getting! Of course, if they left it alone, all of these excited fans wouldn't be feeling the joy they are right now. Can't please everyone, unfortunately.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

Same goes for any Special and "movie" coming out.

I would even go so as far to say ALL of 'em I think, are really just cash cow. They might sometimes offer some cool concept here and there, but ultimately they all really are just crap, as far as I remember.

But Hell, the original series ITSELF I think in a lot of parts are really just cash cow.

That's why I want someone to take DB as just a CONCEPT while maintaining about 60% and the spirit of original series, and from there develop a DB movie that not only the fans would like, but the critics and the general public would care also. Unlike Speed Racer where the fans like it, but the critics and the general public would just don't care for it and it ended up a major flop, that we'll probably never see again on the silver screen for awhile.

That's really the only way I could get excited about as far as new DB stuff.

[bleed0range]

I know how much impact Evolution had on my views of the franchise...absolutely none. Same goes for any Special and "movie" coming out. The series is done and everything else is like the filler to the filler to try to milk out some more money from the series. I think the magic is gone, leave it alone, let it be nostalgic. But they try to reinvent it and make it current and "hip and cool" for today's era and...that makes it uncool.

I don't know about you but the 2008 Jump special still had the magic to me. I'm not really sure why you think they're just trying to "milk" the franchise. They've always been trying to milk the franchise. That's why there's a zillion video games, 13 previous movie, etc. A lot of the stuff they produced, even back in the "good ol days" wasn't exactly their best material. Of the two new things they've actually made since back then... one of them was pretty good. Episode of Bardock was kind of whatever. I don't see how Dragon Ball can't live on if they still feel like they have new stories to tell.

[Hellspawn28]

The truth is that unless Fox wants to lose the rights to DB; they HAVE to eventually make another DB movie (just like how Constantin Film made a crappy, lunch money budgeted, live-action Fantastic Four movie in the 90s, just so they can make an EVEN MORE crappier FF movie only with an actual budget, a decade later).

It depends if Fox wants to make another live action movie or not? Tristar let their rights to Godzilla die in 2003 seeing that they choose not to make another movie given that it didn't turn out that well as they hope for. DBE only made $9,362,785 in the US and $57,497,699 worldwide. I'm pretty sure the movie was not a blockbuster as they hope for. DBE left things off for another movie and movies tend to triple of its estimated budget in order to make a sequel.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

The truth is that unless Fox wants to lose the rights to DB; they HAVE to eventually make another DB movie (just like how Constantin Film made a crappy, lunch money budgeted, live-action Fantastic Four movie in the 90s, just so they can make an EVEN MORE crappier FF movie only with an actual budget, a decade later).

It depends if Fox wants to make another live action movie or not? Tristar let their rights to Godzilla die in 2003 seeing that they choose not to make another movie given that it didn't turn out that well as they hope for. DBE only made $9,362,785 in the US and $57,497,699 worldwide. I'm pretty sure the movie was not a blockbuster as they hope for. DBE left things off for another movie and movies tend to triple of its estimated budget in order to make a sequel.

Judging by how they only willing to give the movie a budget around 30 million, I think they weren't expecting any kind blockbuster.

[Hellspawn28]

It's based on a popular franchise. I think Fox was hoping that the movie would be a big hit. They spend money on toys and children books which is something that movie blockbusters have in the past decade. Not to mention they bought the rights to DB right after X-Men came out. X-Men is the reason why movies like Daredevil, F4 and LXG got made in the first place. They wanted to make as many franchises as possible.

[TheGreatness25]

I see what everyone is saying, but it's kind of like a gem from my past and I feel like the reason why I am a fan to this day is because of my childhood. I think the fans of the newer stuff are either those who became fans more "recently" than I have, or just anime fans. I'm not an anime fan. And I've been a fan as a child, since I was about 6 years old. I'm going to be 25 soon and it's really something that is in the past. I want my closure with the series. I want to own everything, I want to keep it locked up and revisit the past with it. But to this day I'm buying merchandise. To this day there's something new to see and to this day there are undubbed, unreleased, etc. parts of it. I just want my closure, I'm tired of collecting it. But I feel like I have to. I want to close the chapter on it. It's like the video games. In the beginning, they were hard to find, rarely released, for PS1 I had to find imports, etc. Then they started releasing them every year and the magic was gone. Just like now, they keep releasing new stuff every couple of years and it gets annoying. I'm not an anime fan, I'm not a recent fan, I've discovered DB a really, really long time ago and it's time to move on. But I feel like I can't because it's not finished. Can they really not create something new? Instead of rehashing the DB story, can't the people at Toei, or Akira Toriyama, or whoever make a new show with new characters with a new story?

I'm glad it makes everyone happy. I guess I'm a fan of originality.

[Hellspawn28]

Some say that DBE came out too late, but I think DBE would have done just fine if it was not for the word of mouth. DBE was under some pretty heavy fire for its bullshit before the movie was released. I remember when CHUD.com leaked the plot and characters in 2007 and that's when everyone knew it was going to suck big time. Not to mention the trailer for the movie looked terrible and I remember everyone was laughing when they saw the trailer in theaters when I saw Watchmen.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

It's based on a popular franchise. I think Fox was hoping that the movie would be a big hit. They spend money on toys and children books which is something that movie blockbusters have in the past decade. Not to mention they bought the rights to DB right after X-Men came out. X-Men is the reason why movies like Daredevil, F4 and LXG got made in the first place. They wanted to make as many franchises as possible.

If they thought the movie was going to be a blockbuster movie, then why didn't they gave it a blockbuster budget? This was further proven by how they reject the 1st draft of the script because it was too expensive to shoot, and don't fuckin' tell me that a DB movie (at least the 1st one) would be more expensive to shoot than something like Transformers.

Also, as popular as you may think Dragon Ball is; it's still mostly only popular within the Anime community and pretty unknown within the overall general public.

[Daimakku]

Me and my friend, both of us which are hardcore Dragonball fans, simply ignored the movie when it came out and didn't go see it because it looked awful. We later saw it on DVD and, indeed, it was terrible. It was so terrible that I pretend it doesn't exist most of the time.
I find it ironic that DBZ is the best TV show I have ever seen, but that its live action movie is pretty much the worst movie I have ever had the displeasure of watching. It was that bad.

I see what everyone is saying, but it's kind of like a gem from my past and I feel like the reason why I am a fan to this day is because of my childhood. I think the fans of the newer stuff are either those who became fans more "recently" than I have, or just anime fans. I'm not an anime fan. And I've been a fan as a child, since I was about 6 years old. I'm going to be 25 soon and it's really something that is in the past. I want my closure with the series. I want to own everything, I want to keep it locked up and revisit the past with it. But to this day I'm buying merchandise. To this day there's something new to see and to this day there are undubbed, unreleased, etc. parts of it. I just want my closure, I'm tired of collecting it. But I feel like I have to. I want to close the chapter on it. It's like the video games. In the beginning, they were hard to find, rarely released, for PS1 I had to find imports, etc. Then they started releasing them every year and the magic was gone. Just like now, they keep releasing new stuff every couple of years and it gets annoying. I'm not an anime fan, I'm not a recent fan, I've discovered DB a really, really long time ago and it's time to move on. But I feel like I can't because it's not finished. Can they really not create something new? Instead of rehashing the DB story, can't the people at Toei, or Akira Toriyama, or whoever make a new show with new characters with a new story?

I'm glad it makes everyone happy. I guess I'm a fan of originality.

I don't feel like Dragonball is getting too oversatured with new content.. we're not getting any new official manga releases, and the only animated stuff we've had since the end of GT and Dragonball 10th Anniversary have been the 2008 Jump special, and the Bardock special last year. Two new animated OVAs. That is not a lot whatsoever in the ~15 years since GT ended. Now we are getting Battle of Gods this year. That makes three things. But after that, what? Nothing has been confirmed yet after BoG.

I think you're exaggerating a bit with the new content thing. Yes, I understand how you feel about the main story ending ages ago and that you just want closure for this great series, but this is what happens with popular franchises, they don't let them die because they make too much money. We just gotta be grateful that Toei/Shueisha aren't really raping the hell out of Dragonball. If Dragonball had been owned by an american company, you better believe that the series would still be on today, with ridiculously high numbers of Super Saiyan levels, all kinds of fusions and just general craziness. Or the franchises would've been rebooted at least two times already.. So, it could be worse.
I, myself, am looking forward to Battle of Gods. I expect it to be mind blowing and to be the best DBZ movie yet. As long as we get tidbits of new content every few years, it is fine with me.