Live Action Movie Discussion Thread

[Olivier Hague]

Dragon Ball fans, particularly of the kind like those who frequent Daizex, have EVERY right to expect the worst from this movie.

*Sigh*

How did I know I would get responses like this? It's depressing really.

Well, how's that for patronizing?

Last I saw, the only thing we knew they were doing with Goku was putting him in highschool and, possibly, giving him a crush on Chi-Chi

"Possibly"? Have we read the same article?

(which by the time he's 18 is no where near a stretch of the imagination even in the series).

Gokû having a crush on somebody? Have we read the same manga?

And one last time for the cheap seats; EVIL. NAMEKIAN. NINJAS.

Which could be a 'best example' description for Piccolo's underlings. We. Don't. Know.

They said "high ninjas". That's oddly specific, for a "best example description".

So the personalities are completely and utterly different than the show? What, you've seen clips of the movie? We've got paragraph sized blurbs about them. That's it.

And that's more than enough to tell, actually. Maybe you should consider reading them.

You can't tell jack shit from a paragraph outside of the vaguest possible directions which tell you abslutely zip about the final product without liberal ammounts of luck.

Dude. What did you think the purpose of those paragraphs was? Do you think that's promotional material? Does it look like they're deliberately keeping things vague, when they give away several plot twists?
They're fucking casting sides. They're supposed to tell you what you need to know about the characters.

And where the hell do you see anything about sexual desires.

"their mutual attraction finally heats up during a training session."

why do you insist on reading that destiny line as some sort of fate mumbo jumbo and not the far more obvious "you're from a race of conquers so it is in your blood to conquer" implication it gives off?

"Piccolo has some disturbing news for Goku, namely that the boy is actually a Saiyan who's destined to join Piccolo as his right hand in destroying and enslaving the planet..."
Why do you assume it's just a vague implication, when the casting side is pretty specific? Wishful thinking, perhaps? Like with the "they're not being literal about the high ninjas" thing?

aside from Mai sounding like she's actually useful in the movie

Yay, another cliché.

I'm bitching about the fact that people are bitching about things they don't even know about yet as though it's concrete fact.

Yeah, how arrogant of us to assume they're being literal and accurate in casting sides!

My issue is with the fact that everyone's already decided that the movie is the worst thing ever and filming hasn't even started yet.

It was a terrible idea to begin with.

[Sebastian (SB)]

It was a terrible idea to begin with.

Booyah! I'll probably still watch it for cheap laughs though.

Speaking of which I just had a terribly funny idea where they were doing a Dragon Ball Movie soundtrack promo....& get this, Linkin Park is doing the single. Oh, I love it.....the irony that is.

[Contra Deus]

Keep in mind that we don't even know if any of this is the final draft for the film. Who knows what changes the director or staff will make before the final product is filmed.

With any luck, the finished item will actually be better than this synopsis has made it sound.

[Kunzait_83]

Dragon Ball fans, particularly of the kind like those who frequent Daizex, have EVERY right to expect the worst from this movie.

*Sigh*

How did I know I would get responses like this? It's depressing really.

Er? Care to elaborate on that one?

we now know that at least for now they plan on completely butchering the main goddamn character of this thing.

Last I saw, the only thing we knew they were doing with Goku was putting him in highschool and, possibly, giving him a crush on Chi-Chi (which by the time he's 18 is no where near a stretch of the imagination even in the series). I fail to see any butchering with this.

Oh for the love of....

To sum up Son Goku in a nutshell; he grew up in the middle of nowhere, and therefore knows absolutely jack shit about everything. And I mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. He didn't even know what separated men from women before he met Bulma. He thought cars were monsters at first. He didn't know anything about the existence of electricity, and thought that MARRIAGE WAS A TYPE OF FUCKING FOOD.

Look, I can't stress this enough; I'm TOTALLY with you with regards to understanding that an adaptation (particularly one that comes via Hollywood) doesn't have to be precisely fucking accurate to every minutia of detail.

However, I'm sure even you must understand that when you fuck with the source material enough, you can get to a point where it bears so little resemblance to the original idea that you may as well not even bother calling it an adaptation anymore.

I'm well aware that as of right now we know jack shit about this movie. All we have to go on is vague rumor and hearsay. There's even still a decent chance that this fucker may wind up not even being filmed to begin with, cause lord knows these "definitive" announcements of Fox commencing pre-production (complete with a director attached) haven't happened on several previous occasions, and amounted to zilch.

These write ups could very well mean nothing at all. 10-4. But on the off chance that they are an indication of where this project is going... then in that case sticking Son Goku in highschool is by all means a terrible fucking starting off point. The very concept itself screws with the character far beyond the level he should be screwed with, to the point you may as well call him something else entirely. This character-type is NOT all that difficult to nail down. It's been done before.

Ever see that movie Encino Man? The movie where (God help me for invoking the fucker's name yet again) Brendan Fraiser plays a frozen caveman that gets thawed out in the present time? Whatever you're opinions on an early 90's comedy starring Pauly Shore, the point I'm trying to make is that when you watch that movie, particularly the early bits where Fraiser interacts with modern L.A. for the first time... if you were to make it so that he could speak in a decidedly hickish manner, you would basically have Goku's personality-type fucking nailed more or less.

Granted the caveman winds up in highschool as the movie progresses... but you get the idea.

And no I'm not suggesting Fraiser should play Goku thank you.

Setting up the character as a highschool student with a (presumably) normal upbringing would be like altering Peter Parker into a tough guy popular jock ala Flash Thompson. It's just THAT opposite to the character's core concept. And if you can’t grasp that painfully simple concept then with all due respect, you force me to question whether or not we’re talking about the same series called Dragon Ball here.

I haven't seen a character's fundamentals screwed with this badly since most of the cast of the live action Street Fighter movie. And I think we all remember how that one turned out.

Someone missed an earlier comment I made I see.

I just went back and caught that. The Street Fighter movie IS great fun... it's great fun in the same way that Batman and Robin is fun; a laugh riot so long as you're drunk or stoned on some seriously potent shit, or at the very least watching it with a crowd of friends who are. Watching it sober and alone is about as pleasurable and fun as listening to Sean Schemmel yodel the song "Tomorrow" from Annie... in his Kaio voice.

Hey believe me I love MST3K-ing shitty sub-Z Grade schlock as much as the next guy. It's one of those finer pleasures in life that I thrive on. It’s just that if that is indeed the kind of movie this turns out to be… well we already have a movie called “Dragon Ball: the Magic Begins”. Do we really need the Hollywood version?

Keep in mind that we don't even know if any of this is the final draft for the film. Who knows what changes the director or staff will make before the final product is filmed.

With any luck, the finished item will actually be better than this synopsis has made it sound.

Word.

[jjgp1112]

I think we should just copy & paste Kunzait's post if Xyex comes here again and shows that he doesn't know shit about the chracters.

[Xyex]

Er? Care to elaborate on that one?

Just noting the fact that people can't seem to wait for something at least resembling a finished product before making any kind of opinion and expectations as to the film's quality.

Hey, I'm not denying it could blow bad enough it sucks to much to even be funny. But I don't decide or expect such things until I have something solid enough in front of me to draw conclusions from.

To sum up Son Goku in a nutshell; he grew up in the middle of nowhere, and therefore knows absolutely jack shit about everything. And I mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. He didn't even know what separated men from women before he met Bulma. He thought cars were monsters at first. He didn't know anything about the existence of electricity, and thought that MARRIAGE WAS A TYPE OF FUCKING FOOD.

Did someone forget that Goku's 18 in this movie? By the age of 18 Goku was still naive (and there is nothing in the synopsis that says he isn't in the movie) but he's not clueless anymore. Yes, the movie skipped over the early years to the later years. But I think a large reason for that was to be able to base the characters more off of their later selves. In that reguard there's not really much we know is actually changed personality wise. Granted, if he turns out to be Gohan (straight A's and what not), or just like everyone else when it comes to the way he thinks and acts, then I'll agree with you on this. But until I see something concrete I'm not going to say he's ruined because what we see so far isn't so much a change that he isn't recognizable as being derived from Goku.

Granted the caveman winds up in highschool as the movie progresses... but you get the idea.

See, as I said, I think this is a large reason for the chosen time frame for the movie. This way the caveman has already gone to highschool. What it comes down to is just how much the local change really effects the way they present him. Nothing yet indicates he's not, at the very least, a slightly less naive and more knowledgeable version of his 23rd Budokai self. And if that's all it is it's not so great a depature to be unrecognizable as Goku.

I've seen fanfics that have done the highschool thing without losing any of Goku's personality... and I've seen fanfics that left his home alone and still screwed him up. It's just too early to call. And that's my point.

And no I'm not suggesting Fraiser should play Goku thank you.

Setting up the character as a highschool student with a (presumably) normal upbringing would be like altering Peter Parker into a tough guy popular jock ala Flash Thompson.

But we can't presume it was normal. We know he's known Chi-Chi all his life and we know he isn't popular. That's about it. And a good reason for him to be unpopular would be a lack of normal upringing. Again, too early to call anything here.

I just went back and caught that. The Street Fighter movie IS great fun... it's great fun in the same way that Batman and Robin is fun; a laugh riot so long as you're drunk or stoned on some seriously potent shit,

Hey, I never said the movie was a great representation of the video games. But as a movie all on it's own, while rather... unusal at places, it's still a fun action flick. The groaning and laughing only comes in if you can't remember you're not watching something intended to match the games.

I think we should just copy & paste Kunzait's post if Xyex comes here again and shows that he doesn't know shit about the chracters.

I would say I know more about the characters than you do, unless you've peeled them apart like an onion as well to pin down everything that makes them tick the way they tick so you can properly represent them in fanfictions, and properly modify them to make them realisticly altered to match AUs where circumstances and experiences are vastly different than that presented the original story.

[JAPPO]

Here's a better adaptation and it took me 1 minute to think of:

"Goku is a clueless person and he finds a crazy machine monster with a girl inside it."

[TripleRach]

I think we should just copy & paste Kunzait's post if Xyex comes here again and shows that he doesn't know shit about the chracters.

I think everyone should stop being so arrogant and start being a little more respectful of other posters.

This is just getting silly. We have:
People complaining about the potential characters.
People complaining about the people complaining about the potential characters.
People complaining about the people complaining about the people complaining about the potential characters.

Why are any of you getting so worked up over other people's opinions? I don't mean to play backseat mod, but it's a little ridiculous. It's one thing to disagree, but now it's turning into back and forth feuding.

[Kaboom]

I think we should just copy & paste Kunzait's post if Xyex comes here again and shows that he doesn't know shit about the chracters.

*Whips out some marshmallows in anticipation of all the impending flames*

[Jerseymilk]

I think we should just copy & paste Kunzait's post if Xyex comes here again and shows that he doesn't know shit about the chracters.

I think you should refrain from posting in threads when you have nothing to contribute except stupid one-liners and flaming.

And Rachel pretty much summed up everything else I wanted to say. Nice job Rach.

[jjgp1112]

I think we should just copy & paste Kunzait's post if Xyex comes here again and shows that he doesn't know shit about the chracters.

I think you should refrain from posting in threads when you have nothing to contribute except stupid one-liners and flaming.

And Rachel pretty much summed up everything else I wanted to say. Nice job Rach.

Google search my username to see what message board I'm from. You'll know why I act like that.

[Contra Deus]

Another question I have about this movie is where will it be set? Will it be the quirky alternate universe with capsule-shaped buildings and houses, flying cars, and animal-people or will it be in the real world? Maybe it'll even be in rural China or mainland Asia?

No way to know, of course, I was just wondering.

[Rocketman]

Another question I have about this movie is where will it be set? Will it be the quirky alternate universe with capsule-shaped buildings and houses, flying cars, and animal-people or will it be in the real world? Maybe it'll even be in rural China or mainland Asia?

No way to know, of course, I was just wondering.

Southern California.

[Kaboom]

Another question I have about this movie is where will it be set? Will it be the quirky alternate universe with capsule-shaped buildings and houses, flying cars, and animal-people or will it be in the real world? Maybe it'll even be in rural China or mainland Asia?

No way to know, of course, I was just wondering.

Southern California.

Please... I'm trying my best to remain "cautiously optomistic" about this movie... don't give me those images.

[Tsukento]

Did someone forget that Goku's 18 in this movie? By the age of 18 Goku was still naive (and there is nothing in the synopsis that says he isn't in the movie) but he's not clueless anymore. Yes, the movie skipped over the early years to the later years. But I think a large reason for that was to be able to base the characters more off of their later selves. In that reguard there's not really much we know is actually changed personality wise. Granted, if he turns out to be Gohan (straight A's and what not), or just like everyone else when it comes to the way he thinks and acts, then I'll agree with you on this. But until I see something concrete I'm not going to say he's ruined because what we see so far isn't so much a change that he isn't recognizable as being derived from Goku.

Considering it suggests that Goku's in school at the age of 18, the plot itself seems to suggest that Goku isn't naive anymore and that he's managed to make it to his finally years of highschool. This is a complete clash with Goku as even by the age of 18, he didn't know what the meaning of the word marriage meant.

We've seen that even in Z, Goku's not exactly a bright adult and has shown that he's never received a proper education.

Also the fact that they're claiming Goku is an unpopular kid who either hides his talent or is unaware of his untapped potential only makes him sound more like Clark Kent than Son Goku. Goku never had any shame in the original source material. If he felt like dropping his pants, then by golly he'd do it in public and walk around with his Dragon Balls hangin' out. This kind of characteristic displays an energetic and carefree side of Goku. The other seems to suggest that Goku's being played off as a geeky looking kid, the kind that keeps to himself and gets bullied often (let's hope they don't throw a spikey haired kid in named Vegeta, who's followed everywhere by a knuckle-head brutish kid that does everything Vegeta tells him and calls himself Nappa).

Son Goku is the kind of character that doesn't even have to make an effort to get people to warm up to him and think of him as a friend. Kuririn being missing from this movie's lead cast only brings up this problem even more so.

I've seen fanfics that have done the highschool thing without losing any of Goku's personality... and I've seen fanfics that left his home alone and still screwed him up. It's just too early to call. And that's my point.

Except most fanfics also go with incredibly laughable/pathetic creations like the "Namek-Jin Ninjas" we have in this movie.

But we can't presume it was normal. We know he's known Chi-Chi all his life and we know he isn't popular. That's about it. And a good reason for him to be unpopular would be a lack of normal upringing. Again, too early to call anything here.

Son Goku, while being unable to have a normal upbringing, was perfectly capable of getting people to warm up to him and write him off as a silly kid. This is nothing like Goku at all.

[Kaboom]

Hmmm... Goku described as "unpopular" in High School?

Could being an uncultured, naive nobody who's 18 years old but a freshman and not good at much of anything besides Kenpo Club merit being "unpopular," perhaps?

'Course, he does have that charming, kind, and even heroic personality. But in a setting like 'the Valley of the Shadow of High School,' the only ones who would be willing to even take notice of that would be those who have already known him for a long time...



There's my two cents for the time being.

[Bomber Greek]

People who have prejudice against the movie right now can NEVER enjoy it when it comes out, even if it turns out to be awesome. When you go into the cinema thinking 'This is gonna be crap', you can make even the best movies crap in your mind.

I think it's the absolute opposite. When I'm expecting a movie to be crap, yet it's actually quite good, it seems great. When I'm expecting an epic movie, yet all I see is a decent movie, I'm very disappointed.

[Contra Deus]

I think it'll depend on what sort of tone the director and the rest will take with the film. Will it be the slapstick-humor/action/feel-good journey of the manga/anime or will it be the Smallville/Spiderman teen-angst of being a superhero in high school?

In other words, all the changes aside, will it feel like Dragonball?

[Hao_Kaiser]

Erm, maybe it's just me, but... The plot seems a lot more suited to Gohan after the Cell Games, rather than Goku.

I know that, well... Gohan isn't really the biggest selling point, but, I mean, with some modifications, they could easily make this a Gohan movie.

Which, again, wouldn't really work, but, still, it'd be better than the crap they're apparently going to put out.

[Olivier Hague]

I think it'll depend on what sort of tone the director and the rest will take with the film. Will it be the slapstick-humor/action/feel-good journey of the manga/anime or will it be the Smallville/Spiderman teen-angst of being a superhero in high school?

"their mutual attraction finally heats up during a training session."