Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by XanatosVanBadass » Sat Apr 04, 2020 10:45 am

DBE had such a low budget it was pretty much doomed from the start. That said, I always thought Chow Yun Fat COULD have been a good Roshi, had they aged him up via make up. Only showing him young during flashbacks. I also at least appreciate that they TRIED to make the world a bit fantastic and colorful, as opposed to how dull everything in TLA looked.

Can we all agree that the Netflix Death Note is worse than either? That was so bad I had to watch fucking G-Savior to remind myself what a good movie was like! :lol:

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by Matches Malone » Sat Apr 04, 2020 11:00 am

XanatosVanBadass wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 10:45 amCan we all agree that the Netflix Death Note is worse than either? That was so bad I had to watch fucking G-Savior to remind myself what a good movie was like! :lol:
With how advanced tech has become, and how much Hollywood are willing to spend, it's a real shame we've yet to get an anime movie that does the source material justice.

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by XanatosVanBadass » Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:00 pm

Matches Malone wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 11:00 am
XanatosVanBadass wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 10:45 amCan we all agree that the Netflix Death Note is worse than either? That was so bad I had to watch fucking G-Savior to remind myself what a good movie was like! :lol:
With how advanced tech has become, and how much Hollywood are willing to spend, it's a real shame we've yet to get an anime movie that does the source material justice.
Legendary Pictures is apparently working on a live action Gundam movie. While I think it will LOOK awesome (the same company behind Pacific Rim) I’m highly skeptical that they could hope to do Gundam justice story wise.

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by Matches Malone » Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:50 pm

XanatosVanBadass wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:00 pmLegendary Pictures is apparently working on a live action Gundam movie. While I think it will LOOK awesome (the same company behind Pacific Rim) I’m highly skeptical that they could hope to do Gundam justice story wise.
Lionsgate has been working on a Naruto movie for over half a decade, but I'm not expecting much from it, if it ever happens.

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by goku the krump dancer » Sat Apr 04, 2020 1:17 pm

XanatosVanBadass wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:00 pm
Legendary Pictures is apparently working on a live action Gundam movie. While I think it will LOOK awesome (the same company behind Pacific Rim) I’m highly skeptical that they could hope to do Gundam justice story wise.
There's like a billion different Gundam stories though, it'd be kinda hard to fuck anything up if they can just tell their own story instead of trying to retell Hiro's or Domon's.
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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips » Sat Apr 04, 2020 2:01 pm

goku the krump dancer wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 1:17 pm There's like a billion different Gundam stories though, it'd be kinda hard to fuck anything up if they can just tell their own story instead of trying to retell Hiro's or Domon's.
They should do what War in the Pocket did. Pick a date and tell the story of how the war played out during that month. Gundam is absolutely a series that transcends its protagonists. It'd be a huge disservice to walk that back.
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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by Planetnamek » Sat Apr 04, 2020 2:55 pm

XanatosVanBadass wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 10:45 am DBE had such a low budget it was pretty much doomed from the start. That said, I always thought Chow Yun Fat COULD have been a good Roshi, had they aged him up via make up. Only showing him young during flashbacks. I also at least appreciate that they TRIED to make the world a bit fantastic and colorful, as opposed to how dull everything in TLA looked.

Can we all agree that the Netflix Death Note is worse than either? That was so bad I had to watch fucking G-Savior to remind myself what a good movie was like! :lol:
I was fine with the Death Note movie, though in my case that's probably because I have yet to see the anime or read the Manga so I had nothing to compare it to.
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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by XanatosVanBadass » Sat Apr 04, 2020 7:34 pm

It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 2:01 pm
goku the krump dancer wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 1:17 pm There's like a billion different Gundam stories though, it'd be kinda hard to fuck anything up if they can just tell their own story instead of trying to retell Hiro's or Domon's.
They should do what War in the Pocket did. Pick a date and tell the story of how the war played out during that month. Gundam is absolutely a series that transcends its protagonists. It'd be a huge disservice to walk that back.
Funny, 0080 is one of the main reasons (among others) that I doubt Gundam would translate well to western audiences considering this political climate. Mind, it’s more or less confirmed they’re covering the 0079 era.

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Sat Apr 04, 2020 8:36 pm

I heard the Battle Angel Alita movie was pretty good.
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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by WittyUsername » Sat Apr 04, 2020 8:43 pm

On the subject of the budget for DBE, I don’t know if I’d agree that having a $30 million budget doomed the film (look at District 9) but I do agree that it suggests the studio didn’t care much about it. I suppose that would be a major difference between it and TLA. TLA is a movie that M. Night Shyamalan clearly thought would be a big hit, and that the studio poured a lot of money into, while DBE is a movie that no one had any faith in, to the point where it’s surprising that it ever passed the pre-production stage.

That’s why I think it’s interesting to discuss which one is worse. A movie that tries to be good, only to fail miserably, or a movie that’s bad because no one had any faith or passion for it.

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by Lord Beerus » Sun Apr 05, 2020 11:25 pm

Polyphase Avatron wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 8:36 pm I heard the Battle Angel Alita movie was pretty good.
Alita: Battle Angel is a damn good movie. It's certainly the best live action movie based on a manga to be produced in the West, but that bar is pretty damn low anyway.

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by Melee_Sovereign » Mon Apr 06, 2020 12:27 am

Vijay wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 2:21 am It's like askin which one was better: GT or Super
No it's not. Super is way better than GT. A better comparison to GT would be Heroes.

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by Sadala Elite » Mon Apr 06, 2020 2:20 am

DB Evolution is laughably bad, but at least tried to do its own thing in terms of story, characters, etc.

But The Last Airbender is insultingly bad in every way, and actively butchered its source material.

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by TheGreatness25 » Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:07 pm

I haven't seen The Last Airbender, but I'd find it very difficult to believe that it could even scratch Dragon Ball Evolution in how awful it was. It wasn't just awful from a, "I'm a fan of the series and they bastardized it!" standpoint, but that it was an awful movie from top to bottom. If it didn't have the Dragon Ball title, I'd imagine it would be one of those Tubi/Popcornflix/other free movie app movies that nobody would see. It was depressing to watch, to be honest. Just one of those bad D-list movies that you pass while looking for something to watch.

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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by Planetnamek » Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:33 pm

TheGreatness25 wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:07 pm I haven't seen The Last Airbender, but I'd find it very difficult to believe that it could even scratch Dragon Ball Evolution in how awful it was. It wasn't just awful from a, "I'm a fan of the series and they bastardized it!" standpoint, but that it was an awful movie from top to bottom. If it didn't have the Dragon Ball title, I'd imagine it would be one of those Tubi/Popcornflix/other free movie app movies that nobody would see. It was depressing to watch, to be honest. Just one of those bad D-list movies that you pass while looking for something to watch.
This video perfectly sums up how awful Last Airbender is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jvpOpDraZU
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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:37 pm

Planetnamek wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:33 pm
TheGreatness25 wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:07 pm I haven't seen The Last Airbender, but I'd find it very difficult to believe that it could even scratch Dragon Ball Evolution in how awful it was. It wasn't just awful from a, "I'm a fan of the series and they bastardized it!" standpoint, but that it was an awful movie from top to bottom. If it didn't have the Dragon Ball title, I'd imagine it would be one of those Tubi/Popcornflix/other free movie app movies that nobody would see. It was depressing to watch, to be honest. Just one of those bad D-list movies that you pass while looking for something to watch.
This video perfectly sums up how awful Last Airbender is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jvpOpDraZU
The Last Airbender the one single time i watched it years ago was so bad that i turned it off after five minutes, it was a poor attempt at cramming the whole first season of the original animated Avatar into a single film. They got so many details of the show wrong (pronunciation of names even) that it's no wonder why fans of the series and critics alike utterly hated it. Heck, even the live series they announced for streaming a while back sounds better already due to including the original series' creators among other things. As someone who really like the animated series both as it was airing and after i felt the film really dropped the ball as an adaptation when it didn't have to.
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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips » Tue Apr 07, 2020 2:14 pm

SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:37 pm The Last Airbender the one single time i watched it years ago was so bad that i turned it off after five minutes, it was a poor attempt at cramming the whole first season of the original animated Avatar into a single film. They got so many details of the show wrong (pronunciation of names even) that it's no wonder why fans of the series and critics alike utterly hated it. Heck, even the live series they announced for streaming a while back sounds better already due to including the original series' creators among other things. As someone who really like the animated series both as it was airing and after i felt the film really dropped the ball as an adaptation when it didn't have to.
I still don't understand why they tried to compress a whole season (the most episodic season too!) into a single movie. With how big Shamylan's raging hardon for Zuko was you'd think he'd have narrowed the scope and just made a movie about Zuko's struggles. It'd have given the movie much needed focus, cut out a lot of just baffling stupid cgi choices, and freed Shamylan's writing staff (assuming he had any) the chance to be flexible with the canon. Also also there'd be less of Aauungg* which would be great because that kid could not act worth a damn!

*A number of people have pointed out to me that that's closer to a hypothetical real world pronunciation of the name Aang. To which I reply than why not do the same with characters like Toph! And why are Kyoshis using Japanese cadence to their names when they live in the very Chinese Earth Kingdom and far from the very Japanese Fire Nation? The names are inspired by real world East/SouthEast Asain cultures but that doesn't mean there's a 1 to 1 relationship!
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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Tue Apr 07, 2020 4:32 pm

It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 2:14 pm
SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:37 pm The Last Airbender the one single time i watched it years ago was so bad that i turned it off after five minutes, it was a poor attempt at cramming the whole first season of the original animated Avatar into a single film. They got so many details of the show wrong (pronunciation of names even) that it's no wonder why fans of the series and critics alike utterly hated it. Heck, even the live series they announced for streaming a while back sounds better already due to including the original series' creators among other things. As someone who really like the animated series both as it was airing and after i felt the film really dropped the ball as an adaptation when it didn't have to.
I still don't understand why they tried to compress a whole season (the most episodic season too!) into a single movie. With how big Shamylan's raging hardon for Zuko was you'd think he'd have narrowed the scope and just made a movie about Zuko's struggles. It'd have given the movie much needed focus, cut out a lot of just baffling stupid cgi choices, and freed Shamylan's writing staff (assuming he had any) the chance to be flexible with the canon. Also also there'd be less of Aauungg* which would be great because that kid could not act worth a damn!

*A number of people have pointed out to me that that's closer to a hypothetical real world pronunciation of the name Aang. To which I reply than why not do the same with characters like Toph! And why are Kyoshis using Japanese cadence to their names when they live in the very Chinese Earth Kingdom and far from the very Japanese Fire Nation? The names are inspired by real world East/SouthEast Asain cultures but that doesn't mean there's a 1 to 1 relationship!
Indeed, it all felt slammed together and not very well done at that. They really should have just made it about Zuko after his disgracing and outcasting by the Fire Lord and travels with Uncle Iroh which happen up through the beginning of Book 3. The film would've worked better with that concept than the one taken because trying to adapt a whole season of the series just wasn't going to work, and that's on top of all the other adaptation problems and terrible CG effects that look dated even almost a decade later.
Last edited by SuperSaiyaManZ94 on Tue Apr 07, 2020 5:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by DragonBallFoodie » Tue Apr 07, 2020 5:05 pm

I consider Evolution to be worse than The Last Airbender.

Evolution was a horrible adaptation, with unrecognizable characters and an unfaithful story.
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Re: Would you say Dragonball Evolution is better or worse than The Last Airbender?

Post by Fionordequester » Tue Apr 07, 2020 10:03 pm

It definitely was very odd, how Shyamalan tried to include so much of Season 1 in the movie; Especially since 80% of it was filler. I mean...

Episodes 1-2: Introductory episodes, so obviously include those.

Episode 3: Aang's tragic backstory... and I guess Zhao, even if he is pretty lame. Maybe cut out his fight with Zuko, so he can at least
pretend to be a threat.

Episode 4: Sokka meets his future girlfriend, but she's gone the rest of Season 1. Her intro could easily be moved up.

Episode 5: Aang finds his old pal Bumi. Cool character, but definitely not necessary to the plot.

Episode 6: Aang rescues random villagers from a random platoon. No need for them and their TINY ROCKS.

Episode 7: Our heroes beat up some pirates, after Katara steals a scroll. Nice bit of development for Katara, but, ultimately not needed.

Episode 8: Aang meets a scary Spirit World thing, then sets for Roku's pad. Mostly useless.

Episode 9: Big exposition dump here. Sozin's Comet is introduced, we finally get a glimpse of the Big Bad, and we figure out why Aang needs to hurry.

Episode 10: Nothing relevant here. Jet's a cool villain, but, it's still a side story.

Episode 11: ...No comment.

Episode 12: Zuko's tragic backstory, how he wound up banished, why he's so obsessed with Aang, and why Iroh tags despite his obvious apathy. Definitely keep this.

Episode 13: Zuko did some cool stuff, but it came at the cost of making Aang seem too dumb to live. Also, Zhao gets a promotion, despite botching everything he'd ever put his mind to.

Episode 14: Adventure time with a volcano, and some kooky side characters. Whatever.

Episode 15: Sokka & Katara meet their dad, and Zuko finally manages to put up a good fight against Aang. Cool stuff... But still not relevant to the bigger picture.

Episode 16: We see exactly why Aang shouldn't try to master the elements out of order, and some ominous foreshadowing to just how deadly fire can be. Also goes out of it's way to show that "Yes, Zhao really is a complete joke. It's not just your imagination".

Episode 17: Aang helps defend a kooky scientist, and his HANDI-CAPABLE son. Not important, really.

Episode 18-20: Aang makes it to the Water Tribe, and finally, finally does what we've been waiting for him to do since like, Episode 3. Take out the "Master Paku is a sexist snob" thing, remove the "arranged marriage" side plot, and remove Koh the face-stealer, and you could probably scrunch this down into 2 episodes.

So that's about 12 out of 20 episodes that could've been dropped while still having the story make sense.

So with just the 8 leftover episodes? Yeah, Shyamalan totally could've had things work out, if he knew what he was doing.
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