Dragonball Evolution - SPOILERS Thread

Olivier Hague · Post by **Olivier Hague** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:30 pm

Pain wrote:Why didn't you say that before?

I feel really bad about being the only culprit behind your assumptions.

Pain · Post by **Pain** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:31 pm

Olivier Hague wrote:I feel really bad about being the only culprit behind your assumptions.

I was using sarcasm. And I hope you are, as well.

omae no kaasan · Post by **omae no kaasan** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:52 pm

Meet the Spartans opened at #1 in the USA when it was released so I really can't trust film rankings anymore.

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:29 pm

Saiyan-Professor wrote:I guess anal-retentive Dragonball fans are the same the world over. They wanted a fantasy movie with little CGI cats, pigs and dogs running around and a woman with a bad blue wig not to mention a green alien with dangly things sticking out of his forehead.

I agree that you can't take bashing by fanboys seriously overseas anymore than you can here. I recall seeing a piece of criticism on the game Mirror's Edge was drawing, due to some folks in Japan feeling that westerners don't know how to draw an asian woman (who was actually of mixed ancestry in the game). Someone then proceeded to put an image of how it should have been done- and the picture was almost the same except Faith now had larger, more western (though still exotic) eyes and large breasts.

This isn't a comment on the DBE film, as I haven't seen anything beyond the old trailers so far. The moral of my little story is that people will bitch about anything.

Pain · Post by **Pain** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:29 pm

Most new movies open at #1, all of the time. So rankings don't mean much to me, unless they're racking in the big bucks, as well.

Saiyan-Professor · Post by **Saiyan-Professor** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:20 pm

Is anyone keeping up with how much the movie is making overseas besides the 10 million mentioned earlier?

Olivier Hague · Post by **Olivier Hague** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:37 pm

Onikage725 wrote:I agree that you can't take bashing by fanboys seriously overseas anymore than you can here.

It's not just fanboys. I've seen a lot of people (most of them, really) saying it was just a very mediocre movie, even putting the whole "Dragon Ball adaptation" mess aside.

I recall seeing a piece of criticism on the game Mirror's Edge was drawing, due to some folks in Japan feeling that westerners don't know how to draw an asian woman

Well...

Someone then proceeded to put an image of how it should have been done- and the picture was almost the same except Faith now had larger, more western (though still exotic) eyes and large breasts.

There were more cosmetic changes than that. And apart from the questionable breasts, I agree they were for the better, really.

Dogasu · Post by **Dogasu** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:10 pm

Saiyan-Professor wrote:I guess anal-retentive Dragonball fans are the same the world over. They wanted a fantasy movie with little CGI cats, pigs and dogs running around and a woman with a bad blue wig not to mention a green alien with dangly things sticking out of his forehead.

Forgive me if I'm misinterpreting your post...but it seems like you're saying that the people who want a "faithful" film are the type of people who have realistic expectations. And I don't think that's fair.

Like...I can get not including Oolong and Pu'ar or the Kinto'un because it would look silly. So yeah, I don't blame them for that any more than I blame the X-Men producers for not fitting Hugh Jackman in yellow and blue spandex. But did Fox really need to have Goku stand in front of the bathroom mirror, slick his hair back, and then wink at himself before running off to go to Chi-Chi's party? Was having Yamcha talk like a surfer dude really one of those "necessary" changes in the adaptation from TV to film? Is Master Roshi's beard really so off-putting for Westerners that it got wasn't included in the film?

It's the whole "change for the sake of change" that's got people upset.

Oliver Hague wrote:It's not just fanboys. I've seen a lot of people (most of them, really) saying it was just a very mediocre movie, even putting the whole "Dragon Ball adaptation" mess aside.

Exactly. I mean, something like Mai is likely to be confusing because 1) the movie never actually gives us her name, 2) it's never explained where she comes from (like...we get Piccolo's backstory, more or less, but not hers), 3) it's never explained why she's working for Piccolo or why she's apparently the only person who works for him, and 4) the whole "I can shapeshift" thing just comes out of nowhere. Like...she just does it. She only has about four lines in the movie.

She's a very poorly written character in the movie, and I'm saying that while ignoring the whole Dragon Ball thing for a moment.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of other examples as well.

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:14 pm

Olivier Hague wrote:It's not just fanboys. I've seen a lot of people (most of them, really) saying it was just a very mediocre movie, even putting the whole "Dragon Ball adaptation" mess aside.

So it seems. I wasn't making a statement on that. I haven't been following most of the buzz. Honestly, I don't think I've ever scoured foreign news for reactions to a domestic film. That's not to say reactions stateside will be anymore positive... but I was just commenting on that one aspect.

There were more cosmetic changes than that. And apart from the questionable breasts, I agree they were for the better, really.

Well, not to stray too far off topic, but yea there was some minor touch up her hair and mouth (and nose?). And hey, I think the fan work up was cuter too. But hey weren't going the Lara Craft uber-sex symbol route, and there's no reason for Faith to look like a cross between an anime character and a J-Pop singer. And her being *ahem* lean perfectly works with her lifestyle and the concept of the game. Where I disagree is the part where that amounted to legit criticism that garnered actual coverage. It'd be like someone bitching that Link should have dark hair and broader shoulders, and drawing their Aragorn-inspired hero of time, and this gaining international coverage as an "issue."

omae no kaasan · Post by **omae no kaasan** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:56 am

I am constantly reminded of how 'awesome' a certain film is from the US whenever we talk about movies in class.

My students are gah-gah over Resident Evil 3.

RESIDENT EVIL 3

So foreigners' tastes in movies can sometimes suck just as much as those back home.

MajinVejitaXV · Post by **MajinVejitaXV** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 5:05 am

Okay, just watched the final 30 minutes of the film myself. I figured if I was going to watch part of it, I may as well watch the climax. All of the following ignores the whole "DragonBall" aspect and merely speaks of what I saw as a film. I'll watch the rest this week, but I doubt the first part of the film will change anything drastically.

Let me say, I love bad films that don't take themselves too seriously. Street Fighter is the most obvious example I can think of. It's when a film is horrible and trying not to be that it becomes sad. Now, unless the last part of the film simply falls flat on its face, then this film really leans more towards just being bad rather than entertainingly bad.

The last thirty minutes of the film seem to lack any sort of pacing. The whole thing feels like its being played in fast forward. It feels like the writer knew where they wanted everything to end up in the end, and had what they thought were cool ideas, but had no idea how to space them out. Goku and Co. are at a temple where Goku learns the Kamehameha from Roshi, then Mai shows up and steals the DragonBalls under the guise of ChiChi, then she fights the real ChiChi, Goku gets shot and nearly dies (which places him in a scene with Gohan that seems to mix Peter's visions of Uncle Ben from the Spider-Man films with Maximus' visions of his wife and child from Gladiator) until Roshi Kamehameha's him back to life, they all go to the "Dragon Temple" to stop Piccolo, Goku gets told he is Oozaru after giving a thoroughly unconvincing "I will destroy you," he transforms and...seriously. Things move this quick, seemingly tailored for kids with extreme ADHD. Then the ending comes and you're just sort of left scratching your head, thinking "...That's it?"

Chatwin, really, is terrible. He maintains a monotone delivery throughout, and when he tries to make temporary departures (like the aforementioned "Gohan in the afterlife" scene) from it he comes off sounding entirely unconvincing. His attempt to make facial expressions (like his shocked look when Piccolo tells him he is Oozaru) are almost laugh out loud funny. The others are mostly forgettable from what I saw, and Marsters appears to be basically a background character. He didn't seem bad, but I can see how the reports of him being underused might be justified. Sadly, much like Raul Julia made Street Fighter to a degree, I think Marsters probably could have made DragonBall Evolution more memorable.

All-in-all, the movie appears to be an extremely generic action flick. With a few very minor alterations, you could seriously call it something completely different without getting flack. I'll watch the rest and determine, for me, whether the film belongs in the "Entertainingly Bad" or "Just Bad" group.

-Corey

Jackal puFF · Post by **Jackal puFF** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 6:51 am

Does anyone have pictures of the Oozaru form of Goku from the movie?

Kendamu · Post by **Kendamu** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:44 pm

So far, as of when I posted this, DBE has made a little over $10-Million over a couple of days after being released in six countries.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?pa ... onball.htm

Super Ghost Kamikaze · Post by **Super Ghost Kamikaze** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 2:00 pm

This is actually the first time I've only seen "bad" news, rather than the mixed view I get in most threads.

Is it really this bad, or is there more good stuff that I'm missing? As it stands, the movie has dropped off the "theater" and "buy it on DVD" status to "Netflix".

And I was moderately excited for the movie before. Any good news in here?

Dr. Casey · Post by **Dr. Casey** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 2:59 pm

Good news?

Well... JAPPO likes it.

Super Ghost Kamikaze · Post by **Super Ghost Kamikaze** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 3:20 pm

Dr. Casey wrote:Good news?

Well... JAPPO likes it.

Hell, I don't really even mean something that makes it good as a Dragonball adaptation. Just good as far as a film in general. My standards are a bit more lax than the apparent standards of the majority of the fanbase, but the slicked-back hair and mirror wink went too far as far as Chatwin's Goku goes.

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:30 pm

omae no kaasan wrote:My students are gah-gah over Resident Evil 3.

RESIDENT EVIL 3

Hey, it was better than 2.

MajinVejitaXV wrote:Okay, just watched the final 30 minutes of the film myself. I figured if I was going to watch part of it, I may as well watch the climax. All of the following ignores the whole "DragonBall" aspect and merely speaks of what I saw as a film. I'll watch the rest this week, but I doubt the first part of the film will change anything drastically.

Where is everyone catching this? Is a screener going around, or just some camrip or telesync from one of the foreign airings? And for the record, I'm not asking for anyone to direct me to the nearest bootleg option, I'm just wondering what format people are coming across.

Let me say, I love bad films that don't take themselves too seriously. Street Fighter is the most obvious example I can think of.

Batman & Robin. Mortal Kombat Annihilation. Beast Master 3. Basically anything that airs on the SciFi Channel on a Saturday afternoon (Mansquito, for example).

It's when a film is horrible and trying not to be that it becomes sad.

Resident Evil Apocalypse. Beast Master 2.

Goku gets shot and nearly dies

Wow, I think you just single-handedly killed my interest in this film. That'd be like saying "And then the thug snuck up on Spiderman..."

Krakabeast · Post by **Krakabeast** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:41 pm

MajinVejitaXV wrote:Goku gets shot and nearly dies (which places him in a scene with Gohan that seems to mix Peter's visions of Uncle Ben from the Spider-Man films with Maximus' visions of his wife and child from Gladiator) until Roshi Kamehameha's him back to life

I am done with this movie!

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:46 pm

Krakabeast wrote:
MajinVejitaXV wrote:Goku gets shot and nearly dies (which places him in a scene with Gohan that seems to mix Peter's visions of Uncle Ben from the Spider-Man films with Maximus' visions of his wife and child from Gladiator) until Roshi Kamehameha's him back to life
I am done with this movie!

I feel ya'

Victator Supreme · Post by **Victator Supreme** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 6:31 pm

omae no kaasan wrote:Meet the Spartans opened at #1 in the USA when it was released so I really can't trust film rankings anymore.

Also it turns out a chunk of those numbers were minors buying tickets to see Rambo IV.