Dragon Ball: Evolution- Speculation and Discussion

saiyanprincess · Post by **saiyanprincess** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:11 pm

xzero wrote:Going to see it at the 10 showing tonight. The thing I think is hilarious is that this theater is known as the "best" in the area, and they usually have "big" movies playing on at least 2 screens. Dragonball Evolution has 4 showtimes between this afternoon and tonight. Hannah Montanna, on the other hand, has about 12.

Noooo that is just plain cruel. What I would give to see Goku kamehameha Hannah Montanah. The movie isn't actually that bad from my point of view.

Dr. Casey · Post by **Dr. Casey** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:17 pm

I have to admit, Bulma does look as though she's portrayed fairly well by the movie (Not a completely accurate match, mind, but she's not offensively miscast, and she looks very likeable in her own right). She's probably the movie's greatest strength.

Tsukento · Post by **Tsukento** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:26 pm

Emmy isn't a bad looking Bulma at all. The thing is that her acting just seems...very dry for the character. Like every time she delivers a line, it makes Bulma out to sound like she's mostly serious about everything.

Pain · Post by **Pain** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:31 pm

I feel that James Wong should get the boot. I feel that there needs to be a better directer for the sequel. A man who has made better movies than Final Destination. I'd say....Zack Snyder!!!

Tsukento · Post by **Tsukento** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:32 pm

Fuck that. Get David Hayter.

B · Post by B » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:33 pm

M. Knight Shamalan for director.

Pain · Post by **Pain** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:36 pm

Tsukento wrote:Fuck that. Get David Hayter.

Well, why not? He's got great vision! I mean, have you seen Watchmen?! I'm sure he can do Dragonball Evolution's sequel some justice.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:38 pm

I just got back from seeing the movie. In a nutshell, I'd say, "Toriyama was right."

The problems with the film were exactly what I expected them to be. First would be that the story needed fleshing out a little more. We had the 'prophecy' about the eclipse and apocalypse told to us several times over, but not much as to why or how. The pacing for the second half of the film was about double that of the first half; it could have used another 20 minutes' runtime so that things could be fleshed out a little better.

These things, however, did not stop the film from being overall enjoyable.

The action was fast and very "DragonBall-ish." 87Eleven did an impressive job with the fight choreography. The humor was almost non-stop and very tongue in cheek, and the special effects were fantastic. The new version of the story was very interesting, and sets itself up for sequels which could be potentially more "faithful" while still being unique as parts of this "DragonBall Movieverse."

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The actors impressed me to varying degrees... Chatwin was not nearly as horrible as people seem to think he is. As Goku, I could tell he had done his research on the character, but was mostly being held back by the script. The few somewhat out-of-character scenes from him are easily forgotten once you see the plenty of others in which he's goofy, determined, and confident. The road getting there may be a bit messy, but by the end of the film, he's quite alike to the Goku we all know.

James Marsters was, as expected, completely awesome. He makes a very powerful, imposing, and overall badass Piccolo. There just wasn't nearly enough of him. I really hope the sequels can and will feature and explore him more.

Emmy Rossum as Bulma was the same type of case as Chatwin. Her Bulma was sassy, smart, devious, and sexy. Emmy's a good actor and she knew what kind of kind of character Bulma is. Didn't make her couple of awkward lines any better, though.

Chow Yun-Fat is the man. We already knew this, but allow me to expand. From the first second we saw him, you could tell he was having a ball playing Roshi. He knew he was doing a goofy kids' movie so he just really hammed it up. As a result, his Roshi is half likable goofball and half serious kung-fu master. And yes, his lechery is downplayed but still present; he's got a bikini magazine stashed away in his house, and on several occasions he goes for a handful of some Bulma-booty.

Joon Park is a pretty cool guy.

Not much really to say about Eriko Tamura as Mai. She only had like... two lines in the entire film. About five, if you count when she was disguised as Chi-Chi. But she served her purpose to the plot quite well. Oh and she was the only one to ever speak the full name, "Son Goku."

Jamie Chung as Chi-Chi is the weak point. Ms. Chung's acting was okay, I didn't really have any big problem with it. The problem was, again, the scripting. The few OOC scenes for Goku I mentioned before? Most of them are caused by Chi-Chi's presence. 'Nuff said, I think.

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The film set itself up as a corny kung-fu/superhero flick mostly for kids, and it never really tried to be anything other than that, even though it probably could have. If you go into it open-minded, you'll have a lot of fun, despite the small handful of groaner moments. In the end, I'd say my optimism was rewarded, and give it a B.

JAPPO · Post by **JAPPO** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:42 pm

So finally Kaboom reviews it.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:49 pm

JAPPO wrote:So finally Kaboom reviews it.

Yep, about to get copy-pasted onto your board and everywhere else, too.

MisterFlashdude · Post by **MisterFlashdude** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:54 pm

Meanwhile, the Rotten Tomatoes score drops to a dismal 17% and earned itself a sad little consensus.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:55 pm

MisterFlashdude wrote:Meanwhile, the Rotten Tomatoes score drops to a dismal 17% and earned itself a sad little consensus.

I can honestly say that it doesn't nearly deserve a rating THAT low. A lot of user-reviews I'm seeing are acting as if it's like manure in movie form, or worse, as bad as Legend of Chun-Li. It's not. It's just a fun, corny, kung-fu kids' movie based off a fun, corny, kung-fu kids' manga. It's done nothing to deserve such bile.

Pain · Post by **Pain** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 5:03 pm

SSj Kaboom wrote:
MisterFlashdude wrote:Meanwhile, the Rotten Tomatoes score drops to a dismal 17% and earned itself a sad little consensus.
I can honestly say that it doesn't nearly deserve a rating THAT low. A lot of user-reviews I'm seeing are acting as if it's like manure in movie form, or worse, as bad as Legend of Chun-Li. It's not. It's just a fun, corny, kung-fu kids' movie based off a fun, corny, kung-fu kids' manga. It's done nothing to deserve such bile.

Agreed. Nothing can ever be that bad.

Tsukento · Post by **Tsukento** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 5:20 pm

But isn't the score based on official reviews and not reviews by community members of RT?

You guys are also forgetting that a good majority of those reviews are coming from people who don't even appear to know much of anything about Dragon Ball. That's one thing I remember being brought up heavily by some of the optimists; that people going into it without liking Dragon Ball will be interested. But as it turns out, a good chunk of the reviewers are saying it's a movie only kids might enjoy due to them not being able to really grasp things you would notice as an adult, if even that.

Rod · Post by **Rod** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 5:24 pm

B wrote:M. Knight Shamalan for director.

Please god no, I don't want to enjoy a mildly good adaptation of the Saiyajin arrival just to realize goku and Vegeta are brothers, and they have to fight their father Freezer

ultimateemail5000 · Post by **ultimateemail5000** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:10 pm

B wrote:M. Knight Shamalan for director.

You're joking right? Please say you are...WHAT A TWIST!!! Haven't seen it yet, not sure if I will. I might just wait for the blu-ray. I have this sort of rule to not see PG movies, since I'm far too badass for that. (sarcasm)

Tsukento · Post by **Tsukento** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:13 pm

Rod wrote:Please god no, I don't want to enjoy a mildly good adaptation of the Saiyajin arrival just to realize goku and Vegeta are brothers, and they have to fight their father Freezer

What a tweest!

JAPPO · Post by **JAPPO** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:24 pm

io9 gives an entertaining review
http://io9.com/5207447/dragonball-the-q ... illy-grail

How dumb is Dragonball? It's the kind of movie where the good guy and the bad guy are fighting, and the good guy pauses to look serious and say slowly, "I must believe... in... who.. I am." And the bad guy doesn't kick the good guy in the face while he's monologuing. It's the kind of movie where the good guy makes constipated faces over and over again, while he's trying to summon his ki energy. It's the kind of movie that makes absolutely no sense, if you pause to think about it for two seconds.

And yet, I enjoyed it a lot. Maybe I just succeeded in lowering expectations to a nadir this movie could soar over. Or maybe I just have a soft spot for a dumb action comedy. Either way, I found myself giggling a lot at this film, both during the funny parts and the serious parts.

The reviews for this movie are so mixed (and no I'm not just counting Rotten Tomatoes, there's lots of other places that RT doesn't count).

The Tori-bot · Post by **The Tori-bot** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:29 pm

JAPPO wrote:It's the kind of movie where the good guy makes constipated faces over and over again, while he's trying to summon his ki energy.

"I didn't know the movie was that faithful to the source! " -- Average (if somewhat articulate) DBZ Hater #43

Velasa · Post by **Velasa** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:34 pm

I has a review.
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So I just saw the movie today. Spent $8.00 on the ticket and they pointed me to the very back row or theatres with all of the movies that’ve been out for over a month now < < I found some nice unruly teenagers to sit with, and on with the show!

I wasn’t really surprised- I knew exactly what I was getting to after all. The pacing was the absolute biggest disaster- seriously, they never even explained how or <I>why</I> Daimaou was able to escape. There were just so many things that wouldn’t have made any damn sense if I didn’t already have so much background on the film- even with the background it was difficult to follow. Like when they fell in Yam’s trap- I never even saw a hole coming, it was just suddenly there o_O There are so many endless examples of utterly confusing moments like this- the flick seriously needed another half an hour for it to be at all cohesive or make you connect to the characters beyond liking their original manga selves.

Glad I got warning from previous reviewers that Daimaou was only onscreen for a total of maybe seven minutes because that would have been a damn rude awakening otherwise. Marsters has a lot of explaining to do for getting our hopes up about him being good, and goddamnit I want my Ma Juniaa! Of course this Daimaou is so damn devoid of personality or individuality he could turn like a sad puppy, but it’s still a depressing thought.

Bulma was fine- a little different, but still perfectly recognizable. Yamcha was embarrassing to watch... he really was just ported from the dub. Muten Roshi was alright even with most of his personality missing, namely because he’s a good actor and could carry what he had. Son was pretty much a complete loss, and Chichi was pretty wallpaper. Did it confuse the crap out of anyone else how Son kept going on about fighting Oozaru instead of fighting Daimaou when that plot point was only revealed at the very end? Everyone was just full of OOC knowledge and as a writer that makes my brain hurt.

The backdrops were nice, though things like wildly re-coloring the sky and texturing everything (right before the bike falls in the pit was the most striking example) were bizarre choices. What was wrong with desert and blue? But overall they looked good when they weren’t photoshopping the crap out of them. (aka, my favorite shot visually was when they first take off running from Muten’s house in Paozo and the dust is kicking up and they’re all racing along together. That was nice ^^)

The fights were -far- too short and random- and I don’t even care about the fighting in the series most of the time. Seriously. When the most interesting battle in the movie is Mai and Bulma firing at each other? That’s a bad sign. The last fight was especially lacking- there needed to be a few minutes of Daimaou and Son beating the crap out of each other before they pulled out the whole ‘oozaru’ card. (question- is that how you pronounce it?) Then it would have been satisfying to watch and at all satisfying as an ending.

But yeah, not surprised, except for one thing- holy shit, you people weren’t kidding with the “sensually eating a strawberry in a field of flowers” bit. I almost fell out of my fucking seat when that actually happened o_o

Overall? It was a typical bad translation, no more no less. I’ve seen much worse ones (oh my god Hannibal) and better ones (I personally -love- the old Street Fighter movie. Just bought the dvd ^^). As a movie it was confusing and bad with a few upnotes (Ki looked awesome, loved the costumes, scattered hysterical parts and loved Daimaou’s voice). As a Dragonball movie it was terrible but far from the worst thing I’ve ever seen.

I’m heartily looking forward to the sequel though. I can’t wait to see what they do to Vegeta and laugh my freaking ass off.
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The end. Well, this should be an interesting day on the boards.