If Evolution wasn't called Dragonball

Dayspring · Post by **Dayspring** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:18 am

If DB:E weren't called a Drgonball movie, had none of the names of DB characters and had something like "5 Elemental Stars" instead of "7 Dragonballs," would you have liked it? After watching when it came out on DVD, I have to admit; I didn't hate it anywhere near as much I thought I would. It's by no means a decent DB adaptation, but it was a decent adventure of a fantasy/sci-fi film.

Thoughts?

Bussani · Post by **Bussani** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:23 am

I haven't seen it since I saw it at the cinema, but... I don't think I would like it. In fact, I probably would have liked it less if it had nothing to do with Dragon Ball.

Dragon Ball completely aside, it was a really bad movie. It wasn't even bad in a, "this is so bad it's funny," sort of way. The pacing was horrible, the characters were 2 dimensional and I couldn't even tell what was happening in some of the fight scenes. The special effects in some scenes looked like something out of the Mortal Kombat movie -- not that the Mortal Kombat movie was bad, but that's how old the effects looked to me.

Dayspring · Post by **Dayspring** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:34 am

How about if it was a two-episode pilot to a non-DB tv show?

SHINOBI-03 · Post by **SHINOBI-03** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:41 am

Here's what I think...

As a movie on it's own, is OK... but as a Dragon Ball movie, HELL no!

Bussani · Post by **Bussani** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:48 am

Dayspring wrote:How about if it was a two-episode pilot to a non-DB tv show?

Eh... I'll say maybe, simply because a TV series would have more of a chance to flesh the characters and plot out later.

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:16 am

It'd be less offensive if it were original, sure.
I don't think I'd've watched it, though. (It became a running gag that basically right up to the week the movie came out, every time I'd hear the commercial, I wouldn't realize what commercial it was until Goku's name was mensioned... despite having heard it several times).

Neah, what I think would have happened if I'd seen it anyway?
My father would have commented on DB-like special effects in certain action sequences (probably the sparring with Gohan / the "fight" with the bullies.

), and I'd've been comparing it to things like Electra...

Freeza.exe · Post by **Freeza.exe** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:22 am

I wouldn't even have glanced at it twice after seeing the trailer if it wasn't called Dragonball.

Gozar · Post by **Gozar** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:37 am

Um, as a movie it still felt kind of rushed and the final fight between Goku and Daimao was just plain awful and boring. But it wasn't some god awful horrible "movie". But the funny thing is, if not for the DragonBall name on it there's no way the movie would have worked. I mean look, it only pulled in 4 million (Or was it 6?) in the US and that's WITH the DragonBall name attached to it. I'm not a big movie person so I know damn well there's no way I would have seen it if not simply because I wanted to have a good laugh at what they were trying to pass off as "DragonBall".

Chrono Trigger · Post by **Chrono Trigger** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:37 am

People would say the movie ripped off Dragon Ball....Ironically.

_StreetSonic_ · Post by **_StreetSonic_** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:01 am

I guess I am one of the few who liked it. It grows on me the more times I watch it. If it wasn't a Dragonball movie, I would still like it.

Amigo Ten · Post by **Amigo Ten** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:17 am

I doubt it. The film had far bigger problems than the story not being what people wanted from a DB film. It was bad because it just a bad film. Poorly written, poorly, edited, poorly directed, poorly acted. Although writing and editing seem the major offenders, but I'm not sure which one to blame more. It had terrible pacing and needed to be at least 20-30 minutes longer, I'm just not sure if it was written that way and everyone else did the best they could with it, or it was written quite well and just horribly cut down.

I think the exact same plot, but given proper care and attention, would have been okay.

Shoryuken · Post by **Shoryuken** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:18 am

Well if it wasn't called Dragonball then I suppose the title would be:
Blatant-Avatar-Buffy-Spiderman-Ripoff-Kung-Fu-Flick (D)Evolution, but that would be too long. I wouldn't watch either way, it's a horrible piece of nonsensical rushed crap.

Kendamu · Post by **Kendamu** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:52 am

If it had nothing to do with Dragonball, I'd have probably paid much less attention to its developments. I might not have even heard of it or seen the trailer. That tends to happen a lot with me.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 11:33 am

Probably not. Relation to the property wasn't it's main problem. Even if the characters and such had different names, there's still enough going on that it'd seem like 'a DragonBall ripoff.'

The film's main problems were in the execution, not the concept.

dragondyle · Post by **dragondyle** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 11:56 am

SHINOBI-03 wrote:Here's what I think...

As a movie on it's own, is OK... but as a Dragon Ball movie, HELL no!

Completely what I thought. The movie was okay. I enjoyed it and it was fun to watch. It's just one of the worst adaptations ever and a horrible Dragon Ball movie.

xzero · Post by **xzero** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:00 pm

I really don't think that removing the word "Dragonball" from the title would have changed the fact that I thought it was stupid. Then again, I honestly wouldn't have seen it if not for it being a Dragonball movie. I personally just felt the movie to be incredibly lame. I wasn't expecting something of Dark Knight's quality or anything like that, but I was expecting something enjoyable.

I do have to agree with SSJ Kaboom on this one: the main problem with the movie wasn't its concept. Its execution was terrible, and that's why I didn't like it.

SparkyPantsMcGee · Post by **SparkyPantsMcGee** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:14 pm

Chrono Trigger wrote:People would say the movie ripped off Dragon Ball....Ironically.

Basically this. Personally I thought the movie was worth at least one watch(and the movie looks even better if it follows a 1970's kung-fu movie). As a Dragonball movie it wasn't up to par but if they didn't call it Dragonball you would have people running around saying this movie ripped Dragonball off. Basically this movie was doomed to fail in the eyes of the public.

Velasa · Post by **Velasa** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:38 pm

If it wasn't pretending to be Dragonball it would have given me slightly less of a migraine because I wouldn't have expected any respect due to the characters. But it still would have been a terrible movie. Even with years and years of background experience with the material I could barely follow what was going on. What was with this massive badguy they were talking about, how the hell did he get out in the first place? Why were the fights so astoundingly underwhelming, why was the story moving so mast and so damn confusing? Why is the main character so goddamn annoying and emotionless? Excetera, excetera...

The pacing was absolutely abysmal, and if it were an independent movie that would have become such an exponential problem it would barely be watchable by the extremely unexciting end.

Olivier Hague · Post by **Olivier Hague** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 1:33 pm

Dayspring wrote:If DB:E weren't called a Drgonball movie, had none of the names of DB characters and had something like "5 Elemental Stars" instead of "7 Dragonballs," would you have liked it?

No, it's just a terrible and idiotic movie.

Rory · Post by **Rory** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 1:56 pm

I wouldn't have known what was happening for the most part.
That's the beauty of Evolution you see, as a movie it tries to reach a new audience, yet completey depends on your knowledge of the show to understand what the fuck is going on.
And no matter which party you're in, it's still confusing, and completely shit.

Kanzenshuu

If Evolution wasn't called Dragonball

If Evolution wasn't called Dragonball

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