Live Action Movie Thread

[Raki]

This movie looks like it's got a fatal case of Executive Meddling.


The whole High School thing, and inserting an original character at the same time they're omitting canon ones, killed my interest in the movie. I haven't even seen/read most of Dragonball, and certainly not any parts with the adult Goku, and I can't bear to read any more about the "awesome" new stuff they're sticking into the movie, as though they're better writers than Akira Toriyama himself. What would he know, he's only sold millions of copies of the manga and the anime series based on it globally for nearly a quarter of a century... >=(

Sorry if I've rehashed points already raised earlier in the thread, but 24+ pages is a bit much.

No, Dragonball has sold over a hundred million copies in Japan alone.

[Kendamu]

I'm pretty sure a couple people (myself included) have mentioned that possibility; it just got ignored because people can't bitch about it. It's pretty likely too, what with certain comments from Marsters about Piccolo "undergoing some changes" and how much he praised the look of the character. He's a big enough fan so that he wouldn't say that if he was uninformed. When you've been sealed inside a jar for the last couple millennia, it's not exactly gonna be great for your complexion.

Also, to quote someone from another forum who, rather than crying and acting like his life was over right off the bat, decided to take a bit of a closer, more analytical look.

Sorry you feel offended over the fact that I'd like to see a green Piccolo in a movie based on a manga where Piccolo is green. No, its not the end of the world, but it does suck that (from what we've seen) he's not going to be green in this movie.

To me, Piccolo with green skin is like Goku in an orange dogi. Besides, as a consumer, I have the right to not be satisfied and, here on DaizEX, I have the right to show my displeasure as long as I'm not being a troll about it.

Thank you.

[Herms]

*Kuririn flies into the rock formations after cutting off Form 2 Furiza's tail*

Furiza: "Ah, the game is afoot!"

*goes to find him*

So Freeza is Sean Connery is Sherlock Holmes?

No offense to the man at all, but there's a good chance they ARE as good or better writers than Mr. "Make-It-Up-As-I-Go-Along." Even if it is just condensing things into a 2-hour script.

Random screenwriters are likely to be "as good or better writers" than the creator shounen manga what ever was? I think you're really going too far in your efforts to defend this movie.

[Musume]

I never implied Goku was stupid, but I just can't see how someone as free-spirited as he is would subject himself to sitting in a classroom for hours on end at least five days a week (the Japanese have a half day of school on Saturday, don't they? I could be mistaken). I realize it isn't canon, but the movie where Goku was getting dragged to an interview by Chichi to get Gohan into a prestigious school fits Goku's character better. He doesn't really see what the big deal is (probably because, surprise surprise, he never went to a conventional school himself).

There's no compelling reason to add the high school. Like I said, if they wanted to have a high school story, there was a perfectly good one in the anime that they could've used.

[SSJ2bardock]

I'm pretty sure a couple people (myself included) have mentioned that possibility; it just got ignored because people can't bitch about it. It's pretty likely too, what with certain comments from Marsters about Piccolo "undergoing some changes" and how much he praised the look of the character. He's a big enough fan so that he wouldn't say that if he was uninformed. When you've been sealed inside a jar for the last couple millennia, it's not exactly gonna be great for your complexion.

Also, to quote someone from another forum who, rather than crying and acting like his life was over right off the bat, decided to take a bit of a closer, more analytical look.

Sorry you feel offended over the fact that I'd like to see a green Piccolo in a movie based on a manga where Piccolo is green. No, its not the end of the world, but it does suck that (from what we've seen) he's not going to be green in this movie.

To me, Piccolo with green skin is like Goku in an orange dogi. Besides, as a consumer, I have the right to not be satisfied and, here on DaizEX, I have the right to show my displeasure as long as I'm not being a troll about it.

Thank you.

People people, can't we just all get along?

[SSJ2bardock]

I never implied Goku was stupid, but I just can't see how someone as free-spirited as he is would subject himself to sitting in a classroom for hours on end at least five days a week (the Japanese have a half day of school on Saturday, don't they? I could be mistaken). I realize it isn't canon, but the movie where Goku was getting dragged to an interview by Chichi to get Gohan into a prestigious school fits Goku's character better. He doesn't really see what the big deal is (probably because, surprise surprise, he never went to a conventional school himself).

There's no compelling reason to add the high school. Like I said, if they wanted to have a high school story, there was a perfectly good one in the anime that they could've used.

I think I speak for a few other people here who have been saying this as well when I say that the high school portion is simply a vehicle to introduce the characters quickly through.

[Musume]

I think I speak for a few other people here who have been saying this as well when I say that the high school portion is simply a vehicle to introduce the characters quickly through.

What's wrong with a good, old-fashioned montage?

Let's use the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Peter Jackson as an example of how a director should approach source material. He had to allude to events in The Hobbit, which took place before LotR, without completely bewildering audiences that had never read it. Instead of inserting completely original elements into the story to hurry the narrative along (i.e., having Gindelf, Gandalf's zany cousin, drop by to reminisce with Bilbo about the good old days), he brought the backstory in gradually through the character of Gollum, and also with some exposition at the start of the three movies.

While we're at it, let's stick Vegeta and Nappa in a high school on Freeza Planet #35. That way we can have them launch spitballs into Raditz's hair and pass notes in class about how much it sucks that their home planet got blown up.

[Kaboom]

Random screenwriters are likely to be "as good or better writers" than the creator shounen manga what ever was? I think you're really going too far in your efforts to defend this movie.

Again, I don't mean any offense to Toriyama at all. But he was just one gag manga artist among a legion of other gag manga artists, until one or two of his series ended up popular. The one that turned into a high-stakes, super-powered martial arts story became really popular, so much so that it dragged on longer than he intended it to, and the writing suffered at times because of that.

The writers working for Fox aren't necessarily any better in that regard, but they are still pros at what they do: taking stories like this and adapting them into successful movies. Plus, they've already got the material there to work with; it's just a matter of condensing it and making it marketable to a desirable level. As it is now, the majority of the population would probably be put off by a straight translation of the manga into live-action. We love it to death, but to most other people, it would appear juvenile, random, and just plain weird. If Fox has come to the conclusion that condensing the story and tweaking some designs is going to produce a better-received or more successful movie, then they have every right to do so.

That, overall, is my opinion on this movie, and I'm trying to make the best of it.

While we're at it, let's stick Vegeta and Nappa in a high school on Freeza Planet #35. That way we can have them launch spitballs into Raditz's hair and pass notes in class about how much it sucks that their home planet got blown up.

Earth has schools, and most people raised as humans go to one at some point in their lives. Freeza Planet #35 MAYBE had some form of a school for its alien inhabitants, before Freeza's forces killed them all and wiped their planet clean.

[JulieYBM]

Nobody sane would expect them not to condense the story, but changing the look and feel of the Dragonball world unlike the treatment of tLotR is just not what one would see as being condusive to acquiring fan support.

[Musume]

The writers working for Fox aren't necessarily any better in that regard, but they are still pros at what they do: taking stories like this and adapting them into successful movies.

Uwe Boll is a professional director. The fact that the guys writing/shooting the Dragonball movie work for Fox and are professionals doesn't impress me a whit. The final product will speak for itself. I'll grant that I don't know whether the movie will be good or not at this point -- hell, it might just be so kitschy or narm that I'll love it -- but all signs point to "no" on this one.

We love it to death, but to most other people, it would appear juvenile, random, and just plain weird.

I would hazard a guess that the movie is going to be "juvenile, random, and weird" anyways, so they might as well stick more closely to the original story. It's time-tested and proven to be popular; perhaps not domestically, but I'm sure that they could make a profit internationally if they didn't Americanize it beyond all recognition. Don't forget that the Japanese are potentially an even bigger market than we are.

[Kaboom]

Nobody sane would expect them not to condense the story, but changing the look and feel of the Dragonball world unlike the treatment of tLotR is just not what one would see as being conducive to acquiring fan support.

Minus some more absurd things like the animal-people, it's beginning to look a lot more like the DragonBall world than it originally seemed. The colorful campiness may be toned down a bit (not like it wasn't in the "DBZ" portions to some degree anyway), but it's still giving the same vibe. We've got monks and super-powered kung-fu warriors and shapeshifters and demon-like monsters all existing in a world that at the same time has futuristic cities and junk. That sounds like the DragonBall world to me.

[NeptuneKai]

The writers working for Fox aren't necessarily any better in that regard, but they are still pros at what they do: taking stories like this and adapting them into successful movies.

Ha Ha Oh wow!

[mrkaizoku]

Again, I don't mean any offense to Toriyama at all. But he was just one gag manga artist among a legion of other gag manga artists, until one or two of his series ended up popular. The one that turned into a high-stakes, super-powered martial arts story became really popular, so much so that it dragged on longer than he intended it to, and the writing suffered at times because of that.

The writers working for Fox aren't necessarily any better in that regard, but they are still pros at what they do: taking stories like this and adapting them into successful movies. Plus, they've already got the material there to work with; it's just a matter of condensing it and making it marketable to a desirable level. As it is now, the majority of the population would probably be put off by a straight translation of the manga into live-action. We love it to death, but to most other people, it would appear juvenile, random, and just plain weird. If Fox has come to the conclusion that condensing the story and tweaking some designs is going to produce a better-received or more successful movie, then they have every right to do so.

That, overall, is my opinion on this movie, and I'm trying to make the best of it.

I can't believe I just saw someone compare Ben Ramsey to Akira Toriyama! I'm shocked, stunned, and appalled. I've heard of folks with rose colored glasses, but this is absolutely ridiculous!

Yeah sure Toriyama was just "one gag manga" artist. "One gag manga artist" that has won international fame and legions of fans all over the world, because of his excellent storytelling. I can't believe I'm actually having to say these things?! On a Dragonball board no less!

Dragonball's international fame shows us that nothing needed to be changed for it to be enjoyed. What we have here is a bunch of suits out to make a buck. The changes to this movie were made to help it resonate better with it's target audience. And that's all.

I don't have a problem with people being excited and happy about this movie, but come on. Hell, I've tried to ignore this thread all together, but sometimes you just have to call SHENANIGANS!

I think that you've taken your blind love a little too far SSj Kaboom.

[Chrono Trigger]

Oh no! He compared Ben Ramsey to Akira Toriyama ! Somebody call 911 ! I think I'm gonna faint! It's so shocking and heart breaking and...and EARTH SHATTERING! I wish I didn't have such paper thin emotions ! Oh dear ! He compared somebody to Mr. Toriyama ! It's the end of the world. Oh Kaboom you're such a cruel person ! How dare you have an opinion!

[Tsukento]

Plot Synopsis translated from a Japanese magazine at dbthemovie.com

Story
After Grandpa Gohan’s dying request, Goku starts on a journey to find Master Roshi and gather the seven Dragon Balls to prevent the desire of Lord Piccolo to take over the world. In the course of his journey, Goku meets Bulma and using her Dragon Radar, they find Dragon Balls on the way. Goku arrives to Master Roshi, and he fights with Roshi. Looking at Goku’s fighting technique, Roshi finds that Goku is a grandson of Gohan. Master Roshi was Gohan’s master. Goku receives rigorous training from Master Roshi, and after a long journey, Goku approaches Lord Piccolo for the last time.

Yeah I can already tell the High School bit is gonna take up like 65 % of the movie.

The synopsis leaves out the info regarding Goku's relationship with ChiChi, Mai's involvement, as well as Yamcha's. No mentions on "Lord Piccolo's" back story, either, as well as Mutaito's.

The basic summary doesn't sound like much, but it doesn't change the fact that there's a lot happening in the movie that shouldn't even happen to begin with.

Heck, I could point out most of the changes from the story from what we know.
----------------------------------------------------
-Goku doesn't have a tail. So Goku does not transform and Grandpa Gohan does not get killed by a rampaging giant ape.

-Goku is a generic blue-eyed, black (crazy styled) hair teen in high school. His naive nature seems non-existent, so no thinking his grandfather's Dragon Ball is actually him. Goku is also apparently the same age as Bulma and Yamcha.

-Pilaf and Shuu are non-existent, thus changing Piccolo's method of tracking the Dragon Balls as they had built the giant radar for him along with Mai. Also, without Pilaf, Piccolo's freedom from his "prison" may be the cause of something else.

-Kuririn is no where to be found. Thus resulting in Goku having to go fight Piccolo for another reason. The cause is likely the death of Gohan.

-Tenshinhan is also missing, thus severely altering the final conflict between Goku and Piccolo as Ten was used as a hostage, thus allowing Piccolo to batter and smash up Goku's body. Chaozu is missing, as well.

-Yajirobe and Karin are no where to be seen, thus eliminating Goku's several defeats during the arc and requiring him to take his training a step further and consuming special water to increase his powers to defeat Piccolo.

-None of Piccolo's spawn seem to be acknowledged. No Tambourine means no Kuririn death. No Kuririn means Goku's motive for revenge has to be changed. This also means Piccolo's fear of any martial artists learning the Mafuba technique is non-existent since he has no need to create spawns to take out any martial artist.

-Piccolo's strength appears to be toned down severely as he wants the Dragon Balls for global domination. A great contradiction compared to the original form, as he clearly says he can conquer the world once he has his youth restored. This suggests Piccolo will not be old at first appearance in the movie. It also suggests that Piccolo has to rely on the Dragon Balls to do something his original character could do on his own. No wish for youth will be made by Piccolo.

-If Piccolo is not the one to summon Shenlong, then Shenlong does not die. Thus destroying the hopelessness caused during the arc when Kuririn, Roshi, Chaozu and several innocent people and martial artists were likely never to come back to life due to the destruction of Shenlong. Because Kuririn, Chaozu and the martial artists don't exist in the movie, this whole thing does not exist in the movie.

-Master Mutaito is a black man in the movie. ...Do I have to explain how vastly different the actor is from the character?

-Tsuru-sennin is no where to be heard from, either. Thus resulting in no Tenshinhan or Chaozu. Nor much of the backstory involving Roshi and Tsuru trying to take on Piccolo and then splitting ways before Mutaito sealed Piccolo away with the Mafuba.

-Because of Goku's age in the movie, if a sequel were indeed to be made, the storyline involving Goku's training to fighting Piccolo Jr. would be altered. This also panders to the typical generic, almost-18 teenagers being super heroes, as opposed to about a mere kid stopping a demonic being.

-Quite possibly one of the biggest changes is Piccolo's backstory. Confirmed by James Marsters, Piccolo was once good but ended up being sent to prison after having a bad argument. Piccolo becomes angry and breaks free to take over the world. This means Piccolo is not the result of Kami trying to rid himself of his evil side to become a "God", as well as changes the fact that Piccolo was always trying to conquer the world for his pure pleasure and not for revenge. This in turn completely changes how the Dragon Balls came to be.


Aaaand that's all I can think of right now.

[Kendamu]

The writers working for Fox aren't necessarily any better in that regard, but they are still pros at what they do: taking stories like this and adapting them into successful movies. Plus, they've already got the material there to work with; it's just a matter of condensing it and making it marketable to a desirable level. As it is now, the majority of the population would probably be put off by a straight translation of the manga into live-action. We love it to death, but to most other people, it would appear juvenile, random, and just plain weird. If Fox has come to the conclusion that condensing the story and tweaking some designs is going to produce a better-received or more successful movie, then they have every right to do so.

While that is true, I think Dragonball without the tweaks that I poke fun at would still be very successful. I mean, Dragonball Z DVDs are topping Amazon's anime charts. Then there's the hardcore fans like us. Also, we have the nostalgia crowd who watched Goku's adventures on Cartoon Network as children. We also have today's children who would get into the movie. Finally, we have the friends and family who would go along with these people just because.

I don't mind ideas like skipping directly to Piccolo, Gohan being alive at the beginning, minor costume tweaks, etc. All I'm looking for is some naive forest boy who learned martial arts from his grandfather ventures out into the world due to some girl's scheme to find the Dragonballs. Along the way, various bumps in the road lead to other characters being introduced that eventually join up with Goku and Bulma.

Eventually, some villain is introduced that totally kicks out the innocent misadventure feel and becomes more of a high-powered martial arts drama. In the end, the villain is defeated and, coincidentally, everyone who wanted to make a selfish wish with the Dragonballs grows beyond that desire or gets what they're looking for through some other means. Then, Goku has an idea for a wish to fix something that went majorly wrong during the story that hurt one or more important innocent people that were introduced along the way.

Luckily, that movie already exists and elements from it exist in three others. Hence why I poke fun at the things I don't like about this new live-action Dragonball instead of getting pissed. I'm always going to find "normal high school student who suddenly finds that he's a martial arts whiz" Goku, white Piccolo, brown-haired Bulma, and shapeshifting Mai to be stupid ideas that could've been easily avoided. But they're stupid in that way that I'm going to laugh and make jokes instead of throwing a shitfit.

[Wojak]

You guys know what? I'll stop thinking negatively of the movie.
I'll just think of it as an alternate reality movie, like what would have happened if Goku went to school and hurt his eyes so they became blue, and someone dropped bleach in Piccolo Damaio's container.

By the way, Vegeta and Nappa in High School?
Would be cooler if the bad guys were dropouts and when they were defeated, Goku throws the never-too-old punchline "Be cool, stay in school!" and then the credits start to reel.

[Kendamu]

You guys know what? I'll stop thinking negatively of the movie.
I'll just think of it as an alternate reality movie, like what would have happened if Goku went to school and hurt his eyes so they became blue, and someone dropped bleach in Piccolo Damaio's container.

By the way, Vegeta and Nappa in High School?
Would be cooler if the bad guys were dropouts and when they were defeated, Goku throws the never-too-old punchline "Be cool, stay in school!" and then the credits start to reel.

For some reason, all I could think of there was something like Dragonball Z: Abridged... only two hours long and in a theater.

[Chrono Trigger]

Tsukento you act like every single person that is going to go see this movie knows the story by heart. Like the average person is going to sit there and pick all of that stuff out. I can see why fans like you who honestly expect all of those details to be in a 2-3 hour movie would be disappointed/pissed off/ disgruntled or whatever. The average person isn't gonna care about stuff like that. There just gonna go watch the movie and hope for some good action scenes because that's all the average american movie goer cares about. Gore and explosions. If they leave the theater with misconceptions about the Dragon Ball story then they can pick up the manga, watch the anime, or come here and get lectured by you.

[Tsukento]

That's the problem.

The average person is most likely NOT going to watch this movie. Unlike the recent flood of nostalgia movies over the years (TMNT, Speed Racer, Transformers), Dragon Ball has NOT been missing from the public eye for so long. Dragon Ball is still very much fresh in the eyes of many people, so they're likely to dismiss it as something only fans of the show will get.

Then when the fans who're into the series get hyped to see this and attend, they're most likely going to leave with a foul taste in their mouth after seeing the tremendous amount of changes.

It might work if Dragon Ball had been out of sight for years. But since that's not the case, average Joe audiences are likely going to brush it off as "the movie based off that Japanese cartoon where everyone is shirtless and constipated", while the fans are going to call BS on all the changes made.