Justin Chatwin apologizes for Dragonball Evolution

[PowerPhantom245]

In 2016, Ben Ramsey, the screenwriter of Dragonball Evolution, apologized to fans.
viewtopic.php?t=33935

Few days after Toriyama passed away, Justin Chatwin, who played Goku, paid tribute and apologized.
https://movieweb.com/dragonball-evoluti ... a-tribute/

It's not everyday you get to see apology coming from writer and actor.
It takes a lot of courage to make an apology statement like this from anyone, which something I wish to see more from movie industries in general.


I mentioned this briefly on other thread, but I want share my take on this statement here.

It was generally nice and heartwarming for Justin pay tribute to Toriyama and apologize to the movie, even though apology wasn't necessary.
Justin was fan of manga and anime, since he's the age where the series was in its prime, and grew up with it.
I can tell that he was heartbroken how terrible Goku was written and portrayed in that movie.
Even though I haven't seen much of Justin's performance, beside his role as Robbie from War of the Worlds 2005 (which I HATE), I thought he did serviceable job with character he portrayed, doing his best of what he can, despite weak writing and direction.
I don't blame for his performance and I NEVER blamed him for the quality of the movie.
In fact, he's not the worst part of the movie IMO.
It didn't matter who portrayed Goku, especially with the writing we got; even if we got someone popular at the time like Zac Efron or Shia LaBeouf, it would have been the same thing.
I personally think Justin would have worked better as villain, such as Android 17.
I would even go far to say, he would have worked better as duo with Eriko Tamura (Mai) as 18, but that's just me.

So what are your thoughts?


Please feel free to discuss.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I understand Justin Chatwin feels responsible for being part of a movie that didn't respect Dragon Ball but there's no need for him to apologize as it was not his fault.

He's an actor, not the screenwriter or director, he had no control over the artistic vision of the product and could only do the job he was paid to do.

We can of course debate how good his performance was, but the character he was asked to play was not Goku, it was a generic high school guy with a crush on a girl masquerading as Goku.

Fox should have given Toriyama the respect he deserved by consulting him on Evolution so they knew how to write Goku properly, because as the script for that movie showed they clearly didn't.

[MasenkoHA]

Whitewashing aside he made a decent Boo saga era Gohan, shame that wasn't the character he was supposed to be playing, but that's not his fault just the way the character was written

[WittyUsername]

He has nothing to apologize for. He was just an actor who needed a paycheck. It’s still nice that he paid his condolences though.

[DragonBallFoodie]

Respect to Chatwin for the apology, even though he didn't need to do it; he was just making a film that everyone could see (me included) was rushed into production and given a lousy script. Having watched the film, I think he was adequate and did as much as he could with the script.

[Hellspawn28]

Honestly, this movie gets too much hate. Sure, it's bad, but I don't think it was the even the worst film of 2009 when you had shit like Legend of Chun Li, Transformers 2, Wolverine Origins, 2012, etc that year.

[GTx10]

As probably the only person who likes DB E I don't feel either Justin or the writer had to say sorry to such a degree. Justin's "sorry" is short and sweet and I can nod my head and move on. The writer didn't need a paragraph though. He went into it for a paycheck and it came out as a bad film.
It's okay, don't let it bug you. But to get hate mail for it? Fans at their best clearly. Anyway life moves on.

[Hellspawn28]

I don't like the film, but I can get enjoyment out of it for being bad. It has a cheesy martial arts direct to video 90s vibe to it. Feels right at home next to the 90s Fist of the North Star live action film.

[KingVegetto]

I thought Evolution was a perfectly fine movie for what it was, and honestly I feel like this apology was partially made due to the critical drubbing Madame Web(which got a lot of comparisons to Evolution)got.

As probably the only person who likes DB E I don't feel either Justin or the writer had to say sorry to such a degree. Justin's "sorry" is short and sweet and I can nod my head and move on. The writer didn't need a paragraph though. He went into it for a paycheck and it came out as a bad film.
It's okay, don't let it bug you. But to get hate mail for it? Fans at their best clearly. Anyway life moves on.

I like it too, never understood the hatedom for it myself. Like VegettoEX I think it's fine for a silly kids film.

Anyone sending the writer hate mail over that film needs to get a life, reminds me of all the people that harassed Ahmed Best over his role as Jar-Jar Binks to the point where he contemplated suicide.

Honestly, this movie gets too much hate. Sure, it's bad, but I don't think it was the even the worst film of 2009 when you had shit like Legend of Chun Li, Transformers 2, Wolverine Origins, 2012, etc that year.

I enjoyed Chun Li and T2. For my money there are Oscar Bait films that are leagues worse then Evolution like Green Book, don't get me started on that rancid piece of revisionist history trash.

[tinlunlau]

I also liked how Stephen Chow, producer of Dragon Ball Evolution, didn't even mention Dragon Ball Evolution and simply reposted the Japanese promotional movie poster for his movie "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" which is actually designed and sketched by Toriyama himself. You can probably Google that if you want.

[GTx10]

I thought Evolution was a perfectly fine movie for what it was, and honestly I feel like this apology was partially made due to the critical drubbing Madame Web(which got a lot of comparisons to Evolution)got.

As probably the only person who likes DB E I don't feel either Justin or the writer had to say sorry to such a degree. Justin's "sorry" is short and sweet and I can nod my head and move on. The writer didn't need a paragraph though. He went into it for a paycheck and it came out as a bad film.
It's okay, don't let it bug you. But to get hate mail for it? Fans at their best clearly. Anyway life moves on.

I like it too, never understood the hatedom for it myself. Like VegettoEX I think it's fine for a silly kids film.

Anyone sending the writer hate mail over that film needs to get a life, reminds me of all the people that harassed Ahmed Best over his role as Jar-Jar Binks to the point where he contemplated suicide.


Wow A fan of DB E? A man of culture I see. But overall you are correct. The writer getting hate mail is unacceptable.

Also if you want a silver lining in this then thanks to BD E we got Battle of Gods and etc out of it. So yeah.

[Koitsukai]

Nothing to apologize for, really. I wouldn't expect him, or anybody, to be fucking Marlon Brando and take the movie to wherever they felt like, he was actually ok, all things considered. But the sentiment is appreciated.
At least he has more decency than the director.

[TheGreatness25]

Yeah, as others have said, there's really no need to apologize. This was a project that just didn't work out. It's really hard to pin down exactly what went wrong because it just looked like a bad combination of things. Anyway, it's okay, life goes on. It's just a bad movie--already mostly forgotten on my end.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's really hard to pin down exactly what went wrong because it just looked like a bad combination of things. Anyway, it's okay, life goes on. It's just a bad movie--already mostly forgotten on my end.

From what I've heard the original draft was terrible but more in a "so bad its good" kind of way, like Tommy Wiseau on cocaine trying to write an epic fantasy kung fu film with sequences of Steven King-inspired horror, but still better than the final movie.

It was reported 20th Century Fox had Akira Toriyama as a "Creative Consultant" during the initial development of Dragonball Evolution. Why they didn't accept his ideas we may never know, sadly it was probably a case that executives thought his ideas were too eastern or goofy and they thought a movie catering to American audiences would work better, which it obviously didn't because people wanted to see a Dragon Ball movie, not a generic action flick.

[MasenkoHA]

Yeah, as others have said, there's really no need to apologize. This was a project that just didn't work out. It's really hard to pin down exactly what went wrong because it just looked like a bad combination of things. Anyway, it's okay, life goes on. It's just a bad movie--already mostly forgotten on my end.

Mostly I think what went wrong was that it was a pretty boiler plate studio movie using the Dragon Ball IP

Chosen one narrative complete with prophecy and beginning of movie exposition dump? Check

White Guy Lead written to be "relatable"? Check


Love interest and uninspired romance? Check.


Goku can't be Goku because he has to be every generic Hollywood lead ever. Dragon Ball can't be Dragon Ball because it has to stick to Hollywood's idea of how an action-fantasy movie works.

[TheGreatness25]

Spoiler:

It's really hard to pin down exactly what went wrong because it just looked like a bad combination of things. Anyway, it's okay, life goes on. It's just a bad movie--already mostly forgotten on my end.

From what I've heard the original draft was terrible but more in a "so bad its good" kind of way, like Tommy Wiseau on cocaine trying to write an epic fantasy kung fu film with sequences of Steven King-inspired horror, but still better than the final movie.

It was reported 20th Century Fox had Akira Toriyama as a "Creative Consultant" during the initial development of Dragonball Evolution. Why they didn't accept his ideas we may never know, sadly it was probably a case that executives thought his ideas were too eastern or goofy and they thought a movie catering to American audiences would work better, which it obviously didn't because people wanted to see a Dragon Ball movie, not a generic action flick.

I don't know. I can't imagine it falling into a "it's so bad, it's good" category. It was just all around bad. But that's the thing: it wasn't just one issue that you can point to. The writing was horrible, the directing was terrible, the costume design was abysmal, the special effects were laughable. And yes, the acting was cringy. It's like everyone who worked on this set out to make the worst movie anybody's ever seen using one of the most popular IPs in the world. And because of that, you really can't pinpoint exactly why it's so bad because... everything is bad. It's not like fixing the script would help any of those other areas. If the script was top-notch, the entire movie would still look like garbage and the acting would still look like a Mr. Simmons's 4th grade class presents: Dragon Ball.

Spoiler:

Yeah, as others have said, there's really no need to apologize. This was a project that just didn't work out. It's really hard to pin down exactly what went wrong because it just looked like a bad combination of things. Anyway, it's okay, life goes on. It's just a bad movie--already mostly forgotten on my end.

Mostly I think what went wrong was that it was a pretty boiler plate studio movie using the Dragon Ball IP

Chosen one narrative complete with prophecy and beginning of movie exposition dump? Check

White Guy Lead written to be "relatable"? Check


Love interest and uninspired romance? Check.


Goku can't be Goku because he has to be every generic Hollywood lead ever. Dragon Ball can't be Dragon Ball because it has to stick to Hollywood's idea of how an action-fantasy movie works.

Yeah, can't argue that. But it's just a bad movie inside and out. So, it's like, Justin... don't even worry about it, my man. You were not even all that bad compared to how badly everyone else dropped the ball on their end. This was like the perfect storm of a bad movie.

Honestly, I'm not being funny or sarcastic or exaggerating in any way when I say that I can happily watch Street Fighter (not the Chun-li one), Mortal Kombat (including Annihilation), and Batman & Robin, but I never want to see this movie again. I don't know why, that's just how I feel lol

[tinlunlau]

I've worked on Total Recall as a background actor before so I've had first hand experience in how Hollyweird works. Their excuses in the whitewashing and misrepresenting Asian culture has always been "no one will notice". I go into set and I see what is obviously misused Google translations and I just feel nothing but disgust over the inaccuracies. At least, Guillermo del Toro paid the extra effort to get proper Hong Kong taxi cars and double decker buses on set for Pacific Rim.

What's also funny about Total Recall is, I actually checked the movie official website and it clearly stated that the country getting to see this at the earliest is HONG KONG. "No one will notice", what a load of boloney!

[Kunzait_83]

It's not everyday you get to see apology coming from writer and actor.

I dunno: reportedly for many, many years after the movie came out, anytime a fan told George Clooney that they saw Batman & Robin in theaters, he would actually refund them their ticket money out of his own pocket.

Honestly, this movie gets too much hate. Sure, it's bad, but I don't think it was the even the worst film of 2009 when you had shit like Legend of Chun Li, Transformers 2, Wolverine Origins, 2012, etc that year.

C'mon, DBE is at least equally as bad as Legend of Chun Li. They're both right in the same ballpark next to one another.

I don't like the film, but I can get enjoyment out of it for being bad. It has a cheesy martial arts direct to video 90s vibe to it. Feels right at home next to the 90s Fist of the North Star live action film.

As a lover of cheesy, schlocky B action and martial arts movies, I really can't agree with this. DBE has none of the charm or idiosyncrasies of those kinds of movies whatsoever. If it resembles anything at all, its just a 5th rate wannabe knockoff of Spider-Man-esque superhero tentpole summer blockbuster movies. Its just a soulless, empty nothing of a movie. The cinematic equivalent of trying to eat air. In one eyeball and out the other, leaving no lasting impression whatsoever. Easy to forget it even existed. Which to me is among the worst kinds of bad movies.

I've worked on Total Recall as a background actor before so I've had first hand experience in how Hollyweird works.

For a split nanosecond my mind immediately went to the original Verhoeven Total Recall out of sheer reflexive instinct and I thought "Oh that's so cool!" Then I remembered there was that godawful Colin Farrell remake of it in the 2010s and was immediately like "Oh... right. That also happened. Never mind."

Their excuses in the whitewashing and misrepresenting Asian culture has always been "no one will notice". I go into set and I see what is obviously misused Google translations and I just feel nothing but disgust over the inaccuracies. At least, Guillermo del Toro paid the extra effort to get proper Hong Kong taxi cars and double decker buses on set for Pacific Rim.

What's also funny about Total Recall is, I actually checked the movie official website and it clearly stated that the country getting to see this at the earliest is HONG KONG. "No one will notice", what a load of boloney!

Worth reiterating stories like this for all the people who keep insisting "racism doesn't exist/is a thing of the past".

[JulieYBM]

I would not remember that this film exists if the cast and crew would just stop trying to aplogize for it.

[PowerPhantom245]

It was reported 20th Century Fox had Akira Toriyama as a "Creative Consultant" during the initial development of Dragonball Evolution. Why they didn't accept his ideas we may never know, sadly it was probably a case that executives thought his ideas were too eastern or goofy and they thought a movie catering to American audiences would work better, which it obviously didn't because people wanted to see a Dragon Ball movie, not a generic action flick.

There was also numerous other factors, such writer strike (2007~2008), several years of delay in production (it was first announced back in 2002), 20th century Fox reputation for interfering the projects, management under Tom Rothman, etc.
The movie was produced under so many bad circumstances.
It practically destined to fail.

I dunno: reportedly for many, many years after the movie came out, anytime a fan told George Clooney that they saw Batman & Robin in theaters, he would actually refund them their ticket money out of his own pocket.

Even then, that's just one of the rare examples.
It's not always the rule.
Can you name any other actors who apologize for the movie?
If I was in bad movie and got the hate even if I wasn't writer nor director, I probably would have done the same thing.

Speaking of apology, Ben Ramsey, paid tribute and apologized (again) for the movie.
'

Another heartwarming statement.
It would have been interesting how Toriyama felt about his apology and how they would have interact.
I'm pretty sure Toriyama would have forgiven and had friendly conversation.