I agree that this COULD be made much better. But, still...it's not a really good fit for a manga/anima to live action adaptation.
Cowboy Bebop, on the other hand, should a nice adaption. It...just...fits. It seems right.
Hey, I could be wrong about this DB movie and it could be an okay film. But there is no way, based on what I've seen, that this will be a good movie, by any stretch.
Originally posted by The big EH
i dont know about this movie, it would be awesome if done right, and from what i've seen they got the unrealistic awesome of the anime down well, it's gonna be alot different from the anime though story-wise, but its not like a videogame, anime has alot of story, while a videogame although has a story is made to span over houurs and hours of action and gameplay and some games probally have less than a half hour of cut scenes
Seems to me they've taken the most important elements and have put them in the film, while also making a lot of changes.
you cant adapt a 50 episode story arc into a 2 hour movie without making many changes, the movie is not going to be the same as the show and never was intended to be, thats why it doesnt share a full title with any show/book, and as far as i'm concerned he has all the trademarks of an anime, the seriously overexagerted faces when attacked, super fast arm movement while the rest of the guy is yawning or just standing still
Seems some of the first reviews are rolling in where its released and they are bad.......
FROM MALAYSIA
Dragonball Evolution
[Grade: *]
Whoever thought that it would be a good idea to adapt a best-selling Japanese manga about a kid with a tail who flies around looking for perversely named Dragonballs into a bastardised B-grade Hollywood movie deserves to have a Kamehameha thrown in his face.
Whoever thought it would be a good idea to cast a smug-faced Western actor as that kid, the great Chow Yuen Fatt as a slightly perverted version of Mr. Miyagi, and turn Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s sardonic Spike (that’s James Marsters to you) into a green, pointy-eared demon with rubber muscles really deserves to be stamped on by a giant monkey.
Whoever thinks it might be a good idea to actually watch this movie really should consider going to the nearest comic/DVD store and getting the original Dragonball manga/anime instead. It’ll be money much better spent, and you wouldn’t end up feeling as though someone had stuffed your brain into a Capsule Corporation capsule and swallowed it whole. – Michael Cheang
http://star-ecentral.com/movies/grade/details.asp?pid=1391
FROM KOREA
MOVIE REVIEW]'Dragonball' - a painful step backward
"Dragonball: Evolution," released nationwide yesterday, is funny -- not because it's entertaining but because its quality is laughably below expectations.
The film, directed by James Wong, drew interest from Korean fans, at least initially. Last month, all the major cast members and director Wong himself visited Seoul to promote the film based on the best-selling Japanese graphic novel series by Akira Toriyama. Moreover, one of the leading actors is none other than Park Joon-hyung, former member of Korean R&B group G.O.D.
But if you're a big fan of the Dragonball franchise, or have fond memories about the 42-volume manga series, you are strongly advised not to watch this, the first-ever silver screen adaptation.
Watch it at your own risk. The risk being that you might set out to find the seven "dragonballs" and ask the mysterious dragon to remove what you have just seen from your memory.
"Dragonball-Evolution"
The inevitable disappointment the film adaptation will bring to viewers in Korea and elsewhere contrasts the unprecedented success of the original series. When Toriyama serialized the graphic novel between 1984 and 1995, he secured a huge number of fans around the world thanks to his addictive storytelling and interesting characters. In Japan alone, Toriyama sold about 150 million copies, breaking previous records in manga sales. More than 300 million copies are estimated to have been sold across the world.
Surprisingly, Toriyama has joined the film project as one of executive producers and yet failed to rescue the film from slipping into the abyss of cliched plot turns and cardboard characters.
The main plot, written by Ben Ramsey, is too simplified to build up any dramatic sense. A high school boy sets out on a journey to collect the legendary dragonballs to save the world from a monstrous creature, which has escaped after being imprisoned for 2,000 years. All the minor characters are conveniently eliminated, interesting episodes mercilessly cut out and fighting tournaments inexplicably shortened. Only a couple of dragonballs (there are supposed to be seven) are featured. It's a sorry attempt to link the film to the manga series.
In the film, American high school boy named Goku (Justin Chatwin) gets a personal martial-arts training from his grandfather Gohan (Randall Duk Kim), but Goku is treated as an outsider who is timid and weak in the face of high school bullies.
Mysteriously enough, Goku decides to reveal his awesome power when he gets invited to a party held by Chi Chi (Jamie Chung), an attractive girl he has a crush on. The film does not explain why Goku endured the humiliation at school for so long, even though he can dodge any attack with his acrobatic skills.
There is no time for throwing in dramatic details. The movie hurriedly pushes Goku to embark on a quest to find his master Roshi (Chow Yun-fat) and other dragonballs. Along the way, he is joined by Bulma (Emmy Rossum) and Yamcha (Park Joon-hyung). Don't even think about the original series -- that's all the team in the film version.
Chow, who has a huge following in Korea, hits a new low in the film. He wears a gaudy Hawaiian T-shirt and imitates Roshi's girl-chasing habit, perhaps following the script faithfully. But his performance as Roshi is at best awkward and at worse unbearable. When he utters "qi" ("gi" in Korean) to refer to the mysterious power, he looks like a cheap street vendor trying to sell fake stamina-enhancing drugs.
Park Joon-hyung, who appears in a Hollywood film for the second time after "Speed Racer," delivers his lines accurately, but the garish cosmetics on his lips wipe out any remaining coolness from the minor character, who has only a handful of lines.
When it comes to makeup, nobody can beat Lord Piccolo (James Marsters). Piccolo, a character who is complex in the original series, transforms into a not-so-scary imitator of the Blueman Group. The original Piccolo, if he ever watched the film, might commit a suicide.
The highlight, of course, is the dragon. Thanks to the film's poor computer graphics (inferior to the notorious Korean monster romp "D-War"😉, the dragon looks like a little chubby snake.
One of the mysteries surrounding the film is its bold and misleading subtitle, "Evolution." Considering its crude computer graphics, a disoriented plot and ludicrous dialogues, the big-screen adaptation is not an evolution, but a painful step backward.
By Yang Sung-jin
Since when did Dragon Ball become an amalgamation of every Dreamworks CG flick ever made?
Take aside the ‘meh’ acting and the unbelievable scenarios our characters find themselves in that make ‘LOST’ coincidences seem downright normal, the biggest problem with the film is it suffers from a severe case of identity crisis. Someone or some group of people, thought it would be a good idea to throw a bunch of clichéd character development ideas at the wall and whatever stuck, they ran with. The awkward outcast in high school who doesn’t believe in his ability to grow, the wise grandfather whom the rambunctious teen ignores, the self-confident sophisticated girl who falls for a grungy uneducated lunk, the cold villain who has seemingly unlimited resources but… still somehow remains a step behind. These and more are all there, and they’re all handled with the grace of a bull in a china shop. The ‘spark’ of love between Yamucha and Bulma was dealt with in one brief scene where they shared a thought, that it’s unfortunate they had knowledge of the world’s impending doom, and cupid’s arrow strikes! The two who previously couldn’t stand each other (all 2-3 scenes they were in) go for a kiss.
That’s what we’re dealing with.
“But wait!”, cries the ever vigilant fan, “Many things happen very quickly and with little explanation in the comic!”
Very true, and I’d be willing to give you that point IF this film wasn’t made with the intention of stiffing everything fans know and hold dear about the series.
I will not create a list of the holocaust unleashed on Dragon Ball canon within the film’s one hour and thirty-five minute running time. I never watched anything beyond trailers for fear of giving the film a poor chance without seeing a scene in context, but I assure you, there are things done and words uttered that will have you shuddering with rage at the liberties they took with the story.
Just performing the Kame Hame Ha has become like some sick bastard child of the Electric Slide and the Macarena.
Now those liberties were taken with the intention of making a deeper more believable story that they could market to a wide audience. That’s why Goku, an uneducated bumpkin, is in high school right? That’s why Chichi is a rich girl who, oh yeah, secretly practices kung fu instead of a mini Amazon right? That’s why Goku is all dreamy about girls when he thought breasts were just an extra butt right? That’s why the film is set on OUR Earth instead of a fantasy world right?
Nay.
While the film is attempting to create some overarching personal story growth story it’s handled so sloppily that no one over 10 could believe it for a moment. There’s so much CRAZY information being poured forth with strange names that unless you’re a long-time fan, it’s incredibly hard to keep up with who is who, what they can do and why they’re doing what they’re doing. This created and endless stream of explanations that are drastically different from the source material only serving to raise the blood pressure of fans even more.
The question I pose to Mr. Wong is, “Who is this movie made for?”
The fans in Japan?
I saw the film on its advance opening night here. There were twelve of us in the theater. Three older men by themselves, a family of five, and another couple. When a movie is over in Japan, no one moves. Everyone stays glued to their seat and savors the list of names onscreen even if they can’t read them. The older men and family all left dead silent during the credits. The other couple left the theater after the lights went on, laughing as they went.
The fans in other countries?
Apparently not. I think many of them will agree with me. Actually I think they’ll be far more severe than I am.
The curious general public?
Impossible. There’s so much crazy information flying back and forth it’s a chore to keep track of it, UNLESS you were a fan going into it. And the weak attempts to give Dragon Ball themes like ‘love’ or ‘finding oneself’ comes off awkwardly when you’ve got characters throwing energy blasts and turning into apes.
I simply would love to know for WHOM this movie was intended.
The one cool thing I’m able to say about DB:E is that it has one cool DB-inspired fight. It’s a short scene but it’s the only scene in the film that felt lifted off the pages of the comic. It involves Goku refusing to lift a finger in a fight causing a reckless punk to total his own car. Classic Toriyama. Too bad I can’t say the same for the ‘climatic’ battle with the big screen debut of the Kame Hame Ha that is over before you can blink. There were days when we fantasized about a Hollywood CG Kame Hame Ha. This ain’t it folks.
Speaking of series hallmarks, there are small nods to bits and pieces of the original story but they seem forced. When I first noticed a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ set of nudie mags by Roshi’s bed I though, “Hmm, clever.”, but they continued to force that one idea later on more and more while ignoring many other avenues. Early on the term ‘Dragon Ball Energy’ is coined which Bulma quips, “DBE….catchy!”, she might as well have looked directly into the camera and given a big ol’ wink.
The most painful part, even more moreso than the Hamasaki Ayumi cued roll to main cast roll, comes during a break in the credits when we watch a minute of footage of a minor character doing something that is so incredibly obvious, you know it can’t actually be what you think it is. You know they had to pay makeup artists, light technicians, cameramen, caterers, shoe-shiners and yes-men all for this one final scene that has to be so spectacular it will leave us wanting more of this punishment. And when it’s revealed that it’s exactly what you thought it was, you just have to laugh long and out loud.
Dragon Ball: Evolutions is a terrible film for both DB fans and as a standalone film. It’s not unwatchable, but it’s definitely in the same league as Street Fighter circa JCVD which means you’ll want to gather your friends and have a great laugh together.
With respect to the thesps, kudos to Chow and Joon. Both had a lot of fun with their role and tried really hard to make their roles seem close to the source characters, especially Joon. The problem for Joon, not so much Chow, was the script refraining him from acting more like the character Yamucha would, particularly around females. Chow seemed to have a blast, it just would have been nice if they coached him on how to properly pronounce ‘Gohan’. Chatwin’s Goku is not the Goku you know from the comic. He doesn’t do a poor job on screen, he just does a poor source Goku. Emmy Rossum’s Bulma takes her part far too seriously creating a nerdy instead of perky Bulma and Jamie Chung’s Chichi is just kind of there onscreen. Worst line-reading goes to Randall Duk Kim who was clearly overacting trying to do far too much with the little screen time he had.
Dragon Ball remains a cornerstone in my life and with the start of a comic-accurate animated edit of the series hitting the airwaves in Japan this April it will be interesting to experience it once again. As for live action films? My wish would be for a reboot. Please?
Box Office in Asia so far.......
China 3/14/09 $3,363,000 3/15/09
Hong Kong 3/12/09 $489,000 3/15/09
Japan 3/13/09 $3,326,000 3/15/09
Malaysia 3/12/09 $731,000 3/15/09
Singapore 3/12/09 $389,000 3/15/09
South Korea 3/12/09 $1,152,000 3/15/09
Taiwan 3/13/09 $132,000 3/15/09
Thailand 3/12/09 $523,000 3/15/09
Foreign Total as of Mar. 15, 2009:
$10,106,000
The movie is in internet, but is not complete, only 70 minutes, and in bad quality, many reviews are out there from asia and form the internet saying that FOX did it again, a rushed and bad editing movie, with very few funny scenes, but from many fans and non fans the movie is bad and those who wanted this movie to dissapoint, it did.
I feel conflicted, a part of me dont want to give FOX a penny for butchering this franchise, but another part dont want this franchise to die like this, hoping they do a better sequel, this is the second time this happen to me, the first time was with The Phanton menace of star wars.