Dragonball: Evolution

[Burori]

I searched through the forums carefully for this subject but seeing as there is none I thought I would take a few moments of your time to talk to you all about this movie, Dragonball: Evolution.

I know I have not been on this forums for a long while, those that would remember me would more then likely remember my old signin name which was Burori. Those that never met me I wave my hand to you all with a smile.

That having been said. I took 1 hour and 25 minutes out of my day to watch this movie. I must say as a vivid fan of the Dragonball/Z/(enjoyed GT but not entirely) I must say that this movie managed to make me feel disappointed to a level that only Dragonball Z Movie 11 (Bio-Burori) managed to do in all the shows and movies I have seen of this franchise.

A friend of mine told me that if I wanted to watch this movie I should watch it with an open mind, forgetting everything that I learned from the original Manga and Anime. I thought 'Sure ok. I can do that.' Then I watched the movie and for the life of me the story lingered with me and I kept compairing the two. I grew up with the Dragonball franchise. I enjoyed it, a good story, somewhat original, made by the talented Akira Toriyama.

It was a story of a boy whom came to Earth from a world that was destroyed. He grew up with a loving grandfather, who took care of him like he was his own son, until well... I won't say anything that would spoil the original story element if there are anybody reading this right now that has not seen the series.

The movie is like a alternate reality of the story. Everything that they showed in the movie never happened in the anime or the Manga. Don't get me wrong I understand that when a movie is made a few changes are required as it happens in any film. But what they did was completely removed the entire basis of the story and just kept minor things like the names, and a few minor items like the Dragonballs themselves.

Overall I was very ashamed of this movie. Like I said earlier I bring it to level with the 11th DBZ Movie that they made.

I would like to hear what other people would like to say about it. Please keep it constructive and professional. No 'I hated it' or 'it sucks' please. I would like to hear why you liked or disliked it and the reasons to support that comment.

Thank you for your time and have a great day.

[Botar]

[COLOR="DarkGreen"]To reiterate what you said, the movie was ****ing rubbish! I totally agree, the movie was TOO different from the manga and anime. That and piccalo was just horrible looking. It reminded me of a terrible version of superman.[/COLOR]

[Nomurah!]

[SIZE="1"][COLOR="HotPink"]I ranked this movie as the second worst movie I've ever seen in my life. I even forgot that it existed, I wanted to forget about it that bad.

It was just.................. Not even Dragon Ball. :[ [/COLOR][/SIZE]

[Ravenstorture]

[color=darkgreen][font=garamond]I think it says a lot about the movie that there is only one thread on the whole of Otakuboards about it. In one way I'm suprised no one's talking about it, in another way i'm not at all surprised. I certainly didn't talk to anyone for the rest of the day after I went and saw it! My b/f and I are maaaaaaajor db fans, and we went to see it very shortly after it came out in Australia. And we were nearly alone in the cinema, and I had to try really hard not to walk out.

I could go on and on about why I hated it, but most of it is probably mutual so I won't. I do understand that they were probably trying to take something really very popular, (the dragonball thing) and make a hollywood flick out of it, in true every day hollywood flick style. So we need strong dudes, and funny parts, and hot babes, and a guy you can relate to somehow, and you need someone to kick some arse so everyone can go "whoa!" and you have to get that guy you can relate to and the mega hot babe to hook up, oh, and you have to beat the bad guy. Problem is, that was all it was. It was nothing else. And dragonball is sooooo much more than that, and they can fit more in to the hundreds of hours of the series than they can into one movie. I don't know if the people who made dragonball evolution watched all of the original series, or if they liked it, had any respect for it, or cared. And apparently Akira Toriyama was involved! I don't understand.

Perhaps they tried to cram too much in. I see they might have taken Goku at high school from Gohan's highschool days, with chichi instead of Videl, and then maybe Piccolo is a good bad guy because he's green. (Oh, and I'm really happy they decided to omit Pilaf because he really pisses me off.) But I felt like it would have made everyone happy if they'd taken a smaller section of storyline for the movie instead. And there would have been no harm in keeping true to the original storyline, because the original storyline is awesome! However it would have been hard to find a ten year old to star as Goku.

Then again, I'm a hardcore fan, so I'm not really the target audience for a flick like this. Which is a damn shame, really. We were kind of excited about a live action dragonball flick. Oh well.[/font][/color]

[Cat]

Actually there was a thread for it but kind of died a few months ago. [URL="http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=59444&highlight=Dragonball"][COLOR=DarkOrchid]Here[/COLOR][/URL] I remain by my first impression. The movie was weird and pretty terrible. I still can't get through the first half hour of the movie.

[Drizzt Do'urden]

I decided to finally breakdown and watch the movie, and actually I'm pleased it did. Of course I was prepared by, just as Swedish Chef was, a friend who'd seen it and said to just forget all your DB world knowledge.

I must say I [I]was[/I] able to do this, and in retrospect its what saved the movie for me. Though it was hard to forget that Goku should've been about 3 feet shorter and stalkier, he should've been much more naieve about the world, and countless other flaws. The same falls for ChiChi, and the rest of the crew (expecially Ozaru).

I must say though, that from a completly outside perspective the movie fell into the category of cheap martial arts/special affects that so many fall into nowadays. While I'll never own it, or anything else the movie did have redeaming qualities that keep it far above the worst alltime movie I've ever seen. It sits somewhere with Mortal Kombat 2 and Street Fighter (Both the original and the Legend of chung Lei)