Dragonball Evolution Review
Dragonball Evolution
Directed by: James Wong
Written by: Ben Ramsey
Starring: Justin Chatwin, Chow Yun-Fat, Emmy Rossum, Jamie Chung, James Marsters, Randall Duk Kim, Joon Park, Ernie Hudson
Asian culture has had a massive influence on North America over the past decade and a half, to the point where nearly every popular children’s animated series is now either being imported from Japan or created in the same art style, virtually every horror movie is required to have creepy children in it, and the majority of action movies made since The Matrix has tried to emulate the same slick martial arts choreography. Now the latest trend in Hollywood has producers trying to repackage some of the biggest Japanese animated series as live action films, and it seems only appropriate that Dragonball is one of the first to find its way to the big screen.
Based on the manga by Akira Toriyama, Dragonball mixes martial arts, Chinese mythology and science-fiction to create an addictive soap opera of epic proportions. While the show never became truly mainstream here in North America, it was certainly popular enough to receive a big budget feature film adaptation. The thing is, it probably should have happened a lot sooner, because Dragonball was at the height of its popularity back in the late ’90s. It also probably shouldn’t have come from a Hollywood studio because they clearly do not have a firm grasp on the source material. The end result is something that is only going to anger fans while completely baffling the uninitiated.
Justin Chatwin stars as Goku, a socially awkward high school student who is being trained as a martial artist by his grandfather (Randall Duk Kim) and told strange stories of aliens who tried to destroy the world 2000 years ago. On his 18th birthday, his grandfather gives him an ancient artifact known as a Dragonball and asks him to keep it safe. Little does he know that the evil Lord Piccolo, who was imprisoned 2000 years ago, has escaped and is now trying to recover all seven Dragonballs in order to grant him the wish of a magical dragon. When Goku returns home from a party one night he finds his house destroyed and his grandfather dying. He must seek the help of a Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat), and collect the Dragonballs using a tracking device invented by his new acquaintance Bulma (Emmy Rossum).
For the most part, Dragonball Evolution is a blur of stale CGI, terrible art design, and painful dialogue. More importantly, it has absolutely no relation to the Dragonball that I’m familiar with. The fact that they chose to give it the hip and meaningless subtitle “Evolution” (because, you know, it sounds cool) speaks volumes about this film.
Their first mistake was setting the movie in something resembling the real world. I guess they wanted to hook viewers with a universal high school story shaping Goku as a nerd who is picked on by bullies and has a crush on a girl who is out of his league. Unfortunately this has been done so many times before that it feels awfully cliched, and to make matters worse, Goku gets revenge on the bullies within the first ten or fifteen minutes, rendering his entire character arc obsolete. Justin Chatwin’s acting is so wooden that all of these early scenes are painful to watch, and he also has an arrogance about him that makes him completely unlikeable. They really needed to cast someone like Shia LaBeouf, Tobey Maguire or heck even Ralph Macchio if they had any hope of working that angle.
Fortunately, high school is left behind pretty quickly… unfortunately, the movie goes on to become an incoherent mess. I’ll be the first to admit that Dragonball is a pretty silly concept on paper, but it certainly deserved better treatment than this. Even with a nonsensical plot, they still could have maintained the spirit of Dragonball if they had captured the long build-ups and the grand scale of the fights. Instead we are lead from one random CG backdrop to another, stopping for a quick, uninspired fight at each step of the way.
If only the movie could have offered up a few decent action sequences, all may have been forgiven. Director James Wong previously did the 2001 Matrix knockoff The One starring Jet Li, but the action in Dragonball Evolution doesn’t even measure up to that. All of the fights are either short choreographed sequences of punches and kicks delivered by actors who are simply going through the motions, or uninteresting gun fights. The fact that the movie is rated PG (not even PG-13!) tells you just how tame the action really is.
As for the final battle, which should have been absolutely epic, it ends up being mired in a cloud of lazy digital effects. It was initially believed that the budget for the movie was $100 million, but recent reports put it closer to the $45 million range, a figure that doesn’t really surprise me. Everything looks and feels cheap, from Piccolo’s ridiculous green make-up to the sparse sets and digital environments. It’s too bad that Stephen Chow couldn’t contribute more in his producer role, since his own movie Kung Fu Hustle is one of the few things that made me think Dragonball could actually work as a live action flick.
In the end, it comes as no surprise that Dragonball Evolution is a terrible movie. It seems like Fox has been trying to hide it from the public for so long now, and the lack of marketing only proves that they had no confidence in it whatsoever. The foreign market is probably what they are most interested in, since they released it overseas a full month earlier than North America. However, this movie is so ill-conceived and so far removed from the source material that I can’t see anyone being satisfied, least of all the original audience for the manga and anime. It’s absolutely dreadful. — Sean
SCORE: 
Recommended If You Like: Dead or Alive, The One, The Forbidden Kingdom
Comments (114)
Wow, that was a great review! I agree with everything you’ve stated here 110%.
I went and saw the movie last night & I to was extremely disappointed, but I didn’t expect much in the first place.
I honestly feel as if the only thing that actually had any relation to the actual manga and anime are the names of the characters and the actual dragonballs. They honestly stuffed the characters up, I mean Goku is meant to be a goofy, optimistic and determined character yet the movie Goku lacked any of those attributes. Same applies with the other characters, just a major mess.
Once again, great review.
Posted by Cozza on April 12th, 2009P.S:
Posted by Cozza on April 12th, 2009The only fight scene which was almost decent was where Goku was dodging those 5 thugs.
All the rest were incredibly lame, I mean Goku takes out Goku with one random KameHameHa, like barely any fist fighting or anything.
Epic fail.
Did Goku pat women’s crotches?
Posted by TheAllKnowingGod on April 12th, 2009it suckt very much….and where was krillin? Also the kame ha me ha wave lookt silly.
Posted by chris on April 12th, 2009i give it two tumbs down.
Terrible movie to watch by yourself.
But I will admit that it’s a blast to watch with friends that are familiar with the original manga/anime series.
Using a Kamehameha to revive someone is just so …. lame
Agreed that Shia Labeouf would’ve done a better job than Justin.
Posted by iMaim on April 12th, 2009Great review
Thanks for the comments guys.
TheAllKnowingGod: No, but they did try to make Master Roshi look like a pervert by putting a copy of “Bikini Quarterly” magazine in his equipment trunk. Hilarious!
Posted by Sean on April 12th, 2009This is a really harsh review
I have seen every episode of dragonball from bulma hitting goku with her car to goku throwing a spirit bomb at kid buu (GT i never got around to seeing)
so I agree as a dragonball fan that this movie was seriously lacking but i would like to point out that it was a decent movie. It was fast paced and high energy and kept me interested.
I’m just going to make a list of the problems
1. it was wayyyy too short, this movie should have been an epic film instead it was a short movie directed towards kids between the ages of 10 and 13 so it lacked the darker angle that movies like batman and harry potter have taken on in their more recent adaptations.
2. Everything was done on a tiny scale. Its dragonball they have to go all out. Nothing was big enough, Oozaru, Shenron… which leads me too piccolo
3. Piccolo is a major villain of dragonball and if they are going to introduce him in the first dragonball movie they have to go all out and while had a good grasp of piccolo as a hero and a villain in the anime i look at james marsters(who I am a huge fan of) and i wonder what this piccolo is all about.
4.As far as all of the changes to the series it did make it extremely cliche and again its dragonball to make it great they have to go all out and start from the beginning and intend on investing hundreds of millions of dollars into it. To think that they could only make 3 movies outta dragonball ruined it
5. Master Roshi wasn’t old, bald no long white beard, no walking stick, no turtle shell and no turtle, and no pink house. THat made me sad.
With all these changes it makes you wonder as a viewer where this adapted series is going to go next, so thats kind of a good thing. Logically they would jump ahead and bring in raditz and explain to goku how he is a saiyan but now that doesnt make sense since apparently goku is 2000 years old…. what? (that is the most confusing change for me)
if they skip to the saiyans it will cut out everything with krillin, tien/chaitzu, piccolo jr, the red ribbon army, and the world tournaments.
It looks like with the low box office grosses that have resulted so far i wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t make a sequal, and if they do it will have to be three to four hours and would have to dump a hundred to hundred fifty million dollars… again… dragon ball you cant go to big
Posted by db fan on April 12th, 2009Having seen most of DB, all of DBZ, and parts of GT, as well as a few direct-to-video movies, I actually wasn’t too disappointed.
The title Dragonball Evolution seemed to hint that they were giving DB the same treatment as X-Men Evolution gave the X-Men, a re-imagining of the whole thing. So, I went in expecting to see drastic changes to the Dragonball story and characters as I did in the X-Men, Spider-man, Fantastic Four, Batman, Superman and Smallville productions.
The main concept of DB has always been that Goku, and later Gohyan, were absolute innocents, trying to combat far more experienced evil villains. The heroes actually manage to convert most of the villians, like Piccolo, Vegeta, and Boo, into heroes.
I was dissapointed that they didn’t have any talking animals. Some of my favorite characters were Turtle, Oolong, Puar, Chiaotzu, and, for that matter, Nimbus.
We do get to see the Otherworld, so I guess that’s a plus. But the dead person in particular doesn’t have a halo…
And they totally made Yamcha as unlikeable as possible. Which leads me to appreciate that Krillan and Yajirobe were left out of the film rather than butcher their characters as bad as they did Goku and Yamcha.
The target audience seemed to be a new, younger generation of fans that hadn’t seen any of the other DB products. Yet they have one-liners as inside jokes that make sense only if you’ve seen the complete series.
There was only one minor plot hole. Master Rochi reveals that he can fly. Later, our heroes can’t get around some molten lava to get to a dragonball without flying. Really.
I can’t wait for the dVd version with the deleted scenes to come out to make more sense of why the movie seemed to have switched directors after the Peter Parker reminescent high school bully scenes were resolved.
Posted by The Retaliator on April 12th, 2009I would just like to say what a fantastic review.I will be honest I have not watched the film yet but I have enough experience in film workings to know exactly what I will be like.as much as it pains me to say why should there be vegeta etc already? it just means that they will bring our loved characters in later,but of course it will be in a weird mess.it is great that fans of db are against the film but i think these people are getting mixed up with dbz rather than the whole db series,so I can forgive the evolution title as it is like a different chapter.ok ok so thats enough of me being fair.the big and ultimate problem is it looks like just a terrible film on its own BUT the part that gets me is it has the db name on it,dragon ball z is the main backbone of course because that is where most of the characters come from example vegeta…as you can tell i love vegeta.so they have spent years and years with all this character/story development only to be marketed to emo kids who follow one by one as fashion dictates,why are these kids gonna watch it?because its whacky and ironic because hey didnt ya know japan is crazy,to a degree but anime and j drama is packed with stunning writing.so in short they made a terrible film to appeal to people that will not appreciate it.this film also leads me to a huge fear of a naruto film or one piece film,making half ass efforts of truly stunning anime/manga why don’t america stick to their dc & pretty woman.
Posted by joe on April 12th, 2009Did they show Goku’s junk? His filmjunk if you will.
Posted by TheAllKnowingGod on April 12th, 2009I havent seen the movie, nor do i want to. It looks like another crap shlock fest of bad cg and maybe worse direction and acting. Plus hearing that they change the story and leave out krillan and tien, thats horrible. I love all dragonball anime and manga, but i refuse to see a movie based on a great japanese story ruined by a greedy hollywood film company who says screw the fans, lets put out a turd of a movie with little money and be lucky to make a dime off of it. Screw you FOX!
Posted by Tman on April 12th, 2009Oh, and one more thing. Seeing the way piccolo is portrayed, nevertheless goku and roshi, i agree with whoever said it is probably better that krillan, chiotzu, and tien were left out, why ruin it even more?
Posted by Tman on April 12th, 2009I just saw this movie. I thought it was cheesy, but still likeable. If anyone likes a teenage, semi-action with light comedy movie, than this is for you. I was surprised to see Chow Yun Fat in this movie.
Posted by itsmeJDN on April 12th, 2009Chatwin is simply too cool to play Goku. Goku is supposed to be a loveable dufus with a heart of gold and an indominatble fighting spirit. Chatwin, however, is as cool as the other side of the pillow. Too cool by half to play Goku.
He just doesn’t look like the kind of guy that would step and fight off a bully to save a nerd… He looks like the type that would throw a party when his parents are out of town and not let the nerds in…
They needed to cast someone innocnent and manic – and less bad-boy/stoner.
They also needed… well, everything else.
Posted by Shut-Up Ed on April 12th, 2009Sean, thank you. Thank you SO much for saying what needs to be said about the cultural genocide that is this movie.
Posted by Will on April 12th, 2009Fail.
Posted by hoo% on April 12th, 2009two thumbs down! obviously the movie wasn’t prepared perfectly. The storyline is a mess. Goku was never a nerd! I think they thought of it like spiderman…
I think they should have followed the original story. It was way more too cool than this.
Posted by jake on April 13th, 2009Right on with this review. The DB manga sotyr, while I wasnt a huge fan of, was extremely necessary to set the tone for the rest of the franchise. Hollywood should have respected this film alot more then what they did. Something tells me that part way through this, they realized they had a dud and went through the motions. Gokus character sucked he had Rossi’s womanizing traits ( daydreaming of chi chi eating a strawberry). You gotta be kidding me, Goku was oblivious to women. The best thing about manga animated goku was he wasnt your typical hero, he was kinda weird in a way. This Goku was just no where near him, I didnt get why the bullies picked on him to begin with. He didn’t really act like a nerd, nor dress like one, he rode a bike thats about it.
Chi Chi didn’t do anything for me. Chi chi was known for her stubborness, this one reminded me of the popular girl in school. Ok she liked to fight but cmon she was eye candy that was it.
Yamcha cheese and rice my natz hurt. Next
Bulma. my god she spit out her lines like she had prior commitments and needed to get through he scenes quickly.
Piccolo might have been the only thing partly resembling the actual character but he still looked like something from the buffy the vampire slayer tv series.
This movie is supposed to be part of a 3 part trilogy, but with the the crappy opening weekend numbers ( what some 4.7 million opening weekend) I doubt they make anymore and thats a good thing.
Posted by Chip on April 13th, 2009Not that I’m a fan of the series, but it is one of many similar atrocities. If its a mess and not completed, how is it allowed to be released? Was it a time constraint where producers/director wait until the last week to finish it and hope for the best?
Its the viewers and fans who put down hard earned cash who suffer.
Posted by Tomas on April 13th, 2009This is the first time I have been angered enough by movie makers to want to start some coalition against this garbage. I don’t understand why we have to take this crap lying down. Why are a few higher up Hollywood morons allowed to completely shit on something as world widely loved as dragon balls. seriously, a few rich fucks are completely spitting on hundreds of thousands of fans world wide. this is complete bull shit to defile such a widely beloved series. why couldn’t some one who cared, put an equivalent amount of time and effort in DB as they’ve done with lord of the rings or harry potter? doesn’t dragon ball deserve the same detail? don’t the fans deserve more?
Posted by Chuck on April 13th, 2009THIS MOVIE IS SO AMAZING! On opposite day.
Posted by Anthony on April 13th, 2009This was a filler right?
Posted by John on April 13th, 2009I had high hopes for this movie because I always wanted to see dbz in live action form. I was disappointed.
the movie seemed like a 90 minute preview of the actual, better full version.
Posted by Neal on April 13th, 2009Dragonball Evolution is the finest piece of cinematography I have ever experienced in my life: the fine acting (further complimented by an exemplar casting) was enough to send this epic through to the parthenon of legendary films amongst whom it so rightly deserves to dwell.
Additionally, the artistic divergence from the, (lets face it- somewhat stale) original plot line was beautifully executed and was reinforced by a myriad of first-class special effects (seriously- MAYA takes skillz people).
This movie completed me- as a person both emotionally and intellectually.
Posted by Contented Fan on April 13th, 2009you’re joking right?
i would agree that the movie wasn’t a complete waste in that it is a step in the right direction (it took what? 5 batman movies to finally come out with a good one? it might be the same with dragon ball)
but it was also lacking in so many areas
if ben ramsey hadn’t written a piece of shit script and they got a good writer it wouldn’t have sucked so much
Posted by db fan on April 13th, 2009Well just saw the movie, and I must say that it a big mess it had nothing to do with anything Dragon Ball was even remotely about. 1st Justin Chatwin’s character Goku was so not the innocent fun loving Goku we have all come to know. 2nd how were Nameks planet destroyers? If I remember correctly Piccolo was the evil from within Kame.
Posted by Chris Harkreader on April 13th, 20093rd the only thing that has any relation to the manga and anime is the characters names, and watching this movie reminded me how crappy Street Fighter the Movie was with Jean Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia. Just once why don’t the people who make these movies actually try to research the material before making a movie out of it that way we are not stuck with another turd with the name on it.
Lawl
Posted by Corderro Salazar on April 13th, 2009I’m a huge DB fan. I am in the midst of watching the whole series again from start (DB)to finish (DBZ then DBGT, then the movies) with my son. We started when he was 5, he’s now 8 and we’re in the middle of the Buu saga. He absolutely loved this movie. He had a blast yelling at the screen when they screwed up something (there was a lot to yell about), but he really enjoyed the action scenes. He’s been ranting on about the plot holes all weekend – just why did Goku wish back Roshi (who he’d just met) instead of Gohan ?
Posted by Dabora on April 13th, 2009How come no one has pointed out that the character Goku is played by a white guy? Come on guys he’s suppose to be asian at least!
Posted by TK on April 13th, 2009Nobody pointed that out because you are wrong.
1) He’s not human so he is def. not Asian.
Posted by Shut-Up Ed on April 13th, 20092) Anime characters, like Goku are almost always drawn in such a way as to make them look more American that Asian. At least in my opinion. Goku does not look Asian to me at all… Have you seen his eyes?
WHAT?!Gokuu its not asian!!!he comes from the saiyajin planet GOD!! so basically he’s not white
Posted by kurosaki ichigo on April 13th, 2009My bad! I had always assumed he was asian.. but I guess he is technically Saiyin.
Posted by TK on April 13th, 2009just a couple things I didn’t see anyone say anything about(maybe they did and just didnt see it) Oozaru-I was pretty sure they have to have a tail to go oozaru, and when goku had a “epic battle” like with picalo in the movie I thought he used the dragon fist. I’ve never seen him fly threw a KameHameHa except for a dragon fist. Roshi’s place is on an island not in a city. It’s crazy to me how anyone gave premission for this junk. I’m not a master of knowledge when it comes to DB or DBZ but I’ve seen enough to know that this movie was BS! I want my money and hour and 25min of my life back!
Posted by Ghostmachine on April 13th, 2009You guys gatta remember, this isnt DBZ… its an adaptation from db to modernize it for a new generation.
P.s. When going to see this movie, keep in mind. This isnt DBZ with all the Glowing Blonde hair and the hitting so hard u fly threw a mountain we all know… This is DB. He cant go sayian yet. Lets wait for the next 1, shall we? give it a chance. go in with an open mind.
Posted by ThatSexiThing on April 13th, 2009*face palm*
fail..
Posted by john on April 13th, 2009doesn’t matter what u call it, even if its not dragonball z, it still FAIL. oh fox fanboys pls stop spamming all the sites u come across! we ALL alredy know the movie poops so stop wasting ur time
Posted by itstheend on April 13th, 2009Look, what were you really expecting? It’s an 88 minute, PG, re-imagining of the original Dragonball. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a re-imagining of Dragonball to enjoy the movie. The sequels are supposed to go more into the mythology of Dragonball so Krillin and Tien and everyone had a chance to be seen. And Harry Potter started of as PG and got darker and got a PG-13 rating, so when this gets into the DBZ part of things, it could get much more intense. I hope that they keep making sequels so we can all see a live action battle between Goku and Vegeta a.k.a Coolest Saiyan Ever. I did get tired of hearing chi pronounced like “key”, when it really is pronounced like “Cheese” minus the “se”.
Posted by kmann on April 13th, 2009But it was cool to hear Shenron called by the Japanese Shen-Long.
Jesus H. Christ! ENOUGH!!! I don’t want to hear about how we philistines simply “don’t understand” and how this is a “re-imaging” or a “modernization.”
I could throw a huge, heaping pile of warm pig shit in your face and call it a “re-imaging” or a “modernization” of the old pie-in-the-face gag, but guess what… YOU’RE NOT LAUGHING AND YOUR FACE IS STILL COVERED IN PIG SHIT!!!
SERENITY NOW!!!
Posted by Shut-Up Ed on April 13th, 2009great review man. i knew going in that it was goona be tainted as taint can get and still found myself shaking my head no over and over and over again. there were no fight scenes at all, even the chinese version of dragon ball that came out in the 80s was a billion times better just cause they understood their characters more. master roshi was the biggest joke ever, i understand that they made it for kids and did not the perverted aspect of roshi but the fact that they semi start him off kinda hunched over and silly but then looses every bit of emotion after the first scene was just hummiliating to see, its like he becomes a different person after his openeing scene.the entire movie was a jump from one bad scene to the next, hey lets go to a volcano and have an exact replica of a power ranger fight. hey lets throw in yamcha for kicks who is a useless character and just leave out krillian. where is gokus tale,where is the point of destroying a classic manga, people will respect u more if u make a low budget crap film as long as u simply stick to the story. the thing that made me the most upset is the d bag from buffy who played a pathetic version of piccilo actually follows the dbz saga and went on saying that the movie was good. grrrrrrrr dam u all who had a finger in this
Posted by jon wiseman on April 13th, 2009I’m a fan of the dragonball series, have been for 12 years and I liked Dragonball Evolution. Sure it’s not the best movie but to say it’s the absolute worse movie ever made I saw PLEASE. Of course I would have changed several things and if I could have then the negative reviews i’m sure would have dropped by 65 percent. With me it’s more than just liking the anime series, i’m obsessed with it
Posted by Jared Mullen on April 13th, 2009and of course everyone has there opinion and i’m not going to bash people for not liking it just as about 80 percent of everyone will hate me for liking it
Posted by Jared Mullen on April 13th, 2009idiot…
you can’t under any circumstances look at this movie in relation to the manga or anime…every single person on the set stated many times not to expect anything from either one except for a few characters, dragonballs, and kamehameha
you need to look at it from a regular movie perspective, if you do that ull enjoy it a lot more than you did, i thought it was pretty good and i followed db, dbz, and dbgt as kid through the manga and anime
Posted by godoo on April 13th, 2009also….
they can’t follow the series because the story is to long, they had to make cuts here and there, but they have the general stuff down
Posted by godoo on April 13th, 2009If you go into the cinema and expect dbz, then of course you will be disappointed. You DO NOT get a bigger Dragonball Z fan than I (i have a full sleeve tattoo of dragonball to prove it). However I went to the movie with an open mind, and was WELL AWARE that I was paying for an ADAPTION. I think the movie was made exactly the way it was meant to, and appealled to the exact audience that was intended. If you really want to see Krillin, or roshi on an Island, or Tien & Chiaotzu or a 1 and a half hour long kamehameha simply watch the cartoon. Otherwise count your vaginas lucky that you actually got a decent movie with a good budget, good cast and open slather for sequels.
Posted by Coffeebob on April 13th, 2009I just threw a big, heaping pile of pig shit in your face Coffeebob! It was SO FUNNY! See, it’s just like the old pie-in-the-face gag but I totally “adapted” it! Isn’t that MIND-BLOWING!!!
“Adaption”, “modernization” and “re-imaging” are code words for “we f*ucked this up royally, everyone with half a brain will hate it so let’s see if we can trick a few of them by pretending we did it on purpose.”
Kudos on the use of vagina though.
Posted by Shut-Up Ed on April 13th, 2009I think all the bad reviews are a good thing, regardless of whether or not i liked the movie, because maybe some idiot will pick up on what the fans r saying (stick to the story) and next time they will stick to the story.
Posted by db fan on April 13th, 2009personally i think they should scrap this start and start over with a poor foundation like this one the movies that they pile on top of it will just fall apart also
Alright,
Here is the deal,
Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are the best Anime series and has set the standards for most action/supernatural and KI related Anime (Bleach , Naruto..etc). A Live Action of this series No matter How much anyone could have done it would have never matched up to the series. So with that in mind I went down to watch this movie. And I was Disappointed, changing the character basis and other details are fine with me. But they could have done so much more. I mean come on, IT IS DRAGON BALL, people have to respect that fact. But the producers and directors took that Name and destroyed it. COMPLETELY
Posted by Prince Morph on April 14th, 2009I just finished watching DBE, and i have to say the only way you can enjoy such a film is to leave out anything you know about the anime series and go in to the theater like if you were going in to watch a brand new movie with an entirely different name as the one stated in your ticket voucher. So in other words replace the tittle Dragon Ball Evolution with Dragon Fighter : The Evolution of Fighting, see now you can go watching w/o mixing the awesome manga with this brand new and nothing to do with dragon ball
Posted by karateka666 on April 14th, 2009I’m a really big fan of Dragonball (anime) and when I heard about the movie I was excited… But after seeing the trailers for it, my expectations drop, and then seeing the movie I was like this was horrible they could of at least tried to stick with some of the anime such as adding Krillen and the fact Goku never went to High School and Grandpa Gohan shouldn’t have been alive when Goku was in the teenage years… Plus it messes up the whole timeline on how the anime goes…Saying they did their best for 90mins is just stupid, if they can have flashback about King Piccolo being there some 200 years and being sealed away they could of told a story about Goku and have the whole movie based on the Tournament and him fighting King Piccolo in the end….Plus Oozaru should of been a Giant.
Posted by Dimi on April 14th, 2009I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve heard that if it was just an action movie without “Dragonball” slapped on as a title, it would’ve been a good movie.
Posted by Geo on April 14th, 2009personally I will wait for the DVD to rent and watch so I can make fun of it as I’m watching it. Just from what I’ve seen of the trailors it’s not worth the money at the ticket office of the theater. First of all, Goku never went to high school, and the movie should simply been about the search for the dragon balls and nothing else. To say Hollywood screwed it up is a massive understatement. I hope that they never do this crap again or I will have to go to LA and start flinging handfuls of poo at everyone who looks like they might have anything to do with movies (which will be a LOT of poo)
Posted by supacrispy on April 14th, 2009Im sorta at a loss as to wat to say..the review was great by the way and seeing other peoples opinions show how loved db is.i studied graphics in collage and since i loved db i used it as a theme for presentations etc..pretty easy:)it ment however i had to go deeper in terms of information and psycology of the series..knowing this info however has made it difficult for me to watch the movie..its pretty far from the original..i mean way too many shortcuts etc..d school thing was more gohan..people will defend it but it shouldnt hav been americanised so blatantly..its d quirkyness of d japanese d made it so likable.the japanese version and some of the comic versions have swearing and was toned down then for western market..ashame la guys cudnt just do it right…who do they think they are!!
Posted by lucy on April 14th, 2009What is everyone talking about this movie was AMAZING!!!! i mean seriously, how many other movies allow you to watch peoples careers burn right in front of your eyes lol it was amazing.
but in all seriousness, only watch the movie with friends oooor if you have nothing to live…
Posted by darryl on April 14th, 2009…for
Posted by darryl on April 14th, 2009I hate to say it but the review is right on the money. This might have been an o.k. movie for kids that are not familiar with the anime or manga, but to the rest of us it was almost an insult. It did have its moments but they were short and far in between. More than the cgi, the dialogue and not sticking to the source material are the things that killed it for me. But, at the end people still clapped and cheered… weird, huh?
Posted by ed on April 14th, 2009god i have read a few reviews and this one is the best so far. i havent and wont go to see this damn movie. fox screwed up dragon ball. i am a great big fan of dragonball dragon ballz and gt. hummm??? goku went to high school??? i hear that he acts like an ass?? i really hope the directors or producers contact me so i can tell them how the movie should have been made. the dragon ball series is the best action cartoon of all time. if your going to make a cartoon into a live action movie stick with the facts. his grandpa wasnt killed by piccolo. god i can even write anymore this is so horrible. FOX SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by vincent on April 14th, 2009I watched this movie last night and just had to laugh all the way through! The plot was ridiculous, the dialogue contrived (”I am Goku…! I have faith in who I am…!”), and Goku was portrayed as an idiot. I followed the DB and DBZ series and this movie did it no justice whatsoever.
Posted by Ro on April 14th, 2009Overall my friends and I found it to be awfully lame, and at times the whole movie theatre cracked up laughing, especially at the bit where Goku dreamed about Chi Chi eating the strawberry! Wtf!
Watch if you feel like a comedy, cos there’s no way you can take this seriously!
omfg what the hell was that i meen he can smash throught rocks full pelt yet 1 shot nearly kills him and im not being funny but he could of at least saiyoned up u no the glow and blonde spikes i honestly and serious honestly would rather of watched sex in the city(and i hate that soooo much)
Posted by ashley sharpe on April 14th, 2009I just watched the movie and I only have one thing to say “Bullshit”. real bullshit.
Posted by Lord Sayan on April 14th, 2009honestly i was expectlng a karate kid beggining ending in a matrix style brawl but they dished out a mulan begining ending with a kindergarden tantrum where goku has to get in touch with “himselF” please how cliched can you get. i honestly believed that because the DB series is a clasic they would put some effort into it but instead they gave us something you would expect out of a high schol VP class. i give this movie a fist up the @#$.
Posted by Inquisator on April 15th, 2009I totally support the review. Nice. I’m a dragon ball big fan. But i don’t have to compare this movie with the anime’s version just to call it suck! The plot, the characters, the cgi, the fighting scenes, the script writing are all so bad. James wong should have really learn how to direct a movie. Mr wong, this movie doesnt have a character at all for God sake! you dont deserve to direct a movie yet. DB series deserve an epic movie version. I hope Japanese or top Hollywood directors can make another DB movies in the future.
Posted by tom on April 15th, 2009I completely agree. I knew this would be a fail from the moment I saw the trailer, no, from the moment I saw the poster. Bad cast, even worse plot. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a hard film to get right as it’s so unrealistic, but it could’ve been done. They won’t go on with this but if they ever did decide to, start from scratch, stay true to the story and don’t cast a bunch of gimps who will massacre the characters with every breath.
Posted by Kris on April 15th, 2009Highly disappoined. No RR army, Krillin, Ox King, talking animals, and that school setting was really lame. It just goes right to Piccolo being bad and Goku being his pet 2000 years ago.. What the hell are they trying to pull?? If you’re going to attempt to make something, please try and stick to the story line because this honestly doesn’t make any sense.
Posted by Just another DB fan on April 15th, 2009This is a horrible movie comparable to that of twilight.
Posted by Wesley on April 15th, 2009Where was the Speedblitzing Dragonball was built off of? This movie had none of that. At least in the Matrix neo and Smith tore everything up with punches giving us the most powerful fightscene of any movie we have ever seen even shaming the great fight in the incredible Hulk. Thats how DB was in the series and shouldve been but with powerful blast and blazing speed.
Buildings and mountains shouldve been detroyed from missed blast and shockwaves.
Yamcha was one of the most dangeroud fighters in DB he and Tiens fight and the saiba man fight was amazing. And they do him this way!!!! Fox fogot DB fans may have grown up but they still loved it. It’s our alternate to alot of Stale slow moving Marvel and DC movie and animated fights.
They shoulve sat down and watched ever episode of Dragonball,DBZ,and DBGT then made this movie.
I feel bad for the guy that plays Gok because he stepped into a role to portray a warrior that shines across nations and timelines unmatched by any other when it comes to his nature and fighting Spirit. Goku hasa Jesus complex at time. So gentle he wouldn’thuirt a fly but hurt his planet or hiss loved ones he’s a certified beast!!!
They shouldve gotton people who could actually fight, gave the movie a Lord of the rings time length and eipc size and did the movie right.
Directors of the Matrix, Transformers,badass fight movies please redo this movie!!!!
Posted by Supersayin28 on April 16th, 2009I Thought originally they were supposed to be following the manga and just splitting it up into 3 or 4 films following some of the sagas but this is just crap as if goku could be a high school studet hes supposed to be simple and live in the mountains. as said before EPIC FAIL !!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by JakkerD on April 16th, 2009To be honest, that film just completely disgraced every single dragonball tv episode i have ever watched.
The movie was way too short.
The cast was just literally crap
The story which they did change, tried to cram hours worth of dragonball it like 1 hour!
To newcomers that just woudnt have made sense and to people whove watched it you just feel there was so much missed out
The special effects were terrible, and what the hell is with the new kamehamha stuff, they made it sound like some sort of retarded spell?!
No offense to the makers but i cant find one thing good to say about the movie, except the use of slow motion at the party, which was just about okay lol!
They need to start again at the beggining of dragonball z, when raditz comes down to the end of frieza and the beginning of supersaiyan.. and they need to spend a whole lot more and they need to make it a 12a/15 jeez!
Posted by the.ninja. on April 16th, 2009The first time I saw this was becoming a movie I ALREADY knew it was going to be this way, based on the track record of Hollywood. I consider ANY medium whether it be comics, books, anime, or video games, completely and wholesomely FUCKED when it comes to making a movie of it. I can’t wait to get shit on EVERY time something I like is made into a movie.
RIP FF, DBZ, Resident Evil, Marvel comics, and the rest. Early graves already dug for Halo and MGS. They WILL be disappointments. I prophesy that.
Posted by Zeng on April 16th, 2009I agree that this film sucked and i regret watching it. The name for it did make little sense but copied X-men with it as there was a X-men evolution cartoon with the team in high school. Gokus meeting with Bulma did not make sense as Goku met Bulma when Goku was a child. Chi-Chi in the film was a fighter but in the show she was just extreamily violent when it came to gohans protection. Yamchas hair was completely wrong and he did not have the scars on his face, Piccalo was Demon king Piccalo who was killed by goku with a kamea wave when goku was a child. Goku transforming was the only thing that made sense but he turned into a werewolf thing instead of the mammath ape but the transformation was impossible as he required a tail to do it also Goku was a retard in the film because Chi-Chi knew more about fighting than hed did and he is one of the warrior race. Shenron did look cool but was completely off.
Posted by Shadow on April 16th, 2009dragonball was created by the japanese who were obviously influenced by their own eastern worldview. they didnt create it with american sentiments. so its a typical geocentric imperialist thing to assume all cartoons, especially the ones conceptualized in japan or anywhere else in asia, is done so with american cult comicbook enthusiasts in mind. i mean come on… how many white-bred american suburbanites named goku do you know? and what kind of jaw-dropping hilarity would it be if bollywood made a “modernized adaptation” of superman (who clearly is an alien, like goku and thus ethnically ambiguous) starring ShahRukh Khan. comment threads would be filled with whiteys throwing hissy-fits. don’t tell me goku shouldn’t be asian (assuming this movie should’ve been made at all) based on how he’s STYLISTICALLY drawn, unless you can admit using the same logic that superman should’ve been better portrayed by john cho (http://www.asianpopcorn.com/OtherAsian/John-Cho-Pusan-1.jpg) based on these classic drawings: http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/374/superman6sept1940.gif
look at his eyes! maybe throw in some novelty white supporting characters in the mix up so as to keep the whole “truth, justice, and the american way” a little more convincing…
Posted by hollywoodscaredofasians on April 16th, 2009Okay, I saw several snippit videos of this film online out of interest in going to see the movie. After having seen the clips and read several reviews (which confirmed what the clips already told me), I will most definitely NOT be wasting my money on this pitiful film.
At 30 years old, I am probably a bit older than the target audience, but I was completely addicted to DB back in the day. I have the entire collection of DB through DBZ, and a good portion of DBGT. That said, I feel I have a pretty good handle on what the characters should be; and this is so far deviated from the original blockbuster anime that I can’t imagine anyone who has watched even a couple of the cartoons would find approval.
The characters are completely ridiculous, and the plot just makes me guffaw with maniacal ridicule. Who in their right mind casts a bunch of actors that are not only poorly selected based on their looks and mannerisms, but completely oblivious to any real martial arts? The few scenes I saw reminded me of the pitiful American-made martial arts movies of the 80’s, and nowhere close to exciting. That, coupled with the high-school level computerized special effects almost mad me puke.
In closing I’d just like to say that it’s a REAL SHAME that this movie was so poorly executed, because a movie modeled after the awesome manga series Dragonball is a GREAT IDEA… and now that it’s been completely wasted on this film, we’ll likely never see a well done version. Maybe I should cast a few friends with my cell phone camera and edit it a simple shareware video editing software. Then I could post it on YouTube. No doubt it would be better than this pile of donkey pie.
Justin Chandler
Posted by Justin on April 16th, 2009I saw this coming when i noticed that fox was making this movie. They fucked up the whole thing, it didn’t even come close to the original story. I hate you fox. Please respect the goddamn storyline.
Posted by luis on April 16th, 2009If Fox would of been smart enough to actually put some interest in making this film, they would of made millions, but instead they came up with this piece of shit makes me mad. I’ve seen better fanmade kamehameha waves in youtube, then the shitty ass dusty lights they put in this fail of a movie, this movie is an insult to the original Dragon Ball it doesn’t even deserve to be named after it.
Posted by puchica on April 16th, 2009Horrible. Goku was a kid in DB, not an 18 year old loser. They got the whole story wrong about everything. Gohan wasn’t killed by Piccolo, Goku killed him. Goku wasn’t 2000 years old (what the hell was up with that?) He changed every full moon, not some bull shit red moon eclipse crap. Piccolo had no side kick. It was SHENRON not SHENLONG you stupid fucks! Can they not fucking read? That pissed me off more than anything, the fucking dragon. Got the name wrong, the size was to god damn little, he didn’t fucking talk, oh and Bulma “Well we’ll have to start looking again, you ready?” YOU HAVE TO WAIT A YEAR! for fucks sake this movie was butchered. The acting (I use that lightly) weren’t even porn movie quality.
Posted by The dude on April 17th, 2009I’m gonna be honest, growing up i phased in and out of the show. For me i felt it was dragged out a bit too much and only had a simple storyline each season that was stretched out by really long fights. So i really didn’t expect much of this film ( then again who else did). The studio like he said obviously didn’t do their research well enough to please the fans but when your dealing with a movie based on anything you absolutely never ever in a million years even if you hire the original maker, will you please all fans. So i decided to place aside the fact that it was based on anything ( which was easy for me because i haven’t seen it in ages). I didn’t think it was too bad. I mean the script was totally rushed and was probably only rewritten like 3-4 times. And some of the effects were obviously very cheap, but for dragonball i felt it worked. I liked the fact that they made Goku a teenager instead of a child like he was in the show, because like hell im gonna watch a kid flying around kicking ass, it would feel more of a slap stick type comedy then. Plus you wouldn’t have had much of a romance develop between him and chi chi, Which for me was one of the better things in the film. Many things in the film did feel randomly included, but the spontaneous fights were cool because from what i remember in the show fights seem to start out of nowhere. I think that’s what they were doing with that.
Posted by I felt i got my 10 bucks worth on April 17th, 2009All up, i thought it was cool. And if they make another i hope they spend much more time on the script. Oh and for whatever reason they didnt make bulma’s hair completely blue or what ever color that was in the show, i DO think they should have streaked it A LOT more other then just that one streak.
Kung fu Hustle seemed more like dragonball THE SHOW then this movie did. This movie was more like … well…you know how people tell urban legends round a camp fire cept every time its told it is changed a bit and some parts of the story are left out or changed…that’s what this was like. Kind of like ” Hey Guys, You remember that cool show from the 90’s”.
Oh and i was thinking how the heck are they gonna explain the hair on Goku?? And when the scene came up where he tried to slick it back, i was laughing hysterically… in a good way. I felt it was like the director telling us his hair sticks up…. BECAUSE IT JUST DOES .
Posted by I felt i got my 10 bucks worth on April 17th, 2009it sucks because they are taking something that waz the greatest and changing it to a lame story that has been used in others movies the fact that they wanted to use real people waz neat but the story-line sucked they could have made something a hole lot more interesting and cool than that.
Posted by daniel massey on April 17th, 2009I was sooo pumped to see this movie but I just watched the movie and also hated it, I have every episode of Dragon ball Z and love the series but he didn’t keep to any aspect of it from where the dragon balls came from to the characters themselves, it is almost like he had never watched the show just new their names…
Could have been a great movie if it would have had anything to do with the real Dragon Ball Z
Posted by Matt Vidler on April 27th, 2009they are not the real character of Dragon Ball….
Posted by dwee on May 8th, 2009terribly bad
Personally i liked dbe. i laughed almost all the way through it. It was corny and ridiculous just like the original db series. And while its sad they didnt stick to the material a little better cmon guys xmen spiderman
Posted by Loctar on May 10th, 2009wolverine even batman begins should have prepared you for the fact long before now that movie companies will rape the story of all your favorite series. The only way you can spare yourself from it is to NEVER watch a movie adaptation of something you love ever again.
oh yeah
Posted by Loctar on May 10th, 2009they never said goko was 2000 years old. hes 18. ozaru is the name of the giant ape regardless of who turns into him. most likely the original ozaru was an entirely different saiyan. At least thats what i grasped from it if they plan to continue to the dbz line cause thats just too big of a plot hole to overlook for sequals.
is it me or when goku turned into a monkey he jus like 8 ft tall when there suppose to 20 ft and he didnt even grow a tail n goku is suppose to be a kid shit movie
Posted by speedy on May 15th, 2009this movie is the most lolly gagging, busted, thrusted and utterly disgusted peace of crap I’ve ever seen. the actors were terrible, the story was terrible, the effects were half assed and the dialogue was unbearible. this movie would be good for one thing and one thing only, put your crying baby to sleep. It’s not in the least bit entertaining and hit me with the bullet of disappointment like a billion times, I’ve died over and over again from watching this. I wonder if one person in the world thinks this movie is cool?
Posted by whAtshISfACE on June 15th, 2009it is my firm belief that the producers and directors of this film , must be taken out into an alley and beaten like rabid beasts until they plead for mercy from Akira Toriyama . The man must be mortified to see his wonderful creation so terribly mocked by inept amercian peons .
Posted by last of my kind ... on June 19th, 2009I loved this movie true they messed with the storyline, but look what happened to x-men when it became a movie. Screwing with the story line is just to be expected and I really hope they follow up with 2 more movies.
Posted by DBZfan333 on July 5th, 2009OK, so the kamehameha can bring people back to life, yamchas a douche, piccolo(who should be a main character) has like 3 lines, Gokos 2000 years old, and Gokos BIKE got knocked down by what I think was a mustang.
There is something seriously wrong with any producer who thinks he can cut something as long as multi thousand episode franchise, spanning 3 individual shows and countless sagas, into a 3 movie series and expect people to just get to grips with it.
Wong has destroyed something that would have been loved by everyone for years to come.
Im only 15, found the dragonball series years ago and loved it.This should have been happening to kids for decades but instead this frankly legendary peice of manga history will be forever remembered as ‘ that crappy wong movie with the green guy’
Come on, Piccolo just looked like a guy with green face paint on. Maybe they should have spent the full 100mil and made a realistic movie. If they can create full worlds and thousands of individual monsters for lord of the rings, Im sure they could have handled some decent cgi for the kamehamahea and a bit of money for the fight scenes which should have been the slow, intence type that wer used to from the manga. One fight could last 6 episodes, and that was a half hour CARTOON!
R.I.P DragonBall, as you may well have died with this movie.
JoeMunk
Posted by JoeMunk on July 8th, 2009if you think this movie isnt a disaster then you have no right to be a critic. . . this is junk!!!
Posted by kris kross on July 9th, 2009not because im an avid anime fan but the film language is reduced to an amateur level. . .
most of the acting is horrific. . .
a storyline of an anime or a novel would never be the same when its made into a film, and thats a fact. a different platform, . . its like lolipops and gummy bears are different but theyre both sweets. . .
but the screenplay should always provide judgement upon the adaptation it was being based upon. . .
they casted justin because of the shape of the head and the lil pointy nose BUT unless people starts getting REAL ASIANS to play their own character, then it will always be a pity! Ethnicity is important! Harry Potter all got british actors!, nobody’s faking an accent!
I never really got that deep into the original dragon ball, watched a few episodes but once I started watching DBZ I got hooked pretty quick and watched the whole series. I like the idea of a dragon ball movie but from what I’ve heard of this one it’s junk.
I’d love to see a DBZ movie series that breaks it down into 4 movies, each one covering one of the 4 main sagas/arcs, Saiyan Saga, Namek/Frieza Saga, Android/Cell Saga, Saiyaman/World Tournament/Majin Buu Saga.
It may seem like a lot of ground to cover but really it’s totally feasible. Honestly, each of the LotR books has more action and plot or at least similar to a major DBZ arc and they pulled those movies off beautifully. Sure there were things you wish you could of saw but the main content of the story was all there.
You’d have to cut out a lot of the filler and make the main battles less drawn out for sure but it’d be manageable. Take the Snake Way part of the Saiyan Saga. They spent a good deal of time on that but it was mostly just the same thing over and over again, Goku running down a path with a few encounters that didn’t add too much to the overall storyline.
I’d rather see a movie with battles that moved somewhat quicker (but not too quick on the major battles) and get a movie that stays true to the series with the character development and story. Character development is so important to DB/DBZ, take that away or change the characters to fit your movie and you might as well not even bother.
Posted by azazel on July 13th, 2009This movie was Really Anti-Climactic. Disappointments left and right. The movie looked like it was “Half-Assd” thrown together at the last minute. The only fight scene that was…decent…was when goku was confronted by the bullies at the party. The director should have done some research on Dragon Ball (if he hadn’t already) to get a general idea of what the fans would expect(besides a big disappointment)…but it seems that the director had no idea on what he was doing(Goku in high school??? WTF?!). The actors (epic)FAILED to PORTRAY the Dragon Ball characters that we all know and love.
Good review btw. Right on the money with that.
Posted by Chartok on July 15th, 2009P.S. im glad i didn’t pay to see this movie xP
Posted by Chartok on July 15th, 2009Ok well I just finished watching it.
Well I can’t say that I expected it, but since I saw the trailer and saw an actor who plays Goku I knew it’s gonna be bad.
What they tried to do is to connect Goku with the “new age coolness” somehow and create a character who is “cool”. That’s just wrong. As some of you said, sorry for not referring to who exactly, Goku is suppose to be a goofy character with strong love for everything. I’m really a conservative concerning anything of new-age as i know it’s just commercialism and money involved.
The real art is created from soul, not from desire to earn money, which is, obviously, the case here.
Anyway I could go on and on, but I really don’t recommend this movie to anyone who is a true DB fan.
Posted by nLIke on July 17th, 2009Ummmm….
Posted by Idunno on July 22nd, 2009The movie was horrible.
Seriously, at least TRY to make the characters LOOK like DBZ characters. And where the hell is kurrin and the other DBZ characters. This movie has NO realtion with DBZ except for the name. What’s with the Kamehameha?(Is that how you spell it?). It looks like a really small version of street fighter’s Hadouken(Is that spelled right too?). The end fight’s kamehameha was more of a real one, but it’s wayyyyyy too small. Have the movie directors even SEEN the DBZ anime?
Overall, bad movie. It sucks. Don’t waste your time on it.
I feel so angry !!! SO ANGRY. Turn Dragon Ball in to such a shitty movie !!! So much anger !
Posted by Filipp on July 23rd, 2009Hollywood is going down! This is what happens when Dragonball gets “Americanized” and “real-lized”.
Posted by Dwade on July 24th, 2009this movie sucked ass!
Posted by allen amador on July 29th, 2009I totally agree. I’m watching it right now. Goku is wooden. Bulma and Chi-Chi are the most likable characters. The fight with the bullies are better than the fight with Piccolo. But Piccolo did a pretty good job. The script and the bad special effects just made it worst. This coming from a teenager.
Posted by Melaina on July 31st, 2009This review is spot-on.. why make a film version of something if you arent going to make it better or at least as good? they shouldnt have started with db if they werent going to have goku as a child. should have started with dbz, goku an adult and frieza as the antagonist. made it epic with the first appearance of a super saiyan cuz lets face it, thats the best thing about dbz!! and could have had flying, GOOD cgi depicting (as stated before) epic matrix style fight scenes, cinescopic terrain destruction during fights, epic one liners, powering up with earth shaking intensity… i could go on and on with this. i was hoping they would make an awesome version, but like you all have said before… EPIC FAIL. i hope the avatar movie says something worth hearing…
Posted by SSJ3 on August 5th, 2009i could’ve made a better dragon ball movie using some action figures i waited till this came out on demand and was dissapointed…but i already knew it was going to happen i spent that last forty-five minutes of the movie trying to solve a rubik’s cube…the one thing it had going was emmy rossum was in it and chichi was sexy other than that it was a piece of shit
Posted by juju57 on August 5th, 2009For the fans, I’ve just watched this movie. Yeah I’ve been a movie buff for years. I also have been big on my comics and aminmae, short and sweet enough said there!! Anyone complaining about this movie? Did you watch the X-men movies? How about spiderman? The two hulk movies? Or maybe the new superman?
Posted by Methodik Distortion on August 13th, 2009The point: You cant piss and moan about a story line and characters when the entire DB/DBZ/And DBGT series are constantly changing. Hey, I’m not gonna try and convince you. If you are a real fan you should already know. If not, just take the time to check it out.
The movie itself was a little cheesy but try to think of the magnitude of effects/action of story that has to be compressed into one film.
K nuff from me…. Liked it would like to see a sequel.
This movie failed hard…sucked hard…and will hopefully die hard…I hope know one remembers it so the Manga/Anime will live on with its great legacy of being the greatest ever made.
Posted by truckBUST!!! on August 18th, 2009MY god Im ashamed of this movie. It leaves a scar on the golden anime called Dragonball Z…
Couple of words: Why GOD WHy..
Posted by ????? on August 18th, 2009OMG thankyou Sean.
Posted by rory on August 26th, 2009That movie ruined all my childhood of dbz
I was a BiG BiG FAN of de anime DB in my chidhood, i cant belive this…what have they done…my god…i want to cry and cry a lot more…plese Gerge Lucas if you are reading this, plese try to do the work that this guy’s did’t and give us the fans the real DB MOVIE or SAGA many thak’s! Good reviews guy’s i agree its to bad to see…
Posted by Manhel on August 30th, 2009My peope, do not fear. Even though this movie sucked more things than Hoover, there still is hope that there will be other movies, albeit not DragonBall-related, that will be worth watching. Maybe they’ll do a movie about Hawaii Five-0. Where McGarrett and Goku catch the crook and McGarrett says “Book em Danno”. “But I’m Goku!”…..
Posted by Fonkers McDean on September 6th, 2009Then Goku goes Super Saiyen and blasts McGarrett!!!!!
No, there is no hope. This is the worst movie that one could waste hard-earned money on. The other day I turned on the DBZ anime manga on DVD, and watched the old-time episodes of Goku and his friends. And when I think about how that compares to this pathetic lame excuse for a DB movie, my heart grieves.
DragonBall Z – my heart soar like the eagle
Posted by Darth Charlie on September 6th, 2009DragonBall Evolution movie – my heart feel like turd
Wow, I’m incredibly sad now.
I knew this movie would suck just from the posters. I knew it would be unwatchable. Did I mention I had this nagging feeling it would be not good?
What I did not know, and would have been happy to go on forever not-knowing, was that Stephen Chow had any part of this massive suckery.
Posted by Brand on September 29th, 2009GOKU is was never in High-School, wasn’t a teen when Gohan died, Picolo didnt kill Gohan, Oozaru is much bigger, Krillin,Tien,Chaozu,Oolong…etc. are nowhere to be found,Bulmas hair isnt even accurate,Picolo looks like a douche as so does Goku Yamcha, and master Roshi…Master Roshi is bald with a white beard and a turtle shell on his back also holding a cane and lives in an island,KAMEHAMEHA is supposed to be much bigger and cannot revive (wtf!)i hope to god they dont make Dragon Ball a T.v. sitcom or somethin hehe or a sequel to ik…I would love to hear what Toriyama thinks about it! He should SUE! I think Dana Carvey could have made a better Goku than that Douche that played him LOL and yea GOKU is supposed to be goofy as hell and very skillful at fighting! Roshi is the biggest pervert ever in the original DB! and yea CHI CHI+a Strawberry!!! FU! FOX!!!
Posted by MeTaLLiCo on September 30th, 2009Okay, I could nit-pick at this movie for hours but why do that? It’s for children to enjoy and even some people that thing they’re fans (possibly).
I went to see it when it came out and I was horrified at what they did to Dragon Ball. I was seriously pissed. I tried pushing the series and manga out of my mind, but I didn’t think it was even a good movie then.
One thing that I will nit-pick at it what they did to Chi-Chi. Oh my God. She’s supposed to be the strongest woman in the world, stubborn, and hot-headed. Not a little prom queen that just happens to know martial arts.
And where the hell was the Ox King or Nimbus? D:
Posted by Ashley-bay on October 8th, 2009This movie depressed me.
The only way this epic failure could possibly have any kind of use is if majin buu turned this crap into chocolate… And ate it…failure
Posted by Mandy on October 12th, 2009Watched it this evening so that if any bitching were warranted, I could say I saw the film. And guess what? It was more than warranted. So screw the self righteous pricks telling us to watch it before we complain, because it was pretty obvious from the beginning it was going to blow.
Epic fail is indeed the best description for this film. It’s probably the biggest piece of shit since the phrase was invented. I don’t understand why these producers take a story they could have easily made bank off of to actually waste time and effort to make it horrible.
The acting was disgusting. The choreography… Dear god. You would think the directors just told the actors to ” do actiony stuff” rather than take the time to teach these kids how to at the very least fake it gracefully.
Piccolo riding a giant air ship… What? Is he like the new evil Sportacus or something? I won’t even go into how horribly fucked up the plot is. Yamcha was a disgusting greasy dick. Bulma was, well… she was always kind of a bitch, but at least she pulled it off in the original and was likable. Don’t remember all the guns. Roshi lacked that oh so lovably lechery we know so well. And Goku… Just epic disappointment. Oh, and I love how the dragon was masked in blinding light. Can you say ‘cover up CGI failure’?
What’s with the whole third world intermingling with the modern world? The plot turns immediately from some overrated high school setting to some feudal village who knows where.
Just… just everything. I could go on forever but it really isn’t worth it.
A bit of advice. DO NOT WATCH IT. These people should be beaten with an ore.
Posted by Heather on November 23rd, 2009I wonder why Hollywood keeps on destroying Asian tales! Dragon Ball, being an epic does not deserve this kind of live action rendition.
Posted by george clooney on December 24th, 2009ok dis was the worst and hurtful movie i ever seen now i watched all te series with my brothers since i was little and first off none of the characters look the same and their fighting suck and when i saw the commercials i was like omg they seriously had balls to put dat on there i was just in shock and alot of disappointment
Posted by dis dick on January 27th, 2010I knew this movie would be a steaming hot turd even while it was still nothing more than a rumor. Dragonball and live action don’t mix people!
Posted by Kimi on January 29th, 2010Even if the movie had Asian actors it would still be a flop because the script is pathetic! Say it with me good actors cannot save a bad movie!
I don’t see how everyone can hate it so bad. I’ve been a fan for years and I saw the movie and I liked it. It wasn’t GREAT. But good, 3 stars in my book.
Posted by Andr on February 8th, 2010Goku is an alien so the fact that he’s white makes no difference
Goku is suppose to be at a young age. So it makes sense to have him in highschool. Although i do agree, he didnt have to be.
Besides its a live action movie, they can’t very well do everything in one movie. Plus Goku is hardly at his prime during all this. He’s just starting to realize the fighter in him. Personally I thought it was a good start to maybe a saga of movies. maybe 6 movies. who knows? don’t just judge the first one. Sometimes you have to hold back on the best things in order to make the sequels even better. Take Spiderman and Spiderman II, Spiderman II is way better. Well thats my opinion.
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