Evolution of a Different Kind
After going back and forth about it for months, I finally decided to give in. Earlier this week I saw the much-debated, ill-rated move, Dragon Ball: Evolution.
Now don't get me wrong, although I hold a place in my heart for my first anime, I haven't been into it for a long time. Still, when I liked it, I loved it and it remains very nostalgic to me. I used to go over to my buddy's house every Sunday with the new DVD's and we would watch them together. It was a very fun time of my life.
In addition to nostalgia, Dragon Ball was also my first real fanfic attempt. Although I am embarrassed by the nine year-old attempt at a story, I still have it posted on fanfiction.net. To this day, it has received 556 reviews (709 for the unfinished trilogy). I even still get the occasional email about it.
All things considered, I thought I would give the live-action movie a try. If anyone cares to read a bulleted review, it's under the cut.
Positive Points:
-I loved Grandpa Gohan! It's really too bad they didn't deepen his character involvement. However, he wasn't exactly involved in the anime either. He was killed off through still flashback frames, if I recall.
-I actually liked the fact that they included Chinese characters on the signs in the high school. I thought it showed the cross-culturalism that was present in Dragon Ball.
-The non-aggressive fight won by Goku was actually kind of cool. I thought his commitment to the promise he made his grandfather not to fight was actually in-character fand something the anime Goku would do. This was a pleasant surprise - despite the fact that his opponents were laaaamme.
-Chow Yun-Fat is awesome, no matter how bad the movie is. I loved his dirty-old-man shirt in his first scene and the inclusion of Bikini Quarterly. I guess it's better than a bunch of porn in a PG movie. XD
-I actually liked the fact that they ended the movie with Goku and Chichi sparring. I always missed the fact that Chichi lost her martial arts history when she settled down and I got a kick out of the few times they let it shine in DBZ. I'm glad the movie focused on her skills.
Neutral Points:
-Despite complaints by many other fans, I thought it was a good idea not to cast an Asian person as Goku. He's supposed to be different and casting an American in the midst of a mostly Asian cast provided a contrast. However, for the effect to really work, they should have cast every other character with an Asian actor.
-If I didn't know anything about DB before watching this movie, I would be arguing that Goku and Bulma made the better couple. This is kind of negative since I'm a fan of Chichi, but it's something that many o'fanfic author has explored. I don't think I ever decided how I felt about that possibility.
-Yamucha's surfer-dude accent was a little annoying. However, it was seemingly appropriate to those of us who suffered through the FUNI dubs before they started releasing the subbed DVDs. I thought the fist bump that Roshi interpreted as an aggressive move was funny!
-Justin Chatwin wasn't completely annoying. I still think he's very wrong for the part, but it wasn't the complete disaster I was imagining.
-I know I'm in the minority for saying this, but I like what they did with Bulma's hair. If they had died her whole head light blue, it would've looked really weird.
Negative Points:
-"Geeko"??? Really?! That's the best they could come up with?!
-Where's his tail?!
-Piccolo's partner "Oozaru"? (I do have to give the movie a tiny bit of credit, however, for keeping Oozaru's truth somewhat consistent. A lot of fans saw the preview and assumed the movie would make Oozaru some random alien.)
-Goku's fantasy about Chichi was way out of place. As I recall, Goku promised to marry her because he thought she was inviting him to dinner. When they met up years later she called him a "bastard" for forgetting about her. He married her after all because he felt obligated to fulfill his promise despite his ignorance of what it really meant. This isn't exactly the lustful glance from across the classroom the movie portrayed.
-When flashing back to the thief that stole her Dragon Ball, Bulma recounts passing multiple dead or injured guards and then entering a vault that was protected by a laser and a facial-recognition program. The thief (Mai) was able to break through a glass ceiling using rockets that propelled her upward. Correct me if I'm crazy - but who would bother building a well-protected vault with valuable and priceless items enclosed if the ceiling is made out of ordinary glass?
-I miss Yamucha's shyness; it's what made him endearing in the beginning. It also made it much more understandable when he started cheating on Bulma and she kicked him to the curb for Vegeta.
-The ending was corny. I was disappointed by the special-effects with Shenlong and the fact that he didn't speak. I also thought the "prayer" was corny. Whatever happened to, "Shenlong, come forth"?
Overall Impression:
Like most fans of DB, I agree with the fact that the movie did not adequately represent the anime we loved. It had none of the humor and none of the charm the original series did. The acting was average at best and the script was full of one-liners and cliche's. The pacing was rushed to the point where it didn't make sense. Yamucha went from being a bandit who had trapped them in a hole in the ground to a trusted member of the group in five minutes flat. It was only a few minutes after that when Bulma nearly kissed him. Piccolo barely had any lines. For such an epic character who was the main antagonist of the movie, it seemed he was almost thrown in as an afterthought.
The most disappointing aspect of this movie was the fact that it didn't have to be like this. The movie itself was only just over an hour long. This left plenty of time for the writers to have slowed down the story line and insert some humor. They could've explored Piccolo's character better and explained why Mai was on his side and why she could change shapes. They could've explained why Chichi was filthy rich. They could've shown Goku taking longer than three minutes to learn the Kamehameha. They could've taught Chow Yun-Fat the right way to pronounce Gohan!
As much as I loathe myself for saying this, I think it would've been better if DB:E had been produced like a Spy Kids movie. I think they should've made everyone younger and not focused on romance between Goku and Chichi. This movie took itself way too seriously and it suffered because of it.
Oh well... let's just hope the already-rumored sequel dies a horrible death on some Hollywood bureaucrat's desk.
Sorry it's only bulleted instead of written out properly. I'll also apologize now if it lacks a certain coherency. I stayed home today because of back spasms and I'm afraid the pain medication hasn't completely exited my system yet.
Now don't get me wrong, although I hold a place in my heart for my first anime, I haven't been into it for a long time. Still, when I liked it, I loved it and it remains very nostalgic to me. I used to go over to my buddy's house every Sunday with the new DVD's and we would watch them together. It was a very fun time of my life.
In addition to nostalgia, Dragon Ball was also my first real fanfic attempt. Although I am embarrassed by the nine year-old attempt at a story, I still have it posted on fanfiction.net. To this day, it has received 556 reviews (709 for the unfinished trilogy). I even still get the occasional email about it.
All things considered, I thought I would give the live-action movie a try. If anyone cares to read a bulleted review, it's under the cut.
Positive Points:
-I loved Grandpa Gohan! It's really too bad they didn't deepen his character involvement. However, he wasn't exactly involved in the anime either. He was killed off through still flashback frames, if I recall.
-I actually liked the fact that they included Chinese characters on the signs in the high school. I thought it showed the cross-culturalism that was present in Dragon Ball.
-The non-aggressive fight won by Goku was actually kind of cool. I thought his commitment to the promise he made his grandfather not to fight was actually in-character fand something the anime Goku would do. This was a pleasant surprise - despite the fact that his opponents were laaaamme.
-Chow Yun-Fat is awesome, no matter how bad the movie is. I loved his dirty-old-man shirt in his first scene and the inclusion of Bikini Quarterly. I guess it's better than a bunch of porn in a PG movie. XD
-I actually liked the fact that they ended the movie with Goku and Chichi sparring. I always missed the fact that Chichi lost her martial arts history when she settled down and I got a kick out of the few times they let it shine in DBZ. I'm glad the movie focused on her skills.
Neutral Points:
-Despite complaints by many other fans, I thought it was a good idea not to cast an Asian person as Goku. He's supposed to be different and casting an American in the midst of a mostly Asian cast provided a contrast. However, for the effect to really work, they should have cast every other character with an Asian actor.
-If I didn't know anything about DB before watching this movie, I would be arguing that Goku and Bulma made the better couple. This is kind of negative since I'm a fan of Chichi, but it's something that many o'fanfic author has explored. I don't think I ever decided how I felt about that possibility.
-Yamucha's surfer-dude accent was a little annoying. However, it was seemingly appropriate to those of us who suffered through the FUNI dubs before they started releasing the subbed DVDs. I thought the fist bump that Roshi interpreted as an aggressive move was funny!
-Justin Chatwin wasn't completely annoying. I still think he's very wrong for the part, but it wasn't the complete disaster I was imagining.
-I know I'm in the minority for saying this, but I like what they did with Bulma's hair. If they had died her whole head light blue, it would've looked really weird.
Negative Points:
-"Geeko"??? Really?! That's the best they could come up with?!
-Where's his tail?!
-Piccolo's partner "Oozaru"? (I do have to give the movie a tiny bit of credit, however, for keeping Oozaru's truth somewhat consistent. A lot of fans saw the preview and assumed the movie would make Oozaru some random alien.)
-Goku's fantasy about Chichi was way out of place. As I recall, Goku promised to marry her because he thought she was inviting him to dinner. When they met up years later she called him a "bastard" for forgetting about her. He married her after all because he felt obligated to fulfill his promise despite his ignorance of what it really meant. This isn't exactly the lustful glance from across the classroom the movie portrayed.
-When flashing back to the thief that stole her Dragon Ball, Bulma recounts passing multiple dead or injured guards and then entering a vault that was protected by a laser and a facial-recognition program. The thief (Mai) was able to break through a glass ceiling using rockets that propelled her upward. Correct me if I'm crazy - but who would bother building a well-protected vault with valuable and priceless items enclosed if the ceiling is made out of ordinary glass?
-I miss Yamucha's shyness; it's what made him endearing in the beginning. It also made it much more understandable when he started cheating on Bulma and she kicked him to the curb for Vegeta.
-The ending was corny. I was disappointed by the special-effects with Shenlong and the fact that he didn't speak. I also thought the "prayer" was corny. Whatever happened to, "Shenlong, come forth"?
Overall Impression:
Like most fans of DB, I agree with the fact that the movie did not adequately represent the anime we loved. It had none of the humor and none of the charm the original series did. The acting was average at best and the script was full of one-liners and cliche's. The pacing was rushed to the point where it didn't make sense. Yamucha went from being a bandit who had trapped them in a hole in the ground to a trusted member of the group in five minutes flat. It was only a few minutes after that when Bulma nearly kissed him. Piccolo barely had any lines. For such an epic character who was the main antagonist of the movie, it seemed he was almost thrown in as an afterthought.
The most disappointing aspect of this movie was the fact that it didn't have to be like this. The movie itself was only just over an hour long. This left plenty of time for the writers to have slowed down the story line and insert some humor. They could've explored Piccolo's character better and explained why Mai was on his side and why she could change shapes. They could've explained why Chichi was filthy rich. They could've shown Goku taking longer than three minutes to learn the Kamehameha. They could've taught Chow Yun-Fat the right way to pronounce Gohan!
As much as I loathe myself for saying this, I think it would've been better if DB:E had been produced like a Spy Kids movie. I think they should've made everyone younger and not focused on romance between Goku and Chichi. This movie took itself way too seriously and it suffered because of it.
Oh well... let's just hope the already-rumored sequel dies a horrible death on some Hollywood bureaucrat's desk.
Sorry it's only bulleted instead of written out properly. I'll also apologize now if it lacks a certain coherency. I stayed home today because of back spasms and I'm afraid the pain medication hasn't completely exited my system yet.