Just watch it and tell me how it makes you feel.
Was it in 2006? I was watching a cartoon in RCTI when this advertisement appeared, there was Stephen Chow talking about his idea of making Dragonball the movie. He wore the orange uniform, talking about how Dragonball played a part in shaping him along with some million children all around the world. That was when I decided I would be waiting for it.
For two years after that I heard nothing of the film, until a friend in a forum kindly gave me a link to the trailer of Dragonball The Evolution. It was disappointing, but not enough to stop me, so last Wednesday, the first day it came out at Citos, I rushed out of school and get me a ticket. A classmate told me he'd watch it to laugh at it. I wanted to know how bad they ruined it.
The director wanted to make it as close to reality as possible, while what I had in mind was Stephen Chow...I tried but I couldn't draft a coherent review of the movie, so here are pointers:
01) Picollo was NOT green. His blood was black. He gave his blood to some creature to revive it, but we weren't even told what creature it was. I still don't know.
02) In the movie, Yamcha was a lot of things, handsome he wasn't. He was ugly, and it bothered me, and my friends next to me, to no end.
03) Those two points up there said - the opening was gorgeous. Droplets of water falling from Goku's eyelashes, totally House of Flying Daggers and it couldn't go wrong. Also, at first the balls seemed like the ring in LOTR, whoever gazed into it could be seen by Sauron? Yeah, apparently not. But the movie makers had a lot of fun making it seem so, I think.
04) I could sort of understand that this movie was like Batman movies, it didn't have to stick to the comic, but for a painfully mainstream flick, DB Evolution lacked character development. Goku thought of his deceased grandpa saying "Believe in yourself." "I believe in myself, I believe in myself, argh!" Yeah, something like that. They also lacked personal motives. Goku was fine, he wanted revenge, basic instinct. Bulma wanted fame (there was no further explanation on Capsule Corp., noobs would be lost on that one), Yamcha wanted money, and Muten Roshi wanted to grope Bulma? These were a dash of this and that; when mixed, the taste were not deep.
05) Chow Yun Fat almost saved the whole thing, but since this was everybody's childhood, the burden is too heavy to be shouldered only by him. And Stephen Chow.
06) There were many questions raised and most of them weren't answered. How did Picollo escape his prison? How did Goku manage to bend the air and open all the lockers before he was trained? Where did the girl come from? How was Oozaru defeated the first time?
07) Goku didn't have a tail! I looked for it, yes. I guessed Goku was Oozaru, but if he was King Picollo's accomplice in the past (some 2000 years ago), and baby Goku was adopted by Gohan, then how old was Gohan? Or was Goku still a baby when he turned into Oozaru, since the Saiyans live long and all...
08) Something else that maybe would've saved the movie is if they showed Chichi's father, hohohoho!
09) Chichi was nothing but a pretty face. Really, why bother with her at all? In the manga, she was almost "the strongest person on earth", because Goku was scared of her, hahaha (said Muten Roshi).
10) In the movie, there were many one-liners of wisdom that didn't have anything to do with the story, like empty calories. "First rule, there are no rules". Hmm, okay, and so what? Maybe somebody wiser could enlighten me on this. What did that line had to do with the story?
From here I'll continue from a reader's perspective. I want to compare it with the manga and anime! Goku was too grown up for comfort. It was weird to hear him being the voice of reason when Bulma entered Muten Roshi's house without knocking. Goku even took science classes. I (yes, I) wanted him to be a countryside boy with no education, a naive boy who's a bit dumb, eats a lot and is a genius when it comes to fighting. He was none of these.
In overall, it was unsatisfying. It was my childhood ruined. It was... Dragonball was supposed to be exaggerated, like One Piece, like, like CJ7, Shaolin Soccer, God of the Kitchen, or give me McDull anytime! Why this... pseudo-realistic film that didn't quite cut it? Maybe it would take another 5 like this to reach the level that is The Dark Knight, heh. Argh!
Whatever. Just watch and comment on it.
For two years after that I heard nothing of the film, until a friend in a forum kindly gave me a link to the trailer of Dragonball The Evolution. It was disappointing, but not enough to stop me, so last Wednesday, the first day it came out at Citos, I rushed out of school and get me a ticket. A classmate told me he'd watch it to laugh at it. I wanted to know how bad they ruined it.
The director wanted to make it as close to reality as possible, while what I had in mind was Stephen Chow...I tried but I couldn't draft a coherent review of the movie, so here are pointers:
01) Picollo was NOT green. His blood was black. He gave his blood to some creature to revive it, but we weren't even told what creature it was. I still don't know.
02) In the movie, Yamcha was a lot of things, handsome he wasn't. He was ugly, and it bothered me, and my friends next to me, to no end.
03) Those two points up there said - the opening was gorgeous. Droplets of water falling from Goku's eyelashes, totally House of Flying Daggers and it couldn't go wrong. Also, at first the balls seemed like the ring in LOTR, whoever gazed into it could be seen by Sauron? Yeah, apparently not. But the movie makers had a lot of fun making it seem so, I think.
04) I could sort of understand that this movie was like Batman movies, it didn't have to stick to the comic, but for a painfully mainstream flick, DB Evolution lacked character development. Goku thought of his deceased grandpa saying "Believe in yourself." "I believe in myself, I believe in myself, argh!" Yeah, something like that. They also lacked personal motives. Goku was fine, he wanted revenge, basic instinct. Bulma wanted fame (there was no further explanation on Capsule Corp., noobs would be lost on that one), Yamcha wanted money, and Muten Roshi wanted to grope Bulma? These were a dash of this and that; when mixed, the taste were not deep.
05) Chow Yun Fat almost saved the whole thing, but since this was everybody's childhood, the burden is too heavy to be shouldered only by him. And Stephen Chow.
06) There were many questions raised and most of them weren't answered. How did Picollo escape his prison? How did Goku manage to bend the air and open all the lockers before he was trained? Where did the girl come from? How was Oozaru defeated the first time?
07) Goku didn't have a tail! I looked for it, yes. I guessed Goku was Oozaru, but if he was King Picollo's accomplice in the past (some 2000 years ago), and baby Goku was adopted by Gohan, then how old was Gohan? Or was Goku still a baby when he turned into Oozaru, since the Saiyans live long and all...
08) Something else that maybe would've saved the movie is if they showed Chichi's father, hohohoho!
09) Chichi was nothing but a pretty face. Really, why bother with her at all? In the manga, she was almost "the strongest person on earth", because Goku was scared of her, hahaha (said Muten Roshi).
10) In the movie, there were many one-liners of wisdom that didn't have anything to do with the story, like empty calories. "First rule, there are no rules". Hmm, okay, and so what? Maybe somebody wiser could enlighten me on this. What did that line had to do with the story?
From here I'll continue from a reader's perspective. I want to compare it with the manga and anime! Goku was too grown up for comfort. It was weird to hear him being the voice of reason when Bulma entered Muten Roshi's house without knocking. Goku even took science classes. I (yes, I) wanted him to be a countryside boy with no education, a naive boy who's a bit dumb, eats a lot and is a genius when it comes to fighting. He was none of these.
In overall, it was unsatisfying. It was my childhood ruined. It was... Dragonball was supposed to be exaggerated, like One Piece, like, like CJ7, Shaolin Soccer, God of the Kitchen, or give me McDull anytime! Why this... pseudo-realistic film that didn't quite cut it? Maybe it would take another 5 like this to reach the level that is The Dark Knight, heh. Argh!
Whatever. Just watch and comment on it.