I think that more over-the-top doesn't even begin to describe what this movie would need. Not to begin the classical, pointless debate (
who would win in a Neo vs. [insert your favourite DB character here]
fight?), but in as much as the two universes can be compared, Dragon Ball's typical fighting level is
WAY beyond anything seen in the Matrix movies... at least, by the time DBZ started (I'm not sure when you could pinpoint DB as showing an overall fighting level somewhat similar to that of the Matrix, but I guess it'd be pretty early in the former's story arc). I mean, c'mon, Neo was the only one able to fly at the end of Matrix, while nearly all of the main fighters at DB were shown to have that ability to some degree; and the same could be said about physical strength and speed. We won't even compare
ki focusing/projecting abilities...
My point is, they may need to think of something completely different that the Matrix, to make it work -and to make it at least a bit reminiscent of the manga/anime. Wirework and SFX are givens, of course, but as for the slow-motion, I can't see it working here... actually, I think they should go the other way: fast-motion. In that respect, the anime could be a good template: a lot of the action made insanely fast and largely untraceable with the eye (even by slowing down the video with your player
t
, going from one point here to another a few hundred meters there instantly and only seeing glimpses of the
effects of the battle on the environment, mixed with some (supposedly slowed-down) brief seconds of any two of the fighters trading punches and kicks at a rate way beyond anything visible... and only at sometimes they would slow down and separate a bit, to try a
ki attack.
And if you think about it, all of this might require surprisingly little in the way of martial arts training by the actors; nearly everything would be either camera angles, video editing, wirework, or SFX.
