The Official Rate and Review Thread

[huzzah]

what fan film ^ ?

See SatEL's post above.

People say you can't make DB live action but with a little imagination and a shoestring budget that fan made film shows what can be done.

 

[CrashNburn]

Wow, that fan film is pretty good. Imagine what they could have done with 100 million.

The energy blasts in DBE do look phony and powdery, LOL. In the fan film, they look like they have some actual punch or "weight" behind them.

i remember that video....i was extremely impressed with it for being totally fan made.

 

[CrashNburn]

I plan on watching the film, but those reviews really put a damper on things, I guess its one of those feelings where I knew the film wasnt gonna be that great, but I still held out a shred of hope.

i'm still hanging on to that shred....lol! the movie still looks like it will be a fun flick. it might not be the masterpiece everyone was hoping for but i'll definitely be there in April....with my DB t-shirt representing!t:

 

[CrashNburn]

s'all good man...no offense taken, and i actually agree with most of the stuff you said. i'm not gonna lie and say i don't hate what Fox has done with this movie, and i WILL probably post mostly negative reviews. i've posted a couple of fair to positive reviews, but i will maintain that, even though i'm biased, the reviews so far have been fairly negative. not OVERLY negative, however, even the positive ones say that they have to lower their expectations in order to give the film a chance at a "fair" review.

i know you have put some positive reviews also..that's why i made sure to say the you were mostly putting negative reviews and not always. lol. i like you because of your honesty DF! you're a true DB fan along with myself. There are alot of negative reviews out there. it's kind of a bummer. i'm just glad they made Piccolo only green. it seems like they havent fixed enough though. you still going to see the film? i know i am.

 

[dark_b]

i'm still hanging on to that shred....lol! the movie still looks like it will be a fun flick. it might not be the masterpiece everyone was hoping for but i'll definitely be there in April....with my DB t-shirt representing!t:

noone expected a masterpiece.i dont know why you made this up now. we didnt even expect the same acting like in IM.
i was hoping for acting like in TF.

but this is lower than that.

 

[CrashNburn]

noone expected a masterpiece.i dont know why you made this up now. we didnt even expect the same acting like in IM.
i was hoping for acting like in TF.

but this is lower than that.

i'm pretty sure that people were hoping for almost everything to be close to the source. i suppose the word masterpiece is a bit much as far as when i used it in my post. that's what i meant was people were hoping for an almost 100% adaptation.

 

[dark_b]

like dorky already said for like 20000 times now. noone expected a 100% adaptation. IMO they didnt even expect a 80% adaptation.

again this is not true.


do you even understand that this movie has really bad wire work? that its 90 minutes but the story is like for 2 hours? do you understand that the acting is really bad? do you understand that the editing looks like its really fast ?

 

[JP]

JP you played the movie; if you were positive then, what changed your mind LOL?

I never changed my mind?

 

[Majin...]

hahaha...let's take em' all out for good.

in my case,that would mean committing suicide....haha

 

[StylishHokie21]

i wasn't hating on anyone's opinion and i'm definitely not saying that anyone with a negative opinion are not a true fans. all that stuff is BS. i actually know that DFresh is a passionate fan and i rather enjoy his posts. they're actually pretty interesting and seem well thought out . anyone who has been on the boards long enough and knows DF, knows that he has been on the DB:E hate wagon. i'm just making an observation and stating that he is going to post mostly bad reviews. i'm not saying the movie will be good or bad. i'm just saying that i'm going to reserve my judgement for when i see the film and i strongly encourage everyone to do the same. i know you can understand that and that i'm not trying to hate on anyone's opinion whether it's good or bad. sorry for such a long reply...lol.

Alright...I went a little overboard. No hard feelings I hope? You can count me on the hate wagon as well because there's nothing I've seen that convinces me this will be a good adaptation. I'll still watch it, but my expectations are going to be extremely low. I'm certainly not paying money for it either. It's all good though. I just wanted to understand where you were coming from, so forget I said anything.

 

[mr. peasant]

I think to avoid disappointment there are three things to remember:

1. The story of Dragonball is simple and straightforward. There is nothing subtle about it or its characters. The story is mainly an excuse to drop the characters in bizarre situations at exotic locations and for the protagonists and villains to fight. It's all about fun and laughs.
   
   
2. The characters aren't complex but rather caricatures. They are largely a collection of traits many of which are meant to be over-the-top. Again, there aren't many subtle nuances or subtexts; especially at this point of the original canon.
   
   
3. The production team's aim was to keep in line with this spirit and to create a movie that is mainly meant to entertain and not to provoke thought. For this movie, it's all about the action and special effects. So, what they're aiming for is slick and stylized.

With these things in mind, I think people would be able to enjoy it more based on the reviews since a number of the criticisms were at things the movie wasn't really trying to achieve in the first place.

 

[StylishHokie21]

A video review.

Part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVNbHqFGGOA

Part 2 with spoilers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3orn5QE0DI

Haha! Very entertaining.

 

[TheVileOne]

I think to avoid disappointment there are three things to remember:

1. The story of Dragonball is simple and straightforward. There is nothing subtle about it or its characters. The story is mainly an excuse to drop the characters in bizarre situations at exotic locations and for the protagonists and villains to fight. It's all about fun and laughs.
   
   
2. The characters aren't complex but rather caricatures. They are largely a collection of traits many of which are meant to be over-the-top. Again, there aren't many subtle nuances or subtexts; especially at this point of the original canon.
   
   
3. The production team's aim was to keep in line with this spirit and to create a movie that is mainly meant to entertain and not to provoke thought. For this movie, it's all about the action and special effects. So, what they're aiming for is slick and stylized.

With these things in mind, I think people would be able to enjoy it more based on the reviews since a number of the criticisms were at things the movie wasn't really trying to achieve in the first place.

So the goal was mediocrity?

 

[DorkyFresh]

yeah...i'm not following the logic behind that. in order to avoid disappointment we have to remember that the standards for this film are significantly below the standards for most other adaptations?

 

[Negrotigre]

The chances would/are going to be slim at best.

They killed the franchise before it even got started? Damn!

 

[mr. peasant]

So the goal was mediocrity?

yeah...i'm not following the logic behind that. in order to avoid disappointment we have to remember that the standards for this film are significantly below the standards for most other adaptations?

What?! That wasn't what I said. All I'm saying is that the movie is focused more on action sequences, exotic locales and special effects and less on story and character development. I also pointed out that this is in line with the original source material.

Seriously, is it so wrong for movies to simply entertain people? Not every movie needs to be a life changing event that make people sit up and think. Dragonball is not, nor was it ever meant to be, that kind of movie.

 

[dark_b]

no this movie is not focused on action and special effects.
if it was teh budget would be 150 millions and the movie would look like IM or TF.

stop making stuff up. we want to be entertained. does an Uwe Boll movie entertain? does strret fighter entertain? does datemovie,meet the spartans,disaster movie entertain?

who are you and what do you want hehehehe

 

[dark_b]

agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain we dont want dragonball to be a serious movie.

 

[huzzah]

What?! That wasn't what I said. All I'm saying is that the movie is focused more on action sequences, exotic locales and special effects and less on story and character development. I also pointed out that this is in line with the original source material.

Seriously, is it so wrong for movies to simply entertain people? Not every movie needs to be a life changing event that make people sit up and think. Dragonball is not, nor was it ever meant to be, that kind of movie.

If its just supposed to be fun then it sounds like its missing that mark too. I think the key to this is that we should at least care or have some empathy for the characters. But as one youtube reviewer has pointed out, he just didn't about any of them.

 

[CrashNburn]

in my case,that would mean committing suicide....haha

hahaha....i didnt really think about that, but that's funny. after watching the movie, i might have to join ya!

 

[CrashNburn]

Alright...I went a little overboard. No hard feelings I hope? You can count me on the hate wagon as well because there's nothing I've seen that convinces me this will be a good adaptation. I'll still watch it, but my expectations are going to be extremely low. I'm certainly not paying money for it either. It's all good though. I just wanted to understand where you were coming from, so forget I said anything.

no worries...there's definitely no hard feelings. you feel how you fell and i would never try to change that for anyone. i can only voice my opinions. i'm just hoping that i can enjoy this movie on some level. we've all waited so long for a DB movie adaptation and it would be a shame if this movie absolutely sucks. if it does, it does. we will have to just wait a while for a reboot then.

 

[CrashNburn]

like dorky already said for like 20000 times now. noone expected a 100% adaptation. IMO they didnt even expect a 80% adaptation.

again this is not true.


do you even understand that this movie has really bad wire work? that its 90 minutes but the story is like for 2 hours? do you understand that the acting is really bad? do you understand that the editing looks like its really fast ?

i said almost 100% not 100%. anyone who says that they would settle for less than 80% is a completely lying. if you're not going to be honest and cant admit that, then there's obviously not much more i can say. i'm not trying to start a fight, i'm just trtying to be completely honest.

 

[thewhyteman]

agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain we dont want dragonball to be a serious movie.

Speak for yourself. The only movies that I dont want to be serious are comedies.
If I want cheese I will move to Wisconsin.

I doesnt enjoy a mindless show.

 

[DorkyFresh]

surprise, surprise...another negative review

http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/03/dragonball-evolution.html

Hollywood plundering Japanese pop culture isn't something new. From "Americanizing" television series for the kids from Power Rangers to Ultraman, and adapting famed characters from Japanese film, games and manga to frequent disastrous effect, it still wouldn't stop the studios from going after one property after another. This time round it's the well-loved Dragonball series, because the assumption is that the built-in fan base would translate to instant dollars at the box office. Not.

You have to give the filmmakers a little bit of credit though, being either foolhardy, or just plain ballsy. It's a given that they cannot condense and distill the rich content into a surprisingly less than 90 minute movie, and live in the hopes of producing a sequel, or to generate a franchise (i.e. don't leave the cinema hall when the end credits start to roll). But what they successfully do, is to super-summarize the entire mythos by throwing out everything except the main gist of the entire manga, making it extremely simplistic in poor lazy-man standards in adaptation.

For the uninitiated, the film would serve as a quick launchpad to the original manga. For those with a wee bit of knowledge of what it's about (like myself), the film just treads along the same lines and doesn't offer you new information. For the fanboys, I guess you'll only get some kicks at seeing some of your favourite characters come alive, only that they look more Caucasian, and have a head full of hair when they're not supposed to (someone forgot to insist that in the contract?) That's all you're gonna get. Period.

As far as filmmaking and story-telling techniques go, you can see cliche after cliche being thrown at you, with the poorly and cheaply rendered special effects offering no consolation. Justin Chatwin's Goku is your typical teenager who possesses innate potential yet to be realized, and in his frustration he gets treated by peers as a loser geek. He lives with his grandpa Gohan (Randall Duk Kim in stereotypical know-it-all like in Kung Pu Panda), and develops a crush on school hottie Chi Chi (Jamie Chung). Goku's calling in life is to prevent an apocalypse from happening with the return of chief cardboard baddie Lord Piccolo (an instant shoo-in as one of the worst cinematic villains, ever!) and his temporary sidekick Mai (Eriko Tamura) who attempt to collect 7 dragonballs to fulfill an ancient myth. And of course Goku needs a Fellowship, in the form of irritating tech-wizard Bulma (Emmy Rossum last seen in the sinker Poseidon), mercenary Yum Cha (Joon Park who probably copied Rain's uninspiring cinematic turn in Speed Racer to a T) and Chow Yun-Fat the biggest name of them all here trying his darnest best to act cute as Master Roshi, who imparts skills in double quick time to Goku.

Speaking of time, or the lack thereof, everything is compressed. From two weeks to two days and the day of the blood moon shielding the yellow sun (OK so I made that up), everything moves at so fast a pace, that all you get are cheesy lines of dialogue, and an excuse to paste some action sequences together. And James Wong certainly can't direct action (despite being at the helm of Jet Li's The One, which was of course bland and bad), opting to pay homage to Zack Snyder's slow-mo technique, and midway changing the style to having the camera being too close to the action, in the dark, coupled with quick MTV cuts that you don't get to see a thing.

And the rush job just doesn't stop at the narrative or the action. Special effects wise, they look really cheap, and I wonder whether Producer Stephen Chow would roll his eyes at what would be extremely pale when put side by side with his Kung Fu Hustle done many years ago. Ayumi Hamasaki's contribution of the theme song Rule sounded really bad as well (I may get flak from her fans), and I guess having some Asian participation doesn't legitimize what is essentially a poorly done movie. Not even Chow Yun-Fat's star status could save this, and you wonder what figured when this is the movie that he gave up Red Cliff for.

This is basically a movie that only children below the age of 5 will enjoy tremendously, despite having to see 6 half-balls, contributed courtesy of the 3 lead female characters, being continuously flashed on screen, thanks to some neck plunging wardrobe (where's that malfunction when you need one?) Totally bland and really uninteresting, I would suggest sticking to the manga instead.

 

[Majin...]

no worries...there's definitely no hard feelings. you feel how you fell and i would never try to change that for anyone. i can only voice my opinions. i'm just hoping that i can enjoy this movie on some level. we've all waited so long for a DB movie adaptation and it would be a shame if this movie absolutely sucks. if it does, it does. we will have to just wait a while for a reboot then.

.....yeah,while growing long white beards...