The Official Rate and Review Thread

[DorkyFresh]

These positive reviews are getting me excited as they are just about what I expected. Though I still think it is safe to keep my expectations low.

i think that's a smart thing to do. i imagine that the movie will be similar to Mortal Kombat, but with the special effects on roids. quick story, no real character development (2d characters), cheesy lines that land with adolescents, and dull acting (with the exception of Roshi as Raiden and Yamcha as Johnny Cage). so basically, if you are still entertained by the Mortal Kombat movie you'll probably enjoy this movie as well.

 

[craigdbfan]

Another review that mentions lighting issues with the Fu Lum scenes. I was expecting (before we received clips from the film) that the Fu Lum battle was going to be visually interesting but it seems like the rest of the film it just doesn't live up to the anime/manga or as a standalone film either.

 

[dark_b]

.
I shall start with my one major complaint about the movie: Suspected Missing Scenes

I have to admit that I spoiled myself too much with spoilers, clips and most important of all, the Junior Novel. With that knowledge, I do feel that the movie is being cut out in a senseless way. Notice the word cut, not edited. For instance, the search for the dragonballs. If I counted it right, there were only 6 dragonballs found. Goku’s, Roshi’s, lava mountain, Bulma’s, on the sea bottom’s and the woman in the village. Where or who found the seventh db? It would be more sensible to have it in there.

The same thing also happened to the Fu Lum Assassin scene. There's a continuation problem there. Right from the time Piccolo gave birth to it through the machines. It feels like as if someone had a big scissors and cut out some scenes.

i told you that this could happen. i knew it. FOX again. do people now understand what i was talking about for months?

for christ sake why? ????????????????? why are they editing their movies like they are on drugs?

why just why?

and i can tell you right no. the kamehameha is also cut. its shorter in the movie. i saw it in the laked scene. its just cut in half. it goes from slow to fast .

 

[Crosswind Ghost]

So, an extra 4 month wait for the extended dvd. Should be worth it.

 

[dark_b]

you know what pisses me of?
its f.. dragonball. ok i understand that you want a short movie. i understand that you want 90 minutes.
but why did they have to cut the kamehameha? 30 seconds more would really hurt it?

 

[craigdbfan]

Fox last remaining hope of a good and original film will probably be James Cameron's Avatar. Wolverine isn't looking to good and DB:E speaks for itself. If Fox has a bad 09 year I really hope it makes them realize they need to start inputing more thought into their film making (As in hiring good directors, writers, SFX companies,) otherwise they will remain the laughing stock of Hollywood as taking the greedy studio stereotype to a scary literal level.

 

[CrashNburn]

Why is everyone so friggin' melancholy after 2 blurry clips?!

what clips?

 

[dark_b]

Fox last remaining hope of a good and original film will probably be James Cameron's Avatar. Wolverine isn't looking to good and DB:E speaks for itself. If Fox has a bad 09 year I really hope it makes them realize they need to start inputing more thought into their film making (As in hiring good directors, writers, SFX companies,) otherwise they will remain the laughing stock of Hollywood as taking the greedy studio stereotype to a scary literal level.

how could they survive?

 

[DorkyFresh]

honestly, even if this movie were longer (let's say an hour and 45 minutes) and had more some clips that might've been deleted i doubt that it would be much better. Chatwin would still be delivering his lines like he were high on something, many plot points would still be left unexplained, Shenlong would still be underwhelming, and we'd still be getting a stupid, unnecessary, bastardized version of Dragon Ball. adding more footage to this rushed movie would just make it a longer version of the same lame movie.

 

[craigdbfan]

honestly, even if this movie were longer (let's say an hour and 45 minutes) and had more some clips that might've been deleted i doubt that it would be much better. Chatwin would still be delivering his lines like he were high on something, many plot points would still be left unexplained, Shenlong would still be underwhelming, and we'd still be getting a stupid, unnecessary, bastardized version of Dragon Ball. adding more footage to this rushed movie would just make it a longer version of the same lame movie.

Very true.

 

[Majin...]

So, an extra 4 month wait for the extended dvd. Should be worth it.

and how long do you think it would be?

 

[Crosswind Ghost]

and how long do you think it would be?

Are you sad?

 

[Majin...]

this movie is not turning out the way i hoped...yeah,i guess i can say i'm sad

 

[huzzah]

Any sign of Steven Chow in the credits? The man seems to have gone AWOL.

 

[Majin...]

got scared?

 

[Water Wagon]

From what people are saying its crap, i always hoped itd be good but deep down i knew.

 

[Majin...]

deep down all of us knew

 

[dark_b]

i knew about the acting and story.
but action? f... action? its DB. action should be on the first place.

 

[Majin...]

and yet it isn't....

 

[Steve Ballmer]

Wolverine looks bad ass.

 

[dark_b]

imagine that the main story of this movie is to find 7 dragonballs. and in the end they only find 6 of them .could you imagine that they would just delete the 7 dragonball? so he is just there?

 

[SolarTiger]

From what people are saying its crap, i always hoped itd be good but deep down i knew.

I think we all knew.

 

[Steve Ballmer]

People need to speak for themselves.

 

[BLACK-SPIDEY]

AICN review
My man Nasty Nick sent in this look at DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION.

Here's Nick...

Dragonball Evolution opens in Japan this Friday, about a month before it does in the states.

There is a lot of bad talk about this so I didn't go into this with high expectation.

When I first heard back in 2002 that they were making a live Action Dragon Ball (Z at the time) Movie I was very excited. Thinking of the possibilities. Dragonball shares many elements with Superman, Into the west and the fighting in the animation looks like the Matrix on steroids. I have been a big fan of the animation and Manga for a long time now and thought that this could be a epic movie done on a large scale. Who was producing it? 20th Century Fox. Well then I thought they were part of those great X-Men films (1 and 2 at the time) so I had hoped we might get something close to that. This was supposed to be on the fast track for a 2004 release. When news of the live action surfaced the official Funimation site did a poll asking who they wanted Jet Li and Jackie Chan to play. I shuddered.

For a long time nothing happened until I read that James Wong was directing this. My expectations did fall.

How was the movie? In a word, Kawaii. Cute. There's lots of little bits here and there that fans of the series will enjoy such as a pervy Master Roshi played by Chow Yun Fat, even the animated series they showed in the states and UK cut out those bits. Yamcha is kinda funny in that he sounds a lot like the Yamcha from the American dubbed DB, Emmy Rossim as Bulma was unimpressive. At times I felt I was watching Charactures on screen, they all have their trademarks personalities but not much else behind that.

I can understand why a lot of characters aren't in it such krillin, Tien and Chiaotzu. It's hard to fit so many characters and story into a film such as this. Especially one with a running time of 88 minutes. The story is very condensed but it mostly hits all the marks to be near enough to the basic story of Piccolo in the DB Manga.

James Marster is coolness as Piccolo however he is on screen for too short time. If there is a sequel I hope we get to see more of his character. Justin Chatwin seems to be channeling Goku a bit. At times he shines as the character. Other times it's a little wooden but I blame that more on the script as he doesn't have much to work with.

As for the story it starts with the introduction of the Dragonballs, Piccolo and Oozaru who tried to take over the world 2000 years ago. Piccolo was stopped and put in a prison and Oozaru disappeared. For fans of the show this won't be a big spoiler but for anyone who hasn't seen the animation or read the Manga the spoiler is that Goku is Oozaru. But he doesn't find that out till later.

Piccolo somehow escapes but it's not shown how.

Goku after his training with his Grandfather Gohan heads off to School. His School scenes are basically a rip off of the first Spiderman film and all those typical films where the guy defeats the bully and takes the girl, Chichi. Anyway, Goku can't kick these guys asses because if he did (and he could) they'd end up in a hospital or worse. So he has to control himself and not fight them. Later he decides to confront them at a party but doesn't fight them and instead lets them hit each other as he dodges their blows in super slow mo, how original....

Fortunately the story moves past Goku in high School pretty quickly and moves onto the real story. Piccolo offs Gohan while Goku is away. Goku Teams up with a girl he meets called Bulma who thinks the dragonballs can be used as an unlimited power source. They find Master Roshi and set out to search for the Dragonballs with the help of a bandit named Yamcha they meet along the way. But Roshi knowing they don't have enough time before a solar eclipse decides he has to learn a special technique to trap Piccolo once again but this will cost him his own life. The film speeds along to the end with Roshi Teaching Goku the Kamehameha, Goku does some training. Chichi has a fight with herself and they all head off after Piccolo.

The final action scenes are a bit disappointing. Goku as Oozaru looks a bit silly. I don't think Goku even throws one punch at Piccolo. Instead he uses the Kamhameha against him. By the end after using the Dragonballs to summon Shenron and save guess who they all set off again to find the dragonballs once more.

The film isn't bad. Just not great.

Suited for kids and curious fans.

I guess a lot of stuff was cut from this film. There are scenes in earlier Trailers that aren't in this and gone is the grey looking Piccolo, now he is only green.

If they make a sequel and I hope they do. I hope that they find someone else other than Wong to direct this. Make it bigger, more epic, add some more mythology and bring on Vegeta!

Nasty Nick

Fan Review
I have to admit that I spoiled myself too much with spoilers, clips and most important of all, the Junior Novel. With that knowledge, I do feel that the movie is being cut out in a senseless way. Notice the word cut, not edited. For instance, the search for the dragonballs. If I counted it right, there were only 6 dragonballs found. Goku’s, Roshi’s, lava mountain, Bulma’s, on the sea bottom’s and the woman in the village. Where or who found the seventh db? It would be more sensible to have it in there.

The same thing also happened to the Fu Lum Assassin scene. There's a continuation problem there. Right from the time Piccolo gave birth to it through the machines. It feels like as if someone had a big scissors and cut out some scenes. One more thing, they could have put more lighting in those Fu Lum assassin scenes.

Some stuff that I don't fancy about the movie;

1) Piccolo’s limited amount of appearance. Marsters is an actor who can slice and dice any villain character the way he wants, but in this one, it’s just not enough of him/Piccolo in there.

2) Goku and Chi Chi’s kiss. I'm not a fan of these mushy scenes. Every time they kissed I had to close my eyes or cringe. Nothing to do with the acting though. It's just not my type of cheese.

3) Bulma and Yamcha getting hooked up pretty fast. Love at first sight perhaps?


What I love about this movie.

1) The humour in this movie worked. There are a lot of LOL scenes and they are crowd-pleasing too from my observation in the theatre.

2) I love the part where Goku daydreams about Chi Chi in the classroom and the hallway scenes. This is my slice of pizza with yummy cheese on top.

3) I love the fights. IMO they are good. The final fight is good too. The SFX is being used sufficiently and there’s no over-the-top SFX. (But they could do better with Oozaru though.) I see that they are utilising the high speed cam. They got some nice shots with the cam.

Acting wise, I’ll give Chatwin some love for the Goku that he tried to be and for the Goku that he almost is. The only perfect Goku is in the manga or in the anime. Chatwin’s Goku is almost there. I do have one thing that bothered me about Chatwin though. At some point I feel like he’s channelling Tom Cruise. I don’t fancy Tom Cruise.

Chow Yun Fat is great as Master Roshi. It looked like he had fun doing the movie. Emmy is okay I guess. Nothing is wrong with Jamie Chung’s performance. Yamcha/Joon Park is good for comic relief, but for the serious part, there’s something lacking there. Marsters is totally underutilised.

Overall, the movie is entertaining. Stop trying to compare it to the manga or anime. If you keep doing that, you might not enjoy the movie at all. Keep an open mind.

 

[Cartman Blues]

What's wrong with you guys? You invest so much time and energy into following every aspect of this film's development, then turn your back on it at a few ****tastic reviews?

*steps on soap box*

Were you not completely overjoyed when Goku became super saiyan for the first time in the series? Did that not make you believe that anything was possible if you just never gave up?

Did you not sit down after school every day eagerly awaiting the next thrilling adventures of Goku and gang?

I'm not going to sugar coat this anymore, yes I'm the last person to say this, but...

What a bunch of *****ES!

You're not a true fan if a few bad reviews makes you lose interest in watching Goku return after all these long years. I'll be there with my Goku action figure I got in 2000 and I'll be the happiest little fan in the world even if I'm alone and to hell with you if you don't see things my way!

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