You're absolutely right: it's bollocks. I'm not entirely sure about watching it with a diehard DBZ fan for some fun times, though, unless by fun times you mean a ceaseless torrent of abuse (creative abuse, mind; ceaseless nonetheless) before, during, and after (waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay after) the act. Well, there's always the Bile Fascination aspect, I suppose.
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I'm not very familiar with the source material, but I gotta say that I think you're overreacting a little. No likable characters? Not even Chow Yun Fat as Master Roshi? I thought the love interest was actually better than is generally expected in most of these sorts of fluff pop culture movies. You want "bollocks" in that respect? Go watch Blood Rayne or another Uwe Boll flick and come back and say the love interest here was bad. The only truly awful character/scene in the movie was the introduction of the extranious guy with the pit trap and the super truck.
The movie was brainless but fun; I'll probably get mauled for this, but that makes it more similar to the source material than some are comfortable admitting. Were you hoping for Hamlet?
"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax
Well, ok, anything by Herr Boll is always hard to top: measuring his opus against other, less execrable, films as a comparative defence is kind of like bringing a knife to a fist fight.
Having said, perhaps you have a point about the overreacting, which was my impression of the friend with whom I went to see it. On an overall scale, Evolution sucks no more or less than any number of horrible movies out there, but I think the general hatred is fueled by the rape of the source material: if the film was called Warriors of Destiny or something equally mundane, B Movie cult status might not have been completely beyond its reach. DBZ is hardly cerebral fare, but it's the grand old dame of traditional shonen entertainment; it was unwise for studios to dick around with beloved pop culture icons.
Brainless fun by itself is not sufficient criteria for similitude: much of Aristophanes output was brainless fun (well, to the Greeks, anyway), but that doesn't make Adam Sandler his spiritual successor.
But now I can just see that being hotly contested.
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Heh, sorry, bringing up Uwe Boll is, yes, a bit of a low blow... but I believe justified in that he's usually the guy to be making movies like this, and I believe that he and Paul W.S. Anderson established the relative quality that we could generally expect.
Bad idea? Violation of your childhood? This is Hollywood, man. They made a Jim Carrey version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. They live to Rape The Dog. A mediocre but mostly harmless not actively malevolent movie adaptation that might spark interest in the franchise for some new viewers is a relatively benign result.
"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax
I'm sorry, but am I the only one who thought this was for the most part exactly what Dragonball in Live Action would be?
And you think that's a good thing?
In my opinion, the director of this movie just didn't care. Even when watching it as a regular kung fu movie its still bad. The acting was plastic,the story incoherent,the fighting was so fake if you looked hard enough you could see the strings holding the characters up when they "jumped", and I've seen better effects from Mortal Kombat Annihilation. No wonder FOX decided not to let the movie have a screening.
I find it rather ironic that the person who stated outright "I'm not very familiar with the source material" is also the one claiming it's "not that different from the source material." Something doesn't add up there.
As has been said, as an adaptation or not, it's a terrible film.
"A mediocre but mostly harmless not actively malevolent movie adaptation that might spark interest in the franchise for some new viewers is a relatively benign result."
Except that's not what happened. This is FOX we're talking about. Most adaptations they do are more or less malicious. They pay little respect to the source material. They just take an existing franchise name and slap it on a crappy movie they make and see if it makes them money.
In this case it didn't. The movie was a critical and commercial bomb.
What does that even mean, "not actively malicious"? That they weren't specifically trying to ruin the franchise for the lols? By that metric, every adaptation ever made is a shining success. No one specifically sets out to ruin it, except maybe Uwe Boll.
Besides, and I'm saying this as a fan, in my personal opinion the franchise doesn't need new viewers right now, it needs to die. It's become a Franchise Zombie, to the point where it's actually the picture on the trope page. It needs to die for a few years, and maybe come back someday when it's had a nice long break.
I wasn't aware that you needed detailed knowledge of a show to have a passing understanding of what it entails. I am familiar with Shonen and I've flipped past Dragonball on television many times, watching long enough to know that the movie caught the basic idea just fine.
I'll grant you that FOX sucks and chronically mistreats its genre properties, but that doesn't mean necessarally that a live action anime adaption is 100% a bad idea, or that this movie is as inappropriate as you're saying. The fact that you believe the franchise should be shelved entirely kinda makes your bias evident right off the bat.
"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax
I noticed that a lot of the people who hate the stems from one of three things:
It's live-action (OMG, GOKU IS WHITE!!11!ONE) It's not Dragon Ball Z It's done 'everything wrong'
I noticed that some of these same people don't actually know much about their source material as much as they think they do
With this comment here I saw on You Tube: 'Mai and Bulma NEVER FOUGHT in DB. The movie was suppose 2 b based on DB not DBZ.'
Completing forgetting the fact that Chi Chi not only fought alongside Goku as a kid, but actually fought against him in the Tenkachi tournament. Bulma and Goku were also a duo back then, so she wasn't always dead weight. And besides, what's wrong with those two having any fights anyway?
Does anybody realize the fighting and special effects are below sub-par and the script is incoherent. They also explain NOTHING that happens. This film is a complete and utter failure for reasons other than just being unfaithful.
^^^That's what I just tried to say! It's not just about being an unfaithful adaptation. It's simply a poor overall film. There's a reason it was Not Screened For Critics, because they knew that it would hurt an already abysmal film if the critics saw it. There's a reason that it didn't even break even at the box-office.
And Dracomicron, I wasn't saying the franchise has to be shelved, just that at this point, seeing the never-ending stream of new shows they pump out (GT,AL,E) which even the original creator has labeled Canon Discontinuity, and since he tried to end the series over a decade ago but it was kept going by Executive Meddling because of profits from merchandising sales, that maybe it would be preferable to take a break. It's not some conceited bias against this film. Just saying the results of this film confirm what every-body already knew...the franchise can't sustain itself like this for much longer.
I wasn't aware that you needed detailed knowledge of a show to have a passing understanding of what it entails.
That's just it: a passing understanding.
When I watched a bit of the review on That Guy With The Glasses, they practically get everything wrong, they got the originally carefree and friendly Goku and turned him into... Someone. The only thing that looks correct is... The Dragon Balls, admittedly, the Dragon Balls actually look pretty faithful. Sure, the movie may be bad, but the Dragon Balls, pretty good. But it doesn't make up for the plot becoming pure Mind Screw.
his love interest is easily one of the most unlikable characters I've ever seen.
See, this is funny because I thought Chi Chi in this movie was a helluva lot more likable than Chi Chi from the manga/anime. (Admitedly, this could be because they sort of crossed her with Videl) I also don't see what she did in the movie that made you deem her unlikable at all.
Not likable? Did you not pay attention to the movie? Considering some love interests the Chi-Chi in this version was a saint. Underdeveloped but was actually likable.
You're not a Dragon Ball fan, Dracomicron, so I really doubt you could understand the sheer loathing we have for this movie. But I can tell you that if you think this is good, then you should watch Dragon Ball because it far surpasses this in everything. The humor can be a bit too juvenile at times, but in terms of action, adventure, and plot, Dragon Ball is one of the best anime out there. Seriously, just take a look at DBZ one of these days, or just read the TV Tropes page. It has so much density that you'd be surprised, something that is completely lacking from this movie.
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It'd take more than a wish to straighten this film out
It's difficult to write a review about Dragonball Evolution without comparing it to it's source material, mostly because Dragonball Evolution is to Dragonball and Dragonball Z what fish sticks are to chocolate. However, tempted as I might be to mercilessly rant and rave about the changes, I won't do that, much.
First things first, how come every comic/animated show-adaption and their dog has to feature an awkward high school kid whose only wish is to "get the girl." Those are, by the way, more or less the exact wording of the main character as far as motivation goes until the whole "revenge & save the world"-bag comes along. It's not that I hate awkward high school kids, it's that they make for incredibly uninteresting first acts. Also, it's an incredibly blunt way to create a hero the target audience can identify with.
The story of this sad piece isn't what I'd call great either, mostly thanks to some gaping plotholes. Things like "why do the bad guy want the McGuffins in the first place" should NOT go unanswered. I mean, seriously, just one line of "and then I will be immortal/invincible/in possession of the worlds largest ice cream cone" would do wonders. Also it would be awfully nice if someone actually at one point told us that the incredible mega-powerful energy (well, wind, actually)-attack could also double as a defibrillator/magical revival device, rather than leaving a kame-hame-sized hole in the patient's chest.
When it comes to characters, I'm afraid the movie also fails rather heavily. I mean, none of them are likable. Sure, the main character is one business, but his love interest is easily one of the most unlikable characters I've ever seen. Sure, there's nothing wrong with writing a character with flaws, but when their only actually positive characteristic is "she looks kinda nice, I guess," the screenwriter needs to feel ashamed of himself.
Finally, the most important thing in a movie like Dragonball Evolution, namely the fight scenes. Sadly the choreography is lacking. Instead of being fast-paced, slapstick-y and actually kind of fluid like in the series, it's choppy and nearly static. Sure, copying DBZ' style probably isn't easy on film, but it certainly could be done way better than this.
In short: Not worth watching by itself, but see it with a diehard DBZ fan for some fun times.