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3:06 p.m. - Thursday, Apr. 16, 2009
My Dragonball Evolution Review - 6/10 OK
Okay I finally went so see Dragonball Evolution in theaters. if you remember my last post about Dragonball (I advise you read it) you know that with persuasion from a Very Intelligent Soul (impulse kid from youtube) i went to go see it with my friend and my sister. After watching it, I have decided to review this movie in parts, since there were things i liked more than others and things I hated more than other things. But I'm going to review the story, setting, cast&characters, graphics, music, timing, and costumes.

Story-The story is pretty predictable. It's like a Wendy Wu movie. The story is about a typical teenager who has gifts but wants to be "normal" (which is a far cry from Goku). But he is advised to "accept the gifts he has" just like any other movie about a teenager. It was one of those KID-LIKE movies, where everything is Disney-ish, with the cliques, and the popular girlfriend that the dork boy likes, etc, etc. Then there is this part with his grandpa dying (who cares if i spoil it, youre not going to see it anyway) where he orders him to "seek out master Roshii" in typical karate movie fashion. The story is not unique, neither is it anything spectacular. But its not a bad storyline with enough time and space, it could've been a good storyline. But how much can you do in a 95 minute movie? Then Piccolo arrives with his Hentchwoman (who is not namek btw) who helps him collect all dragonballs. Goku has to collect it to stop Piccolo from taking over the world an destroying it. Of course the epic battle was short, but that was because Goku was a monkey most of the time. Besides DB doesn't really have long battle scenes..nope..just one hour to power up, one hour to transform, another hour to talk about how powerful the other person is, another hour to fight, and then an opportunity for the villain to transform and power up..wait thats how many hours?? Story went from one extreme to another. First he was a dork who couldn't a girl, then he got the girl after beating the bullies, and they fell in love....then they fought...And what was funny was after six minutes of Bulma and Yamcha meeting, they were about to kiss lol WTF? She was mad at him, and then fell in love...lol..well anyway, the movie brought out the point: they were collecting the dragonballs, even if you didn't understand anything else, every one understood that. This was a KID's movie, for ALL AUDIENCES WITH PARENTAL GUIDANCE UNDER THE AGE OF 10. So the movie was not made to please fans. If you thought it would be..ooo..it shattered your dreams because this movie was made to appeal to a broad range of people (especially people who like Teen movies). The boy behind me enjoyed himself.

Setting-The setting was all over the place. Goku lived in a house by a lake in the middle of the forest with no one around, then the setting flips into a modern scene with card-activated lockers and digitized classrooms. Then Chi Chi's mansion (why did I know she would be rich?) Predictable. Then it turns into a desert, which I don't know how they could live by a desert with the type of trees displayed by the school, it looked like a suburb?? << ummm yea... so Then they ended up at a volcano with hot lava after falling through a ditch. They didn't stay long enough to explore, so thats all we saw. Then there was the temple where ChiChi showed up, besides the tournament. the Temple was the place where goku got his first kiss (aw Nawt). so, then there is the MOUNTAINOUS ROCK! where the dragon was summoned and the final battle took place. The rocks looked plastic when it fell on Master Roshii lol. I was laughing. No wonder he lived. All in all, nothing fancy, and yet every scene was so different from each other. Like they were in 5 different movies....Then again thats how the anime was. The city..then a battle outside of the city would be in a desert.

Cast&Characters-I felt that all of the cast did a good job considering what they had to work with. They didn't all LOOK like the characters, but they ACTED like them. Goku was still an idiot, naive, and a dork, and strong. Bulma was BETTER, but she still fell in love waaay too easily. Just like Bulma. She likes hot guys...so she also was a nagger (she was more of a whiner in the anime). Roshii was still a pervert, and a proud man, he just looked 50 instead of 70 years old. He was still goofy. Piccolo was Piccolo. Hard-core and intense, we just didn't see much of him. Then this weird girl who could actually speak Japanese?? She was the most sensible person and the coolest character...ahh!!! Thats a mess. Well, Bulma was cool (Fiona from So Weird). Yamcha acted like himself, and sounded like himself in the dubbed version. The only problem i had was with ChiChi. She was a slut. She was obsessed with Goku in the show, but NOT a slut. Why does she have to wear her tops low-cut? The collars go below her stomach, and she is how old?? Every single shirt showed too much..then again DBE is for MEN. and, lets face it, they are not feminists. All of their women in the series are whiners and weak...until Android 18, who is an android.

Graphics-Did anyone grow up watching Power Rangers? If you did , it was like they took a Power Rangers show and re-released it without touching it, making it look the exact same way it did in the 90s. In the 90s, I thought Power Rangers were cool. Now with all of this CGI crap and computer upgrades, our movies are made to look more real. Dragonball didn't keep up with the times (though the Kamahamah wave was cool in some way). Have any of you seen a Japanese live action? Low-budget looking. What I find funny is that Japan is the leading nation of technology, and yet their movies make them seem like a third-world country. Maybe its because they don't pur their money into their media and end up in recessions (Hannah Montana makes more than people with a college degree, and shes not suffering from the recession as she has not lost her job...). Instead Japan pours their money into education, businesses, and...food. So they don't care about crappy live actions. We do.

Music-The only song I heard was Ayumi Hamasaki's Rule. Thats all I cared about. You know how cool it is to hear an overseas artist over hear and not on the computer? All of the other music was DB-esque, but not memorable. What they DID NOT do that was I'm glad of was throw in a bunch of mainstream songs that would make you lose all taste for the movie (like Legend of Chun-Li). They only had one song with a singer, and it was rule. The other songs were battle songs. That soundtrack is gonna be short.

Timing-the movie was short, and quick. They didn't waste time with introductions, as they figured you already know the characters. There were about two characters that NEVER introduced themselves at all and were just there! I was like what are their names?! They weren't even in the series. If they weren't in the series, you didn't know their names...simple. I knew this movie was quick, because when I walked in it was light out, and when I walked out, it was still light out (and I go late to movies). The race to get dragon balls was fast and quick. It didn't take long before all were collected. And then the dragon came, not saying a word, made the wish, and left. It made you think"all of this for nothing?" But compared to dramatic anime, it would seem that way.

Costumes-Obviously, they couldn't look EXACTLY like the characters costumes in the series. Goku wore his battle costume with the MC Hammer pants (I thought the guy who played Goku looked more Gohan when he grew up than Goku, kinda a lame guy with a COLLEGE degree! Booshie!) and ChiChi needed extra cloth at the top. Yamcha..I dunno what to say about his look, it was a mess. Roshii looked like Roshii's clothes. But this isn't the 90s anymore, and you wil not find people in MC Hammer Daddy pants anymore. so it is what it is....

Overall, this movie seemed like a fan-made movie meant to poke fun at their favorite anime series. This seemed like somthing that fans could've posted on Youtube and made it with the graphics, and cheesy lines. It was like a spoof. It was funny like it too. So don't watch it if you're looking for the story to come to life (I would want Vegeta is that was the case), look at it as something on youtube*

~Over and Out~

 

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