Asian Fans Bash Dragonball Evolution

Asian Fans Bash Dragonball Evolution

Asian reaction to Dragonball Evolution is not all bad, just mostly bad. And its even more fun with Google's language translator!

By AVEN - Mar 12, 2009 06:03 AM EST
Filed Under: Dragonball Evolution
Source: KoreaHerald.co.kr

A few days ago Dragonball Evolution premiered in Japan, and now we have the first opinions from Yahoo. On average, the fans are giving it one star out of five...

My personal favorite comments are...

"I may end up feeling just a little plain... Before the main knitting patterns, I relayed the red carpet... After the last song of the trout was a strange feeling... It was also felt like I belong only to the voice and the strange arrangement."

Click on the pic for even more fun "translated" reviews!



OK here is one of the first properly translated reviews.

Dragonball - A Painful Step Backward

"Dragonball: Evolution," released nationwide yesterday, is funny -- not because it's entertaining but because its quality is laughably below expectations.

The film, directed by James Wong, drew interest from Korean fans, at least initially. Last month, all the major cast members and director Wong himself visited Seoul to promote the film based on the best-selling Japanese graphic novel series by Akira Toriyama. Moreover, one of the leading actors is none other than Park Joon-hyung, former member of Korean R&B group G.O.D.

But if you're a big fan of the Dragonball franchise, or have fond memories about the 42-volume manga series, you are strongly advised not to watch this, the first-ever silver screen adaptation.

Watch it at your own risk. The risk being that you might set out to find the seven "dragonballs" and ask the mysterious dragon to remove what you have just seen from your memory.

The inevitable disappointment the film adaptation will bring to viewers in Korea and elsewhere contrasts the unprecedented success of the original series. When Toriyama serialized the graphic novel between 1984 and 1995, he secured a huge number of fans around the world thanks to his addictive storytelling and interesting characters. In Japan alone, Toriyama sold about 150 million copies, breaking previous records in manga sales. More than 300 million copies are estimated to have been sold across the world.

Surprisingly, Toriyama has joined the film project as one of executive producers and yet failed to rescue the film from slipping into the abyss of cliched plot turns and cardboard characters.

The main plot, written by Ben Ramsey, is too simplified to build up any dramatic sense. A high school boy sets out on a journey to collect the legendary dragonballs to save the world from a monstrous creature, which has escaped after being imprisoned for 2,000 years. All the minor characters are conveniently eliminated, interesting episodes mercilessly cut out and fighting tournaments inexplicably shortened. Only a couple of dragonballs (there are supposed to be seven) are featured. It's a sorry attempt to link the film to the manga series.

In the film, American high school boy named Goku (Justin Chatwin) gets a personal martial-arts training from his grandfather Gohan (Randall Duk Kim), but Goku is treated as an outsider who is timid and weak in the face of high school bullies.

Mysteriously enough, Goku decides to reveal his awesome power when he gets invited to a party held by Chi Chi (Jamie Chung), an attractive girl he has a crush on. The film does not explain why Goku endured the humiliation at school for so long, even though he can dodge any attack with his acrobatic skills.

There is no time for throwing in dramatic details. The movie hurriedly pushes Goku to embark on a quest to find his master Roshi (Chow Yun-fat) and other dragonballs. Along the way, he is joined by Bulma (Emmy Rossum) and Yamcha (Park Joon-hyung). Don't even think about the original series -- that's all the team in the film version.

Chow, who has a huge following in Korea, hits a new low in the film. He wears a gaudy Hawaiian T-shirt and imitates Roshi's girl-chasing habit, perhaps following the script faithfully. But his performance as Roshi is at best awkward and at worse unbearable. When he utters "qi" ("gi" in Korean) to refer to the mysterious power, he looks like a cheap street vendor trying to sell fake stamina-enhancing drugs.

Park Joon-hyung, who appears in a Hollywood film for the second time after "Speed Racer," delivers his lines accurately, but the garish cosmetics on his lips wipe out any remaining coolness from the minor character, who has only a handful of lines.

When it comes to makeup, nobody can beat Lord Piccolo (James Marsters). Piccolo, a character who is complex in the original series, transforms into a not-so-scary imitator of the Blueman Group. The original Piccolo, if he ever watched the film, might commit a suicide.

The highlight, of course, is the dragon. Thanks to the film's poor computer graphics (inferior to the notorious Korean monster romp "D-War"), the dragon looks like a little chubby snake.

One of the mysteries surrounding the film is its bold and misleading subtitle, "Evolution." Considering its crude computer graphics, a disoriented plot and ludicrous dialogues, the big-screen adaptation is not an evolution, but a painful step backward.

By Yang Sung-jin
Related:

Dragonball Evolution Sequel Script Already Written

Recommended For You:

Superhero Hotties: Dragonball Babes

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darkclaw89
darkclaw89 - 3/12/2009, 7:18 AM
DISAPPOINTING
Shaman
Shaman - 3/12/2009, 10:30 AM
Why am i not SirPrize'd. You know who Picolo reminded me of the first time i saw him? Those cute and funny aliens in the movie called "Spaced Invaders", a childhood classic of mine.
CrookedJaw
CrookedJaw - 3/12/2009, 10:54 AM
not surprised...this movie looked bad from the start, and now it's just proof of that
animeex
animeex - 3/12/2009, 10:57 AM
I knew it. I tried to be nice, but I figured it didn't have a chance. Someone said they should have just made a computer generated movie... They were right. Like I said, this movie will probably not break even. Well we always have the cartoon movies.

animeex
animeex - 3/12/2009, 11:04 AM
Go to Ben Ramsey myspace blog. :)

GUNSMITH
GUNSMITH - 3/12/2009, 11:10 AM
SHOULD HAVE GOT THE WACHOWSKI BROTHERS, AT LEAST THEY HONOR MANGA TO THE LETTER.I DONT GET IT, YOU KNOW THE FAN BASE, AND WHY WE LOVE IT, WHAT THE F...WAT THE F....WHAT THE F DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING TO HAVE THE BALLS TO RUIN OUR DRAGONBALL..ITS IDIOT DIRECTORS LIKE YOU THAT HAVE NO CLUE TO WHAT "FANS" MEANS...GET READY FOR THESE SAME FANS THROWING CRAP ON U.
Shaman
Shaman - 3/12/2009, 11:44 AM
Isn't this movie made by Fox??? If so, after [frick]ing up Deadpool, Dragonball isn't that much of a stretch for them.
MoonDoggyX
MoonDoggyX - 3/12/2009, 11:58 AM
Damn... Maybe they... Damn... Can't deny it when it comes from people who actually saw it, huh? That dragon does look cheesy as hell. Looks like the haters were right all along, oh well. I guess I... STILL CAN'T WAIT TO SEE IT! HAHA! . All I want to know is, who's coming with me...?
MrHand
MrHand - 3/12/2009, 12:08 PM
Fail big time !!
Shaman
Shaman - 3/12/2009, 12:24 PM
MoonDoggyX- If you pay the tab, i'm in :)
werecreature
werecreature - 3/12/2009, 1:24 PM
Sorry guys in no way do you win. Everyone said daredevil sucked and daredevil was awesome. So I could care less about a review. Unlike everyone here I reserve my views until I see it for myself.
Shaman
Shaman - 3/12/2009, 1:42 PM
I'm not basing my opinion on this review, i'm basing it on the shitty trailers we've seen. I'm just waiting for the actual movie to proove me wrong but you gotta admit, this review isn't helping. At the very least, Daredevil had very tintilating trailers to make us at least anticipate the movie. Just wished it was the case with DBE. I really wanted to see it at first.
FalconX2
FalconX2 - 3/12/2009, 2:01 PM
"not-so-scary imitator of the Blueman Group."

Oh, can we have a James Marstars, Billy Cudrup blueman-off?


"looks like a little chubby snake"

Coincidentally, there is lots of chubby snake in Watchmen too!
dbzfan
dbzfan - 3/12/2009, 3:51 PM
I'M WITH YA MOONDOGGYX!!! I'll go see it with you! I don't care what anyone says about the movie, I'm still going to go see it!
JeremyBentham
JeremyBentham - 3/12/2009, 4:20 PM
i feel kind of bad about all this...i mean, if the movie is really that bad of a failure...

well, i guess its 20th Century Fox's own fault for making such a pissing horrible film from something that a lot of people actually were excited for...
shibazz
shibazz - 3/12/2009, 5:03 PM
Hey MoonDoggy after you pick up Shaman and DBZFAN swing by my place and pick me up .... I will bring enuff booze to wash away the memory of the movie and hopefully we wont get into as bigg of a wreck as this movie will be.
Betty
Betty - 3/12/2009, 5:12 PM
FalconX2, you make me laugh! Geez, you kill me on a dayley basis!

I love sucky movies. The more I hear about this movie, the more i want to see it! I cant wait!

One has to own the suck...
Weapon420
Weapon420 - 3/12/2009, 5:21 PM
not at all suprised, hopefully they get in the right mindset and make it a straight to video release, probably the only people entertained by this sorry waste of film will be little kids. if they try again they better improve greatly and keep all the main characters from the manga or don't even do it at all. also shenron looked like crap, from what i saw in the bootleg vid posted yesterday, hes supposed to be a behomoth of a reptile stretching miles long, not a little gargoyle made from sci-fi channel cgi.
YohonKalic
YohonKalic - 3/12/2009, 7:04 PM
~Grif~

LOL is there anything you like Grif, keep in mind I think your right, failing is the only way they will learn.... or not and they will keep pumping out crap.. or just stop making comic and game movies at all and stead of trying to make them right, ether way i'm going to be sad...
animeex
animeex - 3/12/2009, 7:28 PM
I wrote Ramsey on myspace... Here is what he said...

Thanks DX I'm sorry you're disappointed in the movie. I've always argued that studios should really pay more attention to the fan sites and lay off the old "tried and true formulas that sometimes don't work. I'm really rooting for Watchmen to do well. Something like that helps to shake the town up a bit.

best
Ben
NoobMike
NoobMike - 3/12/2009, 8:10 PM
lol, NOW he washes his hands.......

very bad reviews coming in from asia, and i'm betting sunday is the latest for a decent torrent to hit the internet. I'm still amazed at how people keep justifying things, now even the writer is saying that the studios made him do a tried and true formula (debunking the whole new story argument, and he sounds a bit displeased), I think the execs in charge of this saw how bad it was and decided to release it first in asia, so when it flops they'll just blame piracy.
animeex
animeex - 3/12/2009, 10:47 PM
I agree Noob. He seems pretty cool but he did take fault. No one else probably will. It is as I said... Hollywood big wigs fail and then blame it on the actual anime. You know they say stuff like this was a dumb idea for a movie anyway. They just throw it together to get fast cash. I remember back in the day them saying that comic book movies would never make money. I am just glad to see someone actually did admit something. Well... Akira, Ghost In The Shell and Cowboy Bebop are left.
FalconX2
FalconX2 - 3/13/2009, 1:08 AM
@Betty - Exactly!
padidas
padidas - 3/13/2009, 4:03 AM
whether it sucked or not, I'm still gonna see it. It's always fun to see a graphic novel come to life. Most of the time, if not always, they're a disappointment. So, whatever.
Arikk
Arikk - 3/13/2009, 6:28 AM
Was anyone actually expecting a different response from the release of this film? Most of us knew that from the very first bit of news we got from this film, that it was going to be a dissapointment to a MAJORITY of It's world wide fan's. The response from our Japanese counter part's say's it all, and the dissapointed reaction will be the same once it reaches here.
werecreature
werecreature - 3/13/2009, 10:18 AM
Um. Yeah I'm sure quite a few people were surprised. I think you saying that the majority of fans are against this movies is severely biased. I have been a DB fan since i was a kid, so have my friends and no matter what we hear about this movie we are still totally stoked. Its not about how good it is. I love the Sci-fi movies every friday night just because how stupid they are. If you can't see why this movie has potential then you probably thought Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was bad.
Shaman
Shaman - 3/13/2009, 10:27 AM
Yes oh god yes!!! Nick Fury was total shit! So unnecessary!

NoobMike?!?!?!?! Where's the squid avatar!?!?!?!? Does this mean what i think it means?!?!?!?! Wait... what does that mean again??? I'm lost here...
saymekian
saymekian - 3/13/2009, 10:35 AM
I STILL HAVE HOPE!
dizzle716
dizzle716 - 3/13/2009, 11:32 AM
I wish the studios would stop taking all of the things we love and use their "creative liberties, or adaptations" to totally and utterly destroy them. If they're going to mess things up for the fans that love them, then why even bother taking the time and money to bring it to the big screen?

What's next? A live action movie of the Smurfs?
Betty
Betty - 3/13/2009, 1:54 PM
A smurfs movie would be awesome. If and only if they made smurfs look like the ghoulies.
TheNameIsBetty
TheNameIsBetty - 3/13/2009, 1:56 PM
lol the movies that shouldn't be made, always wind up being made. of course there's always some who like them, but even if some fans like it, you can't escape some minor disappointment. i.e. Super Mario Bros movie: not related to the game at all, puts mario to shame, but an "okayish" movie anyways.

and live action smurfs would suck lmao
luv1138
luv1138 - 3/13/2009, 3:24 PM
I just gotta watch it first, I love DragonBall, it sounds dissapiointing, but I'll start the judgement when I watch it myself. I still have hope in this film.

:-)
TeenIdol
TeenIdol - 3/13/2009, 4:12 PM
The movie is bad?! Surprise! Surprise! :P
GameAnime45
GameAnime45 - 3/13/2009, 6:59 PM
Thanks, for destroying my favorite Anime of all time Fox. I mean it, thinks a lot. *cries*
NoobMike
NoobMike - 3/13/2009, 8:18 PM
Lol, shaman just wait a bit... I'm extremely tired... last weekend and this week was hectic as hell, my boss screwed big time, he got fired and now I'm up for a promotion (sucks for him, but I do hope I get it) so I've been working my ass off, I've been sleeping 3-5 hours a day to fix the whole mess.

I do owe a Watchmen review, but I need a bit of time, since it will probably end up being an extremely long post (you know I tend to write long posts). I'll try to post it tomorrow or sunday at the latest, although most people wont probably read it (seems like old news).

And RecoSwaVa, the movie was released on wednesday (or thursday) in Korea, so there are people who have seen it, add the fact that they are 12-14 hours ahead of the east coast (16-18 ahead of the west coast) and surely enough some of those reviews are legit, and some of them are press reviews (they must have seen it at a prescreening).

Keep lying to yourself until you see it, it is actually kind of admirable yet also sad how some DBEtards can't accept the truth, the funniest part is that most of them will not be able to stop themselves from seeing it online.... which will just make it flop faster, kind of ironic... the people that want it to be a huge success so they can get their sequel are the ones that will ultimately kill this movie. (some of them are saying that this one sucked but the sequel will rule, seriously, I won't rub it in your faces and say i told you so, just accept the truth, DBE and anything related like the toys, novels, videogame, movie, merchandise, marketing, etc. sucked, they were rushed, careless, made for a quick buck, and have terrible quality). Seriously, they leaked 20 minutes of a 89 min movie..., and I can't stop thinking about the guy that after watching most of the movie, got so pissed off that he decided to record the ending and post it on youtube, I mean that has got to be a first and a clear red flag (which I will just add to all the other ones in my collection, like the exec producers and the scripter trying to get their names unlinked with this, at least one has put the blame on Wong, they changed the name 4 or 5 months before releasing it, they had to reshoot some scenes 3 months before releasing it, no prescreenings, no promotion, etc.). Fox knows this is a terrible movie and has little hope for it, otherwise they would be promoting this everywhere.

And Doritos... is Pepsi-Co sponsoring this abomination? Is there a Frito-Lay expending machine at the high school? maybe Chichi's party shows everyone drinking Pepsi and eating Doritos...I mean... you keep changing your arguments, from this movie will rule, and they changed it to be so much better so it could appeal to anyone (they cut out the cheese, since you don't want to see talking animals and blue haired girls), now you are saying that this movie was never supposed to be good and that it will be entertaining and cheesy, maybe you work for Pepsi-co. That would explain a lot to me.

Well my bed is beckoning me, and my eyes sure need to get away from any kind of screen, most of you know how I feel about this movie, and although sometimes I tend to post my opinions in an extremely agressive way, I do feel sorry for the guys that held (keep on holding) to hope, so.... good night.
Lokey
Lokey - 3/13/2009, 9:19 PM
i don't blame them, hope it bombs,..



Shadowelfz
Shadowelfz - 3/13/2009, 9:38 PM
DBEtards, huh? So just because these people have a different opinion than you makes them retarded? Come on Noob, what happened to you? I always thought your posts were insightful, well written, and well researched, and I agree with what you say 90 percent of the time, but lately... you've just been a sort of a dick. There's no need to insult people because they think differently.
crappybumbum
crappybumbum - 3/14/2009, 1:46 AM
haha nice review lol
idt I'll see it in theatres anymore lol
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