[The below post contains a few relatively minor spoilers, nothing movie-ruining, I don't think, but if you want to see it with virgin eyes, then come back afterwards]
So, I went to see it Saturday evening...
Though it was somewhat expected, I was still surprised to see that there were only two other people in the theater watching it with us... Doesn't look good for a sequel...lol
I have to say that I didn't hate it (though I'm often far more forgiving of movies than most; I'm not very picky or hard to please), but it definitely wasn't what I wanted in a DB/DBZ movie...
Most of the changes made I could stomach, though I cringed when they said that "Oozaru" was Piccolo's ancient disciple/sidekick, and at a few other really glaring alterations (Roshi lives in "Paozu"? Really? Roshi lives on the mountain that Grandpa Gohan and Goku live on? Oh wait, "Paozu" is a huge, brightly lit city, and Roshi lives on an "island" of dirt in the middle of some development area? I see... Hmm... Interesting take.. I... guess...?)
It was definitely apparent that the producers saw some of the complaints of the fans and tried to cover some of their character design mistakes in post-production, though... Remember that really crappy looking fish-Oozaru picture? Not in the final product... Oozaru actually looks like a big (not giant) ape-man... But one that looks like he was very hastily, last-minute, CGed over top of something else that was going to be used...lol And Piccolo is green, though in some places even that looks like an afterthought, as not only is his skin green, but so are the whites of his eyes... As in, they digitally greened him up at the last minute, and just did the whole head...
The movie fails hard at capturing any sort of emotion... The thing is so cliched and formulaic, and lacking in emotional punch... Even Goku's climactic, triumphant moment simply failed at getting any rise out of me... There's was no feeling in it... I'm the type that gets choked up (that's right, I'm not afraid to admit it) at the heroic/proud moments of a story... DB/Z has plenty of these moments, but this movie has none... Oh sure, it tries to have some, but they all fall miserably flat...
But again, for me the movie's true failing is in the personality of the characters... Goku is nothing like he should have been (not nearly as innocent, or naive, or ignorant as he needs to be... for one thing, Goku's not the type to have teen angst about not being normal, he's not the type to be cocky/wisecracking, and he's not the type to go after the girl), Bulma is a bit too masculine, and Yamcha's a bit too Bill & Ted...lol
As a movie, it's not completely horrible... Judging it as if it were entirely non-dragonball, it's definitely not the worst movie I've ever seen (in fact, my wife, whom I dragged along to see it, even said that she didn't think it was a bad movie, and she's not really into action/adventure movies, and is a bit sick of DB after all the years around me...lol) In fact, even as an adaptation, it still doesn't fail as hard as the Super Mario Bros. movie adaptation...
But, it's just so disappointing... It could have (and should have) been so much more... Yet they dropped the ball...
Well, at least Chi Chi is smoking hot...lol
Oh yeah, speaking of Chi Chi... When Goku goes to her house for her party, I thought to myself, "Wow, nice, uh, castle...?" But then it hit me that they actually got that right, as she did in fact live in a castle with her dad when she was a kid...
