Dragon Ball
Directed by: James Wong
Released into Cinemas: A few weeks ago. Thursday 9th April?
It was a cold, dreary, rainy Tuesday night, leaving me depressed and unmotivated to go outside. Upon remembering that Tuesday night was Tight-Ass Tuesday, and that movie prices were a mere $10, I decided to go and experience the wonders of the Dragon Ball movie myself.
I had heard it was rated 1.5 stars, which I found hard to believe. If Twilight had gotten 2 stars, how bad could Dragon Ball really be?
I think James Wong has really mastered the art of butchering cartoons, because that's what he seems to do with Dragon Ball. The first two minutes left me feeling like I had walked into The Karate Kid by mistake. This was followed by an hour and a half of cheesy dialogue, cliched lines, fake characters and terrible acting. Themes such as avenging the grandfathers death, saving the world, and getting the girl were nothing new, and were horribly done. I cringed every time Bulma dramatically declaired that they would find the Dragon Balls.
As for links to the cartoon - poorly done Mr Wong. The costuming is terrible and cheesy, and frankly, Goku and Bulma looked ridiculous. Bulma's hair was also blue originally, I don't think the costuming department really cut it by putting one blue hair extension in her fringe. Surely they could've invested in a wig if they couldn't afford to do a real job? The only person who I thought was done fairly well was Master Roshi, bearing the same Hawaiian shirt he was famous for in the series.
If you loved the cartoon as I did, you'll spend the entire movie waiting to see how they portray characters in real life. Sadly, you'll be disappointed. Picollo, the green alien from Planet Namek, appeared as though he'd just walked off the set of Doctor Who rather than the brutal creature he was in the cartoon. Only very few characters feature in the Dragon Ball movie, leaving you disappointed when you realise old favourites, like Vegeta and Krillen, aren't even mentioned.
Dragon Ball left me feeling nostalgic and remeniscent of my days as a kid when I didn't mind being late to school for the sake of watching Dragon Ball Z. Like majority of the audience, the movie continuously made me laugh, leaving me unable to take it seriously. Overall, it was cheesy and poorly done, but I'm glad I was part of that experience. It gives me yet one more thing to complain to my friends about.
I don't think I'm alone in saying that Dragon Ball really works best as a cartoon.
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1 comment:
That's very true. The movie didn't do it justice.
Though, I have to admit, they got Goku's innocence and awkwardness right, just... why wasn't he Asian?
Asians never had a superhero except Goku, and in the live action movie, he's white?
Fail.
Also, he was too skinny.
And you didn't have 15 miuntes of everyone standing around going "OMG! HIS POWER LEVEL IS ABOVE 4309534095!"
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