So....shit.



[fair spoiler warning for all...if you care.]

OK, let's do this. First, let me just say that I am a gigantic fan of DBZ. I know a lot of people find it childish and boring and long and yeah, yeah. I know and I agree. The show, nowadays, is dated and laughable. But it was revolutionary for it's time and it pretty much created the quintessential example of what a Shonen anime should be. Dimwitted main character that is pure of heart? Check. Over exaggerated fight scenes and powers? Check. Low amount of female presence? Check. Awesome fucking show? Check.



So! Now after twenty years of the show's first airing, we're given a live-action, American film. And we all know what to expect. Firstly, let's just establish how the characters of the movie deviated from the original source material.

1. Goku - an American teen that is attending school and finds it hard to talk to girls that he fantasizes eating strawberries in an open field (actually fucking happened). Also, apparently an avid Beatles fan.
2. Bulma- also an American. That's basically all that's wrong here, she's done pretty well actually.
3. Roshi - Not bald.
4. Oozaru - um...looked right, just not to scale.

Now I realize this is just nitpicking, but as an avid fan, I think I should nitpick for all those other avid fans out there. The first thing I was asked by my friends who are just as diehard fans as I am was "so how different (shitty) was it?" To which I, to my surprise, respond: "It wasn't THAT bad."

Look, we all know the movie wasn't going to be as true to the series as we all want it to be because, let's be honest, you couldn't make a 2 hour movie out of it and have it be enjoyable. So the creators instead made a hour and half film that has spliced together different already done films and created some strange DB offspring that, if you took away the DB elements, could have been any other movie.

The formula is basically this:

Karate Kid + Transformers + Harry Potteresque Effects - Magic, Robots and the Crane Technique X the Dragon Ball Appendix = DB Evolution.

Which, if you look at the movies in the ingredients, doesn't seem that bad. And it isn't...THAT bad. It's bad. It's definitely bad. But it's not unenjoyable. In fact, it was pretty sweet to see a Spikey haired, orange and blue clad, Justin Chatwin powering up and screaming "kamehameha!!!" at the end of the film. So, for what it is, it does well. Does it stick to the series? No. Does it make up for that? Sorta.



If you're not that sensitive to the DBZ universe being raped and Americanized to please audiences, then you'll walk out of the film at least mildly amused. And if that's not enough, the girl that plays Chi Chi is fucking hot.