2000 years ago an evil alien tried to destroy the world, but was imprisoned using the 7 dragon balls. Unfortunately he’s back, and it’s down to Goku to find the 7 dragon balls to stick him back in the hole and save the world.
I am not a fan of the original Dragonball saga. I’ve never seen an anime of it, played a game or read a manga. So I don’t know squat besides the main guy having spikey hair.
I’ve heard that the die hard fans are a bit pissed off at this movie as it messed with things too much. I wasn’t though. Its set in the present future in Japanamerica somewhere and none of that is explained really. I’m fine with that. It’s either this year or after as a poster says 2010 on it, but the technology is way in advance of our own. The cities have a Japanese and American styling to them, and the characters are a mix of Asian and white so that gives some discrepancy to the setting. I like that too. Though I’m pretty sure its meant to be somewhere in Asia.
The story and villain make this sound pretty similar to Scientology, but the fighting system and beliefs of the characters are all about chi. While its pretty damned cheesy it’s not too bad.
The films main problem is that bits of it seems rushed. It feels like chunks, or at least nibbles, have been taken and the short running time would seem to support this. At times it dwells, in a good way, in others it doesn’t when you wish it would.
The acting all round is fine, occasionally cheesy but no more than a lot of Japanese action movies of this time. Same with the dialogue and they seem to be relatively consistent with the world that they’ve built.
Its not an amazing film, but it has some beautiful moments and I don’t agree with its detractors. Whether I’ll check out the original source, or close to it, anime I don’t know but I would watch more Dragonball movies from this team. Good if you like that sort of thing.
Or I’m an evil Blasphemer. Whatever.
Next up: Ghost Town
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