benjaminweber
Reading the reviews, it's possible to think that this is regarded as bad purely because of a vocal fan-base for the original. For instance, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a good film, but thanks to a small group of noisy 'fans' a lot of the reviews online are negative. This is not the case here. I have never seen/read the original, and I still found this to be a bad film. The CG effects look like something from a SyFy original, the acting at times is reminiscent of Neil Breen, and the whole thing comes across as a goofy mess trying desperately to look like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. If you enjoy bad films like I do, it's worth a watch as it will make you laugh at how bad it is. 2/10
redninjaboy
WARNING. This review contains spoilers for both this movie, and the original Dragon Ball. I will be discussing EVERYTHING I feel needs to be discussed. You have been warned.When I first saw a review of this movie, I was a little confused. Surely, this movie can't be THAT bad, right?It's that bad.The story goes that the evil King Piccolo has escaped his imprisonment and is seeking to the rule the world. General bad guy plot. He's searching for the Dragon Balls, seven amber orbs with red stars in the center that summon the dragon, Shenron, to grant you any one wish. And I'm sad to say that they're the best thing the CGI gives us in this movie. Everything else looks AWFUL. Anyways, he enlists the help of Mai, servant of Emperor Pilaf in the original Dragon Ball show. Except for two things. Mai is a merciless killer in this version, which I honestly don't mind. But Pilaf and Shu, the other servant who's also a dog, are NOWHERE in this movie. Not at her side, not elsewhere looking for the Dragon Balls, not even MENTIONED. Meanwhile, Goku is training with his grandfather, Gohan. Except Gohan is a teenager in this movie. He doesn't become a teenager until the end of the show. After he's defeated King Piccolo. Why is he a teenager now? Because reasons. He also goes to school, which is stupid because Goku in the show cares NOTHING for a formal education. The most he gets are small lessons from his later teacher, Master Roshi. He also has a crush on the obvious girl love trope in this movie, Chi-Chi, who he ALSO cares little for in the show. He likes her, sure, but he likes her about as much as he likes anyone else. He still doesn't really LOVE her when they get married. But in this movie, he apparently has a crush. Anyway, things happen, he goes to a party on his birthday, Piccolo goes to find the Dragon Ball in Gohan's house, realizes it's not there because Goku has it, then destroys the house with Gohan inside. Goku feels that something is wrong and heads back, only to witness Gohan die while telling him a poem that will lead him to the quest for the Dragon Balls. Obviously, this is stupid because it gets rid of the whole point of Goku being responsible and not Piccolo. Enter Bulma, the teen daughter of a scientist, searching for the Dragon Balls to wish for the man of her dreams. ...Sorry, I was thinking of the show. I meant young adult spy searching for the only Dragon Ball she knows exists by threatening Goku with a sci-fi gun. Somehow, her machine doesn't show the others, seeing as they give off the same signal as the one she was searching for. She also has on small streak of blue in her hair, rather than a full head of blue hair. Because fashion? They go on the quest, meet up with Roshi, then begin their quest for the Dragon Balls. I'm gonna skip a lot of this, but I will say that Yamcha's in this movie. He's basically the comic relief of the movie. On one hand, it's Yamcha. Yamcha sucks as a character in general and isn't very cool. In Dragon Ball Z. On the other hand, in DB, he's one of the coolest characters. The writers of this movie probably only watched DBZ and assumed Yamcha's character from that. Anyway, they go through more stuff, fight off crappy computer effects, then meet up with Piccolo after teaching Goku the Kamehameha. A few things wrong with that scene, by the way. Goku learns it because Chi-Chi is teaching him. He's able to do it because he loves her. And they refer to it as Airbending. As if we needed to compare it to that awful movie. Even so, they have NOTHING to do with each other. Anyway, they meet up with Piccolo, who causes their car-ship to crash. Goku somehow changes into his orange clothes in the middle of it, then goes to fight Piccolo. However, a big plot twist is revealed. "Big". Goku turns out to be Oozaru, Piccolo's servant who'd been hinted at throughout the movie. He'd been sent to Earth, not in a space pod from Planet Vegeta by the Saiyans, but in a meteor from Piccolo. He states that when the sun is eclipsed by the moon, Goku will transform into the monster. And he does. But there's a few problems with this scene. Goku transforms via the full moon, not a solar eclipse. The Oozaru Goku transforms into is MUCH smaller than the Great Ape from both shows. Oozaru is maybe eight feet tall. The transformation required the Saiyan (not Piccolo servant) to have a tail, which Goku doesn't even HAVE in this movie. Goku transforms back by simply believing. ...That in general is just dumb. And finally, THIS is what should have killed Gohan, not Piccolo searching for a Dragon Ball. Anyway, he overpowers BIOLOGY itself, defeats Piccolo in a crappy blast effects contest, and kills him. They then bring Shenron in and wish for Roshi, who Oozaru had killed, to be brought back. Then the Dragon Balls disperse, prompting Bulma to reveal that they don't turn to stone for a year before they can be used again. They just have to be found again. So the movie ends with a final scene, showing Piccolo Jr as a child, being cared for by some woman, teasing the sequel that'll never happen. I will give the movie this. Aside from Piccolo's makeup being... genuinely decent, if you ignore his lack of antennae, the movie can actually be entertaining to those who know nothing about the show. It's fun to make fun of it, but not if you realize how many things they did wrong to insult the show.
