Well, I ended up seeing this movie today. Since I knew of its existence I knew it was going to be a terrible movie that would completely ignore the canon of the Dragonball world. Going up to it I was calling it a travesty and pretty much everything else possibly negative. I was going to see how bad it was more than if it was going to be enjoyable. I've seen enough live-action adaptions of video games to know that Hollywood just doesn't get it even when they are sort of close.

And I can say without a doubt that Evolution screws with every piece of canon in the world it can get its hands on pretty much. Yet in spite of that fact I actually found myself enjoying it on some level. It was certainly not great in any respects, but it pretty much felt like a DBZ movie short throw everything together and slap on a plot of some sort to make people fight. It was a little better than that. But that was sort of the conclusion that I came out. It wasn't the worst thing since Street Fighter or anything like that.

For all of the breaking of canon it managed to do a fair enough job keeping what it could of the canon. I would have wished that Master Roshi's house was an island, but it still more or less is an island. They even have capsules which made me pleasantly surprised. And they managed to work in that the world was futuristic even though they did not go to great lengths to make that known. If you paid attention you saw it if you did it you probably could have thought it took place in modern day normal Earth.

My only real issue with things was that Goku was not really the Goku we all know. Though I have to give them credit for saying Son Goku once, something that not even the Funimation dubs did. But the Goku we know is a martial arts genius pretty much, he is perfect in all respects. He learns things pretty much instantly and copies them perfectly much to the dismay to his rivals or opponents. And Goku is pure and kind and innocent if not a huge airhead when not fighting, and even sometimes fighting. Pretty much none of those quality get expressed well. He is clear enough that he is kind and innocent, but he is no airhead or martial arts genius. He does manage the Kamehameha, but fails on it for a while too. He is also supposed to be a country bumpkin pretty much too, which he was not. He never had formal schooling because all he wanted to was fight and become stronger and fight stronger opponents. He's pretty simplist. The Goku here is troubled, emotional, imperfect, weak at times and has a crush on Chi Chi. Goku does love Chi Chi, but it was Chi Chi that got Goku simply because Goku was too much of an airhead to do much anything else.

Though for everything that they screwed up with Goku. I think I know why he had to be that way. If he was not like that then an American audience would not have connected well with him. Goku is too perfect and too good that it is clear he is above everyone else even if he does not project himself as being above. Which makes it difficult for a general American audience to connect. They work better with someone that is flawed and imperfect like them. At least that I what I think was going through their minds when they changed Goku to his live-action version. All things side it is not a terrible thing, but considering that for the most part they tried to keep like personalities and traits for the other characters I'm disappointed that they changed Goku so much. One positive moment for Goku for me was when he actually looked like he was acting like a monkey and childish in his fighting style where he was being silly and mocking almost. Which made me think of young Goku for a moment.

The movie does have its moments, though I was hoping of a Cha-la-Head-Cha-la or a Rock the Dragon cameo somewhere, but didn't notice it at least. I was a little disappointed that they didn't make that nod even if only by having it play in a night club for the background music. Would have been icing for me.

Oh well.

Anyway, spoilers aside. What were your impressions of this movie?