I gave in to temptation and saw almost all of it leaked. Though many sources are reporting the American version having 20 more minutes of footage than the others (probably to counter the predestined piracy, since Fox was stupid enough to release it in Asia a solid month before it hits the US.
This is my review. TONS OF SPOILERS: DO NOT READ AHEAD IF YOU WISH TO BE SURPRISED!!!
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I wouldn't call it bad overall, but it was most certainly "meh". There are things to like and things to hate. But even if you can grin and bear it, you still deserve better.
In a single word, rushed. At 85 minutes, there's too much ground to cover. Rather than spreading the plot "butter" over too much run-time "bread", there's tons meant to be going on and not enough time to tell it properly, even considering how much the plot of the anime has been dumbed down already. The fabled "additional 20 minutes" might make a dent in this problem, but I think only a whole hour more would give the film a chance at fulfilling itself in it's alternate-Dragonball world.
Character development feels like it happened between scenes as the characters become some kind of fellowship without another word about what's at stake. Yamcha is probably the worst example. His character exists to provide some kind of comic relief that never seems to work on the audience, and his inability to fight just turns him into baggage. It's embarrassing for his character really, that Bulma is of more use in a fight than Yamcha.
Another severe flaw in this film is development of Goku's powers. Sure, he never really gets the chance to use them in full until the finale with Piccolo, but we only ever know three things about Goku's training under Roshi. First, him carrying a pack twice his size as he trails behind Bulma's ATV, then some kind of training involving trying to grab an orange from Roshi's hand while balancing on one hand, and then the scene where Roshi coaches him in forming the Kamehameha. And other than his mastery of using the Kamehameha (he realizes that holding it to the side, rather than from his chest as Roshi does, yields superior results for him) we never have any indicator that Goku has improved at all since the start of the journey. In the beginning Gohan lectures him on being too used to using his external senses, but this never comes up again in the film. And considering Gohan fell to Piccolo's Vader-grip effortlessly, it seems a major mistake not to at least devote a section of the film to a training montage, perhaps having collected all of the free Dragonballs, but needing to face Piccolo head-on to obtain the others. But all the same, by the end the character are flying and punching each other in midair, and Goku certainly hadn't been capable of flight 30 minutes ago, when he had to use dead Fullum warriors to bridge a lava filled volcano crater to obtain a Dragonball that fell there (he walk across the surprisingly steady dead bodies of the creatures as they float in molten rock, inches above, where the average temperature ought to be giving him the Anakin Skywalker makeover).
The school scenes were surprisingly enjoyable to me. I was a little annoyed at how the school bullies used the pet name "Geeko" to make fun of him, obviously playing off of the strangeness of his name. The mystery character "Weaver" who people wondered about a year ago, is shown to have no significance, even in the one scene he's in. Just a background character, not even apparently Goku's friend. The party fight was fun and very reminiscent of the anime, Goku nimbly avoiding the boss bully Fuller and his pals, who end up beating the crap out of each other as well as Fuller's Mustang-looking car, which at the end of the fight (as if to remind us that this isn't a good movie) spontaneously blows all four tires without visible reason.
Goku's respect and relationship with Gohan is at least shown well. Chatwin pulls off the pain of loss when Gohan finally keels over. There's a short burial scene, followed soon by Bulma's arrival, having been drawn there by the four star ball.
Emmy Rossum could have been a great Bulma, I feel, had they decided to make her more like the character and less like a biker badass from a John Woo film. Her clothing doesn't exactly scream scientist, and she's portrayed as nothing but tough, putting on this ridiculous gruff voice that she could have done without. Done more faithfully, I think she would have done a fine Bulma.
After disagreements, and agreements, Bulma and Goku run into Roshi's house not five minutes after meeting. They're looking up Roshi's address and can't find it, but Bulma finds there's a Dragonball in the city and races after it. This scene marks the only point where it's even hinted that Goku is a glutton, with him munching on a chicken leg. It felt like Fox checking off a necessary thing from their list which they'd never return to again. Anyway, Bulma breaks and enters the house with the Dragonball, which turns out to be Roshi's abode. Chatwin does an alright job at showing Goku's apprehension at breaking into someone's house, but the following scene with him meeting and fighting Roshi is ripe with lame dialogue and bad delivery, easily the worst throughout the film save for one particular moment later on.
After discussing Piccolo and the threat to the world, they prepare to head off. It's at this time that Roshi explains that Gohan's technique, the "Shadow Crane Strike" is the simplest of the "Air-Bending Technques". Now, at first I thought this "Avatar" nonsense was a typo that wouldn't come up again, but later on Roshi refers to the Kamehameha as the most powerful of the Air-Bending Techniques. It felt like the writers got Goku mixed up with some OTHER carefree super-powered boy who carries a stick...
Afterward comes an arrival to a place of martial arts significance, which shows nothing in the way of training Goku, but culminates in an excuse for Chichi to show up in the story again.
Afterward they meet Yamcha, who thinks the Dragonball story is nonsense, but latches onto the group anyway and plays 3rd wheel for the remainder of the film. They get ambushed by Fullum warriors and I'm guessing one of them carried a sword, because suddenly Goku was hacking the creatures apart. I actually liked this scene for how short it was; the lava felt very real, and the cool thing about the Fullums was that they regenerated when they lost limbs, and multiplied in the same way. I had expected something on the lines of Power Rangers monsters, but thankfully they were more substantial than that.
Mai steps in at this point, but basically gets *****-slapped by Goku into full retreat almost the moment she arrives. Mai had a weak presence as a character. She must have spoken two lines in the whole movie, no joke.
After this is the whole World Tournament malarkey, the team only being there because Roshi doesn't feel they can collect the Dragonballs in time, and is planning to request a magic jar to seal Piccolo in with the Mafuba from Master Mutaito, or "Sifu Norris" as Roshi referred to him. I can imagine a hundred meme jokes superimposing Mutaito's head with Chuck Norris'...
This marks the point of the Kamehameha training, where Goku has to light torches with the Kamehameha. This part particularly pissed me off, because once Goku has failed to do it a few times, he tries lighting them with a candle, before Chichi, who had been watching in the shadows, comes out and gets on his case about trying to cheat, as she should. Fox clearly doesn't understand Goku's sense of loyalty and honor if they're going to have him accepting failure and trying to fool his master.
Chichi gives him incentive by claiming for every torch he lights, he can take one step closer to her (you know why, don't ask). Eventually she tells him to make every movie his own, and he does it with the trademark "hands to the side" Kamehameha pose. At that point, they start making out, and Goku uses his ki slyly to snuff the candles out. A nice touch, even if the whole thing is contrived.
Minutes later is the Chichi vs Chichi bit, and Mai manages to get away with the Dragonballs, but not before shooting Goku in the face with a weird sort of gun and making him hover between life and death. At this point he sees a vision of Gohan who says some inspiring things to him, before Roshi arrives, and in a twist that I actually don't mind too much, used a Kamehameha to replenish Goku's energy. I'll buy this twist, if only because energy lending was something we've seen in DBZ, and using the Kamehameha to do it was at least original.
And so finally we get to the climactic fight. The sad thing is, the juiciest bits have probably been seen in trailers and clips. Even now in a TV spot about Goku, it actually SHOWS the finishing Kamehameha. Basically, they arrive in Yamcha's Hummer to stop Piccolo from summoning the dragon. Roshi fires a blast at Piccolo, who retaliates at the same time. The blasts collide and explode in midair, and the explosion sends the Hummer into a death spiral, while liberating one of the Dragonballs, which Bulma yoinks. Goku climbs out of the wreckage, now donning his trademark uniform, and challenges Piccolo, claiming he'll stop him and Oozaru, the beast disciple Piccolo used to destroy much of the world 2,000 years ago. Piccolo points out to him that Goku is but a shell, that he IS Oozaru. The Eclipse happens at that very moment and Goku transforms while racked in the horror of this revelation. Piccolo then commands Goku to retrieve the Dragonball and kill his friends. He goes off to terrorize Bulma and Yamcha, while Roshi uses the opportunity to use the Mafuba on Piccolo, which fails when Piccolo gets in a shot that destroys the container. Oozaru Goku returns and starts strangling Roshi to death, while he gives Goku the old "be yourself, you're not a monster" talk, which brings him to his senses, and starts the REAL fight. Roshi dies, while Goku and Piccolo begin firing blasts at each other from the ground. It's fast and it's furious and looks pretty intense. Afterward they fly vertical and start punching each other with ki charged in their fists, eventually blowing each other back into rocks.
Meanwhile, Mai battles Yamcha and Bulma. This is the lone moment where Bulma does anything really cool. She throws the Capsule for her ATV at Mai and then signals it to de-capsulize, so suddenly this 600 pound vehicle is flying at Mai's head. It misses, but it was still a good idea. Yamcha then shoots her in the back and she slumps onto the floor. I want to mention right now that the damned ATV is the only thing we see taking advantage of Capsule technology.
Goku and Piccolo dust themselves off and contemplate the big finish. Goku starts a self-motivation speech, telling himself, he is Goku, and he is Oozaru, that to master himself, he must be two. This is when Piccolo flies into the air and charges this red death-ball looking thing, and Goku finally charges the Kamehameha. Piccolo throws his attack while Goku fires the Kamehameha, simultaneously flying toward Piccolo to deliver the attack point-blank (must be in reference to how Kid Goku beat King Piccolo). Goku punches through Piccolo's attack and ends up hitting him full force, the Kamehameha being a beam at the center, but also being this 20 foot wide wall of energy. Piccolo screams and goes flying like a ragdoll. Goku stops and lands, and sees Piccolo lying unconscious against some rocks. Of course, we all know he's not dead, and the fact that he doesn't check to be sure is just a "lolwut" moment.
Goku returns to find Yamcha and Bulma huddled around Roshi's body. Goku realizes they can summon the dragon, and says the weakest, dumbest sounding summoning line ever. The balls fly out 50 yards, and Shenron appears, more yellow than green, but more long-looking than the trailers indicated. Goku wishes for Roshi's life to be restored, and without a word, Shenron vanishes, the Dragonballs weakly floating off out of sight, rather than rocketing off with a yellow trail behind them. Shenron was disappointing, in his lack of overall size, intimidation factor, and booming God-like voice. Oh, plus being at the same height level as his summoners.
Roshi comes alive, and mentions excitedly about seeing Gohan, much like Goku had. Bulma and Yamcha point out the sudden lack of Dragonballs, and resolve to find them again. But Goku decided to go off to meet Chichi first, where they spar, and the movie ends in a still-shot.
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It really wasn't a BAD film in essence, but it was made bad because of how rushed it was. It needed more time to expand on things. But even with all the tweaks I might prescribe, it's still not what fans deserve. I've proposed that a true DB film would be better done as a fan-film. By the fans, for the fans. Like "Escape from City 17". Hell, Half Life Source inspired Black Mesa Source. I believe Dragonball Evolution could inspire something greater.
