Mar 12, 2009

200 Posts! Oh, and There's A Dragon Ball Movie Coming Soon

I never expected my 200th post here at Thoughtnami would be talking about the live-action Dragon Ball movie. I also never expected to have 200 posts here in the first place because, let's face it. I have a web site, The X Bridge. It has been around for over a decade, and as much as I love that domain, I'm a little more comfortable here because it's more freeflowing and less constricted. While THAT site is currently up, it's evolving into something a bit more creative. I have over 500 pages of articles and such accumulated there, and a I'm changing it into more of a creative outlet, but I can't reveal anything until it happens, so updates there are sporadic to say the least. In the meantime, I'm posting here, where the living is easy, and I can write when I want and about whatever I want and not worry about getting my hosts in trouble. So, for all of you readers who've checked out Thoughtnami in the nearly five years and 200 posts, I thank you all.

Now, back to the subject at hand.

Did you know there's a live-action Dragon Ball movie coming out next month? You did? I guess you're the ones who check out the anime forums and such. If you're not, this is probably news to you. Fox, the film's producer and distributor, already released the bombariffic Chun-Li movie with limited ads and a disastrous box office take. And now, they're about to release a major live-action version with zero buzz about it.

If this was five years ago, perhaps there would be high-profile buzz about the film. After all, it's based on one of the 21st century's biggest imports to this country, bigger than nearly everything that has come since, including Naruto and One Piece. Yeah, the Naruto fans would put my head on a pike for suggesting that, but I don't recall that series inspiring a kids' meal at a major burger chain nor releasing videos exclusively to said chain. Dragon Ball Z, between 2000 and 2004, was the biggest thing in pop culture to a generation of viewers, and now Fox will release a live-action adaptation of those characters.

Of course, it's five years too late, and it's not really an adaptation, but, rather, a generic story with teenage martial artists with the names of the Dragon Ball core cast attached to them. Maybe Fox realizes this isn't going to be a monstrous success. It was supposed to be out last summer, but for some odd reason, they got scared off by wooden toy-looking Jedi, which didn't do too well either. Maybe they realized that they should have stayed true to the source (who am I kidding? NOTHING stays true to the source of the thing they're trying to capitalize on, especially if it's something based on a property many people are familiar with based on comics, games, cartoons, or toys). It'll probably be #1 or a mid-grade #2 on its opening weekend, but the cume will drop because it will be universally loathed.

It's already universally loathed, and it hasn't opened in the US yet (though, not so strangely, the American film is playing in Japan). Maybe the buzz will happen in a couple of weeks, close enough for the opening weekend. But if it fails big time, who's going to be blamed? If it succeeds, are they going to make more?

Dilemmas. Dilemmas.

3 comments:

Kevin T. Rodriguez said...

If this movie fails the executives will probably blame it on the fact that people no longer like anime anymore. Nevermind that it looks like a cheap knock-off of...well, "Street Fighter," but never-the-less, Fox will look to blame everything and everyone so long as they don't pin it on the actual product.

Sean DL said...

Indeed and after the bomb called Speed Racer last year, Avatar the Last Airbender movie will be the last hope for any live action anime Hollywood movies...


Tho, that might sound like a good thing, I don't know..I was kinda hoping for a Live action Akira...


After all, look how many bad Comic movies it took before we got good ones(Even if the source material is a little different)....

E.A. said...

I was never aching to see this. I will, probably, be aching to skewer it when this turdfest gets released.