Magical Sailor Fuku

by **Queen Octavia** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:41 pm

Karmelo wrote:You couldn't pay me any amount of money to see it. Only bored out of my mind would I be willing to watch it once it's airing on the telly.

I'm generally against live-action adaptations because it's rare that anyone can produce the series and its universe in such a way that will do it justice. Simply because it's usually more restrictive in live-action productions and, out of their natural element, just look stupid. And the problem, as I see it, is very basic: converting fictional characters into realistic characters is akin to taking the alcohol out of liquor. When I see characters jump really high in anime, manga and video games, it looks fine. That's because it's only a matter of artistic quality and expression; there's no real limitation. Reproducing that effect with live-action just looks awkward and goofy to me, since exactly what they're trying to do goes against what the medium is for: realism. It's one thing to have giant robots (Transformers) doing unbelievable things because, in reality, they're not real. But people are real, and real people have to fight against, rather than express through, their own reality's limitation to produce a live-action film set in a fictional universe. Movie magic and camera tricks can only cover up so much of what makes this sort of thing wrong.

That wall of text aside, I think DBZ is just the wrong series for this sort of thing, much like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were. But a lot of people seem to have a weird interest (at least in my opinion) in making things live-action. I don't get it, since it makes little sense to me. Maybe it's the habit and familiarity of the silver screen. Maybe it's simply marketing and profiteering at work. Or maybe people can't get enough of the realistic quality of the universe that they live in. Maybe it's any combination of these things.

Eh.

You're being nonsensical (Not that that's illegal or anything...yet).

You're willing to accept something unrealistic as real so long as it's portrayed unrealistically? Get out of my movie theatre and go back to double negative land where you belong! :evil:

Now I'm going to go portray something realistic so realistically that you will think it is unreal, something like... your wallet!

*poof it disappears and is now in my hand*

:mrgreen:

I can see where you're coming from, but I have always been just as willing to believe the fantastic in almost any medium. The ghost in Hamlet felt just as real to me on the stage as id did in the script, I think you just have a lazy imagination you slacker.

Here, now have your wallet back.

*it flies back to you suspended by a very visible wire*

by **Mitera Nikkou** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:17 pm

UberLurker wrote:You're willing to accept something unrealistic as real so long as it's portrayed unrealistically? Get out of my movie theatre and go back to double negative land where you belong!

That's not it. And I'm not being nonsensical. It's simply an issue with the delivery system, not the medium. I don't consider the Dragonball anime to be any more real than the Sound of Music. They're both fictional, and thus not real. I can accept that. Just like I can accept a news broadcast showing footage of a fire as being non-fiction, real. And that there's nothing wrong with people being pulled around on ropes and/or strings to produce the appearance of flight on stage.

What I was trying to say is that there are certain mediums that expressed ideas are more at home at, and it's no coincidence that it's usually in the medium that they were intended for (and thus made with). How I see it is that meanings and expressions are best conveyed in their language of origin, because another language will likely fail to convey certain nuances, meanings and expressions accurately. Or at all. Basically, I see manga, anime, video games and live-action movies as separate languages. Just because it's spoken well in one language doesn't mean it will translate well in another.

And that's my beef with this particular series. Especially considering the fact of how much is covered in an hour and a half, in light of how long the manga and anime series is. And how much survived translation? Doesn't seem like much, since it appears to have gotten a bit of a teen makeover. Granted, teen stuff is a personal distaste of mine; but the main point still stands. I can accept it as a manga, an anime, a video game, or even as staged theater; it translates well enough in those mediums. To me, at least. But a live-action motion picture? A series I was ambivalent about to begin with, in every other medium, just became a language's equivalent to gobbledygook in this one.

But allow me to elaborate further by saying: it's not that it can't be done well as a live-action film. It's just that it won't be done well. Or, well, to my liking. We all have our standards, after all. But mainstream culture, as far as I'm concerned, isn't a saving grace. And that sadly seems to be the case, here. All we're being sold is the same story again (more or less), condensed and chopped up to kingdom come, that's been given a look that follows some of the current trends floating around these days. I'm just not buying it. So, I won't. I'll wait for when it's (virtually) free. 300? I can buy that, even though I was never interested in it to begin with.

To put it simply, if something from one medium isn't given enough justice in another, I'm not going to be interested. You might as well just make an original movie, or an inspired one, instead of basing it on something. And since I find so few movies that translate well from other mediums... The glass is half empty, in regard to this matter, to me. I haven't seen much to give me any faith in such a thing, or the need to do it in the first place.

That's where I stand. Are you in good hands? (Sorry. After all that rambling I felt I should end it with something good-humored. ;p But hopefully what I was trying to say before is easier to understand, now.)

by **Zoei** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:19 pm

Karmelo wrote:And that's my beef with this particular series. Especially considering the fact of how much is covered in an hour and a half, in light of how long the manga and anime series is. And how much survived translation? Doesn't seem like much, since it appears to have gotten a bit of a teen makeover. Granted, teen stuff is a personal distaste of mine; but the main point still stands. I can accept it as a manga, an anime, a video game, or even as staged theater; it translates well enough in those mediums. To me, at least. But a live-action motion picture? A series I was ambivalent about to begin with, in every other medium, just became a language's equivalent to gobbledygook in this one.

Are you completely incapable of watching a Superman or Batman or X-men movie?

by **Mitera Nikkou** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:49 pm

I can watch them, sure. Doesn't mean I'll like them, or think they came out well in a different medium. Those series in particular get mixed scores from me, since the main problem was that I found so many of them dull and shoddily-made. Superman's fine, more or less, on the technical side; but I find it boring. Only some of the live-action Batman productions felt like "Batman", to me, so it'd depend on which one referred to. As for X-Men... *Shudders* Watched, and regrettably so.

Mind you, I'm a very jaded person. There's not much that I like, anymore. All of the movies that people go nuts for don't faze me at all. It just doesn't impress me. So, in the case of something from one medium being portrayed in a live-action film, I don't have much to work with beyond judging by comparison.

It's not worth paying any mind to. In particular because my favorite anime series, Galaxy Angel, is very different from the games and the manga. Laughter trumps all logic, in my book. Of course, it sometimes requires nonsense to inspire said laughter. So, maybe Uberlurker had me pegged as nonsensical. Oh, snap! @_@

by **Zoei** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:54 pm

Karmelo wrote:I can watch them, sure. Doesn't mean I'll like them, or think they came out well in a different medium. Those series in particular get mixed scores from me, since the main problem was that I found so many of them dull and shoddily-made. Superman's fine, more or less, on the technical side; but I find it boring. Only some of the live-action Batman productions felt like "Batman", to me, so it'd depend on which one referred to. As for X-Men... *Shudders* Watched, and regrettably so.

The problem you are having is that its an hour and a half and can't possibly have all the stories of the years of manga, the same is true of Batman, or Superman, or whatever. Does it get the characters right? Does it have a story that's sound? That's what I'd judge it by.

by **Queen Octavia** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:17 pm

I think it's generally agreed that everyone other than teens find teen stuff distasteful, which proves that taste buds are the most intelligent cells in the body, developing early in life but then having the good sense to depart for the angst filled years and return some time around 20.

I have to say that I disagree with the principle of your statement (But not this specific case). Art (IE anime, novels, sculpures, whatever) is often done first in one medium, only to be redone even better in another.

It doesn't take millions of dollars to make a good live action movie. It just doesn't.

I personally also enjoy experiencing art in multiple mediums. I'm not the person who says "The book was better than the movie". Even if the book WAS better, the movie is a new perspective, a different approach. I think there's value in that.

And my biggest point of all in favor of the DBZ movie... Spike the vampire as piccolo... x_X ? I wonder if Buffy could have just gone SSJ all along.

Man that would have been hot.

by **Mitera Nikkou** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:35 pm

Neither of you are getting it. Or maybe I'm just not saying it in a way that you're able to understand. Although the nuances should be there. Either way I'd rather not try to elaborate further on something that is of little importance, so I won't. It's not like we're friends or anything.

I'll just hop back on track and bury my two green thumbs into the ground for this movie. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!

by **Zoei** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:49 pm

Karmelo wrote:Neither of you are getting it. Or maybe I'm just not saying it in a way that you're able to understand. Although the nuances should be there. Either way I'd rather not try to elaborate further on something that is of little importance, so I won't. It's not like we're friends or anything.

I'll just hop back on track and bury my two green thumbs into the ground for this movie. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!

I am not saying it could be a bad medium transition, I accept that, there were some things that came off poorly. But I think they can make a "Dragonball" story that seems "dragonballish" wtihout it having to cover each and every part.

by **Mitera Nikkou** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:48 am

I agree. But they didn't, and ofttimes they won't. Or they just don't know what they're doing to begin with. Some series don't have this sort of problem, like Transformers, and it transitions easily into an hour or two what's usually covered more intricately over a lot more time and/or material.

To be honest, it probably wouldn't be as bad as it is (well, as I see it), if they decided to make these things into live-action television series. That way they'd have enough time for development and depth in general, for the series that really need it.

Or maybe the simple answer is that I'm hard to please. Eh. ;/

by **Flannery** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:59 pm

Is Micheal Bay directing this film? Because the movie is useless without awesome explosions and cars flying off freeways.

by **Kolonel Kaplice** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:12 pm

I, for one, found it to be spectacularly hysterical for all the wrong reasons.

by **Kris_Roth** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:39 pm

I recently got to see Dragonball: Evolution, and King Piccolo actually used his blood to create Namek spawns for Goku and friends to fight. The main characters were Goku, his grandfather, Gohan, Muten Roshi, Chi Chi, Bulma Briefs, Yamcha, and the main villians were Mai the enforcer/shapeshifter (she used Chi Chi's blood to turn into her to confuse Goku), and finally, Goku learns he is Oozaru/Saiyan....he actually transforms into an Oozaru, a giant ape creature...and Goku flies and is able to learn the Kamehameha move to blast Piccolo away...