Already you can see they messed up the name. Dragonball instead of Dragon Ball. C’mon, how you mess up the name of the series? I guess I could let this slide.

Then you have the chosen “talent” for the roles of the characters. Alright, I know nothing about the process of casting actors/actresses for films, but they could have done a better job. Or maybe all the “better choices” turned down the offers because they knew how movie is going to end up? Meh, what do I know?

Then there is the plot, where all hell breaks loose. It’s like they’ve never read or watched the manga or anime. I mean, there is already a great story for Dragon Ball, why change it?

If you are planning on seeing the movie and don’t want to be spoiled, then you should stop here.

Continue on if you would like know how the movie went. I watched it, so that you didn’t have to.

Dragonball: Evolution

The movie opens up with Goku training with his grandpa Gohan. Goku then complains that he doesn’t have any friends at school, and that instead of teaching him to control his chi, his grandpa should teach how to talk to girls, and how to be normal.

Grandpa Gohan says something about how normal is overrated, and that he should be himself. He then gives Goku the 4 Star Dragon Ball for his birthday, and tells him about the 7 Dragon Balls.

- Scene cuts to Goku’s High School -

Goku is making his way through the school parking lot on his old bicycle, and parks his bike. Suddenly some kid in a nice car comes in and runs over his bike. Enter the Jocks!

The leader the jocks does one of those “whatcha gonna do about it?” thing, and calls Goku, “Geeko”. He tries to start a fight with Goku, but Goku just walks away. The high school jocks and a few girls walk away laughing. Poor “Geeko”.

- Scene cuts to a flying Fortress -

Not any ordinary flying fortress, Piccolo’s flying fortress! Piccolo is searching for the Dragon Balls, and destroys a town from his fortress. He then sends his assistant, Mai, down to the destroyed town to find the Dragon Ball. They now have one.

- Scene cuts to Goku in class -

The teacher is talking about solar eclipse while Goku is staring at a female student, and daydreaming about her. He is interrupted by the teacher, and was asked about the eclipse. Goku says something about his grandpa telling about Nameks, and the class laughs him.

Class ends and students are at their lockers getting ready for their next class. The bell rings, and here we see a girl still having trouble getting her locker opened. Goku uses his Chi to open the locker from around the corner.

The girl sees Goku trying to hide, and confronts him about using his Chi. She introduces herself as Chi-Chi, and invites him to her party that’s going on that night. Goku quickly accepts, and runs away.

- Next Scene is at Goku’s House -

His grandpa is cooking up some birthday dinner for Goku, while Goku is getting all dressed up to go to Chi-Chi’s party. There was some cheesy lines somewhere during this, and Goku sneaks out to go to the party.

- Party at Chi-Chi’s Mansion -

Goku shows up, and some jocks see him here. They proceed to bully “Geeko” trying to make him leave. Goku finally stands up to the bullies! But since he made a promise not to fight, he’ll have to do it by pretty much dodging and making them hit each other.

There was a lot more cheesy lines, and a lot of bullet time involved, and Goku manages to take out the jocks.

Goku is now the man, and is talking it up with Chi-Chi. Chi-Chi, who previously seemed to had something going on with the leader jock, pretty much brushed that whole fighing scene off, and is chatting it up with Goku. Chi-Chi you slut!

- Scene cuts to Goku’s House -

Grandpa Gohan is sitting patiently in the kitchen with a birthday cake, waiting for Goku to come home. All of a sudden, he is attacked by Mai, but manages to fight her off with no problems. Then Piccolo shows up, and defeats Gohan, causing the house to come crashing down on Gohan’s body. Piccolo of course was after the Dragon Ball.

Goku, while still at Chi-Chi’s party, senses that something was wrong, and comes running back home. He finds the house in ruin, and finds his grandpa under the rubble. Gohan tells Goku about Piccolo, and tells him to find Master Roshi, then passes away.

- The next day -

After burying Gohan, Goku goes back to the ruined house, and finds a chest. Opening it, he finds an orange martial arts gi. He then hears someone sneaking around the house. He confronts the intruder. Enter Bulma!

Bulma was trying to track down her stolen 5 Star Dragon Ball, and ended up tracking Goku’s Dragon Ball instead. After clearing up some misunderstandings, Goku and Bulma team up to find the remaining Dragon Balls.

They drive off on Bulma’s capsule motorcycle, looking for Master Roshi. Bulma sees a Dragon Ball on her tracker, and it leads to a house. They break in.

While Bulma goes searching for the Dragon Ball, Goku accidentally wakes up an old drunken man. Goku and the man fight for a bit, then after the old man sees Goku using his Chi, reveals his identity. Master Roshi!

Goku tells Master Roshi about what happened to Gohan, and has some vision after touching the Dragon Ball. Master Roshi joins them to search for the rest of the Dragon Balls.

- Cut to flying Fortress -

Piccolo finds another Dragon Ball. Grats!

- The next morning -

Bulma and Master Roshi rides on the motorcycle, while Goku runs behind them carrying all the luggage. They head towards the Stone Temple, where Master Roshi will give Goku some training.

When they arrive, Goku finds Chi-Chi there. She tells him that she is there to train for an upcoming fighting tournament. Bulma picks up a Dragon Ball reading on her tracker, and Goku leaves Chi-Chi.

While on the way to the next Dragon Ball, Goku and Master Roshi does some crazy Jedi training. Bulma manages to drive into a huge hole, and they all get stuck at the bottom.

- Later that night -

They set up a campfire at the bottom of the hole, where Master Roshi tells them about the legend of the Dragon Balls. A bandit overhears the story from above, but refuses to help them out unless he is paid.

This bandit reminds me of Cody Lambert from Step by Step. Master Roshi then flies out of the hole, and forces the bandit to help them. The bandit’s name is Yamcha.

- The flying fortress -

Piccolo is sitting down in a chair that is hooked up to four needles. The four needles extracts some blood from Piccolo, which he uses to make mini-Piccolos. For a powerful bad guy, he screams like a little girl when the needles take some blood.

- Back to Goku and Company -

They keep digging deeper in search of the Dragon Ball. When they find where it is, there is an ocean of lava between them and the Dragon Ball. They are then attacked by the Piccolo minions. Goku makes a bridge out of the minions to cross over to the Dragon Ball.

He gets another vision, and is then attacked by Mai. He beats the crap out of her, and brings the Dragon Ball back. They all leave to head back to the Stone Temple.

- The Stone Temple -

Master Roshi talks to some monk about obtaining a container to stop Piccolo.

During this time, Chi-Chi is fighting in the tournament. Her opponent is Mai! Chi-Chi wins the fight, but Mai manages to draw blood, and stores some in a small capsule.

A scene with Goku and Chi-Chi, then a scene with Bulma and Yamcha. With some horrible acting.

- Goku training with Roshi -

Roshi says something about Air Bending which reminded me of Avatar, then says that the last step of Air Bending is the Kamehameha, and leaves Goku alone to train.

Goku is supposed to light a few candles with the Kamehameha. Chi-Chi shows for some encouragement, and he manages to learn it. They hook up of course.

- Middle of the night -

Bulma catches Chi-Chi sneaking out of Goku’s room in the middle of the night. Thinking that she was leaving Goku’s room after a night of “training” she lets Chi-Chi leave.

After Chi-Chi leaves, Goku shows up walking down the hall. Uh oh, Goku wasn’t in the room, and it looks like Chi-Chi made off with all the Dragon Balls. They all go to chase her down.

Chi-Chi manages to separate herself from them, but runs into… Chi-Chi! The two Chi-Chi’s fight, and Goku comes in and knocks out one of them. Uh oh, that was the real Chi-Chi he knocked out, and the other one shoots Goku in the face with some Fire Blast gun, and runs off with the Dragon Balls. She reveals herself as Mai.

The gang shows up and finds an unconscious Chi-Chi and a dead Goku. Master Roshi then revives Goku with a… wait for it… Kamehameha to the heart!

They need to head to the Dragon Temple, where Piccolo will need to go to summon Shenlong. Roshi also gets a container from the monk.

- Dragon Temple -

Piccolo and Mai gather the 7 Dragon Balls, and activates some tower. Goku and company then flies by in a flying jeep. Roshi and Piccolo shoot fireballs at each other everyone gets thrown around.

Goku shows up wearing his grandpa’s gi, and looks like an idiot. Throw in some bad acting here. Piccolo tells Goku that the vision of Ozaru, the giant ape he keeps having, is actually Goku!

Goku then transforms into Ozaru and is under Piccolo’s control, and is commanded to go after the Dragon Balls. Goku chases after Bulma and Yamcha while Roshi and Piccolo are fighting.

Roshi manages to knock Piccolo out, but Goku grabs hold of Roshi, and kills him. Goku goes through some inner battle with himself, and transforms back. He and Piccolo start having some fireball fight.

Bulma and Yamcha manages to beat Mai and recover all the Dragon Balls. Goku manages to beat Piccolo.

The go back to where Roshi is lying. Goku decides he will used the Dragon Balls to wish back Master Roshi from death. Shenlong revives Roshi, and the Dragon Balls are scattered again.

Looks like they’re on the journey to find the Dragon Balls again! But before that, Goku needs to go back to Chi-Chi and hook up with her again. The End.

Vegetta, what does your suck meter say about Dragonball Evolution!?

Vegetta does NOT approve!

There is a lot of things you would find wrong with the movie, especially if you are a big Dragon Ball fan. As a movie, the lines were horrible, and the acting was terrible. You couldn’t help but just laugh at how bad it was while watching it.

Then there is all the Dragon Ball stuff that they totally f’ed up. Akira Toriyama probably cried after seeing his creation butchered like this. Why was Mai with Piccolo? Where’s Krillin? Full Moon vs Eclipse? Where’s Goku’s tail? There is a ton more questions you can ask.

I think that they should leave the manga/anime series, to the Japanese studios. They have done an excellent job with their own live-action adaptations before. A few favorites that come to mind are Battle Royale, NANA, and Death Note.

Blah it just angers me to see a beloved series like Dragon Ball get ruined.

With the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), there will be a ton of new announcements, disappointments, and even some release dates. So there is a lot to cover for last week, and I’ll go over a few of them today.

World of Warcraft:

Patch 2.4.3 is out. The latest patch notes can be read here.

The significant changes in Patch 2.4.3 are:

General

• Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
• Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World’s End Tavern!
• Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
• Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.

Mages

• Frost Armor, Ice Armor, Mage Armor, and Molten Armor are no longer Magic effects and cannot be dispelled.

Warlocks

• Curse of Shadows: This spell has been removed.
• Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.

Mounts at level 30 for our baby Mages, 22 Slot Bags for our older Mages. Our Armors can no longer be dispelled in PvP, and Warlocks will buff our PvE regardless of the number of Mages in the raid.

Also, if you are using the Evocation macro, if you switch back to your DPS gear too early now, it will cancel your Evocation channeling.

I finally got my WoW Authenticator! It is kind of a hassle to needing to have it on you whenever you want to log in, but he added security is way worth it!

Video Games:

Ah… E3 has begun and there are a lot of exciting news. E3 begins July 14th, and lasts until July 17th, so there will still be more news to come.

The biggest news so far is Final Fantasy XIII will also be released for the Xbox360! This is a huge blow to Sony, and Microsoft has taken the final steps to making the Xbox THE system for JRPGs. I for one, am really excited about this announcement. I have an Xbox360, but no PS3 (although I still want one!). Final Fantasy XIII would have been one of the reasons for me to break down and finally get a PS3, but now there is no need to anymore.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII is still a PS3 exclusive at the moment, but I guess the “exclusiveness” of any game can be taken away at anytime now. Seems like nowadays, “exclusive” just means “for the time being, will only be for”.

A new Fable 2 trailer was shown, and the announced release date is for October 2008. There was also a new Star Ocean: The Last Hope trailer. The release date for that is Spring 2009. Some new clips for Halo Wars was also released. A release date for that is early 2009.

Microsoft also announced that they have partnered up with Netflix, and you will be able to download the movies you want if you have a Netflix account. My roomate has a Netflix account, this will be nice to have.

The Xbox360 interface is getting a new upgrade too. They’re adding a couple a few features, one which resembles the Nintendo Wii’s Mii feature.

I know that is a lot of Xbox360 news. The Microsoft part of E3 was July 14th, hence all the Xbox360 news. July 15th will be Nintendo and Sony’s day of announcements.

Also, fans of the Sims game, Sims 3 is coming out in 2009. Here is a small trailer for that.

Movies:

The Dark Knight, July 18th, that is all…

Real Life:

I finally joined BlogAzeroth for the first time last week. Crazy (but awesome) group of people I tell ya. Great place to hang out during the day.

WordPress 2.6 is out! I upgraded with now problems. Haven’t noticed any new changes yet.

Sports:

It is the All Star break for baseball, and the Phillies are still hanging in there at the top of the NL East, half a game ahead of the Mets.

2B Chase Utley, and P Brad Lidge have been selected for the All Star game. Chase was also selected for the Home Run Derby, but failed to advance to the 2nd round with 5 Home Runs.

We got an Illidari Council + Illidan Stormrage only Black Temple instance Monday night from a Guild which can clear all the through Mother Shaz, and since they don’t raid Monday night, they gave us the rest of the instance (since it resets Tuesday). Thanks to them, we were able to get yet another [Warglaive of Azzinoth] the Main-Hand. Now we have three Rogues and one Warrior with the Main-Hand, but no Off-Hand. Long line for Off-Hands in the Guild, but only Main Tanks left in line for the Main-Hand.

I started Arena-ing with my Warlock friend again. Mage-Lock is a decent setup, but we went like 1-4 because they kept killing my partner first. So I switched over to full PvE gear since they always targeted her first. We ended with the record of 5-5 and called it quits. It was very scary when the actually started attacking me while I’m in my PvE gear, but when they left me alone, I was doing some crazy damage to them.

One week left until Arena Season 4 begins. Start farming those Honor and Arena Points!

Hobbes is a big meanie picking on little gnomes!

Anetheron continues to be a big jerk in Mount Hyjal for Aetherial Circle. Rage Winterchill gets one-shotted no problem, but Anetheron is still kicking names and taking @ss. At least the mod that BRK uses seems to be in working order.

Movies:

I have yet to see The Incredible Hulk yet, but I really want to. I also heard Kung Fu Panda was good, so I might give that I watch sometime next weekend.

There was a live-action Japanese movie that I recently watched called NANA. I thought it was a very good movie. It was based off of a popular Anime series.

Anime:

So after watching the live-action movie and enjoying it, I started watching the NANA anime right after. So far I like it as much as the movie. It is one of those Slice-of-Life animes, and if you are into the genre, you should give this series a try.

Video Game:

“Who’s Side are You On?”

Right as I was in the middle of reading the Civil War series by Marvel, I read a rumor that Marvel Alliance 2 will be base off of the Civil War series. How awesome is that!

Real Life:

Hope everyone had a happy Father’s Day!

Another fun filled week for me, including finally upgrading my outdated WordPress 2.3.2 to Wordpress 2.5.1. and me going home to my parent’s house for the weekend for some grill’n and chill’n.

World of Warcraft:

Good raid week for Utada. Although we only had two days of raiding, we made good progress in the Sunwell Plateau. Killed the first four bosses on the first day of raiding, and had a whole night of attempts on the Eredar Twins on the second night. I got my [Bracer of the Tempest], making that my 7th piece of my Tier 6 gear.

Kil’jaeden was killed by SK-Gaming on May 25th. World First Kil’jaeden kill. They have now beaten The Burning Crusade. More info at: WorldofRaids.com

Movies:

I watched the new Indiana Jones movie with a couple of my friends. I had mixed feelings about the movie. Without spoiling anything, the movie had everything I loved about the Indiana Jones series, but the story was a bit… over the top.

I also ended up watching Iron Man again with my cousin because he has not seen it yet. The movie was still very good, and Robert Downey Jr. was such an awesome Tony Stark. There were also many subtle hints throughout the film at a sequel or other Marvel Superhero movies.

By coincidence, Ghost Rider was on HBO later that night. It was my first time watching it, and wow was that an awful movie. “Feels like my skull’s on fire” /shudder

Video Games:

Oh yea… at the movie theater, one of my all-time favorite arcade game was there. Marvel vs Capcom 2. My team: Ken, Cammy, Hayato. Me and my cousin had a lot of fun playing this game again after all these years. Still a ton of fun to play despite how broken the gameplay is.

Blogging:

After reading Usagijen’s post on upgrading her WordPress with ease by using a plugin called Instant Upgrade, I decided to finally upgrade mine as well. Using that plugin, I was able to upgrade my WordPress in about 5 minutes with everything working fine. w00t! Me likes the new interface

Real Life:

Memorial Day Weekend! A lot of BBQing, a lot of good eating, and a bit of drinking. It was a fun weekend, and the weather was all so beautiful.

The lack of sleep I have been getting doesn’t help either. Maybe this week will calm down a bit, and I can catch up with some much needed nap time.

World of Warcraft:

One of the biggest news for the week was the disbanding of a well-known and respected raiding guild, Death and Taxes. They achieved 13 world first kills , and 19 US first kills. I remember watch many of their Naxx videos back in the days… They will be missed.

Aetherial Circle clears Serpentshrine Cavern with the death of Lady Vashj. This is a great accomplishment for any guild. Not only that, AC went into Mount Hyjal and one-shotted Rage Winterchill and put up a valiant effort on Anetheron. We got him down to 1% and then Lady Jaina Proudmore died! Yes… it was a very very painful way to wipe on that boss. He will definitely die next time we see him.

Death Knight talents were released briefly on WoWInsider before they were kindly asked to be taken down by Blizzard. I didn’t get a chance to see them before they were taken down, but I’m sure there are ways out there to find them. Hint Hint – Thanks to Nick S. for the heads up! There you can find other Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) information.

Also, the third gate of the Sunwell Plateau is unlocked on the US Realms, opening a path to the final boss of the instance, Kil’jaeden.

Anime and Manga:

I stumbled upon a post by How a Girl Figures on the Anime Series, School Rumble, and got me re-watching the series all over again. Easily one of my favorite Romance/Comedy series, School Rumble got me hooked again. I even started reading the Manga, in which I caught up from beginning to the most current chapter, in about 3 days (which contributed to some of my lack of sleep that week).

Speaking of School Rumble, the third season was announced awhile ago, and their website there is a short promo video for it. You can view the video HERE.

I also watched Voices of a Distant Star for the first time. Very well done for a one-man production team to put together. Its a 25 minute short film, so if you get a chance, check it out. Beware: There is a ton of dialogue in the film.

Real Life:

My cousin has finally cleared Rowan University. His loot? [Diploma] Bind on Pick up of course. He is now also attuned to the instance: The Real World. Grats to him.

The Philadelphia Flyers lost the the Penguins in the series 4 – 1. It was a good run for the cup. Good job guys!

I was without a computer and video games for the entire trip, so that left me with little option to do up at my sister’s place. I ended up watching a ton of television and taking lots of naps.

I did have some fun up there though, but I am glad to back home.

World of Warcraft:

Nothing much happened last week in WoW for me. I was only able to make it to the first raid night of the week, in which we were able to kill the first three bosses in the Sunwell Plateau. No caster loot dropped or Mage tokens that I needed dropped.

Looks like Patch 2.4.2 will be out Tuesday. You can find the patch notes from the WoW website here: Patch 2.4.2

They will be cutting down on Arena point selling and teams exploiting to get easy wins. Also Mages, don’t forget to pick up your new portals! Go to Stonard if you are Horde, and go to Theramore Isle if you are Alliance.

Movies:

The trailer for X-Files 2 is finally out! You can see the trailer of the new movie X-Files: I Want to Believe at www.xfiles.com. w00t! I can’t wait! The movie will be out in theaters on July 25th, 2008.

Another movie I am also looking forward to seeing is Star Wars: The Clone Wars. You can watch that trailer at www.starwars.com. The movie will be out August 15th, 2008. Looks like it will be an awesome summer.

Television Show:

My sister also got me started on watching a show called Dexter. I am probably going to end up watching the first two seasons of this show by the end of this week.

Anime:

Naruto and Bleach are now in filler mode in order to give the respected authors of the series more time to further the gap between where the story is in the Anime with where the story is in the Manga. So far the filler episode isn’t too bad, but we’ll see how long that lasts.

Until then, go watch:

• Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2
• Kurenai
• Nabari no Ou
• Evangelion: 1.0 You are [Not] Alone

In Real Life:

My sister’s graduation was held at the IZOD center (where the New Jersey Nets play) so that was cool.

We took my mom out for dinner for her special day. She wanted Thai food, so we went to a nearby restaurant. The food was delicious and my mom enjoyed it.

The Flyers are down in the series against the Penguins 2-0 with game 3 being played Tuesday night. Lets go Flyers!

I thought I would share with you some of the things that happened this past week, which you may or may not care about.  Maybe I will make this a regular thing, who knows. Depends on if there was a lot that went on during the week I guess. Oh well, here it goes…

World of Warcraft:

It is Children’s Week in WoW. Go take your pet for the day out and around Azeroth and Outland, and turn them in for a cool pet! I contemplated on keeping Jaina’s Autograph for myself, and keeping this human child as my pet until he expires. I got Speedy the Turtle instead. I also got Eggbert from the Outland one.

Hmmm… Jaina’s Autograph and Human slave or Speedy the Turtle?

I am now 0 – 20 for Baron’s Mount, and decided to start on my Wintersaber Trainer’s Rep again when I get sick of farming Stratholme. Currently half way to Honored with them.

[Pattern: Sunfire Robe] dropped and I wished I was a tailor. The pattern was won by a Shadow Priest. The Mages and Warlocks which were tailors all cried in unison.

[Design: Loop of Forged Power] also dropped, but the crafted ring is Bind on Equip, so I got myself [Sunmote] x 5 from the guild, and I am now waiting for one more [Primal Might] transmute before I can get this baby crafted.

We decided on a new strategy on Eredar Twins. The strategy overall is much simpler than the last, but relys on everyone to be on their “A” game. One person doesn’t move in time will trigger an instant wipe. Got one twin down to 60% with only 21 people in the Raid during practice runs. We’ll see how this goes with a full raid.

The Epic Gem Vendor on my server is currently at 61%. It is going really, really slow. Come on everyone, do your dailies! I know I know, even I get lazy sometimes and not do them either.

BRK’s Running of da Bulls was a huge success. 373 level one Taurens running around Azeroth starting trouble.

Speaking of Tauren, we got a Tauren Mage in the raid one night. Doesn’t he look cool?

/mooooooooo

Movies:

The first of four movies to be released, Evangelion: 1.0 You are [Not] Alone, was released on DVD on April 29th, and became the best-selling DVD in Japan in 2008 so far. If you are looking for an english Dub of this movie, I highly recommend [Anonymous].

Iron Man was released in theatres this weekend. I watched it, and enjoyed the movie a lot. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, go watch it! And stay til the end, there is more after the credits. If you saw it already and left before the credits finished, now you have another reason to go watch the movie again.

Video Games:

Grand Theft Auto 4 has sold a record setting ~2.5 million copies in the United States on opening day. I am one of the buyers and am currently enjoying the game. First thing I did was run over a few pedestrians, and went straight to the strip club, and I know about 90% of you out there who got the game did the same. My gamertag is Trunks1022 if any of you own this game on the Xbox360 and want to do some multiplayer mayhem.

Finally got to Disc 4 on Lost Odyssey. It is a really great RPG for the Xbox360. You should really give it a shot if you enjoy any role-playing game.

In Real Life:

The Sixers lost to the Pistons in Game 6 of the playoffs, losing the series 4-2. Nobody expected them to make the playoffs let alone take two games from the Pistons. Good job guys.

The Flyers beat the Canadiens in Game 5 of the playoffs, winning the series 4-1. They will now face off with the Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals. A little Pennsylvania rivalry going on here.

The Phillies are now in first place in the NL east. Chase Utley and Pat Burrell are still on fire.

My sister is graduating from Seton Hall next week. Congrats to her! My cousin and trusted sidekick is also graduating from Rowan University next week. Grats to him too!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Don’t forget, Mother’s Day is just around the corner!