Dragonball Evolution Film

To give you a little perspective, Dragonball Evolution had a $100,000,000 budget, while the recent hit, 300, received a $70,000,000 dollar budget. Money and licenses cannot replace an interesting story and passionate actors.

If you know Namek's have antennae, then Ifall into a temporary amnesia to maximize your enjoyment of the movie. You can forget Goku's personality, Dragonball lore, and characters like Krillin, Tien Shinhan, Oolong, and many others.

Ben Ramsey, who wrote the film adaption, (and paid $500,000 for his work) portrays Goku as an eighteen year old, sexually frustrated boy. It is quite the departure from the innocent and humble Goku in the animated series.

The plot line can be outlined in one sentence:

Goku, Bulma, Yamcha, and Master Roshi go on an adventure to collect dragon balls through a random selection of venues until the gang reaches a climatic battle and someone makes a wish with the dragon balls.

During this adventure... The actors are corny and lack passion. As a comparison, I thought Natalie Portman (as Padme) and Hayden Christensen (as Annie) in Star Wars had no chemistry. Wait until you see Jamie Chung (Chichi) and Justin Chatwin (Chibi Goku). Chichi suddenly became much too hot for Goku.

Though I felt a sense of nostalgia for the Dragonball series, it runs only skin deep. The fight scenes, though not spectacular, are entertaining and may allow fans to reminisce. There are subtly hints of the Dragonball universe that I did appreciate i.e. Bulma finds a dirty magazine in Master Roshi's stash.

I cannot help but feel robbed as a fan. I wish that Ben Ramsey chose to expand upon Saiyan lore or some other area/time of the Dragonball universe if his wish was to create an entirely new story line. Dragonball is an excellent series and it deserved a better and epic adaptation

PS2 classic with cranked up visuals and less content

The baseline of the Grand Theft Auto games, with the bare minimum and some surface level polishing. The only improvement from the previous installments are the covering system, vaulting over obstacle animations, controlling vehicles, and overall graphics.

Other than that: expect less weapons, less vehicles, and many more tutorials. Rock Star has an annoying amount of tutorials.

You also will have more dinner dates with "friends." The dinner dates amount to short and forced mini games of darts and bowling. Throughout the game you can spot go-kart tracks and mini golf courses, but none of those are accessible, leading to me wonder if Rock Star released an unfinished game.

Along with these dinner dates comes the story. It's sadly a very emotional affair, and we end up with a character that whines about how hard life is. This is hardly the Niko that I want. I mean, I bought this game hoping to find someone between a Terminator and Neo. Rock Star ended giving us a bunny who needs tutorials and has a limited weapon selection. Niko is a confused, emotionally broken, and in need of Prozac type of character, which is not a character you can easily fall in love with. There are quite a few times during the story where we see the GTA charm shine through, but those are far and between. My guess is that most people will get bored of the story before they complete it, which will be especially true for the GTA veterans who already know the story before ever buying this game.

This is a rather short review because you can read the old PS2 reviews to get a sense of the game; it's the same engine. If this game was the first in the series, it may have received a 4 stars from me. However, the switch from generations did not bring the improvements of the previous installments and the game often "feels" incomplete.