This was an interesting movie. Not because it had an engaging plot and complex characters. No Dragonball finds its niche in the "Just missed it" category. It seems like with everything they tried with this film they came close but never hit the mark, ending up with a final product that is simply sub-par. The fight scenes are nothing special. The characters are stereotypes. The story has plot holes. Everything for a train wreck is here but Dragonball manages to keep its head above the water. Granted, I am not a fan of DB so I have no attachment to these people and places and no compass with which to direct any rage. To me this is just a kind of bad action flick based on an anime that I have sparse details about floating around my brain.
The characters are laughably bad. They are, for the most part, shoehorned in and completely one note. I honestly can't believe that characters were cut from the script to focus on the main cast. Piccolo is evil... because. Chi Chi was there for one reason, forced love interest. Then there's Yamcha who… well… watch the trailer and see how many times you spot him. It's almost as though they put him in during post-production (and the "love interest" he had with Bulma… wow, it makes Goku and Chi Chi look like the couple from the Notebook).
The characters feel so odd mostly because of how inconsistent the world is. It's supposed to be semi-futuristic but it seriously jumps from ancients to an old dojo then to modern day high school then to sci-fi and then Fantasy. When Bulma shows up I thought she was from another planet. That's just how inconsistent this world feels. Because of that you get this group of people that seem like they're all from different worlds and it doesn't work. Honestly Kingdom Hearts did better than this.
There are plot holes here and there. Namely the glaring omission of how Piccolo, the main villain, was released from his 2000 year imprisonment. I suppose we can assume the girl villain (Mai, whose name I had to look up because it is not mentioned in the movie at all) was responsible, though her motives are never even remotely explored. Since the entire movie revolves around Piccolo getting out it'd be nice if the plot even touched on it. Also, on that note, James Marsters said that his character was just misunderstood. That he wasn't a bad guy at first but then he was sealed away for 2000 years and when he got out he was pissed and wanted revenge. Obviously I don't know if this is true in the anime/manga, but in this film they basically drill it in your head that Piccolo came 2000 years ago to destroy the earth. Sounds like a pretty bad guy to me… The plot is also juggled in an odd way. The Dragonballs were created by seven ancients to seal Piccolo so they're needed to defeat Piccolo but then it seems like Piccolo needs the Dragonballs to summon Oozaru (which he had before without the Dragonballs) so keeping them away from him would have been just as effective… it's all rather odd.
I can chalk this next gripe up to personal opinion, but at the end when *SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER* Roshi dies, they use the one wish the Dragonballs grant you to bring him back to life. They could end poverty, war, and world hunger, but nah, this guy they've known for a few days was pretty chill. Also, the Dragonballs split at the end of the movie and appear to be hidden again. Between Piccolo and Goku they managed to find all seven within a matter of days, so it speaks to reason that these things are pretty easy to find (especially since Bulma has DB locator). So what is keeping them from finding them over and over and getting near infinite wishes? Only one wish per person? Make some friends. The Dragonballs lost their power? They seemed just fine after sealing piccolo away. Perhaps that's it, there is a 2000 year recharge time. Why? Because.
Ultimately this movie isn't terrible. Yes it's bad, yes it's probably an abomination to the source material (though I wouldn't know) but it is held aloft by it's goofiness (the unintentional kind). I highly recommend viewing this with a small group of friends who can appreciate a good riff. If you don't like talking during movies than I'd avoid watching this with me, because there aren't two minutes that go by that they don't set you up for a great one liner. Props to Jeremy for the Highwind joke. Classic.
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