All, Featured Column, Robot Punch
Be Prepared: Street Fighter and Dragonball Tear Up Theaters In 2009
This year, fanboys abound will be treated to two big time video game and anime-based feature films, namely Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li and Dragonball Evolution. The Street Fighter movie is due to hit theaters in February, just in time for the stateside console release of Street Fighter IV. Dragonball will follow, arriving in theaters in April.
Trailers for both movies have just recently hit the internet. Have you seen them? Yeah, I’m not impressed either.
Based on the trailers, these movies appear to fall in line with other movies of their kind, barely resembling their source material. But don’t be too quick to get your pocky in a twist; there’s hope for these movies yet!
What leads many a fan to disappointment from films based on existing entities is the strong expectation that they’ll be served a live-action reproduction of events they’d already seen. It’s every child’s dream to see their favorite fantasies become “real”. The reality is that—despite the wondrous powers of Hollywood movie magic—some things are just not yet possible, especially on a limited budget.
Even if they could, we then have to examine if they should. There’s a lot to be lost in translation when taking an idea from one medium to another. Most cartoon stories are best expressed as cartoons…mostly because they’re ridiculous if seen any other way. They can get away with epic-sized energy beams and lightning fast movements while keeping our suspension of disbelief. Asia has tried to imitate these effects with the use of CGI in films like Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, but you might notice that both of these films have something significant in common: they’re comedies.
We also have to recognize that movie studios don’t necessarily want “good” movies; they want profitable movies. This means that when putting together a franchise-based film, they have to paint with a broader brush. As it is, Street Fighter fans are a niche within a niche. In order for the movie to be successful, the studio has to engineer it so that it appeals to more than just passionate gamers, but also casual movie-goers.
All that said, there’s one thing that is going to make or break either of these films: Fight choreography. If I’m going to see a Street Fighter or Dragonball movie, I’m expecting to see some top-notch ass-kickery!
The good news for “The Legend of Chun Li” is that we’re treated to the same fight choreographer that worked on all three Matrix movies, as well as Spider-Man 2. (That scene on the train was pretty sweet!) The bad news is that this is not so for Dragonball Evolution. In fact, I’ve seen no choreographer listed in the movie’s credits! That suggests to me that we can expect much more flashy digital effects than hand-to-hand kung-foolery.
Otaku that I am, you can be sure that I’ll be seeing both these movies. At the very least, the Chun Li movie, since I’m all about some Street Fighter. I may wait until Dragonball hits the dollar theater, since the Buffy fan in me compels me to do my part in keeping James Marsters’ career alive. Even if it’s a career doomed in prosthetics.
Tags: anime, Chun-Li, dragonball, dragonball evolution, Movies, Street Fighter
Well at least you gave a nod to Marsters - the best the film has as far acting - I’m sure he wont disappoint . Chatwin is real weak link
The same peopke for stunts are in both movies Jonathan Eusebio Jared S. Eddo & Jon Valera
Even my friend who is a hardcore Chun-li fan isn’t going to see that movie. He feels it besmirches her honor.
As for me, I learned from the original Street Fighter movie to steer clear of fighting game cinema.
…
Wait. James Marsters!?
Nope, you’re wrong, Sean. 87Eleven, the company responsible for stunt choreography on “The Matrix”, also did the choreography and stunt work for “Dragonabll: Evolution.” Check out their website for more info: http://www.87eleven.com/mainsite.php
I was reading from the IMDB cast and crew info. It shows that members of the group worked on Dragonball as stunt performers and coordinators, but no fight choreographers are listed. From there, I get a little skeptical as to the type of action to expect. 87Eleven’s site that you linked says about the same.
Sean, the 87Eleven site specifically names Jonathan Eusebio and Jared Eddo as the stunt coordinators for “Dragonball: Evolution”. And by the way, even though IMDb credits both men for “Street Fighter”, I can find no mention yet of that film on the 87Eleven site.
really you guys are all effing retarts the dragon ball trailer looks great (1) its dragonball not dragonballz witch half you assholes dont understand (2) its an adoption its not going to be exactly the same as the origina.
who ever wrote this is a big idioit
as opposed to “adoption” wouldn’t the correct term be “adaptation?” Honestly though, I would rather see an actual Dragonball Z live-action than an “adaptation.”
I love having my intelligence insulted by people who can’t spell “retard” or “idiot”.
I’m totally going to see the Chun-Li movie in theaters. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to see a movie I know will be crap and enjoy the hell out of how horrible it is.
Maybe he’s one of those “733T5″
why i are you so hung on the word “choreographers” to the point that going make the difference in action.
It same people just wearing differental hats
Don’t get me wrong; I’ll still give the movie a chance. But there’s nothing wrong with going in with some doubts. I certainly hope I’m pleasantly surprised.
Dragonball Evolution (being based on a manga) is just like any other comic book being made today by Hollywood. The problem is that the fans are just too hardcore and a lot of the non-fans just don’t understand the appeal, which isn’t hard too understand you got your superhero (Son Goku) vs. supervillian (Lord Piccolo) formula with a decent story.
Spider-Man, The Dark Knight, and X-Men all had changes from the comic books but they were well-received films. Sure the international trailer was unimpressive but so was the Iron Man trailer and look how that turned out. Plus this new recent trailer (not the international) that we just got has giving me and a lot of fans hope for this movie, i don’t think i could say the same for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li tho.
The changes made to Spider-Man, Dark Knight, and X-Men all just made them more cemented in reality. When it comes to DBZ, reality has no place along with physics and lung capacity.
Dragonball Evolution is based on Dragon Ball not Dragon Ball Z.
I was unaware of that fact. But that makes me have even less hope.
Why? It wouldn’t make sense if they started with Dragon Ball Z.
Sean
FS has a clip of Street fighter fight scne - the lighting is dark so it hard to judges quality
[url]http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/02/14/finally-heres-a-fight-scene-from-the-street-fighter-movie[/url]
Because of the fact that Dragonball was much more of a tongue in cheek kind of manga. And because 90% of the movie public has no idea about Dragonball or DBZ so it doesn’t really matter where they start.
Exactly. As much as we’d love for it to be otherwise, these live-action adaptations aren’t for “us”. They’re for “them”. Only because there are more of “them”, thus more tickets, DVDs, and merchandise sold.
Well said.
That’s why movies based on a subculture of any sort are doomed to fail.
Gaming movies aren’t for gamers. Anime movies aren’t for anime fans.
That explains why we get crap like a Cowboy Bebop movie starring Keanu Reeves.
(I wish I was joking.)
I dunno… It CAN work, if done right. The Dark Knight was pretty cool. It was very far from canon, yet it was satisfying for a broad audience while faithfully maintaining the spirit of the source material.
Well your 50% wrong but your right about how this movie is made for Dragon Ball fans worldwide i guess. I thought Fox was going to americanize this but they didn’t (which is a good thing). I blame the poor promotions that were receiving for not grabbing the movie going audiences attention and i’m not making up excuses the promotion for this film is bad, well here in north america at least. Japan is getting WAY more promotions then anywhere else especially in north america since Dragon Ball is a japanese property of course.
Look at the Chun-Li movie as well, all of the trailers that are getting released are Japan-only. I’ve yet to see an American release trailer anywhere.
Yeah but Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li will be released first in the USA. Dragonball Evolution on the other hand will be released a month earlier in Asia and a week early in other international territories.
[...] game movie, they haven’t seen any video game movies in the past 15 years. As illustrated in my preview, I went in with low expectations when it came to the movie following the Street Fighter canon. I [...]