For myself and the other 17 hard core Dragonball franchise fans that exist on this green earth, the release of a live action movie based on the long running series was either going to move the fans to tears or make them cry. I sat amongst the former and had tears of joy streaming down my muscular cheeks, even before the pre movie advertisements began. My daughter – the only one out of the 50+ people I asked to come with me who agreed – looked bereft at my hysterics… though I didn’t care, my day had come.

As one of the many who have diligently watched at least one episode from the many sagas comprising Dragonball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT every day since puberty, my thoughts on this movie do carry some weight. I was there through all the battles, all of the training and all of the long winded yells and screams that sounded like elongated orgasms. Needless to say, Dragonball means the world to me. Stephen Chow did something incredible with this movie.

With this in mind, I feel it necessary to start this short review with a criticism and in fact, this is a critical point that could have brought the movie’s popularity to new soaring heights; I should have been cast as Goku! That said, this was a brilliant adaptation and I only have a few small criticisms amongst a plethora of palatial praises.

Of the most part, the movie stayed fairly close to the original Dragonball storyline, with few relevant character changes. That said, everybody’s favourite savoir of the world, Goku, changed from an aloof, goofy, martial arts genius to a slighty arrogant, albeit shy guy. Chi-chi also went from a loud, outspoken, crazy fruitcake, to a shy and closed character. And we didn’t see Goku’s ubiquitous sidekick Krillon at all.

Interestingly though, this was did not end up as a martial arts movie, it was a movie with some martial arts demonstrations. One must keep in mind that each of the many Dragonball sagas ran for several hundreds of episodes and contained many seemingly irrelevant storylines which served as buffers to build the drama and tension between fight scenes. Objectively, this was true to the series.

The choreography and visual effects in the fight scenes were simply amazing, though this was essentially a given considering that the master, Stephen Chow, was at the helm. Mind you, if you were hoping to see a fast paced, action-slash-martial arts movie, this is not it. While the fight scenes are truly awesome and leave you close to hyperventilating, they are few and far between. This was a little disappointing also.

Any die-hard fan of an animated series turned blockbuster must make some concessions and while there were a few, the overall Dragonball feeling remained. All in all, I loved this movie… so much so that I’ve already seen it 3 times in the week since its release. They left it wide open for a sequel and I thoroughly hope that they pursue it.

Out of a possible 5, I give this a 4.97 recurring.