The characters look horrible, and they're shooting fireballs! Fucking fireballs! They should be shooting giant beams of energy! This ain't Mario.

What does an energy beam look like in live action? I always thought of their energy/auras or whatever as kind of flame like substances. I dunno why everyone is being so picky considering the huge difference between old animation and real life.

Kind've like a lightsaber, I guess.

That is the point.  It may be a solid action flick, but it isn't dragonball, and there really was no reason to use the license for this.

pft... you think those characters look horrible...

at least Piccolo kinda looks the same except being the wrong color.  Lets use an example from well... another series you moved in to show how bad things can really get in adaptations.

Now THAT is how you screw up a villian!  That's supposed to be Bowser.

Dragon Ball is a comedy/adventure/action manga and anime. If they plan on making this a series of movies, which they probably are, then this looks like what I'd expect. If you were expecting them to treat this like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings I'm sorry to disappoint but Dragon Ball just isn't that deep. Look at the Dragon Ball character designs then look at current anime or most anime movies. Dragon Ball has a very dated and cartoony look and I think they're doing a decent job of making the characters believable without straying too far from the originals. Goku still has spiky hair, Bulma has an odd hairstyle with some fun coloring, ect. If you wanted live action Dragon Ball to look exactly like anime Dragon Ball then just watch the anime because you're expecting too much.

Personally, I think it looks great, really captured the feel of DBZ.

Oh and being serious, DBZ ended a LONG time ago, all you English-only speaking people are just getting watered down versions of what is actually a decent anime, if not a annoyingly dragged out one.

Fixed.

How lame...

This looks like the DOA movie without the fanservice. Horrible. How did chow yun fat accepted to play in this..It's better to think it as a souless action flick because this has nothing to do with the franchise. If Toriyama is involved in this he's gone senile. And to be clishe..DRAGONBALL IS RUINED FOREVER!!