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Dragon Ball: Evolution screenwriter apologizes to fans

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http://ca.ign.com/articles/2016/05/03/dragonball-evolution-screenwriter-apologizes-to-fans

Ben Ramsey, the screenwriter responsible for the universally panned live-action Dragon Ball adaptation, Dragonball Evolution, has apologized to fans for his hand in the project.

As reported by i09, when Ramsey was approached for an interview by Dragon Ball fan Derek Padula, Ramsey replied with an apology addressed to the Dragon Ball fandom, which Padula then published in full on his website.

The apology reads:

I knew that it would eventually come down to this one day. Dragonball Evolution marked a very painful creative point in my life. To have something with my name on it as the writer be so globally reviled is gut wrenching. To receive hate mail from all over the world is heartbreaking. I spent so many years trying to deflect the blame, but at the end of the day it all comes down to the written word on page and I take full responsibility for what was such a disappointment to so many fans. I did the best I could, but at the end of the day, I ‘dropped the dragon ball.’

I went into the project chasing after a big payday, not as a fan of the franchise but as a businessman taking on an assignment. I have learned that when you go into a creative endeavor without passion you come out with sub-optimal results, and sometimes flat out garbage. So I’m not blaming anyone for Dragonball but myself. As a fanboy of other series, I know what it’s like to have something you love and anticipate be so disappointing.

To all the Dragon Ball fans out there, I sincerely apologize.

I hope I can make it up to you by creating something really cool and entertaining that you will like and that is also something I am passionate about. That’s the only work I do now.

Best,

Ben

"I went into the project chasing after a big payday, not as a fan of the franchise but as a businessman taking on an assignment"

That quote right there sums up the entire reason ANYONE was in the movie and why it was so fucking awful.

Live action Dragon Ball doesn't work in general. This movie? Literally insulting to fans :V

Good on him for apologizing though. Takes balls to admit you fucked up on a project of that scale.

Lock if old.
 

A Pretty Panda

fuckin' called it, man
There was no way a live action dragon ball film turns out good. See: all the garbage fan films on the internet.

I ‘dropped the dragon ball.’

Also if he should have included this line in the movie
 

PSqueak

Banned
Frankly, i liked DB:E more than BvS, not that i hated either movie, he did what he could and frankly, for someone who wasn't a fan of the series, he could have done worse.

Personally the movie wouldn't have been so bad if Goku was 100% goku instead of a weird mix of Goku and Gohan.
 
J

JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
Kinda late, isn't it?

Going by how some people act on social media and how most blame others instead of themselves, it's better late than never. I respect his honesty. How many other people in the movie industry really do apologies like this?
 

Defuser

Member
Frankly even if he wrote a good script, people will still hate it because its still be seen as a hollywood bastardization.
 
Wow..that's like 7 years ago...took him a while to apologize. I'm fortunate that I didn't waste my time watching this abomination.
 

Sinoox

Banned
Hey, at least he knows he fucked up. I can't give a man crap after that. I think a DBZ live action movie could work really well, but he just did not know how to do it.

It's okay man, your shitty movie helped annoy Toriyama into working on the series again

lol that might even be true
 

ant1532

Banned
An apology upon release would have been nice and more ballsy than 10 years later.

Anyways, I'd like to thank him because he Toriyama litteraly said the movie being so bad caused him to keep Dragonball going with the movies and Super series.


So thank you, for the absolutely terrible thing you did.
 

Snaku

Banned
No need to apologize, you offended Toriyama to the point of caring about Dragon Ball again. Without DBE, we would not have Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, or Dragon Ball Super. You did the world a fucking service.
 

Galang

Banned
This is so awesome he had the balls to admit this. I can see where he's coming from completely. I had no idea before this thread he was the reason we got a new animated series... I can't be mad for that even though I have my opinions on the new series.
 

A Pretty Panda

fuckin' called it, man
This is so awesome he had the balls to admit this. I can see where he's coming from completely. I had no idea before this thread he was the reason we got a new animated series... I can't be mad for that even though I have my opinions on the new series.

We were going to get new stuff anyways, but this movie is the reason the original creator was as involved as he was (a lot, for the two movies at least)
 

Astral Dog

Member
I accept the apology, Dragon Ball is a cartoon (manga) first and foremost , difficult to translate to the big screen imo, and there are so many variables and stupid laws when making a movie,
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Why is he apologizing. No one remembers that film.


It's remarkably bad. If it didn't have the Dragonball name attached, it would be more remembered as a huge budget nightmare of a movie. Somehow the franchise and the expectation of a bad movie shielded people from it but this movie was a kind of bad that few movies with a budget can attain. I only watched it recently for the first time and even with the film's reputation I was caught off guard by how spectacularly bad Dragonball Evolution was.
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Has Justin Chatwin apologized?


While we're on the subject: Does this guy normally act? Like, throughout his entire scenes? Or was it just that he couldn't be fucking bothered during half of Dragonball? Once he got done speaking it was like a bird flew by off camera. He just stared blankly until the scene ended. This happened multiple times. I've never seen an actor not act so much while ostensibly acting.
 

weshes195

Member
Hatemail is lame af

Yeah, hearing that actually makes me wish that he didn't apologize. Like, I really disliked that film (doesn't help that I grew up watching DBZ) but even with him doing it as a business, it isn't like he WANTED to make a crappy movie. And it isn't like he made it bad to just agonize people.

I don't know why people would get so personal with something. It is insane.
 
I really love the Dragonball film we got.

It would be really hard to do any sort of justice to the source material both because of time and technical limitations.

So I'm glad they went with as radical a change possible.

A much more faithful movie that was still kind of bad can't match up with Evolution in entertainment for me.
 

farisr

Member
That quote right there sums up the entire reason ANYONE was in the movie and why it was so fucking awful.
Not entirely true, James Marsters definitely wasn't, he was doing it in part for his son, and brought his A game to the movie. You can tell he looked at the source material and saw the entire anime, tried his best to portray Piccolo despite the script and it showed. The only decent thing about the movie.

Dude was laying out facts about the manga/anime in interviews before the movie came out that the movie didn't even bother to get right. So it was very apparent he didn't just read the script of the movie. Honestly it was those interviews that tricked me and made me expect more from the movie, I was thinking that he probably didn't see the anime and is just reciting plotpoints from the script like a lot of actors do. Boy was I wrong.
 

Alfredo

Member
I really liked Dragonball Evolution. It was a fun, cheesy Power Rangers-esque movie for me.

Then again, I don't really have much reverence for Dragonball in the first place.
 
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2016/05/03/dragonball-evolution-screenwriter-apologizes-to-fans





"I went into the project chasing after a big payday, not as a fan of the franchise but as a businessman taking on an assignment"

That quote right there sums up the entire reason ANYONE was in the movie and why it was so fucking awful.

Live action Dragon Ball doesn't work in general. This movie? Literally insulting to fans :V

Good on him for apologizing though. Takes balls to admit you fucked up on a project of that scale.

Lock if old.
Marster seemed to care a lot about the source material, but one actor giving a shit isn't gonna save the movie.
 

bigosc2k

Banned
17091c630fd4d1d015760475cde29e6f_original.jpg

I got some bad news for you
 
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