For the non-Dragonball fan, this is a decent action flick. For the DB purest like myself, this movie sucks monkey nuts.

The plot is basically a mix of Gohan's high school story and the original Dragonball Piccolo story. The PR people say that the movie isn't meant to be a direct translation but a retelling. Retellings rarely work. IMO, it has only worked for Battlestar Galactica because the writing and acting were top notch.

This movie is just a cheesy action flick with no depth that basically takes a dump on the DB franchise.

The biggest complaint I have (and many people it seems) is Goku is white. WTF?! It's like having a black guy play Superman or Fat Albert played by a fat asian kid. It just doesn't work. They should have had an Asian actor play Goku. There's no excuse for it. They found Asian actors for everyone else. The rest of the movie would be tolerable I think if they had just gotten that part right.