10 Movies That Instantly Told You They Were Garbage
2. Dragonball Evolution
Every Dragon Ball Z fan wanted 2009's live-action adaptation Dragonball Evolution to be a good movie, but let's face it, we all knew in our heart of hearts that it almost certainly wouldn't be.
And the film wasted no time at all in confirming that. Where to even begin? There's the horrible exposition dump opening, which feels like it was studio-mandated once they saw the end result, and comes complete with howlingly grotty CGI visuals which just scream "mid-2000s" in the very worst way.
Beyond that, there's the revelation that Ōzaru - hero Goku's (Justin Chatwin) Great Ape form - was formerly a slave of the evil Piccolo (James Marsters), which is a statement sacrilegious enough to have many Dragon Ball fans immediately reaching for the remote control.
It doesn't get any better from there: the goofy opening sparring session between Goku and his grandpa Gohan (Randall Duk Kim) lets us know we shouldn't expect any quality action, but instead unconvincing wire work and laughably wonky VFX.
Doing a Dragonball movie right required more than a mere $30 million budget, and a far more reverent, source-faithful approach. Unsurprisingly, Evolution bombed critically and commercially, and nobody's bothered making another live-action adaptation in the 15 years since.