Hell hath no fury like an angry fanboy.
Dragonball Evolution began to shape as the 2009 film fans love to hate before it opened in cinemas, at least as far as the internet is concerned.
The makers of the live-action film hoped to tap into a built-in audience by adapting the hugely popular manga epic that had already spawned three anime series, 17 animated feature films and three television specials.
Fans all over the world love Dragon Ball, but, well, it's a thin line between love and hate.
Around the web, fans have been bellowing their anger over the choices made by director James Wong (The One, Final Destination), who was to looking to streamline and mainstream the Dragon Ball mythology.
It follows Goku, a monkey-tailed Japanese boy, while he trains in martial arts and searches for the seven Dragon Balls that are said to grant the wish of the beholder.
Fans are frothing on YouTube and elsewhere about casting, missing characters, fight scenes and even hairstyles.
This is serious stuff to devotees who have followed the manga franchise since it began in 1984 and have shown their allegiance by buying up the tie-in card game, assorted video games, apparel and other merchandise.
On IMDb, the movie database website, one fan seemed to think a holy crime had been committed: "I could go on for hours about what they did wrong ... May God have mercy on their souls".
The pre-release bagging saw one of the film's stars, Jamie Chung, who plays Chi Chi, asking fans to give it a chance before putting it in the same category as Catwoman or Speed Racer, two other Hollywood movies that took hand-drawn fanboy favourites and turned them into spectacular live-action bombs.
"I feel like all movies that adapt some sort of [material], whether it's a book or a manga or a cartoon, into a film - you're going to have to take creative liberty in order to change it so that it works for a motion picture," she said.
"It's never going to be the same and you can't satisfy everyone.
"What James Wong did was he adapted it in a way where it still stayed true to the `Dragon Ball' series, with the essence of the characters."
At 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the Dragonball film, there must be some executives missing the old days when fans waited for a movie to be released before deciding its fate.
This is a new era of relationships between fans and studios.
In 2008, Warner Bros had a Muggle revolt when it abruptly postponed the sixth Harry Potter film from a November release to mid-2009 to maximise profit; frustrated fans came after Warner chairman Alan Horn and pledged boycotts when the film reaches theatres.
Fan debate also raged this year with the Warner film Watchmen, the Holy Grail of serious comic-book films, but unlike the old days when a controversy might propel a film for weeks at theatres, this time the movie generated more internet traffic than box-office receipts.
Second-week grosses in the US plummeted 67%.
Chung, for one, has put full faith in Wong, whom she believes has made some controversial changes to make the film a bit more mainstream to new viewers.
Some of the major Dragonball twists include setting the story during Goku's high school years, as well as casting a white actor in the role.
But the biggest: What happened to Goku's towering spikes?The hand-drawn Goku is instantly recognisable for his massive black spiked hair, which juts out as if he has an ebony agave plant growing from his head.
Wong opted for a somewhat more mundane level of spikes for Justin Chatwin's natural light-brown hair.
Chung, for one, said change is good sometimes.
"I mean, you can't make it look ridiculous," the actress said.
"When you're doing close-up shots, and he's wearing a 2ft [61cm] wig, it just looks ridiculous on film.
"It's so different from something that's from a cartoon to something on film.
"It's a completely different world, and it was a huge challenge for James, and I feel like he really overcame."
Chung also believes the cast was well chosen, even though they might not look like their traditional Japanese characters.
The cast includes Emmy Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera) and Asian superstar Chow Yun-Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).
Chung said there were plenty of reasons for fans to give Wong's movie a chance, from the high-intensity action scenes (shot with a Phantom HD camera for frame rapidity that slows combat for a closer view) to the care given to make sure each character got its own fighting style (Chung's Chi Chi, for instance, uses taekwondo, allowing her to "look pretty on the outside, but fight like a dude").
In an unconventional move, Dragonball was released first in Asia, and the film has done well despite bootleg copies hitting the market.
The film passed the $US22 million mark at the end of March, according to Box Office Mojo, and that was without any screenings in South America, North America or most of Europe.
Chung said Dragonball is just beginning its fight to win over fans.
"No-one wants to make a movie that people will hate," Chung said.
"We really want people to enjoy the movie for what it really is and to come in with an open mind and to understand where James Wong was trying to come from.
"Regardless of whether or not the fans will agree with it, they will be entertained."
