Dragonball Evolution
posted April 10, 2009 3:26 PM
Not quite ready for prime time
There are seven Dragon Balls, and the wonder they’ve caused has fostered 25 years of manga and cartoons. Yet somehow, this feature film, dedicated pretty wholly to the mystery of said Dragon Balls, can't eke more than 84 thin minutes to contribute to the saga. With its core audience more likely to download it illegally than risk human interaction and disappointment at the multiplex, financial prospects are dismal, which is fair enough for a film that appears to have cost its studio chump change.
If you've come across Dragon Ball either on a lazy, syndicated afternoon, or on a lunch box, or in a vending machine at the grocery store, you'll recognize Goku (Justin Chatwin). You know…the one with the porcupine hair. In the cartoon, he's an alien with a monkey tail. Here, he's a tailless teen who's yet to learn the full extent of his powers. We empathize, though Ben Ramsey's origin myth script isn't cluing us in enough. Goku's grandfather Gohan (Randall Duk Kim) is training him for something, and he's got special powers either developed or innate, but in trying not to bore their fanbase, the film seems to operate on biographical fast forward.
At the midnight screening I attended, I actually enjoyed the opening half hour. Partially, it was the buzz of being in a theatre of diehards who burst into whoops at the opening credits. Chatwin has a gawky confidence that's easy to embrace—even when his character, the bullied school weirdo, speaks school shooter-ese about his ache to wreak vengeance on the thugs who embarrass him in front of crush Chi Chi (Jamie Chung). As grandpa Gohan—a sage who carries himself like a kung fu mystic, speaks like a Nebraska football coach, and literally walks on water—has ordered him to keep his fists of fury a secret, Goku isn't allowed to crack every skull on the football team. But in the film's niftiest bit of fight choreography, Goku employs passive resistance to use his body as a decoy, flipping around his high school attackers and luring them to smash up both their cars and each other.
The fun slows down once the plot kicks in and Goku, PhD biker chick Bulma (Emmy Rossum, oddly), Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat), and stoner surfer trickster Yamcha (Joon Park) must collect the seven dragon balls before the evil Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) and his foxy henchwoman Mai (Eriko Tamura) use the Dragon Balls to destroy the world. That threat doesn't carry the weight it should, in large part due to James Wong's half-hearted direction and visual effects, which have the defanged flatness of an episode of Xena. At worst, the Apocalypse looks like a cheap laser show. The evil villain Piccolo (James Marsters) is a failed Las Vegas Blue Man. It's hard to muster up fear for the end of the civilization when the whole production looks like an hour of network filler. Movies like this make me wonder how on earth Hollywood spends so much on a flick. The budget for Dragonball is rumored to be between $50-$100 million—both numbers seem wildly incredible unless there's a jammed bank account near the Swiss Alps. If it cost that much every time Lucy Lawless came to the rescue, it'd bankrupt Bill Gates.
Luckily, the one other thing Dragonball Evolution shares with TV is its running length. Even though my screening started at 12:05, the credits rolled in time for the disappointed audience to make last call…well, time for those old enough to drink.
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Cast: Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, Joon Park, Chow Yun-Fat, Eriko Tamura,
Director: James Wong
Writer: Ben Ramsey
Producer: Stephen Chow
Genre: Action/Fantasy/Sci-fi
Rating: Rated PG for intense sequences of action/violence and brief mild language.
Running time: 84 min
Release date: April 10, 2009
21 Comments
Leave a comment
rody said:
I will see the Movie first then i will come to say my Comment !!
April 13, 2009 3:58 AM
Czu said:
I left the cinema after the first fight scene. Horrible. Not only does it have little to do with the anime, the movie itself is bad, not even hardcore karate fans could enjoy the crappy special effects.
April 14, 2009 4:37 AM
Will said:
It's bad really bad... that movie is not dragon ball, it got the characters and names but the history, action and fights aren't based on the manga or the anime. And Goku isn't Goku, thats a action hero like hollywood not the kid naive and good-hearted. In the movie piccolo is yelloy not green... ... that movie is an insult to the creation of akira toriyama
April 14, 2009 8:41 AM
Adam said:
I have seen worse movies than this but this was the first attempt at a live action Dragonball movie, so with that in mind I set my expectations pretty low to begin with and was NOT disappointed by the movie as much as everyone else. What I would like to see is the support of the Dragonball community behind a project like this so that if and when they make another one, the production value will be what we Dragonball fans expect. I believe they have the right actors but the script and direction failed the epic saga that is Dragonball.
April 14, 2009 1:17 PM
uzustar said:
i agree with Adam said: because it was their first but they still could of put KRILLIN in it,let the dragon talk and be real long and green,and yamcha should of had black hair atleast and should have been a fighter,goku should of had the tail and should of been HUGE when he transforms,and rochi should not of had hair(atleast)and goku doesnt fly while doing a kamahameha,so besides that it was okay i just hope they do better next time and listen to dbz fans or something
April 15, 2009 10:03 AM
Mitchell Vasallo said:
I'm a huge anime fan. And I always always keep an open mind on movies. Even though this movie could've been 10 times better. They made some effort. The dragonballs looked good. Chi Chi looked hot. Balma was so so. Yamcha looked old. Master Roshi wasn't really much of a comic relief. Goku was lacking a tail, a staff, a lack of origin, wrong origin with Piccolo being envolved in his transformation. Piccolo wasn't much of a presence in the film. Effects couldn't been utilized better than it was. Shin Ron looked lame for a dragon. It wasn't even long enough. What makes a good movie is a great beginning which it lacked. A good solid story which I think was rushed. The ending was good when Chi Chi and Goku were sparring. Even though I was very critical. It was 100 times better than Street fighter with Jean Claude Van Damme.
April 17, 2009 1:33 AM
tommy said:
havent seen it but plan to im a huge dragonball fan if anyone wants any ideas for the next one call me
April 17, 2009 8:07 AM
Jasmine said:
I am a huge Dragon Ball fan, but from the trailer and everything I've read about it and seen for myself. I am already disappointed. I'm debating on whether to go see it, because I don't want to see something I love totally screwed up. I've watched this anime and read the manga since I was a little girl and I still enjoy it and forever will. I am glad they made a movie like this, but with that said I think it should have been done better and more time spent with it and the story line stuck with, I mean it's all written out and everything. I don't like this teenage crap w/ parties and what not.
April 17, 2009 5:10 PM
reddragon162 said:
The movie had a great setup, but a failed execution. When they set about making the movie, they knew that the people who were going to pay money to see it were mainly fans of the core material. That being said, they should have stuck much closer to the core material than they did. Bulma's performance seemed forced at time (WAY too trigger-happy), but I found her much more physically attractive than Chi-Chi, who was just another good looking yet bland Asian girl that we've all seen in movies as of late. The final battle and end of movie resolution was far too rushed. While I thought that the setup at the beginning wasn't too long, they should have cut to the chase and had the final battle drag out. Goku won far too easily, and the ending when he sparred against Chi-Chi seemed overly award and unnecessary. Its as if the script was written by me when I'm fighting writer's block.
All in all, if you have free time that you don't know what to do with, the movie is worth the price of a matinee ticket. Fans owe it to themselves to at least see the special effects on the big screen.
April 18, 2009 8:46 AM
ndragon said:
i am hurried to see this movie
April 18, 2009 12:44 PM
Akira Media said:
I saw this movie and have to say it was great!
And if people don't give it a chance in theatre then they don't have the right to comment and can't call them self’s real Dragonball fans Akira Toriyama approved of this movie and the so called fans don't seem to get that, and what would you rather watch the original dragonball live action movie with bad effects, acting and story or this? I think most so called fans are just angry that the budget wasn't spent on a new series and taking it out on the film, nut what needs to be realised is that Akira Toriyama doesn't want to make more Dragonball as he wants to move on with his life and that is fare to understand, going back to the movie Justin and the others act amazing in this movie and do bring the Dragonball feeling to it,
So if you haven't seen it then you don't have the right to comment,
April 19, 2009 4:38 AM
j said:
all i want to say is that it was a waste of money and you shouldnt watch it.. it was so lame
April 19, 2009 4:36 PM
hmm said:
1) Low-budget film so dont expect crazy special effects, or anything of a huge box office movie such as transformers...
2) Adaptation, doesnt have to follow the anime or manga. IT IS AN ADAPTATION.
April 20, 2009 10:45 PM
Sonikdude750 said:
This movie made me laugh so hard, it's just impossible to take seriously. We had planned to see the midnight release of it and make fun of it (we knew from the trailers it'd be bad), but I decided to watch the bootleg online a few months before it came out in the US and realized how bad it really was.
Acting; Horrible. Special Effects; Horrible. Seriously, the whole thing seems like it's made by a film club at our local community college.
Don't spend money on this, period. If you really want to see it, go to tv-links or some other place for the bootleg.
Or watch this fanmade live-action DBZ vid, which was made a year or so ago. This alone is 100 times better than Evolution and shows that it IS POSSIBLE to do a live action Dragonball.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KTHAy9L24g
April 22, 2009 10:09 PM
Nice!!!™ said:
rody's right
April 25, 2009 6:25 AM
jennie said:
I actually like then movie. i dont understand why people put down movies as if its not fun to watch it and co9me 12 dollar movies is not hurting your pockets
April 26, 2009 7:33 AM
shir smoke said:
It was a great movie and if u dont like it u aint no dragon ball Z fan..............
April 27, 2009 9:31 PM
rob said:
iight wel for me this movie was really a waste of time! i mean come on there were soooo many mess ups that i was piss off from the begining.. with the whole goku cant fly and the kamhamaha being a nice lil fire ball?? come on wheres the boom and the crazy fast speed fighting? the teliports and exc. the dragon dont even talk and its real small when in the real cartoon its super long and pretty scarey when dis lil thing is like a lizerd or something.. i just hope the next one they make is alot better!!! oh and bring alot more charaters to it too!!!
May 7, 2009 7:09 PM
Ramon said:
I like the movie I guess because iam a Dragonballz fan. I feel sorry for the peeps that watch this movie whos never been a DBZ fan.
June 1, 2009 9:50 PM
J said:
Needs a gritty goku like keanu reeves, a trilogy should definatly be ob the table. About time a films been done thou. 3/5-4/5.
October 25, 2009 12:19 PM
nabeel said:
iwant to act in dragonball z hollywood film
i like it most
contact me on nabeel36@ymail.com
November 14, 2009 5:36 AM