Movie Review - 'Dragonball Evolution'

Dragonball Evolution Starring Justin Chatwin, Emmy Rossum, and Chow Yun-Fat Directed by James Wong Rated PG

At its best, Dragonball Evolution is mindless, mostly forgettable camp. At its worst - and this is actually kind of a compliment - it looks inexpensive and poorly edited. That may not sound like high praise, but Dragonball never makes a strong case either way: Should you take any of it seriously or should you recognize how silly this all is and go with it? My inclination is that the attempt was made to make this a more consequential movie somewhere in the middle of the production, because what was fun and mildly amusing for 30 minutes became boring and sullen after a while. For the uninitiated, Dragonball Evolution is an attempt to cash in on a very successful Japanese franchise that began with an animated television show and branched out in a million different directions. This isn't a summation of all of those stories, and that just goes with the territory when studios choose to go down this road, because there is so much to choose from and so little time to fit it all in. I think Dragonball created a fine origin story for its universe - a teenager named Goku (Justin Chatwin) is thrust into the unenviable position of saving the planet from the evil Lord Piccolo (James Marsters), who in addition to being an alien banished from Earth over 2,000 years ago also has the least intimidating name of any villain in years. In order to stop Piccolo, Goku enlists a ragtag group of confederates to track down the seven Dragonballs that, when joined together, allow their possessor to make one perfect wish. You can only imagine what a gray-green guy from space would do with those glowing orbs after being voted off the island two milennia ago. So from a nuts-and-bolts standpoint, the filmmakers have pared down Dragonball into an easily digestible narrative when it could have been a giant mess. I also believe that Justin Chatwin comes across as fairly believable, given the circumstances. It's not a great, towering performance, but he creates sympathy early on. Unfortunately, his is the only character that has much to do, kind of a necessity with the way the story has been boiled down. But that does mean you just get a lot of inane dialogue for most of the other characters, Bulma (Emmy Rossum), Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat), Piccolo, and Chi Chi (Jamie Chung), who is Goku's dream girl, because he needs a dream girl. The thing that keeps gnawing at me is how the film loses its charm so quickly and no matter what it does from that moment, it can't get it back. In a way, Dragonball would be better off if it retained some of the borderline slapstick action of its earlier scenes and asked itself the Joker's pertinent question: "Why so serious?" The film's other major disappointment is the visual effects, which look basic cable circa 1997. Again, if it were more evident that this were campy fun, that would be fine, maybe even ironic. But in reality, it just adds to the confusion.

Comments

[Justin]

Not to nerd out our anything but "began with an animated television show and branched out in a million different directions" isn't really correct.. Dragonball began as a Comic (manga if we're cutting hairs)..

Anyway, that was a better review than I thought it'd get.. The commercials make it look horrible.. So maybe it's worth a rental..

[Asana]

Hahaha... I'm kind of surprised at this review. Are we seeing a kinder, gentler Colin? From all that I've seen of the film so far there's no way I'd see it in a theater. My going out to the movies money is much too precious for even the slightest whiff of crap. So, thank you Mr. Boyd for the due diligence in taking the hit and sitting through all the good, the bad and the ugly that crawls its way onto the big screen and then telling us of it here.

[james007]

it's nice one guy's. Great fun.............. i have seen this movie from given link Download Dragonboll : Evolution.....................................

[maggot216]

Fact of the matter is this. The manga was made for preteen readers. Thus the movie by being rated PG was made for that same audience. The screener that was leaked via Bit torrent didn't do the movie any justice. It cut out the first 10 minutes of the movie for starters. But frankly fan boy bitchiness helped no one. This movie will find it's audience on home video for sure. Lastly face it. the source material is not epic to begin with.

[Rudy]

The director and script writer was really to come this evolution story. Perfect! how to draw goku