This review originally appeared on Arse-bot’s DVD Examiner site.
In the late 1990’s Japanese Animation flooded the American airwaves. From more toned down shows geared towards kids -Hamtaro comes to mind- to more adult oriented anime such as Gundam and Big O, these Japanese shows were incredibly popular and if you were a kid watching cartoons during this time chances are you were exposed to the genre in one form or another. Perhaps one of the most popular of these anime shows was Dragonball (or more specifically, Dragonball Z), the beloved show created by Akira Toriyama, which follows Goku and his friends going on countless adventures, most of which pertaining to the fabled seven Dragon Balls in one way or another. Personally, I was one of those sucked in by this “new” Dragonball show -which aired during Cartoon Network’s “Toonami” and “Adult Swim” blocks- and eventually found myself making my way through most of the 300 episodes and movies. While at this point in my life I have lost most interest in anime, Dragonball has always held a special place in my childhood as the cartoon that bridged that gap of being too old to thoroughly enjoy current Saturday morning cartoons, but still longing for some epic animated adventure. I always figured it would be a matter of time before Hollywood got its grubby hands on this beloved show.
I must admit, I was one of those fans. One of the people that -as optimistic as I honestly tried to be- was less than impressed with any screen cap, leaked photo, and trailer that hit the internet. As my hope diminished so did my ability to hold back my disdain for all material released, I finally got to the point I just eventually gave up even following what was going on with regards to the development of the film. I skipped seeing Dragonball: Evolution in theaters, I haven’t been watching for it to come out on DVD; but when a review copy came across my desk, I couldn’t resist, I had to know, “Is it that bad?”
Yes.
And then some. What happened here with Dragonball: Evolution is an unfortunate scenario that we see all to often in Hollywood. A bunch of execs get their hands on some potentially high quality source material then proceed to strip it of everything that was loved about it and produce a product that barely even resembles what it once was. Before I get carried away as to why this movie was just so bad, allow me to try to sum up the “plot” for you:
2000 years ago an alien names Piccolo and a giant monkey named Oozaru destroyed much of the earth, but were then captured in a Urn by some monks. Flash forward to “present day” and we have Goku who is training with his grandfather Gohan. Goku is “special” and is picked on by classic movie bullies at school because apparently he is a geek (despite the fact that he looks like he could fit right in with said assailants). Eventually, while at Chi-Chi’s sweet high school house party, the bullies are disposed of. But while Goku is away getting frisky with Chi-Chi, Gohan is attacked by Piccolo and dies in Goku’s arms once he gets there. What then proceeds to happen in this train-wreck of a movie is characters such as Bulma, Yamcha, and Master Roshi are introduced, given really bad lines, thrown into some really bad CG environments, and forced to participate in less than spectacular fight scenes… all on the way to collecting the seven Dragonballs before Piccolo does which will bring about the end of the world. The movie culminates in Goku turning into Oozaru (which shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the anime series) via some sub-par animation, then turning back through sheer will to throw a laughable Kamehameha at Piccolo, putting an end to his threat. Though, before the credits roll, they set it up for a sequel -that probably won’t happen- and have a “flirty” fight between Goku and Chi-Chi.
There is a lot wrong with this movie, but where they really went wrong with Dragonball: Evolution is with the script and the scale of the film. There were a lot of elements of the original Dragonball series and the follow up series, Dragonball Z, mixed together and what happened is the writers seemed to cram in hundreds of episodes worth of material into a 90 minute “action comedy” with hopes of pandering to a young crowd. Neither those familiar with Dragonball or those with no former knowledge of the series were acknowledged in the making of this film. Those walking off the streets not know a thing about Goku or the source material will probably just be absolutely baffled at the movie playing before them; nothing is explained clearly, -or in some cases, at all– there is next to no motivation for the actions of the characters, all in all, nothing to familiarize the beginner with Dragonball lore. As far as fans of the original manga and anime are concerned, it should only take about 5-10 minutes before they begin to become increasingly irate at how far off the path from the source material Dragonball: Evolution actually goes. It’s almost as if 20th Century Fox wanted to see just how far away from the original manga and anime they could take a live-action version of Dragonball without having to actually no longer call it “Dragonball”. If that were the case, they walked right up to the line and planted their feet firmly on top of it.
The script is full of plot holes and inexcuseable inconsistencies. For instance, at one point Master Roshi reveals that he can fly, but a short time later in the film he can’t figure out how to cross a lava pond. Fly maybe? The scale of Dragonball: Evolution is embarrassing; the locations and sets all just felt crammed, a far cry from the vast landscapes that are so dominant in the original anime series. The fight scenes were also toned down and boring, not even close to scale as they should have been. They were brief, uninspired, and hardly resembled the epic showdowns that Dragonball is known for.
Justin Chatwin and Emily Rossum seem to try to do what they can with the dialogue, but executing 90% of the lines in this movie with quality would prove to be nearly impossible. All the other actors involved with the film suffer from the same, which is too bad being that several of these actors have all been in movies that I enjoyed and put up decent performances. As I stated before, the special effects leave something to be desired and how they portrayed Goku’s infamous Kamehameha was insulting.
To sum it all up, Dragonball: Evolution was as bad as all the fanboys knew it was going to be and the cautiously optimistic fans feared it would be. The only things resembling the source material were the names of characters and places, most everything else seemed to just be thrown out the window when 20th Century Fox purchased the rights to make Dragonball into a film. Young kids who are just wanting to be entertained by a short, fast paced movie with lots of “action” may be the ones most entertained by this movie, but my guess is that anyone that has more than one digit in their age will likely not enjoy Dragonball: Evolution. Overall, it seems this film apeals to nobody, and yet, there are “talks” of actually making the sequel that the first film sets up, which absolutely blows me away. I went into watching this film with the lowest expectations I could possibly find, and yet, I was still appauled at just how bad this was.
Pass on this film, in every format.
If you feel that I have been over critical or unfair at just how awful this film was, please, feel free to check out Dragonball: Evolution for yourself.