Dragonball Evolution is a live-action movie based on the adaption of Japanese popular manga Dragon Ball. The movie is slated to open on March 12, 2009 in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. In the United States, the movie is due to be released on April 8, 2009.
SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Justin Chatwin and Emmy Rossum as Goku and Bulma in "Dragonball Evolution"
Dragonball Evolution starts with Goku (Justin Chatwin) as an American Teenager who goes to high school in modern days. He lives with his grandfather, Gohan (Randall Duk Kim) in a huge mansion and practice martial arts with him. In school, Goku is an outcast because he is different and because his grandpa strongly advises him against starting a fight.
Meanwhile, Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) is freed after being sealed for 2,000 years by a group of masters. However, the movie didn’t state how Piccolo manage to escape. Together with his sidekick, Mai (Eriko Tamura), they travel in their spaceship to search for Dragonballs.
When Goku’s love interest at high school, Chi Chi (Jamie Chung) invites him to a party, he immediately agrees. It happens to be Goku’s birthday, who shares the same birthday as his grandpa. At the entrance to the party, Goku faces challenges from the school bullies. As he has promised his grandpa not to fight, he causes the gangsters to fight among themselves instead by dodging their every moves. Chi Chi is surprised and impressed by Goku and she wants to confess her real identity before Goku leaves in a hurry after sensing something wrong’s happening to his grandpa.
True indeed, when he reaches home, his house has collapsed and his grandpa is dying. Gohan tells his grandson about Piccolo’s release and his intention and to find Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat), as well as to find all the seven Dragonballs as the only way to capture Piccolo. As Goku’s grandpa passes away, an invader comes to the collapsed house searching for a 5-star Dragonball stolen by Piccolo. Her name is Bulma (Emmy Rossum) and she almost kills Goku since she has suspected Goku to be the thief. Only after Goku shows her his Dragonball (a birthday gift from his grandpa) has 4-star instead of 5, Bulma is convinced there are other Dragonballs and decides to find all of them so that she can fulfill her dream of becoming famous. Goku, on the other hand, invites Bulma to join his search for Dragonballs to stop Piccolo.
Despite the failure to find Master Roshi from the phone directory, an accidental encounter from the Dragonball radar puts Goku, Bulma and Master Roshi under the same roof. When Goku tells Roshi that Gohan has passed away and Piccolo is freed, they embark on a journey to find the remaining Dragonballs. While, traveling in the desert, they fall into a giant hole. Yamcha (Joon Park) finds them and offers to help them in return for some money. While Goku’s attempt to fly up fail each time, Master Roshi has little problem in doing that. But, once Roshi is up, Bulma’s radar has detected a Dragonball nearby.
As they continue their magical journey, Piccolo continues to watch over them and Mai manages to steal the Dragonballs by disguising as Chi Chi after getting a sample of her blood in a martial arts tournament. Before Piccolo manages to summon Shen Long, Goku and gang manages to reach there in time to stop him. But, they have a price to pay as Master Roshi dies in the hand of Goku when Goku turns into a monstrous monkey as the eclipse arrives. However, due to his strong will and determination, he transforms back into human form and manages to defeat Piccolo. In the end, Goku uses the seven Dragonballs to grant Master Roshi or Muten Roshi (as he likes to call himself) his life back.
After the credits have ended, it is shown that Piccolo is still alive and is being treated by a beautiful Japanese woman whose life has been spared by Piccolo during the search for Dragonball.
While, the movie challenges the norm and takes us to the modern era, fans of Dragon Ball will surely be disappointed by this live-action film. It’s almost like watching an hour and a half of Power Rangers, you know — high school, superheroes with hidden super powers, monsters, martial arts. You’ll get what I mean. Besides Piccolo’s realistically identical to the real character, Yamcha’s voice is amazingly same like the cartoon itself. Other than that, everything else is so mixed up — white boy as Goku, studies in an American high school which is located within the same area as some Japanese houses and temples and the likes. While, the effects is more than mediocre, and the actresses picked are hot and sexy, the way the epic saga is packed into an 85-minute film is just not right. Why the rush when the movie can be made into an epic like The Lord of the Rings? Even though the ending of the film gives us a hint there will be a possible sequel, it is perhaps a good way to tell us to avoid it. Just wait for The Hobbits for something truly epic, no more comic adaption movies besides Marvel’s.
My ratings: 6 out of 10.
Popularity: 1%
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7 comments ↓
Great review,
The movie has been released here here at Malaysia yesterday.
But Ive not yet have a time to get to cinema..
will try to watch them tomorrow..
I love the Dragonball tales, and am sure I will really enjoy this movie once it is flighted in SOuth Africa, or becomes available on DVD.
This Movie plain and simple insults our intelligence, I mean I’m no Geek, but tham they were way off!, this should not even be called dragonball, because of stupid 20th Century Fox, now dragonball is ruined, if someone wanted to make a better movie with the real story that Akira Toriyama made, they made so many changes and mistakes that the dragonball that we know is gone forever, on Watchmen they made some changes but only so the essence of the show could be shown on film, but Dragonball is dead they killed it, I’m sorry Akira Toriyama they ruined your work and about every Anime , and dbz fan out there.
It is illogical to spend the money on copyrights if you’re not even going to use the story.
Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network, originally disgusted at Otaku decrying the film via leaked set shots and trailers even before the movie was released, gave the movie an overall F grade, admitting that “The fans were right.” Criticizing the films lack of explaining plot elements to its hackmead storyline and lackluster effort by the actors, he suggested that the film “Might be fun when you’re hammered and surrounded by friends. Or suicidal, and need something to push you over the edge.”
I’ve been a fan of dragonball ever since I was about 6 years old, (now im 19) and just having seen the comercials for it for the first time today, I am so disappointed. I feel bad for the creator of dragonball. If I were to make an epic story or anything id make sure if someone wanted to make a movie, they’d do it right the first time. Just like the golden compass. I was disappointed because you can’t put a book that big into that short of a film. They did a pretty good job, but movies nowdays are so childish anyways that I refuse to go see them for money, id rather see them bootlegged for free. Ill probably see this abomination sooner or later, but I suspect I won’t like it. Very disappointing that america thinks they can mark their territory on anything special to someone else.
[...] Dragonball Evolution (2009) – Movie Review [...]
basically, im disappointed with the movie. i am a dbz fan. i really did not expect that the movie will adopt the real stotyline of dbz. but i was expecting a different twist in the story. but they failed to build the excitement. Yes, everything got so mixed up. Goku’s character was a huge question mark. what character was he trying to portray? or shud we just blame it on the actor’s bad acting? both. the reason why they go so mixed up because they were not able to focus on who their target audience will be. if they’re aiming for the REAL dbz fanatics, they could have made the story deeper & make it a sequel. there are a lot of dbz fans out there. (all disappointed i guess) i guess they aimed for kids. coz its so power rangery. Poor direction. Poor storyline. Graphics was not bad. Bulma was ok. Yamcha?? nevermind. piccolo was umm..green. roshi was corny. chi-chi was pretty and showed her boobs all the time. the dragon was like a lizard (Man, the dragon should be massive and godlike! what’s the title of the movie pls?). what happend to the “KAMEHAMEHA”? Oh man. if i continue this, i might go to hell haha. let’s not make an excuse like “the epic saga is too long to fit in a movie”. No. the length of the sequel & story should not be a hindrance to be able to come up with a good movie. its just a matter of CREATIVITY and PLANNING ina a long term basis. ciao.
omg i turned this on thinking it would be good i have been a fan all my life ive watched every single episode up until the final tear jerker.
they could have shortened any sage or just made up a new one to go in between the year gaps in the series.
i believe their were 2-4 years in between the androids and the cell games but i could be wrong i use to have the dates memorized.
in this movie they said “and on your 18th birthday you are to turn into osaru” WTF?!!? his real name WAS NOT osaru it was Cakarot and he could only transform when he had his tail and then he certainyl wasnt the size of your average human being he was king kong with a tail!
in the series he didnt have his tail during the arena battle with piccolo. ARENA battle.
he wasnt dumped on earth to be piccolos slave. he was sent out from his planet by his father Bardock when the planet was moments from being destroyed. the dragon was a gecko compared to what it was suppose to be. it didnt talk like it was suppose to “what is your wish?”
they should have talked to the REAL fans instead of getting corny actors that try to make it as cruddy as possible. i was disgusted.
their was never a way to “talk him out of it” roshi was BALD not a guy with a full head of hair.
yamcha…where to start with where they screwed him up.
where was tien and chow su? or the little cat or oolong?
goku and chi chi were engaged since they were kids!! she always bossed him around and he acted like an adorable little kid.
there was no excitement like the show, no draw, just disappointment after disappointment. i kept watching….hoping but it just got worse….horrible.
10 thumbs down.
even ppl that have never seen the cartoon would hate this because they try to put in a corny “we can barely afford the props” kind of way.
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