Thanks for checking out our Dragonball Evolution review.
THE GENERAL IDEA
Goku sets out on a mission to find the remaining legendary Dragonballs at his adoptive grandfather Gohan’s dying request. Joined by Master Roshi and Bulma, he encounters the evil Lord Piccolo who is also looking for the Dragonballs to take over the world. Legend tells that collecting all eight Dragonballs will grant the collector one perfect wish. Its a pretty basic story. They both want the power to accomplish something great, but the badguy wants it for bad, and the goodguy wants it to stop the badguy.
THE GOOD
Ouch. How do I spell this out. It’s like getting an ugly sweater from your favourite aunt. Here I am expected to write something good about this and I have to do it without trying to sound like I am just being nice.
Honestly, some moments of the action was pretty decent, and the visuals on the tech were pretty well done. The Jetson’s fold-a-bike was awfully nifty and it sure beat the hell out of a floating cloud. Marsters’ Piccolo was menacing and evil. If I didn’t already know I wouldn’t have guessed that it was Marsters playing him.
Other than that I can honestly say they did a good job attempting to please the fans and give them what they wanted while still making the necessary adaptions to the big screen. Not that I feel they accomplished that, but they did make an effort to try.
THE BAD
The limited amount of things I had to say were good about the movie just means I could spend all day talking about what was bad.
Emmy Rossum, easily my favourite of all the actors on this screen was just dry and emotionless. Her attempts to portray a cold tough chick gunslinging treasure hunter just came across as flat and unappealing (two things I would never think could be associated with Rossum). This girl has a smile that can light up a room and it just wasn’t used nearly enough. And Chow Yun-Fat is usually much better than this, and I can’t believe they talked him into all that silly dialouge. Embarrassing.
But most of all I found this movie to be purely un-enjoyable just because it was un-enjoyable. Fans will be quick to label every last inconsistency with the cartoon or manga to try and cut down this production. Hell they even make up stuff that doesn’t matter to cut it down. But fact remains that even just looking at this film from a pure action adventure flick, the movie falls short.
There was no suspense, tension or worry ever presented. Even the teen angsty crush seemed empty. I was never on the edge of my seat wondering if the hero will prevail – even though you know that’s a foregone conclusion, building a sense of impending doom would be nice.
I judged this movie as a movie, not that it was an adaptation. I tried to enjoy it as a stand alone film that didn’t require you to have previous knowledge of the franchise.
Perhaps it relied TOO much on its fanbase which appeared to be its target audience, despite how the trailers indicating this would be a small departure from the cartoon and deliver solid action and adventure.
OVERALL
All Dragonball continuity complaints aside, this movie just doesn’t make for a good adventure film at all. Some action in very small glimpses. Some really decent visuals. Poor everything else. I was originally all up for seeing this, but after some preview footage, I lost all hope. I don’t think it sucks for the reasons the fanboys are hating on it for, I think it just sucks. Period.
I was expecting a popcorn flick, but all I enjoyed was my popcorn.
With its staggering $25m already gathered in overseas markets, and its estimated $6million in North American markets, I would be utterly shocked if this $50million budgeted film gets the sequel they apparently already wrote for it. It just might if they figure they can lure people into the more popular Dragonball Z storyline?
Overall I give Dragonball Evolution a 2 out of 10.
