Dragonball: Evolution, released on April 10, 2009 is the first live-action adaptation of the popular anime TV series Dragonball. Written and directed by James Wong, and starring Justin Chatwin as Goku, Dragonball: Evolution delivers a fun and simple action story for all ages.
If you’re walking into this movie expecting an Emmy Award winner, just remember what this film is derived from: Dragonball. DBE reiterates the same message that the anime always does: never give up and remember who you are.
DBE’s story stays closely related to that of the amine. It’s about a kid named Goku who aquires new friends in search of Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat) and seven magical Dragonballs. On Goku’s travels he finds much about himself and discovers he is the key to saving the world from the evil Lord Piccolo (James Marsters).
Overcoming the cheesy acting associated with Dragonball is a tough feat to overcome. Fortunately, a few of the characters, such as Bulma (Emmy Rossum), Chi Chi (Jamie Chung), and Goku delivered a much more believable performance than I anticipated.
To categorize this movie as an action flick would be an overstatement. Much of the movie is spent focused around a subpar plot that involves fulfilling Goku’s grandpa’s last request. The few action scenes that took place were shot-lived. And with the unlimited potential in conducting a fight with Goku, each fight seemed limited.
Along with the plot, character development had very little depth. Everything and everyone in the story was just thrown into viewers’ laps without much explanation. The only character progression involves Goku, but his progression to was limited.
Although there seems to be significant downfalls in DBE, it is not a terrible movie. Remembering what audience it is aimed at, children and Dragonball fans, DBE does the job as a movie that will attract these types of audience.
To children this movie will be a blast; it is easy to comprehend, has magical elements to it, and has fight scenes that children will love. It is a short film that runs at 85 minutes, perfect for the attention span of a child. Also, there are no sexual themes and no swearing, just a little bit of fantasy violence.
For anybody with some downtime and/or a little brother that they’d like to do something nice for, go check this movie out. It’s a fast, fun, and can be fairly entertaining if you don’t look too deep into the film.
This movie gets a homerun in the Pee Wee leagues of Box office baseball. As for the Big Leagues of Box Office Baseball, it just got a base hit.
