Before it was the popular 1990′s anime series Dragon Ball Z, the Dragon Ball franchise started off as a Japanese comic book in 1984. If the title doesn’t make it obvious enough, Evolution is a live action film (loosely) based on the first volumes of the original comic. What this means is that fans of the original manga are now balding their way through their 30′s, whilst fans of the anime are probably drinking away their prime in their 20′s.
Yet Evolution seems to be more concerned with recruiting the testosterone troubled boys of today than it is rewarding fans of yesteryear. The 150+ anime episodes (of the original series) have been heavily truncated, and repackaged, into an 85 minute film fit for the attention span of a teenager. This would be fine if the film didn’t feel as though it required its audience to have prior knowledge of the Dragon Ball universe to make any real sense of it all. The plot is simple enough to grasp, but the film launches its audience head first into a muddling universe which surely requires you to be a Dragon Ball enthusiast to truly understand its many nuances. For those who are not fans and are over the age of 14, Evolution comes across as a mildly enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable, B-grade action flick.
The story itself revolves around high school outcast Goku (Justin Chatwin), trained to fight by his grandfather Gohan (Randall Duk Kim), who gives him an orange-glowing Dragon Ball for his 18th birthday. The ball is one of seven, which when combined, grants the bearer a single ‘perfect’ wish. However Goku’s birthday celebrations are cut short when the evil alien Piccolo (James Marsters) attempts collect the Dragon Balls, and use them to bring forth the apocalypse. With the help of his grandfather’s mentor Roshi and his ragtag gang of fighter friends, Goku must stop Piccolo before he collects all seven Dragon Balls.
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Aside from being diluted with the Hollywood treatment, Evolution powers through the general story of the original anime like it’s stuck in fast forward; there’s simply no time for explanations or deeper developments. Anyone who has seen the Dragon Ball series would notice the irony of this; the anime is often mocked for its painfully drawn out sequences that would see a single battle span several episodes. However, Evolution goes too far in the other direction; characters are plucked from thin air and important plot points are reduced to mere sentences. Hell, the guy practically wins over the girl within the first 10 minutes. Where’s the fun in that?
Although, young teenagers are unlikely to mind. With its rapid-fire progression, the film’s pacing certainly won’t bore and there is an abundance of colourful effects to please young eyes. Some fights are also quite thrilling, despite being edited to disorientate. As long as the film isn’t trying to draw emotion from Justin Chatwin, he’s quite amicable as the film’s title character Goku. However, Joon Park and Emmy Rossum as Goku’s sidekicks Yamcha and Bulma are endlessly cringe-worthy in support; if their dialogue was the cheese, my ears felt like the grater.
Ultimately, DragonBall Evolution isn’t able to decide on who it wants to please. It’s enjoyable enough as a standalone action film for teens, but not likely to be memorable or engaging enough to create new fans out of them. For long-time fans of the original series that have patiently waited for a live action Dragon Ball film, the campiness of Evolution is likely to leave you feeling unsatisfied, as the comic/anime you grew up with hasn’t managed to return the favour and grow up with you.
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How was James Marsters?
Posted on April 7th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
He was fine, although he didn't have much of a role…just was required to look evil, but the mask mostly did that for him. What has he been in before that made you ask?
Posted on April 7th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Marsters doesn't get enough screen time to do anything but grimace.
Posted on April 8th, 2009 at 5:19 am
I'm honestly amazed you gave this a 2 1/2. That's giving it TOO much credit. Joon Park's dialogue alone makes this movie one of the worst one's of the year, in my opinion. Joon's career is not off to a good start, being in two flops already (This and Speed Racer)
Posted on April 8th, 2009 at 6:10 am
I gave the film 2 1/2 because i still think it's a reasonable film for kids/teens.
It has some solid action, decent effects and is well paced (for a young audience). It's important to remember that I'm not the target audience, even though I probably should have been.
There is a lot not to like, including the dialogue, but I give the film credit for not being a total disaster.
Posted on April 8th, 2009 at 8:51 am
it between 2 and 3 stars which I agree with. I am a fan of the anime. And why this adaptation is not satisfying and it cut way to much out, it did serve to be entertaining.
Hopefully if there a sequel they will learn there lesson and add a monologue or two in the film and make some of the fight sequences design disorientate less and or a larger scale and they concentrate a little more on the other characters.
I certainly think it be interest to see how they going to evolve piccolo character into the good and great friends with Goku character and helps defends the earth, which he eventually becomes.
Posted on April 9th, 2009 at 12:56 am
This movie is shit. They didn't even try. I hope this waste of time and money bombs so bad that it ruins the careers of EVERYONE involved. I'm serious. I cant think of any way that someone could have given a bigger f*** you to the generation of us here in america that actually MADE DB and DBZ as f****** huge as they became. You should have been making this for us assholes. Now I hope you get what you've got coming to you.
Posted on April 11th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
The film was exactly what I expected. It wasn't a bad movie, but it certainly was not a GREAT movie, overall I gave it a 7 out of 10, or a C+. Now, let's talk about Justin's part of Goku, believe it or not he actualy did pretty good. Yes I know that THAT Goku is not the same as the Goku we all know, but think about it, imagine a 17 year old who doesn't know what a girl is and runs around school touching everyone's lower parts to find out what they are, yeah right. Justin made Goku into a more believable 17 year old teenager. Bulma's role was nailed down, she indeed is a lovable bitch, and c'mon what the hell is the hair nonsense, is it really that important? At least she had a some green. Anyways, I think the movie did well in what it was supposed to do, AN INTRODUCTION of things to come, I'm pretty sure that Dragon Ball 2 will have all the brutal fighting most fans thought they where going to see. Like I said, HEY IT'S DRAGON BALL WHAT WERE YOU EXPECTING A SUPER SAIYAN? If you havn't seen DRAGON BALL, not DRAGON BALL Z, then zip it!!
Posted on April 13th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
I think you're looking too lowly on teenagers. They're not all mindless idiots. And this movie didn't have an audience, really. It changed and/or mutilated the original story so much that not even DB fans could follow it (too busy crying).
Posted on May 4th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Thanks for the comment Nick.
If we're talking about teenagers 15+, then yes, I agree…this is abit to kitch for them as well. But the 13-15 year old teens is the ones i see the film targeting. I obviously can only speak from experience, but at 13, I probably would have enjoyed a film like this; fast, quirky and action packed. This is not a film for adults, or longtime fans, which I think was the wrong way to go about the film.
Posted on May 4th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I would gladly eat my own liver raw than sit through this film again. And here's why…
firstly it did not have one iota of consistency throughout the whole thing. I mean the big evil green guy who supposedly nearly wiped out mankind was s**t. he got killed easily and out a whole universe of evil sidekicks he picks a woman who obviously cant beat up an 18 year old kid.
Any attempt to build suspense was shot to pieces in a matter of seconds. 'oh he can't do this magic technique… His master says something… WOW he can do the technique better than anyone on earth. THAT'S AMAZING!!!'
And at the start they neglected to mention that evil green mans sidekick woman could shapeshift. or was that a lazy last minute plot-hole fixer? i think so.
It payed literally no homage to the dragonball legacy and for that i think every fan should rally together and burn every scrap of evidence that this film was ever made. This includes the bodies of all the actors, directors, producers and even tea-boys on the set of this monstrosity.
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 9:08 am
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