Dragonball Evolution Review

Dragonball Evolution opened here in cinemas today, 12th March 2009. I've been tracking the progress of the movie since its official announcement from 20th Century Fox back in 2007. I remember back then, most of the fans were still really doubtful of the actual realisation of the movie, since no actual ground work took place although the licence for the movie was acquired back in 2002. Everything were just smoke and mirrors, till James Wong was appointed the director and more excitingly, Stephen Chow as the producer.

Having walked out of the theater less than an hour ago, I have really strong emotions about this movie. As a kid and teenager in the late 80s and early 90s, I practically grew up with Dragonball. I owned the manga, bought all the movies, and heck I made my own Saiyanjin scouter. Spent a mini fortune on those darn Dragonball cards too. So naturally, I was more than excited when the movie adaptation was given the green light.

I'm not one of those skeptics who scowled at the fact that Goku was going to be played by a caucasian. My perspective is that this wasn't going to be the Dragonball we know, and that it is only based on the series which possibly spawned the most successful anime franchise of all time. Thus, I'm aware of all the changes and will accept them, as long as the characters stay true to the original, and that the overall experience of the movie will still retain the feel of the series, and staying to the roots which have captured so many hearts around the world.

I advise that unless you want to be spoiled for the movie, refrain from reading any further. My thoughts on the movie will inadvertably be full of spoilers for those yet to see the movie, although reading on might lower your expectations a little so the movie might turn out to be more entertaining.

Here goes the hard truth. For the loyal fans expecting the Dragonball story and the characters you've loved for years, you will be sorely disappointed. The movie is only 89 minutes long, and there is a lot to tell within such a short duration. The audience are generally split into half: those who know Dragonball, and those who don't. For those who have never heard of the series, they will be hard pressed trying to piece the pieces together to form a coherent picture and storyline. The entire plot isn't built up properly, and leaves the casual viewer with more questions than answers. It felt simpler than the manga, but somehow more disorganised and stiched up abruptly. Scenes felt forced, and made worse by the horrible writing, with dialogue so bad and cheesy my ears almost bled. Yes, the lines are that terrible.

The acting left much to be desired about as well. Main culprit, sadly is Goku. While I have no problems with Justin Chatwin, whom I think does well in appearance as a live version of the protagonist, he really does need to work on his acting skills. Dialogues seem dead, and his expressions are limited. That's not the bad part too. The sad thing is that the Goku in the manga and anime, you won't find him in the movie. Yes, he's a student in high school as opposed to a wild child living in the woods, but I can accept that. All I needed was for him to be in character, sharing the same traits and having the same values and charisma as the original Goku. Well, that seemed to be too difficult to adopt, according to James Wong.

Of course, there are instances where Justin seemed totally Goku. The way he asked Bulma when they met for the first time "Are you Piccolo?", was awesome. That's one of my favourite scenes in the entire movie. The way he interacted with Bulma and how he ate and offered the huge drumstick, that was Goku. Though, the similarities end there. The original Goku was confident, yet naive. He was serious, hardworking, and never gave up. There wasn't really any romance with Chi Chi, since he couldn't understand the concept of love and couldn't even tell the difference between girls and monsters. The movie version? Serious, but always at the wrong time. Cheats in training, gets his ass kicked by a girl, and getting close to Chi Chi as a motivation for training? Right.

The plot lends itself to too many changes as well, many unnecessary and this is another aspect which most fans will get pissed off upon. The movie stated that 2000 years ago, Piccolo and his servant Oozaru dominated the Earth and cause chaos and disorder upon mankind. So..... the Saiyanjin colony sent someone to Earth that long ago, and this particular Saiyanjin became the slave of a Namek seijin? The movie never really answered this, and only left the viewers with the best answer they could come up with: The Prophecy. It doesn't work this way, and both types of audiences, fan or not, can't possibly accept this as an explaination.

Yes, several elements were retained, such as the Mafuuba and the Kamehameha. But I didn't buy Roshi's explainations, nor how he executed his version of the Kamehameha, which was for some reason not blue in colour. Goku's version was better, but the classic poses were replaced by fancy tai-chi stances. Not good, since little things like these ought to please the long term fans better.

Piccolo and Mai had virtually no backstory, nor did the existance of the Dragonballs. Chi Chi, was another character which was almost totally out of character. Not as feisty as the original, and too direct. The original was shy, but would almost kick Goku's ass unless he married her (long story). Dragonball Evolution tries to hard to make the romance a key aspect of the show, but really, Goku didn't need love. Not at this stage.

I would say that Roshi and Yamcha, are the ones which were more or less similar to their original counterparts. Roshi still remains a pervert, but wouldn't let Bulma's verbal threats stop him from grabbing her ass. Yamcha, still a thief, had some of the worsts lines of the movie, including this awkward romantic scene with Bulma. Maybe they wanted to retain the love-hate relationship between Bulma and Yamcha in the manga, but Yamcha was never this direct and good with girls. And did Roshi just resurrected Goku with a Kamehameha? That doesn't make sense at all, and Goku shouldn't even have been knocked out by a gun, much less on the verge of death.

Flashy and awesome CGI was promised, yet somehow I must have missed all that. The slow motion sequences had no meaning, and were used purely to try and impress the viewers. The wire-fu was much too obvious, and no one would have thought that this was a Dragonball movie. I was hoping that the fights would stay true to Dragonball, with staring contests, strength demonstrations, the usual evil grin and thrashing of the hero, flashing speed attacks, and over the top ki blasts. And none of this happened. Give me the fight between Goku and Vegeta, or Freeza anyday over this. In short, no aspect of the classic Dragonball bouts are found in the movie.

It could have been so much more with the fiights. At least let Goku and Piccolo go head to head with clashing fists before Piccolo showing a grin and sending Goku into the boulders and appearing behind him using super speed. None, and Goku's final Kamehameha looked nothing like the original. The final fight is one of the most anti-climax fights I've ever seen in any movie, and Piccolo should just hide in a cave in shame if there ever is a sequel (trilogy plans yes, but if this movie fails too hard......).

I've written pretty much now, and to conclude I would say that while you may or may not be a Dragonball fan, it's going to be hard to accept this movie. I'm not as pissed off with it as with Spider-man 3, but that's probably because I didn't expect much from this anyway. It failed harder than I could have expected, and I leave the theatre shaking my head in disbelief, with my wife nagging about wasting both time and money. And guess what, I actually agree with her. See this movie if you love to hate, and to see for youself how not to do a live action Dragonball film.