Dragonball Evolution (Movie Review)
No, hair grease doesn't help Goku's hairstyle. That myth was debunked during the movie. Seriously.
Let’s get this straight right now. If you’re a die-hard fan of the DragonBall series in general, you might not like this new direction the movie goes in. This movie takes the ideals that DB was founded on and remixes it into a completely new idea in an attempt to Americanize the franchise. If you can’t stomach the idea of not seeing every character and not seeing all the details held to the strictest standards… don’t bother to see this movie. Seriously, you’ll walk out upset and ready to fight. If you can’t be open-minded to a new take on an old favorite, just skip this.
The producers probably realized early on that there’s no way to reproduce a hyper-animated Anime into a live-action movie perfectly, so they didn’t even try. They decided to go a different route. But did the “original” route they chose pay off?
Well…yes and no. It’s really a toss-up, depending on what angle you approach it. Most of the characters you remember from the beginning of the DragonBall series are present (except Krillin…maybe next movie lil’ buddy), and surprisingly enough, the acting is actually pretty solid in the movie. The character interactions were also pretty well done for the most part (especially Goku and Chi-Chi). Goku retains his sarcastic nature from the cartoon, and it’s fun watching him actually comment on things during the movie.
For the most part.
Regardless what some people might think, they actually did pay attention to some small details. From explaining the DragonBall radar, to Goku’s orange and blue hoodie, to Master Roshi’s, um, “fascination” with women and skin mags, there’s several little nuggets of detail that DBZ fans will catch while watching the movie. This is including how the final confrontation morphs to the traditional “rock wasteland” arena.
Unfortunately, it’s the imbalance of details which start the rockslide of problems afflicting this movie, even from an unbias standpoint. The movie never explains fully the origin of Goku, or where he came from. It expects DBZ fans to automatically fill in the blanks (and I did), but that’s a movie no-no. Always explain the movie, because it makes the experience more enjoyable. Besides, you never know who might see the movie for the first time… right?
The producers attempted to remix things that didn’t need to be remixed into a new idea. The perfect example of this is the final battle between Goku and Piccolo. The showdown has a huge build-up, and a devestating letdown as far as a climax to an “epic” fight scene (I use the term “epic” loosely) to the point it leaves a sour taste in your mouth. If you are mildly a fan of the DBZ series, you’ll realize the golden moment wasted when Goko performs his final Kamahameha.
…….Ugh…
Other problematic add-ons: The fight scenes rank from “OK” to “Corny” to “Unbelievably corny”, and are only saved by the well-placed slow-motion effects at times. The Ki/energy effects look unpolished and unbelievably fake most of the time until the last scene where it FINALLY looks tolerable. Some characters you would expect to appear…don’t. There are other things that are disappointing about this movie as well, but that would require spoilers…
I don’t want to spoil the surprise for you.
Overall, the movie isn’t BAD. It’s just not good. It could’ve been much worse, but it could’ve been so much better as well. And to have the DragonBall name on it, you have to live up to the high standards the Anime set when it began to air on Cartoon Network and captivate the minds and the imaginations of boys and girls alike. In other words…”Go hard, or go home.”
And in this case….I see what they were TRYING to do, but the execution was flawed. Therefore, the movie is flawed.
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Dragonball Evolution
Yeah...just about every poster for this movie looks lame. This was the best one I could find...
The Good: A completely new idea based on an old foundation. Sometimes, not exactly a good thing, but in this case it worked. The character acting was solid, and the story was enjoyable if you happened to watch the movie without nit-picking. It’s by far better than the Street Fighter movies that came out. The character interaction was solid as well, and it’s interesting seeing an American version of your favorite Japanese characters…I think… Also, the courtyard scene was Goku and Chi-Chi was pretty good as well.
The Bad: Bad, scripted fight scenes, bad energy animations, sometimes awkward moments in the movie, and a detail imbalance of epic porportions (i.e, the movie not explaining what Goku is, but making sure he’s in his original Japanese cartoon by the final fight) hinder this movie from being the powerhouse surprise it could’ve been. The idea was there, but the presentation was NOT. But this isn’t the actors fault, by any means. This one’s on the producers and the writers.
The… *Sigh*….: The fight scene with Piccolo and Goku had the makings to be special. The wasteland fight arena was present. Even the Ki fight as Goku dodged the energy balls had me excited. EVEN Goku yelling “KA-ME-HA-ME-HAAAAAAA” had me GEEKED UP in my seat…until the way it ended. That part could’ve single-handedly redeemed the movie from all of it’s flawed characteristics…
Notable: Goku channels his inner-Chris Brown and knocks the HECK out of Chi-Chi in a courtyard fight towards the middle/end of the movie. No worries, there’s a logical explanation for it, but it’s by far to me the most brutal hit in the whole movie… seriously. Dang dude…
Final Rating: 2.7/5
I have been DBZ fan for a long, long time and I just cant emote how much this movie sucjs.
Man….me too…i actually sat through it a second time and couldnt watch the whole thing… It was bad…
OK, FIRST OF ALL I WOULD LIKE TO APPRECIATE EVERYONE THAT HAD A HAND IN THE MAKING OF THIS FILM. A REAL LIVE ACTION MOVIE OF ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOWS DRAGONBALL(OR DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION, SO THEY SAY.)
COMPLAINTS!!!!!!!!
1. BULMAS HAD A FULL BLUISH GREENISH HEAD OF HAIR. IN THE MOVE SHE HAD A STREAK OF BLUEISH GREENISH HAIR. WTF!!!!!
2. GOKU(SO MANY THINGS YOU GUYZ DID WRONG) THE POWERPOLE-NEVER EXTENDED WTF!!!!! THE COSTUME ALMOST DID IT RIGHT EXCEPT HIS UNDERSHIRT WAS BRIGHT BLUE I KNO ABOUT A COUPLE MILLION DOLLARS GO INTO MOVIES EVERY YEAR. A BRIGHT BLUE SHIRT COSTS LES THAN $5. WTF!!!!! GOKU KNEW NOTHING OF THE NAMEKS BUT IN THE MOVIE HE WAS (SO CALLED TOLD ) OF THE NAMEKS INVASION.. THERE WAS ONLY ONE NAMEK THAT WAS KING PICCOLO(KING PICCOLO) IN THE MOVIE THEY CALLED HIM PICCOLO AND PICCOLO CAME OUT OF (KING) PICCOLO GET IT RIGHT GUYZ. AND WASSUP WITH HIS GRANDPA GOHAN BEING DEAD B4 GOKU WAS A TEEN WTF!!!!!! HOW THE HELL I REAPEAT HOW THE HELL DID BABY GOKU FROM DRAGONBALL DO A KAMEHAMEHA(NOTE ITS CALLED A KAMEHAMEHA WAVE) NOT IN THE MOVIE AND FLY STRAIT THREW KING PICCOLO ONE HIT OMFG!!!!!. I REMEMBER FROM THE ACTUAL ANIME SERIES THAT KING PICCOLO WAS ONE OF GOKU’S TOUGHEST BATTLES BCUZ KING PICCOLO COULD NOT B KILLED HE KEPT REGENERATING WTF!!!!!!(I DONT REMEMBER SEEING KING PICCOLO REGENERATE IN THE MOVIE WAT HAPPENED GUYZ). IN WHEN DID GOKU LEARN HOW TO FLY WITH HIS KAMEHAMEHA IN ONE HAND WTF!!!!!!!
3.MASTER ROISH HE WAS BALD IN THE SERIES BUT HE HAD HAIR IN THE MOVIE.. IN THE SERIES HE WAS OLD AS DIRT BUT NOT IN THE MOVIE. IN THE SERIES HIS HAIR WAS WHITE AND HE HAD SHADES, AND HE WAS A TURTLE HERMIT BUT NO TURTLE SHELL FROM THE SERIES ON HIS BACK IN THE MOVIE. HE ALSO HAD A TURTLE AS A PET BUT NOT IN THE MOVIE…ASSHOLES!!!!!!
4.KRILLIN WHERE THE HELL WAS KRILLIN THE LIL BALD GUY..IM PRETTY SURE IN THE SERIES GOKU MET KRILLIN BEFORE YAMCHA AM I WRONG ANY1 DIDNT THINK SO!!!!!!
5.YAMCHA WTF HE WAS COMPLETELY WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG..HE HAD LONGER HAIR…..WHERE WAS HIS WOLF FANG FIST HMMMMMMMM….WHERE DID HE GET A HUMMER FROM HE WAS JUS A FIGHTER…..WHY DID HE RUN FROM THAT MONSTER. THE YAMCHA I KNO FROM THE SERIES ALWAYS WANTS TO TRAIN AND BECOME STRONGER.
6.PICCOLO NO ATTENAS I REMEMBER ATLEAST I THOUGHT KING PICCOLO HAD ATTENEAS DIDNT HE.. WASNT KING PICCOLO DARK GREEN…WHERE WAS KING PICCOLOS CLOTHES..GOKU HAD THE RIGHT CLOTHES….BEFORE KING PICCOLO DIED PICCOLO CAME OUT OF KING PICCOLO DIDNT SEE THAT..IF KING PICCOLO COULD BLO STUFF UP WITH HIS HAND HOWD HE DIE FROM A KAMEHAMEHA WTF!!!!! AND IN THE SERIES GOKU DIDNT KILL KING PICCOLO WITH A KAMEHAMEHA WAVE(WAVE)
7. WHO THE HELL WAS THAT CHICK THAT WAS ON KING PICCOLOS NAMEK NUTS.. I NEVER REMEMBERED HER FROM THE SERIES..GOKU BEAT HER ASS AT THE LAVA PART….ALSO WHEN KING PICCOLO AND THIS NEW CHARACTER IN THE SERIES WAS SUMMONING THE DRAGON WHAT THE HELL TOOK SO LONG…
8.THE DRAGON SHIN-RON NOT SHIN-LONG WAS A MASSIVE DRAGON WAHT HAOPPENED GUYZ RAN OUTTA MONEY WITH THE KAMEHAMEHA.. WHY WAS HE SO PUNY… I DONT REMEMBER THE DRAGONBALLS LEVITATING I REMEMBER THEM ON THE GROUND GLOWING AND SHIN-RON CAME OUT OF THEM….AND WHERE THE HELL WAS MISTER POPO AT…. OR KAMI WTF…
ON A SCALE FROM 1-5 5 IS THE HIGHEST THIS MOVIE GETS A 5………………THUMBS DOWN SORRY STICK TO ANIME
8.
“Let’s get this straight right now. If you’re a die-hard fan of the DragonBall series in general, you might not like this new direction the movie goes in…” <—————– FIRST LINE!!
LOL. I nitpicked the crap out of this movie too, but it’s obvious they didnt try to recreate the series, per say. They wanted to Americanize it. Some elements of DB and DBZ aren’t for kids…like Roshi’s private life, and how Bulma is portrayed… Bulma’s kind of sluttish, haha.
That being said…the more i think about the movie, the more it sucks.
Oh yeah, the Bula hair thing? That actually how it was in the comics…when it went to cartoon it changed…and then in the movie it went back to it’s original color in the comic.
More proof that I nitpicked as much as you did, lol 8)
THIS MOVIE SUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKS THIS SHIT IS SO DAMN WEAK I FELL ASLEEP AND THE INTRO WASNT OVER WASNT OVER
I quite liked the movie actually, and im a huge DBZ fan.
When i first saw it, i was like.. ok.. what the…
But then it struck me, i mean.. this is a DB movie.. not a DBZ movie.
If you think about it, back in DB, there wasnt all those super high special beam blasting fights as it is in DBZ. Not every single attack would split the world in half as they do in dbz ^_~
After i looked at the movie that way, then yes, i started to like the movie.
It hit me when Goku could not jump out of the hole Yamcha made. I thought first “what the? he cant get out of a hole?” But i am spoiled too much with everyone flying in DBZ
Yes it has its flaws, every movie has. The build up to the fight with Piccolo (hated him not having antennae) still could have been way better, as mentioned above.
But i think overall people compare this too much to DBZ, and not DB?
As for the loooong CAPS post above, some points are easy.
yes, a LOT of stuff is missing from the movie, but.. what did you expect?
This is a 1:30 hour movie.. now add all the episodes together timewise and compare.
How on earth do you expect for anyone to put “everything” from ALL those episodes to be crammed up into a single 1:30 hour movie?
Sure, they can show Mr. Popo, show Kami and show the turtle. And then by the time you’ve seen all the characters you run out of time and its the end of the movie.
Truth. People get this confused with DragonBall Z, when it’s based more on DragonBall…no lie, when I first saw it, I did the same thing, lol…
It’s an OK movie. Average at it’s very best to me. And there were moments in the movie that were genuinely funny and done well. And then there were parts….that weren’t.
Just saying.