Dragonball Evolution (2009)

Director:

James Wong

Writers (WGA):

Ben Ramsey (screenplay)
Akira Toriyama (novel)

Release Date:

10 April 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

This Easter the legend comes to life.

Plot:

The young warrior Son Goku sets out on a quest, racing against time and the vengeful King Piccolo, to collect a set of seven magical orbs that will grant their wielder unlimited power.

Plot Keywords:

Dragon | Warrior | Grandfather | Henchman | Morphing

Cast

Justin Chatwin	...	Goku
Yun-Fat Chow	...	Master Roshi
Emmy Rossum	...	Bulma
Jamie Chung	...	Chi Chi
James Marsters	...	Lord Piccolo
Joon Park	...	Yamcha
Eriko Tamura	...	Mai
Randall Duk Kim	...	Grandpa Gohan
Ernie Hudson	...	Sifu Norris
Texas Battle	...	Carey Fuller
Megumi Seki	...	Seki
Ian Whyte	...	Oozaru
Richard Blake	...	Agundes
Jon Valera	...	Moreno
Rafael Valdez	...	Butler

Also Known As:

Qi long zhu: Quanxin jinhua (China: Mandarin title) (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Chat lung jyu: Chyunsan jeunfa (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
D.B.E. (USA) (promotional abbreviation)
Dragon Ball (USA) (original script title)
Dragonball (USA) (working title)
Dragonball: Evolution (USA)

MPAA:

Rated PG for intense sequences of action/violence and brief mild language.

Runtime:

85 min | 100 min (uncut version)

Country:

USA | Hong Kong

Language:

English | Japanese | Hindi

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby | DTS

Certification:

Australia:PG | South Korea:All | USA:PG (certificate #44706) | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-11 | UK:PG | Ireland:PG | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Netherlands:9 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Hong Kong:IIA | Chile:Y7 | Mexico:A | Argentina:Atp | Peru:PT | Sweden:11 | Germany:12 (DVD rating) | India:UA

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

In the Japanese version, Hisao Egawa and Mami Koyama are the only ones who have provided voice work as Dragonball characters.

Goofs:

Plot holes: In the opening credits Oozaru is seen wearing the same gi Goku later wears even though its 2000 years before Goku is even born.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Grandpa Gohan: In a time before many can remember, our planet faced its greatest challenge. A warlord named Piccolo camed from beyond the stars, bringing darkness and chaos to our once peaceful world. Aided by his disciple Oozaru, the evil pair brought the human race to the brink of annihilation. Cities and countries crumbled beneath them. Countless lives were lost. But...

Movie Connections:

References Johnny Tsunami (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Rule

Even the 7 Dragonballs Can't Save This Movie

For manga and anime fans around the world, the story of Dragonball has to be at the top, or at least in the top 3 of their most beloved manga/anime stories ever written. There is already an existing live action Dragonball movie called Dragonball: The Magic Begins (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122050/) made in Taiwan back in 1989. That movie tried really hard to stay as close as possible to the original story of Dragonball as written by Akira Toriyama, but it ended up being more of a comedy. The entire story also only went up to the Pilaf storyline, which was way before the first Piccolo appearance. This movie, although aged and not exactly a direct interpretation of the Dragonball story, was still appreciated by most fans due to the comedic entertainment value.

Now, another live action Dragonball movie has come, called Dragonball: Evolution. When the first few pictures of this movie appeared on the internet, a lot of the fans already predicted that the movie would turn out horrible because the characters don't look like themselves. The characters were heavily changed and westernized too much, especially Piccolo, the main villain, who didn't look like the one from the manga and anime. Fast forward to a few weeks before the latest Dragonball movie was released, a trailer was leaked on the internet. That trailer spelled the certain doom of the movie to the fans of the show. Most of the comments described the movie as "Not Dragonball, but another action movie".

This writer was fortunate enough to be invited to a private screening of the movie, and boy was I surprised! I was already expecting the movie to be bad and not a "real" Dragonball, but what I witnessed was something much more horrible! Granted that the movie was really different, but the way the movie progressed, the introduction of characters, the fight scenes, oh wow, you'd think it was a movie created by elementary kids who had no idea what Dragonball was about, except for the "Kamehameha" move and the 7 dragon balls, just with the financial backing of a millionaire.

Everything seemed rushed in the movie and characters would just pop out of nowhere and decide to join together to beat Piccolo. The love angle in the story seemed forced as well, everybody was simply out of character. Goku's a powerful but lame school boy, Chi Chi's a martial art school girl who can't even open her own locker, Master Roshi's some crazy dude living in the city (at least he still wears a Hawaiian shirt and seems a little perverted), Bulma became Lara Croft and Rambo combined in another body with a bizarre voice, Mai (originally one of Pilaf's hilarious henchmen in the manga) became a cold blooded, shape-shifting killer, Yamcha became a weird cross between a desert bandit who can't fight and a hobo with unwashed hair, and Piccolo became a weird vampire whose outfit seems to be inspired by the Matrix. I think only Grandpa Gohan was close enough to the original character, except for the way he exits the movie early on.

The fight scenes were lame. Dragonball was about epic sized battles that could not be contained in one location. Characters would get punched through mountains, cities would be destroyed, the earth would rumble and split up due to the massive forces of the fighters. In this movie, everything seemed so lame. Even the Kamehameha attack was used to light some candles! Talk about total weakening!

The only "good" things about the movie were the special effects, although the energy blasts seemed very weak.

My advise is, if you're going to pay to watch this movie, DON'T DO IT. Listen to what almost everybody has been saying because they're right, the movie is worse than what you currently have in mind!