Dragonball Evolution
Tags: good versus evil, revenge, philosophical, murder

Plot synopsis:
Two thousand years ago, the demon Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) came to Earth, wreaking havoc along with his minion Ōzaru (Ian Whyte). Seven mystics created the Mafuba and thought they sealed him away for eternity. However, Piccolo breaks free and with his ninja henchwoman Mai (Eriko), begins to search for the seven Dragonballs (each one has stars numbering between one and seven), killing anyone in his path.
On his eighteenth birthday, high school student and martial artist Son Goku (Justin Chatwin) is given the four-star Dragonball by his grandfather, Grandpa Gohan (Randall Duk Kim). Returning home from a party hosted by his crush Chi-Chi (Jamie Chung), Goku finds his home destroyed and his grandfather near death after Piccolo's failed attempt to acquire the Dragonball.
Before he dies, Gohan tells Goku to seek out martial arts master Muten Roshi (Chow Yun-fat), who holds another one of the Dragonballs. Along the way, Goku meets Bulma (Emmy Rossum) of the Capsule Corporation, who was studying the five-star Dragonball until it was stolen by Mai. Goku offers Bulma his protection in exchange for her help in finding Roshi. They ultimately track him down in Paozu City. Under Roshi's wing, Goku begins training his ki, knowing that they must get all the Dragonballs before the next solar eclipse, when Ōzaru will return and join forces with Piccolo.
In the midst of the group's search for the six-star Dragonball, they fall into a trap set by the desert bandit Yamcha (Joon Park) but Roshi convinces Yamcha to join by promising 1/3rd of the royalties for Bulma's invention. Together, the group fight off an ambush by Mai and successfully acquires the next Dragonball. As the group continues their quest, they travel to a temple where Roshi consults his former teacher Sifu Norris (Ernie Hudson) and begins preparing the Mafuba enchantment so he can reseal Piccolo, while Goku must learn the most powerful of the ki-bending techniques: the Kamehameha.
During the night, Mai – disguised as Chi-Chi – steals the team's three Dragonballs, adding them to the ones that Piccolo already acquired. With the Dragonballs successfully united, Piccolo begins to summon Shen Long, but is stopped by the timely arrival of Goku's team. During the ensuing battle, Piccolo reveals to Goku that he himself is Ōzaru, having been sent to Earth as an infant to destroy it when he grew older.
As the eclipse begins, Goku transforms into Ōzaru while Roshi attempts to use the Mafuba, but he doesn't have enough energy to live before he can re-seal Piccolo. Roshi's dying words snaps Goku back to his senses as he is choked to death by Ōzaru, and he engages Piccolo in a final battle, seemingly defeating him with the power of the Kamehameha. Goku then uses the Dragonballs to summon Shen Long, and request that he restore Roshi to life.
As they celebrate, they realise the Dragonballs have now scattered, and Bulma declares that they must search for them again. Before they head out, Goku meets with Chi-Chi to get to know her better, and they begin a sparring match to see which of them is stronger. In a post-credits scene, Piccolo has survived Goku's Kamehameha blast and is being cared for by an unknown woman.

Review: Akira Toriyama probably has a noose around his neck right about now.To finish this off: The acting is atrocious, the butt-rock scattered through the soundtrack will make you want to punch the guy running the theater in the face, and the story is basically the manga's, but cut up, put into a blender, stuffed into sausage skins, and stitched back together with an American flag tied around it.If you want your Dragonball fix, just buy dvds of the show instead, skip the movie, and if you don't skip it, then at least don't pay for this thing.
It almost seems like they wanted to make this movie as bad and as far away from the original story as they could.
The only time an actor or actress acts like their anime counterpart is when they are first introduced speaking mainly about Master Roshi and Yamcha.For one of the most action packed animes around they sure did the opposite with the movie.
It feels like they made this movie for the people who hate the anime.As a fan of the series I will award this no points and may god have mercy on their souls..
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.
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.
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.
I created an IMDb account JUST to comment on how they butchered Dragonball for me and I hope that Hollywood is smarter next time as to when they bring such a strong fan based series onto the big screens or they will only infuriate more of the audience..
Meanwhile Goku falls in love with his school mate Chi Chi (Jamie Chung) .Dragon Ball are basically numerous spectacular fight-scenes with a tiny bit of plot movement, full of repetitive dialogue and flashy blasts of light and energy, but that hasn't prevented kids and teenagers from eating them up .
James Wong adapts the rich myth of the Dragonball series that grew from a Manga into various popular animated series by means of hundreds episodes that are brought to life with this 20th Century Fox and Stephen Chow ( Kung Fu hustler )production .
This Movie plain and simple insults our intelligence, I mean I'm no Geek, but tham they were way off!, this should not even be called dragonball, because of stupid 20th Century Fox, now dragonball is ruined, if someone wanted to make a better movie with the real story that Akira Toriyama made, they made so many changes and mistakes that the dragonball that we know is gone forever, on Watchmen they made some changes but only so the essence of the show could be shown on film, but Dragonball is dead they killed it, I'm sorry Akira Toriyama they ruined your work and about every Anime , and dbz fan out there, like my Grandfather just to say "there's cheese all over that movie" It is illogical to spend the money on copyrights if you're not even going to use the story.Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network, originally disgusted at Otaku decrying the film via leaked set shots and trailers even before the movie was released, gave the movie an overall F grade, admitting that "The fans were right." Criticizing the films lack of explaining plot elements to its hackmead storyline and lackluster effort by the actors, he suggested that the film "Might be fun when you're hammered and surrounded by friends.
The real fans would flood the theaters to watch it which would bring hype to the movie for new viewers that don't know about Dragonball, kind of like how Watchmen did.
From "Americanizing" television series for the kids from Power Rangers to Ultraman, and adapting famed characters from Japanese film, games and manga to frequent disastrous effect, it still wouldn't stop the studios from going after one property after another.
And of course Goku needs a Fellowship, in the form of irritating tech-wizard Bulma (Emmy Rossum last seen in the sinker Poseidon), mercenary Yum Cha (Joon Park who probably copied Rain's uninspiring cinematic turn in Speed Racer to a T) and Chow Yun-Fat the biggest name of them all here trying his darnest best to act cute as Master Roshi, who imparts skills in double quick time to Goku.Speaking of time, or the lack thereof, everything is compressed.
Not even Chow Yun-Fat's star status could save this, and you wonder what figured when this is the movie that he gave up Red Cliff for.This is basically a movie that only children below the age of 5 will enjoy tremendously, despite having to see 6 half-balls, contributed courtesy of the 3 lead female characters, being continuously flashed on screen, thanks to some neck plunging wardrobe (where's that malfunction when you need one?) Totally bland and really uninteresting, I would suggest sticking to the manga instead..
Hollywood have done so much super hero movies in the recent years, and I think the producers just hire the wrong bunch to do such a visual effects intensive film.
Can we please get a director with a set of balls to direct a movie based on the actual characters and plots of the story they are trying to show?.
I really hope no one buys this movie, just to show Hollywood that we don't want your greed hands on epic tales like dragonball...
It would stand to reason a director could draw at least some of the spirit of the Dragonball universe by simply watching the shows or reading the sources material and yet James Wong (who also directed The One and Final Destination 1 and 3) manages to do just that; change fun into camp, over-the-top violence into PG rubbish and alter any of the interesting back-story and lore of the series into an unwatchable tedious origin story.Perhaps I am missing the mark hugely, but vibe of the film is all off, and I assure you I am not an adaptation Nazi, nihilistically picking out every detail not identical to the source material but I just kept uttering under my breath "What IS this?!?!" To that end I am not sure who this film will impress.
There is also the possibility that Dragonball will simply never work as a live action adaptation, the anime medium just suits the feel and bizarre pleasure of the story and characters.The plot (a term I use loosely) is beyond excusable and consists merely of young warrior Goku (the fresh faced Justin Chatwin), his master Roshi (a mildly entertaining Chow Yun-Fat who must be strapped for cash) a feisty gun-slinger named Bulma (Emmy Rossum) and a creepy hippie conman named Yamcha (Joon Park).
Luckily, Rossum, didn't do any explaining, so her image is at least not so tarnished from this movie.Finally, for those wondering, isn't Dragonball from Asia, and don't all the characters from the first and second series have Japanese related names.
The only way to improve the film would be to start from scratch and have whatever pre-teen schoolgirl that wrote that god awful story take a look at either the original manga or television series.I had hopes for it.
Remember the day you were exposed to the cinematic brilliance of There Will Be Blood,the great character study of Scorsese's Taxi Driver,the unbelievable quirkiness and charm of Magnolia, well,you better be forgetting them because Dragonball:Evolution is coming through and it will blow more than one mind.What you have here is a movie so emotionally devasting,that you will feel the need to be hit(twice if needed) by your friend if what you're seeing is actually real, this movie challenges the viewers to come up with their interpretations just like David Lynch's Eraserhead, The Holy Mountain and the mind-screwing Neon Genesis Evangelion(hopefully Fox picks up the rights of the show, so we can have another carefully crafted masterpiece like this one),the story is nothing short of riveting almost as good as Karate Kid and Kung-Fu Panda combined together-"Goku is a social misfit(just like he is in the anime) who gets bullied by the token black-guy and can't get the girl(just like in the anime - it feels like you are being wrapped into it)then his grandpa Gohan is killed by Piccolo(the aftermath of his death didn't feel exactly like Uncle Ben's death in Spider-Man, which was a relief cuz I had a weird feeling it would be similar)then Bulma appears and takes him to this guy Roshi,and then they go on to some cannon searching the so-called dragon balls,all right, and then they find Yamcha, cool, and hip as always with his funny one-liners,then he falls in love with Bullma and then Piccolo pops out, and the final fight between good and evil begins,they fight on and on and on...
he transforms in some sorta ManBearPig-like monster(nice reference to South Park) called Ozaru and then Piccolo takes full-control of him or whatever I didn't pay much mind since my eyes were blurry from some of the action scenes and tears of joy of this tour-de force experience, some people may complain on how the story was shortened and rushed,but hey, it's not like you actually know your stuff, let the talented-one get it right,as cramming everything together in 90 minutes was the most obvious thing to do -DUH,the characters are so complex as they unfold throughout the movie,kids may have a hard time watching this cuz of the PG rating because the movie relies way too much on social commentaries against our society and the way we see life - for instance- the scene where Yamcha stars to talk out that cool-sounding stuff is obviously taken off from the harsh-times our economy is going through, you might be fooled on this one since Dragon Ball or Dragonball(whatever you may like to call it) was meant to be kiddy show, but here they kid you NOT.The character are a little different from their anime counterparts but it doesn't matter at all especially considering how you can actually connect with them in a emotional and witty way albeit complicated manner, we have Goku, brilliantly-written I must say though, lines such as "teach me how to be normal" and his awkwardness throughout the high-school scenes were a delight to the human eye, and kept me on the edge of my seat in an infinite loop of awe, Bulma, well, was a b...
whoops, I mean the way he picks up franchises randomly and put them into production as fast as he can so the fans don't have to wait any longer without looking for a extended profit, he is a very kind individual, a man worth of trust, and we should all be thankful for that, may Jebus bless yer little caring heart.I AM also so glad that my children will grow up with movies like this and not those overrated Miyazaki's movies which are boring and lame besides every single movie(released or yet-to-be-released) will fall flat in comparison to this milestone of cinema.
Dragonball never had trouble creating a fan base, so this really feels like one of the many big missteps of the film.In terms of the characters, they really made a mistake in blending the young and old Goku of the original story, which resulted in one that just seems unlikable.
She looks great in the role and does pretty much everything you'd expect out of Bulma.Dragonball is the crown jewel of the manga/anime business, which makes it only that much more disappointing that the people involved with this film clearly did not understand what people liked so much about it in the first place.
But I have to admit the woman who played Chi Chi was cute, beautiful and hot as the character and she was one of the good things to come out of the movie.Overall don't waste your time or money watching this..
When I first heard about the movie, I decided not to watch it because I thought DB is way beyond any live-action adaptation (all the fans know why).
I happen to love the whole Dragon Ball saga, and I have since I was little, but I'm also a realist and know that things need to be changed for cinema.This movie, however, is a piece of crap on so many levels.For example, I'm also a big fan of Harry Potter books.
'Dragonball Evolution' is just straight-up terrible in every possible sense of the word.The "story" here is basically, a teenager named Goku is given a mystical Dragon Ball from his grandfather.
After twenty minutes of bad teen dialogue, awkward stumbling through lines and the worst back story in history, Goku sets off to find Master Roshi to alert him that Lord Piccolo has returned.Now, some of the fight scenes are decent, most of them are not (a lot of unnecessary slow-motion).
If you guys really want to know what a real bad film is, then you should watch this movie otherwise not..
So for a good hour and a half we are subject to colors thrown at our face, some of the worst direlogue I've ever had to sit thorough and acting that would shame Keanu Reeves.James Wong adapts the rich mythos of the Dragonball series that grew from a manga into various popular animated series with this 20th Century Fox production starring Justin Chatwin.
The story develops at a breakneck pace, granted there is little story to develop, while its good to know the movie is so short, the less of it you have to endure.Think back to this time last year, a certain manga adaptation was released under the name "Speed Racer" this hard, cold, emotionless shell of a movie sported the same recycled material that Dragonball Evolution does.
I've seen each and every person here gives great performances in different movies and it is possible for them to deliver dialogue without sounding like a reject from Street Fighter.Verdict: Tearing through its mystical, who-gives-a-toss storyline like a drunk bat bouncing off cave walls, Dragonball's cocktail of cheap effects, eye-rolling clichés and dismal direlogue will have fans of the series condemning it as a beyond-lame failure.
Anyone who has seen the original Dragonball Z anime's probably are looking very hopefully to this movie.
So it's like a bad action movie, except fans of the original anime/and others will want to watch this movie just to see what 'bad' action for a DB/DBZ/DBGT fan really means.2 last notes - Visual effects, it looks 50/50 on arguments for these....unless they were low on cash, the effects plain out suck, i can do better with the comp I'm using to write this.
For goodness sake, it doesn't even feel like Dragon Ball universe.Alright, I have to watch the movie anyhow (admit being a huge fan of the series minus GT).
I'm not a Dragon Ball hardcore fan, but the main reason that I'm writing this is because there's a lot of positive comments saying "Absolutely Good Movie", "Creative and Clever Story", "Honestly not bad film" or even "Why isn't part 2 coming out?" (left by a guy who blames those who tell the truth of that movie), etc.; and I'm worried about IMDb being sued for false advertising if it is left there.
Goku is about as emotionless as a bag of rocks, and Yamcha looks like "a tiger with Down syndrome." This movie works as an insult directed towards Akira Toriyama and his fans...and directed by James Wong.For this example, I will be using a well known story, "The story of Jesus Christ", but I will do to Jesus' story what the writers did to Dragon Ball:Jesus Christ was born in California and went to Henry Austin High School.
Just a shame he isn't in enough of the movie to elevate it even more.Why do I say that Dragonball Evolution is a contender for the worst live-action film for an animated TV series?
It's more like a badly written fanfic: you know, one of those really bad 'DB characters in high school' ones.It was very fast paced and rushed, and I pretty promptly forgot most of the movie as soon as I was finished watching it (which I can only sum up as good fortune).I won't try and echo what hundreds of way more in-depth reviews written here before me have already said.
if you don't see or heard about Dragon Ball, you will find that Son Goku from the movie (interpreted by Justin Chatwin in a stupid way, i don't want to say more about him, he tries to be a great actor, but he isn't ...
After watching this movie now i realize that there's nothing in common with the actual anime, only some of the characters names and the dragon balls.