Seen on: April 11, 2009
The players: Director: James Wong, Writer: Ben Ramsey, Cast: Justin Chatwin, Joon Park, James Marsters, Emmy Rossum
Facts of interest: Wong also directed "The One" and "Final Destination."
The plot: Goku must find the seven magical dragonballs before the ruthless villain Piccolo calls forth a badass demon who will destroy the world.
Our quick thoughts: James Wong’s “Dragonball Evolution” is certainly not the worst film I’ve seen so far this year, but it’s still a bad one. A very bad one, actually. I don’t really know much about the “Dragonball” franchise and I’ve never read the series or played any of the video games, but I like to think it doesn’t take an expert to realize this movie is pretty much a crappy big-screen adaptation.
Justin Chatwin stars as the film’s hero Goku, who must collect seven magical balls in order to prevent the ruthless villain Piccolo (James Marsters) from unleashing a badass demon who could destroy the world. That’s pretty much all there is to say about the story, because the plot of “Evolution” is incredibly thin and repetitive.
Lacking suspense, logic and diversity, Wong’s movie spends its entire 80 minutes (that’s without credits) following Goku and his buddies trying to find all seven balls before it’s too late to save the world. This may sound all adventurous at first, but in truth, Goku’s mission is never really challenging or intriguing. It’s boring, instead.
The film’s biggest flaw is obviously Ben Ramsey’s ridiculous script, and the thing I hated most about it was the cheap dialogue. I mean, my list of complaints here is pretty long, but the things these characters uttered throughout the movie were just embarrassingly primitive and laughable.
But also from a technical point of view, “Dragonball Evolution” failed to impress me. Most of the visual effects look cheap, and whether that was intentional or not doesn’t matter. They just don’t look good. The film also boasts a bunch of fighting sequences, and while some of them are moderately fast-paced, they still lack originality.
As far as the acting is concerned, I couldn’t find a single decent performance in this flick. Chatwin just doesn’t look comfortable in the role of Goku, and Yun-Fat Chow tried way too hard portraying Master Roshi. And don’t you think Emmy Rossum was just terribly annoying as Bulma?
Freaky quote: “I am Goku. I am Oozaru. In order to defeat you, I must be one with myself." – Justin Chatwin
The final word: Plenty of “Dragonball” fans called me names because I hated some of the film clips before the film’s release, but I am dying to know: do you diehard fans love this adaptation? I can’t compare it to its source material, but looking at it solely as a movie, “Evolution” stinks big time. It’s indeed a waste of time and money.
Article by Franck Tabouring