Dragonball Evolution

Knowing very little about the Dragonball series, I thought I'd give the Dragonball film a shot. To be honest, I went into this movie foreknowing that it would be a low budget film. Coming out of it, I'm down $2.65 and 100 minutes of life.


The story starts with Goku (Justin Chatwin) training with his grandfather. Goku is to become the world's greatest martial artist, but his grandfather also forbids him to fight. Goku is also a senior in High School (or so it appears). While school has its usual challenges (girls, bullies, popularity), Goku has no clue what's instore for him. After his grandfather is killed in a fight with Piccolo, Gohu sets out on a quest to find the Dragonballs.


The story starts out like an old Kung Fu Theater film with the difference being Adobe After Effects. I know very little about Goku, even after they spent some time trying to explain his story. In a nutshell, here's what I learned: Goku trained under his grandfather (scene 1), Goku has a crush on ChiChi (Jamie Chung {scene 2}), Goku has to defeat Oozaru (scene 1). Other than that, you really don't learn much about Goku that would make him an interesting character. Because of this, I found his character, shallow. I would've liked to learn more, rather than rely on the mythology from a series that I found detestible as a child.


The characters around Goku made the film interesting. When you first meet Bulma (Emmy Rossum), she gives the impression of a Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) knock off. The difference is her usage of pocket sized technology. Her bike is a hover version of a motorcycle that collapses down to something the size of a small disc. While Goku doesn't change, Bulma receives some character development. This is more apparent when Yamcha (Joon Park) enters the scene. While Yamcha doesn't do much, this character offsets Bulma in a decent way. The final character is Master Roshi (Yun-Fat Chow). Master Roshi is immediately revealed as a perverted old man with high skill in martial arts. This stereo-type is typical in Japanese.While Roshi serves as a mentor, the appeal of his charater is the interactions with Bulma and Yamcha.


There are 3 villains in the film. Piccolo (James Marsters), Mai (Eriko Tamura), and Oozaru (Ian Whyte). Oozaru doesn't appear until the end of the film, so there's very little that is revealed about him, except that his release will bring destruction to the world. Piccolo is searching for the Dragonballs to free his pupil, Oozaru. Piccolo's lackey, Mai, is just there. While she does terrorize small children, her presence is more henchman than character.


The reason I say Adobe After Effects separates this film from Kung Fu Theater is because the visual effects are on par with most modern movies. There weren't any effects that stood out and made the film much different. Oozaru could have used some additional processing as the noticable CGI effects used were easily spotted. Other than that, I can't say that this film was memorable.


The running joke between my friends and I is that I went to the rental place and asked for my money back. The response of the rental place was to point and laugh. While this didn't really happen, the film was as bad as we expected. While I am not a Dragonball Z fan (but did enjoy the original Dragonball series), I cannot recommend this film. This film is like trying to take Naruto, One-Piece, or any Shonen and condense 300 episodes of mythology into a film that can appeal to a vast audience. In the end, this movie felt like the 1994 Double Dragon movie (starring Robert Patrick). You could tell that the reliance on an established franchise was the marquee used to get attention.


I do not recommend this film. While I am glad that I did nto see it in the theaters, I should've waited until it was on the $0.99 rack to rent. Never the less, seeing it with friends can make any low budget movie fun.