Dragonball: Evolution

When I had first heard of a Dragon Ball live action film, I was stoked. "Finally, I get to see Goku blow s*** up and fight in hyper speed!" The teaser trailer alone had me hyped up! I was wondering how much work they were gonna put in the movie, how cool the effects were gonna be, how amazing the fights would look!.....then the movie came out and was bashed into the ground like cheap five dollar hooker on a bad day. This movie has been nitpicked, bashed, and had been utterly destroyed by everyone, from movie critics to random fanboys and fangirls you find on YouTube, people have been complaining non stop: "They have white people playing as the Dragon Ball characters!" "Piccolo is not green enough!" "It wasn't as fast as the anime!"But is it really that big of a train wreck? Is this movie worthy of putting it on the shelf of s*** movies in between `Street Fighter the Legend of Chun-Li' and `Batman and Robin'?First off, the cast. Why are people making a big deal about this? I mean sure, they could have gotten other actors besides Justin Chatwin for Goku or Jamie Chung for Chi Chi, but they got some pretty good actors to play the part. As for James Marsters, he did a fantastic job as Piccolo being the evil bastard he is (or if you want to get technical, the evil bastard he used to be). As for the race for the characters on Earth, there technically is no race on Earth besides Earthlings or humans. And no, just because Dragon Ball Z was made in Japan doesn't mean that the characters are Japanese as well. That's like saying every character made in the U.S. in Marvel comics are only Caucasian, it makes no sense. Chow Yun Fat did a great job as Master Roshi, it looked like he was haveing fun with it too what with the overacting he did, but that's what made me enjoy it more.Story now, is something to discuss about: Two thousand years ago, the demon Piccolo came to Earth, wreaking havoc with his minion Ozaru. Seven mystics created the Mafuba and thought they sealed him away for eternity. Piccolo breaks free and begins to search for the seven Dragon Balls (each one has stars numbering between one and seven), killing anyone in his way. While that's happening, Goku is given the 4-Star Dragon Ball by his grandfather on his 18th birthday before he goes to high school. Returning home from a party hosted by his crush Chi Chi, Goku finds his home destroyed and his grandfather near death after Piccolo's failed attempt to acquire the Dragonball. Before Gohan dies, he tells Goku to seek out martial arts master Muten Roshi, who has another one of the Dragonballs. Along the way, Goku meets Bulma of the Capsule Corporation, and eventually also meets Yamcha. Together, they try to find all seven Dragon Balls before Piccolo finds them. Now that sounds like a regular plot now doesn't it? Because I really don't know what people are bitching about when it came to the plot. And no, I ain't giving away the ending, you have to watch the movie for that. It's a basic tale of a small band of heroes that meet up under different circumstances and decide to team up to defeat a villain that threatens the entire human race.Martial Arts Choreography is something to talk about. When you watch an episode of either Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or Dragon Ball GT, you expect fast paced, lighting quick punches and kicks and waves upon waves of destructive energy being fired from a persons hand, eyes, and even the mouth. In Dragon Ball Evolution, the closest your gonna get to energy shooting is a ball, and the action scenes are not quick like in Dragon Ball, Z, or even GT. That doesn't mean that the fight scenes are horrible. The fight scenes are really good, you can probably compare them to the first Matrix movie when Neo practiced Kung Fu.The special affects are nothing special. They look like something out of an XBOX cutscene. No, not an XBOX 360 cutscene, an XBOX cutscene. They're not bad, but they could have done so much better with the technology we had and still have what with the amount of CGI we have in movies now. Looks like something out of Windows movie maker. But since this movie is entirely a fantasy-scifi-action, I would let it slide for that reason.Being faithful to the source material is fairly tame. I mean yeah, they got the story, the characters, but if your able to get the references like how Gokus hoodie have the same color scene as his Gi in the manga and anime, his hair won't stay down despite putting gel on it, and even having the joke of Master Roshis first name actually being `Master'. If you're like me, you'll like the little things they had as references and will like the things they were able to keep in the movie. My one huge gripe with it are the ways they pronounce Gohans name "Go-han' and not "Go-Haun" and they chant the Kamehameha wrong, being "Kame. Hame. Ha." instead of "Ka. Me. Ha. Me. Ha."Do I recommend this? Yes. Sure, the movie has a s*** tone of nit picky moments in them like the way they pronounce the names and such, but there are a lot of things that are good about this film. Even as a movie by itself and not being based off of Dragon Ball Z or just Dragon Ball, it's really good. This movie is your standard popcorn film.

Justin Chatwin's bad preformance. His acting was really, really bad in many places, literally where he's saying a line just like this: "I...will...avenge...him..."However, if that can be ignored, this is a near perfect adaptation of Dragonball. Despite many complaints about the Low (when did 40 mil become low budget?) budget of the movie, I don't really get it as I don't see the special effects to be any better than the really big budget movies (golden compass comes to mind).And when it comes to the change of characters, I think for some reason people are just not getting it. Those who haven't ever watched Dragonball/Z/GT...I would've wanted to see this movie regardless of that. But for the fans who seem to the biggest bashers...I don't really get it. They haven't been really changed, just combined.For an example, Goku is much more like Gohan later in the series. He is a teenager, doesn't really fit in school, but a girl likes him, etc. All of that is taken from that part of the story. ChiChi is like Chichi but in more ways like Gohan's girlfriend Videl, being a high school student, and being rich, etc, but still being pretty much the strongest woman alive. Yamcha hasn't been changed at all, save different hair color and outfit. Bulma has been made a stronger character, even though in the series she can be a very strong character, just a lot less mature. That is the biggest change in the movie there is.Master Roshi, save the white beard, is the same. He is still a pervert at times and then an actual master of martial arts and a trainer at others.Grandpa Gohan is actually given a part. Isn't that a good thing? And yes, I have seen "Kirate Kid," and I do see the simiarilities of his part there. I do not see anything wrong with taking inspiration from that movie. Wouldn't any trainer who trained a teenage boy all seem like Mr. Miyagi (spelling) from Karate Kid?I've even heard some people complain of why Piccolo was the villian. Ha; this is King Piccolo, whom was originally a villian. And Mai was just an added bonus to make the movie more exciting. She's somewhat based on a woman who served a character who was like a smaller, not very strong villian. But that's not a big change, and she's put in leather instead of an army commando outfit. She gets the power to shapeshift. Whatever...With all that said, the reason why they called it "Dragonball: Evolution" is because it is an evolution of the series, another form as was the change from Dragonball to Dragonball Z, and even then to GT. This is basically number four, and it's really good.As for the movie itself, there are many things you wouldn't have really expected on screen. "SPOILER!" Oozaru is in the movie, also partially based on his GT form as well as his normal form. This is not a massive altering; it's combining elements from different parts.DOing all of this makes the movie very suprising in many places. The acting otherwise is pretty good, like Chun Yo Fat as Master Roshi, and James Marsters as King Piccolo. Emmy Rossum is not the best, but still doesn't a decent job. The other lesser known actors and actresses also did an pretty good job.There is also much dragonball searching, as well as several good battles, including the last one with Goku vs. Piccolo. All of them are good. There are some cool capsule corp vechicles, etc.All in all, this is a very good adaptation. I would give it 10 stars if Justin Chatwin's acting wasn't so bad. He is terrible. If (or do) they make a sequel, he needs to be recast. I think starting there would make more fans happy.So I push it down to 4 stars, though more like 4.5 because it is that well done (I for one am really happy they even made a movie based off the Dragonball Series)that it doesn't make the movie not worth seeing. I reccomend everyone buy this CD, and try to ignore Justin Chatwin's acting and enjoy how good the rest of the movie really is.

I got this as a birthday present for a friend. He said it was good

This movie is very funny

The acting was good. It is a bit of fun.

Good

I really wanted this movie to be good but in all honesty I wish the seller put the Cantonese independent movie in as that was more dedicated to the source material