Movie Review: “Dragonball: Evolution”

By Sarah Oakey

The adventure, humour and complexity of Akira Toriyama’s original manga series (originally released in 1984 by Weekly Shōnen Jump) will be sadly missed by Dragonball: Evolution patrons. Most fans had already come to terms with the realisation that the live action Hollywood adaption of the classic manga and anime series would be a severely altered one prior to the release of this film. These alterations are necessary namely to reach new audiences and make it more accessible to a Western audience. In early 2008, as most die-hard Dragonball/Z fans would already be aware, a script was leaked online which sent many fans into an uproar at the possibility that this pitiful high-school-fanfic-turned-reality could be the actual storyline for Dragonball: Evolution. Sadly, our worst fears have been met.

Most fans (and any reader of Wikipedia.org) would know that the rights for Dragonball were acquired by 20^th Century Fox in 2002 and a script was produced by Ben Ramsey in 2004 but later rewritten by the director, James Wong. It was believed that this leaked script was that original rejected script. Not much has altered between the leaked script and this version of the story except that this production seems a heavily scaled back version of the leaked script. However the leaked script did allow fans to prepare for the worst. The absence of Krillin, Goku’s best friend in the original Japanese series, was sorely missed by fans. And the absence of Goku’s tail, Bulma’s blue hair and a drastically distorted background story for the villain, Piccolo, would also be demoralising factors for fans. But most of us held onto a thin vein of hope that this film would be close to decent.

There was a huge internet backlash. Most fans responded aggressively to the changes. Very few were expecting anything good to come of this live action adaption. And after many months of anticipation and a delayed release date, I went into the theatre on April 9^th with low expectations. I must be honest dear reader, I now have mixed feelings about this film but I was not as disappointed as I anticipated myself to be.

The narrative was a severely condensed version of the original which meant the film overall felt rushed over and too many important plot elements were excluded. For example: absolutely no explanation is offered as to why Piccolo has escaped from his prison within the Earth’s core. And for that matter, why he is in league with the Saiyans or that he has a pure counterpart known as Kami-sama, Guardian of Earth. But I digress… The narrative was straightforward and terribly boring. The actors did their best with the material available but ultimately struggled with inadequate scripting. Again, not enough time is lent to building an emotional connection between the audience and the characters, leaving the romantic aspects of the story feeling hollow and empty.

The movie’s run time is 82 minutes, leaving much of the story feeling heavily rushed. At times the sequences and cuts are so quick, I just couldn’t keep up and had no idea what was happening. The pace of the film is so fast, it fails to build suspense towards what was intended to be a terrifying encounter with the villainous Piccolo. Piccolo is not afforded enough screen time to effectively create this tension or even make his position as the antihero believable.

With a confusing title which bares little resemblance to the film itself as far as I can tell, this film would hardly appeal to anyone post-pubescence. The fight scenes were generic and not terribly thrilling, even though the stunt performance company of Dragonball: Evolution was the same as that used for The Matrix (1999) and 300 (2007). The artful and epic fight scenes of the anime are missing here. Emmy Rossum as Bulma presents as a typical hardy tough-chick yet counter-characteristically abandons her comrades in battle to flee for her own life and requires rescuing by Yamcha (Joon Park), who in turn is overly annoying and ejaculates expletives like “Cool!” and “Dude” in an annoying repetitious attempt to appear American. Goku (Justin Chatwin), however, was charming and Jamie Chung who plays his romantic interest, Chi Chi, was adorable. Jamie certainly earns her title if her costume for most of the film is any indication. Don’t get me started on Yun-Fat Chow; I’ve never seen such over-acting.

Sadly, this film’s intended audience is too young for its actual fan base who have grown older since the manga’s original 1984 release. Dragonball: Evolution is likely to achieve only B-grade status. Rumours of sequels are circulating and with a little luck (and a better crew and more funding) hopefully the producers will get it right next time. I know I’m being overly critical, but in all honesty it wasn’t too bad. Fans may be interested to see their heroes on screen but shouldn’t take it all too seriously.

(www.sarahoakeyworld.com)