A movie review written by: Lee Sonogan
(2009) 1hr25min/ Action, adventure, fantasy
Goku: I’m not ready for this.
Master Roshi: You are the only one who can do it.
Loosely based on the Japanese Dragon Ball manga created by Akira Toriyama, this is the first official live-action adaption of the franchise. Since its release, it has been regarded as one of the worst movies of all time. Also, the writer Ben Ramsey has apologized for the film and admitted that he got death threats from Dragonball fans since its release. Saying that, with its budget of $30 million and still made a profit of $57.5 million at the box office. The film was mostly shot in an abandoned jeans factory in Durango, Mexico with blue and green screens.
The story of the movie is about. The young Goku reveals his past and sets out to fight the evil alien warlord Lord Piccolo who wishes to gain the powerful Dragon Balls and use them to take over Earth. Already the story sounds very different to the original story in the manga and the anime. Akira Toriyama was so horrified at this adaptation of his work that he decided to revive the series with the animated film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods in 2013.
The post-credits scene was supposed to set the stage for a sequel. However, due to the film’s poor performance at the box office and negative reviews, 20th Century Fox decided to abandon plans for a sequel. Ron Perlman was offered the role of Lord Piccolo. He turned it down to work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army in 2008. Also, George Lucas was considered to direct this film back in 2002.
James Marsters, the actor who played Lord Piccolo has expressed his hatred for the film, and Emmy Rossum the actress who played Bulma named it the movie in her career that people shouldn’t watch. She also mentioned that the movie is even worse if watched while stoned. Being obviously a bad movie makes me want to write my own live-action fan movie script.
Overall I am just sad about how this movie turned out. If they just copied the same concept from the last season of the anime with the martial arts tournament and focused on better special effects and action scenes, the movie would have looked way better and had a better story. This movie is nothing like the original story and brings nothing new to the franchise or the universe. I do not recommend this movie to anyone. Definitely not anyone who is a Dragon Ball/Z fan because it may make you very mad/sad.
PS – There are almost no memorable quotes in this movie! except…
2.45/10
Goku: Kamehameha!
Here is some links to my book for sale:
One thought on “Dragonball: Evolution, a movie review”