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Dragonball Evolution (2009)

Director: James Wong

Time Out rating

Average user rating

20 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Live-action caper based on the original manga cartoon strip that started in the 1980s, Luke Perry look-a-like/act-a-like Justin Chatwin makes for an utterly nondescript hero as orphaned teenage martial artist Goku, who’s forced to set aside his school studies in order to save the planet from the evil (and equally nondescript) Lord Piccolo by gathering up the seven mystic Dragonballs. Despite its relative brevity, it’s a garbled and monotonous film, comprising of the usual episodic trek around various disparate and exotic locations where a band of mostly superfluous hangers-on are assembled, one of which is Chow Yun-Fat as an ass-grabbing sensei and who, frankly, deserves better than this. Making no effort to be original, exciting, witty or even vaguely plausible, it may pass the time as sparkly fodder for 12-year-old boys with plenty of sugar in their bloodstream. Parents, meanwhile, will have to make do with sniggering at lines like ‘The Dragonballs are within my grasp!’.

Author: David Jenkins 2009-04-07 09:56:23

Time Out London Issue 2016, 9-15 April, 2009

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User reviews of this film

Waldo said...

Posted on Apr 28 2009 01:14 Ok wtf .. Dragon Ball / Dragonball Z is hands down one of my favorite toons of all time. Dragon Ball evolution was a crap sandwich .. First off what in the hell are "Nemeks" as i know it was "Nameks" secondly, Granda Pa Gohan did not die that way nor did he day at that point in Goku's life. Bulma, one streak of blue hair .. are you kidding me ? thats pathetic. Master Roshi as I remeber was a short, bald head, perverted man, who lived on a little island surrounded by ocean not in a lake in the center of a gigantic city, by the way, why is the dude from bulletproof monk playing him, though they stuck to his perverted ways he has a full set of black hair and a nice crisp golden brown tan .. wtf. I just want to throw it out there .. PICCOLO HAS ANTENNA WITH BIG POINTY EARS. Ladies and Gentlemen what the hell was Mai doing in this movie, who the hell cares for Mai. By the way she could never make herself tranform into other people like Chi Chi. Who by the way never met Goku in high school as a matter of fact Goku never attended school .. Also I dont remember Piccolo having a flying spaceship of doom , and what the hell was that machine he straped himself into and made those four useless abomanations wtf were those. Through out all this where the hell is Kami. Yea Kami you know the guardian of the earth the one who made the dragon balls not some monks in a temple. OK here we go Yamcha .. where is Puar ? Yamcha fist off was not blonde and when he and Goku first meet is an exceptionally good fighter not some clown with a roll out ladder, wolf fang fist ring a bell to anyone out there ? Now when it comes to the dragon balls besides the origin they had it pretty down packed, except for the point that when you look into them they do not produce images in your head about .. "the future" ? wtf is that. where did you pull this one out of ? I cant believe im actually sitting here writing this comment but this movie has disappointed me. I feel as if I just caught my wife cheating on me with my dog. For anyone who has not yet seen this movie .. Go watch it but before you do forget anything that you know about the entire series and start from scratch. By the end of the movie I was surprised Cell and Buu didnt show up do the fusion dance and destroy the world. On top of all my other problems with this movie I think my two biggest disappointments were, 1. when goku turned into the great ape he grows a foot taller ... wtf, and as i remember it was the full moon that trigers his tranformation not the solar eclipse. 2. Goku needs a tail to transform he had no tail, in addition he was not able to transform back at will he had to wait until the moon had set or until his tail is removed. This movie made me so mad, if a sequel comes out it better be amazing to make up for this disaster .. oh and by the way Master Roshi never had to be revived by the dragon.

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qwest said...

Posted on Apr 25 2009 07:42 if anyone saw shaolin soccer then you have an idea of what the movie should have looked like and what could have been. as of right now though i crap on this movie so hard, i still smell it after i flush and leave the house. they should remake this like they remade The Hulk, but with die hard fans guiding the movie.

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K' Nguyen said...

Posted on Apr 24 2009 14:18 one word describes this film. FAIL. awful in every way, and the people anticipating this film saw it coming lol

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adam said...

Posted on Apr 17 2009 12:31 amzing that they made the utimate cartoon into a films!

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Y said...

Posted on Apr 14 2009 21:46 sounds like a very steriotypical movie. I've seen to many of those. not gonna watch it

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Daniel Cullinane said...

Posted on Apr 14 2009 09:27 The film was a un-entertaining,pointless and altogether a dreadful piece of garbage. Worst film of the year.

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josh lamb said...

Posted on Apr 13 2009 19:22 a rely amassin film moast of you are rong the movie is ace

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jordan smith said...

Posted on Apr 13 2009 19:18 declan is right best film ever it a 5 star

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declan mulligan said...

Posted on Apr 13 2009 19:17 best film of the century i have seen it 9 times now out f***ing standing

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kiran said...

Posted on Apr 12 2009 22:23 how was this craptastic film good ppl? rushed story, no character development, it had 100 mill budget n it looked like they spent 5 mill on it n used the 95 mill to get drunk knowing wat a crap film they made

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Brendon said...

Posted on Apr 12 2009 12:45 This movie was by far the worse iv seen in my entire life. The script was horrible, the film was rushed and the one thing i thought could have save this rubbish; the action, was pathetic. Any chance of ever get a Dragonball Z movie has gone with this s**t!

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Flaris said...

Posted on Apr 10 2009 07:54 Well this film was an epic disaster. I mean they probably couldn't have made this worse if they tried and I'm debating if they did since it was really bad. If your not even going to follow the plot at all might as well call it something else. What's with the highschool setting anyways? The sooner this movie is out of theatres the better. May it sit forgotten in the bottom of the discount DVD bin.

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Louis said...

Posted on Apr 09 2009 14:24 After watching this i thought it was ok to watch but wouldnt watch it again, it was pretty poor, dark in most parts and couldnt tell what was going on because of it, im not really a fan of the cartoon/franchise but i know what piccolo looks like and he looked crap tbh. worth a watch at least even though its short.

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King Nacim said...

Posted on Apr 09 2009 12:00 the film was the best film in the world

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yasa said...

Posted on Apr 08 2009 22:33 i agree wth curtis.the film needed a better end fighting scene and piccolo should have looked more like in the tv series.also the school thing shood have been left out but other than that it was a ok film

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