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We have taken some photos of "Dragonball: Evolution". They represent actual movie quality.

• VERY VERY Surprised! posted on 31 Aug 2009

  funny enough...this movie actually surprised me.
  Everyone and their grandmas told me that it was unwatchable,unbearable.
  Though, this was not the case. The movie did a fine job of making a live action kids movie of db. People forget that this movie is not based of of dbz but dragonball.
  
  the fights should have just been longer and a higher budget would have made this a 5

• Absolute cliched drivel posted on 31 Aug 2009

  This movie sucks good thing I rented it from iTunes instead of blockbuster or worse watched it in the theaters! This movie is just one big joke. I swear the plot reminds me of homecoming Warrior(a cheesy disney channel movie),Karate Kid(a good movie I saw along time ago) and the matrix. It seems like a cheesy generic martial arts movie with some pilfered plot elements from Avatar the Last Airbender.
  
  This movie blows I liked the Dragonball Anime I saw on cartoon network and it was a lot more entertaining than this crappy movie. I feel bad for anyone who wasted [...] bucks to see it in theaters.

• Wow you all are not fans of DB if you say its good posted on 31 Aug 2009

  This movie was so bad the story was horrible and the characters where way off on what they are so post to look like And what the hell since when in any DB dbz DBgt has someone revived someone with a kamehameha. it was so bad thank god i saw it for free. They made DB into a joke its a shame.

• So Purty Lights! posted on 31 Aug 2009

  Fans of the original Dragon-Ball franchise who have been drawn to the series distinct humor will find disappointment in Dragonball: Evolution. Goku who has been friendly strong and kind in the show has now become a whinny invert school-boy that gets picked on in classes. Chichi has gone through a total personality change as well, from a bossy loud-mouth to an over-friendly popular rich airhead that falls heads over heels for Goku almost instantly. Goku punches Chichi in the movie by 'accident'. It was surprising how she was so calm and 'forgiving' about being knocked out. The fact is that in the anime Chichi had to run after Goku to grab his attention, not the other way around. Bulma has also gone through a personality change and had it not been for the two blue strands of hair and actually saying her name she would have been unrecognizable with the exception of the machines. Yamcha has completely lost his fear of women and instead is like a lousy fill-in sand dune wannabe cool guy. Piccolo, instead of being the unique bad-guy with split personalities has become just the "bad-guy". He has totally lost his antenna's and pointy ears as well being reduce to a incomplete villain that just sends out his chick to do all his dirty work. Where are the rest of the characters? Where's Launch, Krillin, Yamcha's floating cat buddy, Tien and Chichi's oversized strong-as-an-ox father and others? Heck, even the dinosaurs are missing except for the giant eggs-scene at the very beginning of the movie.
  
  
  Another disappointment is the fight-scenes. They are pretty linear in concern of action-fullfilling. A lot more of doing cool, swirly hand-signals and gun pointing/zapping than fights. And what has happened to Gohan's extension pole? It's not even included.
  
  
  Goku turning into a Oozaru was pretty lame too. Instead of being the size of King-Kong he's normal height with no tail. All he has to do is to "believe in himself" and he'd return back to normal, which is not how it goes! The most disappointing of them all was the fight with piccolo, the Kamehameha (not 'Kameha' like the movie says) is supposed to be a gigantic ball of energy shot towards the opponent. Instead it has been reduced down to a stream of wisps when Goku lunges at Piccolo. When Master Roshi 'dies' the summoned dragon is a dwarfed,speechless,golden' glow version of the impressive original. No black ominous skies. Just a chopped, quick cameo with some cracking-noises, wind and lighting in broad daylight.
  
  
  Some scenes are just down-right corny they are laughable. Why is piccolo being taken care of by chicks? What happened to the little-girl hiding under the destroyed village? Why is it that both Bulma and Chichi want to make out with the guys just like that? Fans of the original, stay away from this rushed-out preview. The OVA movies are way better in the way that they can be viewed with or without the series.

• Color me surprised, it was actually pretty good! posted on 31 Aug 2009

  Well, you can rip it apart all you want, and whine because it isn't 100% accurate to the Manga or the Anime, but the movie has the spirit of the original. I'm a fan of DB and DBZ and after watching the horrific trailers I almost didn't go to see this movie. But James Marsters, I could not pass up, and I was pleasantly surprised!
  
  
  I do admit the movie is not without flaws. Instead of making this movie for older fans of the series as they should have done, the producers clearly copped out and aimed the movie for a much younger audience.... The results are sort of what you would expect, the movie runs long at a quick pace of a small child in the throes of a sugar high: Frequent but short action sequences and a lot of glossed over plot points. Some plot points could really have benefited from a little more explanation, but even without, the movie is not difficult to follow or figure out and the action is decent. The story is modified or course, updated but still in the vein of the original, with plenty of nods and cheesey moments from the Anime version to at least mollify the older fans of the series including a lecherous Master Roshi.
  
  I could have wished for longer fight scenes, and definitely more screen time for Piccolo(I suspect both these wishes were curtailed by budgeting), but for what it was, Dragonball evolution hit the spot. No adaptation can be perfect, and when you are condensing a huge volume of story and nuances into about an hour and a half, guess what, its not all going to make it. And any one with common sense should know better than to expect it too. I went in expecting crap, and was happily surprised and entertained instead. I'm not saying you should buy it, but if you were a fan of Dragonball before, at least give it a shot and go rent it. You never know, you just might be pleasantly surprised too.
  
  If nothing else your kids should like it.

• Saving the World One Ball at a Time posted on 31 Aug 2009

  There's surprisingly little evolving going on in "Dragonball: Evolution." If anything, it de-evolves, taking an archetypal hero's journey and stripping it down past the bare minimum. So many details are either quickly alluded to or altogether overlooked, which essentially leaves us with a fairly bland action adventure story that throws in a little self-discovery for good measure. Based on the "Dragon Ball" graphic novels written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama, "Dragonball: Evolution" is an airy, innocuous fable with a minimalist plot that doesn't require the audience to use their brains. It's really just an excuse for impressive visual effects and intriguing costume designs, and even then it doesn't quite work because not enough time is spent on them.
  
  First, a little back story: During a solar eclipse 2,000 years ago, the evil alien warlord Piccolo (James Marsters) and his henchman, Oozaru, came to Earth with the intent to destroy it. Fortunately, a group of monks were able to imprison Piccolo with the aid of a spell. No one knew what happened to Oozaru, but it seems he's useless without his master's influence. As time goes on, Earth goes back to normal.
  
  During this introduction, we also learn about dragonballs, billiard-sized spheres that glow like fire. There are seven in total, and each have a specific number of stars floating over the surface. When all have been collected and brought to a hidden temple, they have the ability to bring forth a magical dragon that can grant one wish.
  
  Now, the story proper: We meet a teenage martial arts student named Goku (Justin Chatwin), who's picked on at school and always fumbles his words when around attractive girls. He was raised his whole life by his grandfather, a martial arts instructor named Gohan (Randall Duk Kim). As we meet them, the two are engaged in hand-to-hand combat while balancing on a pair of elevated ropes, which must be some kind of pale reference to the gravity-defying stunts of films like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" or "House of Flying Daggers." As they fight, they draw strength from their Ki (in other words, they conjure up balls of light out of thin air and hurl them at each other). After the fight, we get a real sense of the film's dialogue; for Goku, this means an awkward series of one liners, and for Gohan, this means hopelessly cliché proverbs about having faith in yourself. Goku knows nothing about where he came from or why he never knew his parents, although Gohan insists that he'll get all the answers come his eighteenth birthday.
  
  And lo and behold, his eighteenth birthday arrives. So does Piccolo, and while we never learn how he managed to escape, we do learn that he plans to track down all seven dragonballs and use them for his own sinister purposes during a solar eclipse. As he flies through the clouds aboard a strange metallic ship, he relies on a young and deadly servant girl named Mai (Eriko Tamura) to actually retrieve the dragonballs, which are apparently scattered all over the world.
  
  When Goku inherits a dragonball from his grandfather, it becomes his mission to track down the remaining dragonballs and save the world from total destruction. Along the way, he meets: Muten Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat), the martial arts master who instructed Gohan; the ridiculously named and technologically well-equipped Bulma Briefs (Emmy Rossum, who I remember much more affectionately as Christine from "The Phantom of the Opera"); and Yamcha (Joon Park) a desert bandit whose sole motivating force is a share of the profits. They're eventually joined by Goku's high school crush, the sweet-natured Chi-Chi (Jamie Cheung), who competes in martial arts tournaments in her spare time.
  
  Never once does this movie pause to offer an explanation for anything. For starters, where exactly does this story take place? The exotic temples and village names hint at somewhere in Asia--a nighttime shot of a neon-drenched city skyline suggests Hong Kong. But since there's absolutely no language barrier, not even for an alien that's thousands of years old, it's hard to know for sure. Revealing that Yamcha talks like a surfer dude will probably be of no help, and don't get me started on the fact that the movie was filmed on location in Mexico. Moving on (and I alluded to this earlier), how exactly did Piccolo escape? How did Mai come to be in his service? What exactly is this Capsule Corporation that Bulma works for?
  
  The ending is a nightmare unto itself for two very specific reasons: (1) it relies on a plot twist that the story wasn't building up to; (2) it culminates with an act of charity so PG-rated that it's downright anticlimactic. And what of the PG rating? Could that be the reason why a story about the threat of annihilation seems so unthreatening? It's probably the reason why I wasn't able to take Piccolo seriously--his pale green skin, dome-like bald head, and muscular black suit make him look more like a goofy invader from Mars than a frightening warlord from beyond. I know it's the reason why Chow Yun-Fat's dialogue was laughably bad. If there's one thing this man shouldn't have to do, it's recite lines that mention the collectability of a swimsuit magazine. I could be mistaken, but I have a feeling that most audiences will not expect such dialogue from a film like "Dragonball: Evolution."

• A slap in the face to the DB fan and a bad movie altogether posted on 31 Aug 2009

  Wow. This movie was really, really bad. Don't waste your money on it.
  
  I'll start off by saying that after the brief battle with Grandpa Gohan, Goku whines about not being popular. Goku does not want to be taught to be able to fight. He just wants to be taught to be like everyone else and he specifically asks to be taught "how to get the girl". There is a lengthy bunch of school scenes filled with Goku being called Geeko by bullies and a silly daydream about Chi Chi eating strawberries before the ever-so-cliche interruption of the teacher getting Goku to say something that sounds stupid to embarrass him in front of the class.
  
  Remember all the hype from James Marsters talking about how deep Piccolo's character will be? Well it turns out he's barely ever in the movie for more than a couple of random one-minute segments that are supposed to build up to the ending...Wong totally fails at this as he could have used this time to explain Piccolo's motivations. Instead he shows Piccolo taking a Dragon Ball in a lake and he and Mai killing about two people. He also takes the time to tell that he was trapped in a jar by the Mafuba for 2000 years. Roshi 'helped' with the story explaining that Piccolo invaded Earth with Oozaru 2000 years ago. Why? Is it because he's the evil half of a Namek? No. In this movie, that good half (Kami) does not exist. Piccolo is just an alien who randomly appeared on Earth and for no reason wants to destroy and then rule it. But who would there be to rule? Mai, I guess.
  
  Speaking of which. Mai's character is not developed either aside from her walking into a poor village with a woman and a girl that has the same hair style as Mai. They all speak Japanese (including Mai) in this scene. Nothing else is hinted at in this scene for Mai's origins. But you don't really ever end up caring anyway.
  
  Wong then takes the time to show more of how this iteration of Goku is the complete opposite of the one we all know of in the manga/anime. Goku shows off to Chi Chi by blasting open her locker when it gets stuck and suddenly Chi Chi becomes attracted to him? Why? Because he can use ki I guess.
  
  Wong again shows another opposite of what Goku should be by having Goku sneak out of his house to show off to Chi Chi at her party. Let's not forget to mention that Goku is skipping out on his birthday celebration with his grandfather and a big delicious, meal that includes cake. Hmm...I seem to recall Goku marrying Chi Chi in the manga/anime because he thought marriage was a type of food. I guess Wong decided to throw out that part of Goku's character as well.
  
  So now Goku makes Chi Chi even more attracted to him by getting into a fight with Fuller and his goons and subsequently making them miss him and hit each other Why did Goku never swing at them once before or even in this fight? Because he is not allowed to fight. No reason is given here either other than it was flagrantly ripped off the Superman movie. Goku reveals to Chi Chi he knows nothing about his past or parents but that his grandfather would tell him. So he's been waiting all his life to find out who he is and on the day he is supposed to find out, he runs off. Goku skips a delicious meal and the story of his origins to show off to Chi Chi. This guy must be desperate for a girlfriend...yeah 'this guy' because that's not Goku.
  
  So after Piccolo conveniently takes out Gohan while Goku's at the part, Goku senses something wrong and runs home...at the pace of a normal human I might add. Here's another extremely stupid part. Goku buries his murdered grandfather in his backyard. I could understand this is if this was the same Goku as the one in the manga who grew up away from civilization and the laws set forth, but this Goku grows up around normal people, goes to school, knows how to read, write, do math, knows the laws, etc. So the fact that he buries Grandpa Gohan in his back yard of all places is just ridiculous.
  
  Queue Bulma's random appearance and let me tell you, this scene in particular has some of the worst acting I've ever seen. The annoying voice Rossum came up with for her character is annoying very distracting. Here comes another opposite. Goku suggests to Bulma that they go on a quest for the Dragon Balls citing to a reluctant Bulma that she may need backup whereas in the original story it was the other way around. So if Bulma suggested this would it make her seem like a weak female character? Who knows!? laugh Oh, and let's not forget Bulma and Goku coming up with the name for her Dragon Ball Energy Locating device or DBE (get it?!) I'm sure James Wong didn't think you would get the 'joke' if Bulma didn't literally spell it out for you and say '...catchy!'.
  
  We are then put through more bad acting featuring the introduction of Chow Yun Fat as Roshi. Fat tries to be funny, but ends up acting as ridiculous and poorly as Arnold Schwarzenegger when he played Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin. The fighting which was a flagrant ripoff of The Matrix and Spider-Man in these scenes didn't help with originality, which this movie completely lacks.
  
  What is very annoying is the fact that Piccolo has this advanced airship yet manages to quickly fall behind in his search for the Dragon Balls.
  
  Anyway, the film then establishes through Roshi that ki is nothing more than airbending. So instead of making the ki light-like energy, Wong goes the way of Avatar - The Last Airbender. Why? Who knows? It doesn't look like Wong or Fox actually like any of Dragon Ball though.
  
  The next poorly-done scenes we come across feature Piccolo and Mai using Piccolo's blood to create rock-like monsters, much like Ivan Ooze's goons from the Power Rangers movie. The group then meets up with Yamcha the bandit, who in this movie for some reason has no idea how to fight even though the character of Yamcha has been established as one of the Earth's strongest/fastest fighters in the anime. After some drilling, the group somehow ends up in the middle of a giant volcanic area. Here they meet up with Piccolo's rock-monsters and a Power Rangers fight scene occurs against the monsters who regenerate in poorly-done CGI. I mean this CGI is the kind of trash you'd see on a Sci-Fi channel movie.
  
  The one thing that is quasi-DB inspired is when "Goku" beats up Mai (actually the only people Goku beats up besides Piccolo are women). Mai kicks him in the face and it just moves the skin on his cheek but does nothing to hurt him. Unfortunately, the fact that Goku is played by and represented as a whiny wimp like Chatwin fails to make it look believable. Goku never questions why Mai is at the volcano and doesn't even bother to mention her appearance to the rest of the group
  
  Another thing that was pointless was Yamcha and Bulma's 'relationship'. They liked each other in the manga because their was a comical build up to it. In the movie, they had about a minute of screen-time together before they tried to make out with each other. Why? Because Bulma likes bad-boys. So it's basically a rushed version of the Han Solo/Princess Lea relationship, but poorly done.
  
  This next part is just sickening because it basically involves James Wong taking a dump on the character of Goku. Goku is supposed to learn how to perform the kamehameha to light the torches. Roshi again stresses that the kamehameha is an air-bending technique, does the movements all wrong, then goes to bed. Goku for some reason cannot pull it off in the slightest, so he actually tries to CHEAT by using a lit candle to light the torch. Okay, when did Goku ever try to cheat during his training? He always wanted to get stronger. Anyway, Chi Chi catches him trying to cheat, and Goku complains in a whiny manner of why it's so hard to perform a kamehameha, so Chi Chi gives Goku a flirtatious incentive to light the torches. To this, Goku is suddenly able to light all the torches with ease except for the last one where Chi Chi teaches Goku to perform the move his own way. After that, Chi Chi just can't resist and she and Goku make out.
  
  So then what happens is that poorly-done Chi Chi vs. Mai fight scene that we've all seen released awhile ago. The gun Goku is shot with doesn't just knock him unconscious, it nearly kills him. Queue a foggy ripoff scene of Peter Parker having a chat with Uncle Ben, except it's Goku and Grandpa Gohan. Oh, and Roshi uses the kamehameha (which translates in English to turtle DESTRUCTION wave) to heal Goku. Obviously, Wong did not do his research in this area.
  
  The plot then rushes to the climax that involves Piccolo getting rattled by Yamcha's flying truck that is again a ripoff of the flying Delorean from Back to the Future. What follows is a very poorly-done scene and explanation of Piccolo and Goku's past. Marsters tried to hype up Piccolo, but he was barely in the movie at all. He had no motivation for why he was trying to destroy Earth. He wasn't the evil part of another Namek like he was in the manga/anime, he was just an alien who randomly tried to conquer Earth for NO reason whatsoever. Even more confusing is his story about Oozaru. He says to Goku that Goku is the Oozaru who he tried to conquer Earth with 2000 years prior before Piccolo was trapped by the Mafuba. He also tells Goku that Goku came to Earth on a meteor and hid amongst the humans until his 18th birthday. He then said and I quote "You WORKED for me!". So how did an 18 year-old work for someone 1,982 years before he was born? James Wong is an idiot!
  
  The CGI for the Oozaru transformations was really poorly done. The camera kept cutting so they could skip on you seeing the transformation. The Oozaru ended up being about the size of a small bear and even kills Roshi in yet another poorly-done scene. Even though the Oozaru is choking the life out of Roshi, Roshi still manages to form coherent sentences with little trouble breathing, then suddenly dies. Oozaru then transforms back to human form in an even more poorly-done CGI scene than the initial transformation. This time it's literally four or five images, the last being the exact same camera cut of the first transformation but in reverse. Oh, and one more thing on this subject. Goku's gi gets stretched out like crazy and his belt is just gone when he's in Oozaru form, but when he transforms back into human form, his gi is magically folded up neatly and his belt is magically back in place.
  
  And now the battle we've all been waiting for. Goku vs. Piccolo. They fight for about less than a minute before it cuts to the 'real' main even of two gunslingers, Bulma and Mai, the latter of whom is taken out by Yamcha when he shoots her (because Yamcha can't actually fight without weapons in this movie, remember?)
  
  The fight cuts back to Goku doing a jumping kamehameha into Piccolo, knocking him out cold and saving the world in about 50 seconds. So added together, the Goku vs. Piccolo fight is about as long as the Goku vs. the high school bullies fight. Combine this with 'airbending' techniques that look like they have no power to them whatsoever. It just looks like gas spraying harmlessly through the air. After this 'intense' battle, Goku looks as clean as a whistle. No cuts, scratches, or dents to him or his outfit.
  
  So...after wishing just Roshi back (so much for the 'perfect' wish Roshi and G. Gohan talked about - why is it perfect? Don't ask me.) instead of everyone Piccolo killed, Chow Yun Fat again attempts to be funny, but to no avail. And instead of more training, Goku decides to join Bulma and Yamcha on their quest for the Dragon Balls...but not before he goes back to Chi Chi to make out with her once again. They then have a dumb argument about why Goku knocked Chi Chi out and how she let him, so the movie ends off with some lame Matrix rip-off of Chi Chi drop-kicking Goku while Goku jumps and punches at her.
  
  Chatwin made all this hype about Goku's hair 'evolving' through the movie the more he accepts himself. It does change, but at the end, Goku just gels it back to the style he had to start with, so so much for that.
  
  Oh, and did I mention a native is feeding Piccolo soup and hiding him under her bed at the end? Yeah, an evil alien tries to destroy the Earth and you hide and rejuvenate him. That's brilliant!
  
  All-in-all, the movie is bad. Very bad. It's not the kind of bad that's either so bad that you'll laugh at it or bad, but fun. It's bad and boring. tired
  
  This movie gets a 1/10. The one point coming from the music of Brian Tyler who seems to be the only one who put any amount of effort into this movie. It's too bad that his music is drowned out by a bad story, whiny voices and bad name and special attack pronunciations the entire movie. That was all just as distracting as the eyeliner Chatwin had too much of the entire movie. I mean I know actors wear makeup when on-film, but geez. That was way too much eyeliner. It made him look weird.

• Dragonball Evolution posted on 31 Aug 2009

  I have watched dragon ball since i was a kid and i must admit like in every movie based on a book or anime it left out more then a few things. But on the other hand they did a great job putting the movie togather it was fun to watch it would recamend it to anyone ... even my freind who i dragged along .. who didn't even want to see the movie cause she said it would be bad turn out to find that she enjoyed the movie.

• The Spirit of Dragonball is here. posted on 31 Aug 2009

  Just got back from seeing Dragonball: Evolution!
  
  To my great surprise and gratification, THEY GOT IT RIGHT!
  
  This is more surprising given the terrible reviews I was seeing and the exceedingly lackluster boxoffice performance. But in fact, given that there was simply NO WAY for the full quirkiness and detail of the original to be stuffed into a two-hour movie, AND that the idea would be to convey the essence of the show... they did a hell of a job. Even more so given the time of development. Was it really about one year start-to-finish? That's bloody LIGHTNING fast.
  
  For those who are Dragonball/DBZ fans, the best way to describe this is: it's like one of the animated movies. It's an alternate continuity, one that won't fit with any of the original... but it's got the SPIRIT.
  
  One of the brilliant strokes of genius -- or utter pieces of idiocy -- in the original advertising is that the original trailers deliberately mislead you. There are deceptive cuts and a few actual outright changes of dialogue which make you think one thing when another is true -- and the "other" is much BETTER than you expected. They successfully managed to hide a lot of the Real Dragonball Stuff from us until the premiere, which is a hell of a job.
  
  
  I'm still unsure whether that's good or bad. On the face of it, misleading your fans should be bad. On the other hand, I absolutely HATE a lot of trailers and previews which basically give away all the coolest stuff in a movie or coming TV episode. I want to experience the show without knowing everything ahead of time.
  
  Spoilers follow, so don't read farther if you don't want to know!
  
  
  
  
  
  The essence of Dragonball was preserved. It takes place on a version of Dragonworld -- it may be called Earth ("Chikyuu"), but it's Dragonworld. We have Capsules, and bizarre technology, wierd mixes of cultures... it LOOKS like a Toriyama world, made real.
  
  As I rather expected, they fused Gohan and Goku in terms of personality. This actually works well in that it allows us to introduce Goku in an at least somewhat familiar setting.
  
  (Worries about him being a loser being beaten up... no, he's not. He has been made fun of, but it's not because he CAN'T fight...)
  
  Chatwin, I'm happy to say, does this version of Goku well. He gets the innocence and awkwardness of the Gohan aspects, and when the time comes to be more "Goku", he shows it perfectly. Okay, his hair isn't nine inches high, but it's spiky in a very Saiyajin way.
  
  Rossum *IS* Bulma. Yes, they've given her some action sequences, but I think that improves her character in context.
  
  Chow Yun Fat was, as I said earlier, the RIGHT choice for Mutenroshi/Kamesenin (the original seen in my icon above, doing the Kame Hame Ha). They toned down his Ecchi nature, leaving just enough of the dirty old man to keep him the same somewhat, er, earthy character.
  
  
  James Marsters was, in fact, the PERFECT Piccolo. He sounded like Piccolo, he moved like Piccolo, and yes, he was very much GREEN like Piccolo Daimao.
  
  The changes in plotline... mostly work very well. It is, as others have said, fairly short; I hope there's more on the DVD release.
  
  
  And the final battle IS Dragonball, right down to the final KA...ME...HA...ME...HAAAAA!
  
  Oh, and one of the lies told in the previews? The mystics who banded together did NOT create the Dragonballs. They invented the Maa Fubaaa, a technique an awful lot of DB fans forget about, to capture and imprison Piccolo. The Dragonballs are, in fact, what they were always supposed to be, and the Great Dragon Shen-Long DOES make an appearance.
  
  The music's pretty good, too.
  
  So in short, I strongly encourage anyone who likes DB/DBZ, or anyone who'd enjoy a quirky super-martial-arts movie, to go see this one.

• I HOPE there is a sequel! posted on 31 Aug 2009

  I don't know what the big deal is. I saw the movie and I didn't think
  it was bad at all. And you know what? I HOPE there will be a sequel.
  Because I LOVE Vegeta! And I think that it actually had the potential to be a good movie if people weren't ragging on it before they even saw it! I mean look at the Death Note and Sailor Moon live actions. They were WAAAAAAAY worse than this movie! So I think it deserves a LOT more credit than it's being gived. LOL Obviously it doesn't follow the story line very well but for what it does bring cheesy humor that I think all Dragonball fans can appreciate. Call me crazy or stupid all you want. But as a die-hard DB and DBZ fan I went, I saw and I am buying the DVD. ^O^

• I was surprised at how much I loved this movie posted on 31 Aug 2009

  I had seen trailers and was not impressed and only went to see it because James Marsters was Piccolo and he made Piccolo come to life. The whole movie was fast paced, no bogging down of the story and all the actors were very good. The music was excellent and I am so excited to see the DVD will be out shortly. I am going back to see it again on the big screen and to anyone that is reading all the bad comments from people that have not even gone to see the movie, don't be close minded, go see for yourself. There have been several different versions of Dragonball and this is just another and I loved it. The next movie is going to start filming in May I think and I am looking forward to more of the Dragonball story.

• Been a fan since I was 6 (i'm now 21) posted on 31 Aug 2009

  My review will be very short.
  
  This is a dragonball movie NOT dragonball Z. except Goku and Yamcha; the characters are exactly like they were in dragonball. Now, all I've seen in db was about half the show. Chichi was a nice girl in dragonball; she did NOT become the loud mouth (from what I saw) `till dragonball Z. now, Yamcha was the same, they just intensified his personality.
  
  They kept piccolo's story the same. Goku, they also kept. EXCEPT, they did make it out to be that he was from namek. But a sequel could very easily fix that.
  
  Now, I'm going to leave this with a few questions I asked myself going into the theater: Why would they make a movie based solely on the show? Why would you pay money to see a movie you've seen 100 times over? And why would you deal with the crowds of a movie theater for a movie you already know?
  
  And I was very surprised: they changed Goku's style and made it more modern day. But, that was all they changed.
  
  Thank you for reading
  

• An evolution and near perfect movie...except... posted on 31 Aug 2009

  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.

• Wow!! posted on 31 Aug 2009

  I've seen it!! Only once though..
  It was way better than the reviews!!
  When I went back to see it again for the second time it stopped playing-.-
  I'm getting my copy as soon as it's available!!
  Can't wait 'till July!!

• Good,but if your a fan of the anime sereis this may not be for you. posted on 31 Aug 2009

  Ok. This movie was good to me, but if your a fan of the anime you might not like it. A few things were wrong in this movie that they should've seen. First of all where the hell is Krillin? He was there from the beginning, and I can't beleive they missed that! They never explained that Goku is a being called a Sayien, only saying that he was sent to earth as Ozaru(a giant monkey) in a human body, and that on his eighteenth birthday he would be ready to awaken. So where the hell is his tail huh? The Kamehameha wave sucked in this movie. Why the hell was he flying through the air with it? Overall good to watch one time around, but anime fans would not really like it.

• Worst Movie Ever - and an Insult to the Dragon Ball franchise posted on 31 Aug 2009

  
  First and foremost.......... THIS MOVIE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DRAGON BALL EXCEPT for its title. The story has been changed radically and have turned a great anime into a SOAP OPERA movie, the protagonist actor Justin CHatwick is the worst choice to play Goku, horrible acting, horrible script........ they turned Goku into a regular guy that only thinks in how to hook up with girls ......????????......... the rest of the characters have been changed too, not only they look completely different, but their behavior in this movie is almost the opposite of the real dragon ball anime.
  
  You've been warned, if you are a fan of the Dragon Ball anime, in this movie you WILL NOT FIND any of the plot, characters or personalities that you loved from the anime, and you will feel really upset that you wasted your money on this.
  
  
  And if you are not a fan of Dragon Ball anime, you STILL WILL HATE THIS MOVIE, because even as a movie it doesn't make any sense, no character development, stupid one-liners, and mediocre effects.
  
  DON'T WASTE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY ON THIS CRAPPIEST MOVIE, and if you want TRUE Dragon Ball buy the anime dvd instead.
  
  

• This is morbid posted on 31 Aug 2009

  This movie has absolutely nothing to do with Dragonball. The creators of this film are just using a name with a large following in a sorry attempt to earn more money. If you're expecting this "experience" to remind you of the Toriyama made anime at all, don't waste your time and money.

• This is a BIG INSULT to a great series. posted on 31 Aug 2009

  Everything in this movie is awful and sloppy!
  
  The acting is bad, the plot is terrible, there are drab cliches, and a lot of rip-offs you wouldn't believe. This has the name Dragonball on it but don't expect anything of the sort! AVOID THIS FILM at all costs!

• Not worth it AT ALL! Look elsewhere posted on 31 Aug 2009

  Do not even waste your money on this 'slap-to-the-face-of-db-fan-movie'. The story is so rushed that half the time one wonders what just happened? The special effects are so cheesy. Goku never went to school. Goku was never supposed to know what a girl is. Goku was never supposed to know cities existed.
  
  To summarize the whole movie. Basically over 150+ episode were crammed into this 1hr+ movie, which translate to failure, rush, characters appearing out of the blue. Very very poor movie. It is a disgrace to use the word 'DragonBall' in this.

• Dragonball De-Evolution posted on 31 Aug 2009

  I would not buy this movie, even if you don't know much about Dragonball or Z. This movie is a very poor adaptation, FOX went with a low budget for the film, they changed Goku's behavior around 180 degrees. It is a bit entertaining but that surely dies out real fast. The special effects weren't very good either. Save your money for a better movie then this, you'd just be wasting it on this pitiful of an excuse so called Dragonball movie. Oh and don't be fooled by the added Z-Edition, it's nothing special.