Dragonball Evolution (2009)
Average Rating: 3.4/10
Reviews Counted: 56
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 48
Executed with little panache or invention, Dragonball Evolution lacks the magic that made the books upon which it was based a cult sensation.
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 6
Executed with little panache or invention, Dragonball Evolution lacks the magic that made the books upon which it was based a cult sensation.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.4/5
User Ratings: 208,771
Movie Info
James Wong adapts the rich mythos of the Dragonball series that grew from a manga into various popular animated series with this 20th Century Fox production starring Justin Chatwin. The plot revolves around Goku (Chatwin), Earth's greatest champion, who must defend the planet against an invading race of alien warriors hell-bent on dominating the universe. Wong directs from his own script, with Kung Fu Hustle's Stephen Chow producing. Buffy the Vampire Slayer's James Marsters co-stars as the
Apr 10, 2009 Wide
Jul 28, 2009
$9.4M
20th Century Fox
Watch It Now
Cast
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Justin Chatwin
Goku -
James Marsters
Lord Piccolo -
Jamie Chung
Chi Chi -
Emmy Rossum
Bulma -
Eriko
Mai -
Joon Park
Yamcha -
Yun-Fat Chow
Master Roshi -
Randall Duk Kim
Grandpa Gohan -
Ernie Hudson
Sifu Norris -
Texas Battle
Carey Fuller -
Megumi Seki
Seki -
Ian Whyte
Oozaru -
Richard Blake
Agundes -
Jon Valera
Moreno -
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All Critics (58) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (48) | DVD (3)
Evolution is far more entertaining than it deserves to be, unless you're a 10-year-old boy, in which case it's only the greatest movie ever made.
Top CriticThere are a few entertaining fight scenes. But there is also uneven CGI, bad dialogue and a host of clichéd moments that make Dragonball Evolution just another disappointing matinee movie.
Fans of the best-selling Dragonball comics (and cartoons, and videogames...) might have a shot at untangling the knotty dream-logic that strangles Dragonball: Evolution's live-action adaptation.
The giddy, anything-goes spirit of Japanese manga comics and Hong Kong martial arts flicks animates Dragonball Evolution. Not enough to make it a good movie, mind you, but enough so you won't hate yourself if you sit through it with the kids.
A hyperactively messy little adventure fantasy in which movement is everything and meaning means nothing.
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.
This film offers further proof, as if any were needed, that Western filmmakers cannot do justice to their Eastern counterparts when it comes to retooling anime and/or Fant-Asia for Occidental consumption.
More concerned with recruiting the testosterone troubled boys of today than it is rewarding fans of yesteryear.
As far as 2009 flops will go, [this] could have been much worse to sit through...
A contender for the worst movie of the year was released in April.
I am no expert in the field of Dragon Ball. However... the first live-action, English-language film in the franchise is absolutely insipid.
For anyone writing it off as a kiddie film, Dragonball: Evolution should be considered child abuse. Put everyone involved with this catastrophe on the receiving end of a Kamehameha wave.
this first installment was actually entertaining enough that a sequel could work out the kinks to become a very solid franchise.
The story seems to have been made up as the film went along, and not by anyone talented. The fight scenes and special effects are shamefully pathetic.
Faced with the choice of watching Dragonball: Evolution again and perishing in a fiery apocalypse, I'd take Judgment Day every time.
A rather tame live-action sci-fi flick.
The producer, Stephen Chow, made the funny and original Kung Fu Hustle, but here he and director James Wong get into a terrible mess.
Having been blandly adapted from a Chinese folklore-inspired Manga, that's about as much of the story that makes sense. Gibberish in the extreme, it has all the narrative cohesion of a trading card game.
[Chow's] hamminess doesn't make Dragonball Evolution make more sense, but it's a great way to cope with an otherwise inexplicable kitschfest.
Dragonball's value -- such as it is -- is that it's too dumb to actively hate.
Poor Emmy Rossum went from "Phantom" to this. Now that's a career decline.
just another dull teen action film
The film is crammed with treats for old-school Dragonball fans. For everyone else, this amounts to another seen-it-before, probably-willing-to-see-it-again distraction, a passable collection of 'splosions and special effects for a slow film weekend.
Audience Reviews for Dragonball Evolution
Super Reviewer
Movies Like Dragonball Evolution
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- Goku: [Goku trashes Fuller and his gang] Oh, about your car... [Smashes the car]
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- Goku: Teach me how to be normal.
- Grandpa Gohan: Normal is also overrated.
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- Bulma: You have no right to give away a third of the royalties to my invention. One day Dragonballs could power the world.
- Master Roshi: Don't worry. A third of zero is still zero.
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- Grandpa Gohan: Always have faith in who you are.
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- Master Roshi: In an ancient time, Earth was nearly destroyed. Not by man, but by Gods from the sky.
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Easily worse movie I have ever seen.