Starring:Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, Eriko Tamura, Joon Park, Chow Yun-Fat,Ernie Hudson
Director: James Wong (Final Destination, The One)
Budget: $45 million
Running Time: 1 hr 24 min
Release Date: April 10, 2009
Critics’ Thumbs Up: 31%
“…crammed with treats for old-school Dragonball fans…” Tasha Robinson, The Onion (A.V. Club)
“…blasé in their approach to the series’ mythology and structure…” Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times
This live-action adaptation drops the ball with its underwhelming special effects and a confusing plot for anyone unfamiliar with the Japanese manga series. The mythology involves a teenage martial artist named Goku (Chatwin) and his attempt to collect the seven magical orbs that will grant the retriever a wish. The (boring) chase is on when the evil Lord Piccolo (Marsters) is back 2,000 years later after the dragonballs vanquished him. Yun-Fat, as Goku’s mentor, is the only sensibly cast actor but is terrible underused. While the kid-friendly kung fu action sequences are a welcome break from current violent movies like Observe & Report, Dragonball: Evolution’s light-heartedness won’t excite loyal fanboys.
