Dragonball Evolution (2009) User Reviews

The perfect movie for anyone who hates Dragonball Z

[Monsoon77 · 2/10 · 17 March 2009]

Watching DBE i can immediately tell the directors and everyone else involved have not watched more than a few episodes of the entire Dragonball series. The characters are only similar in name and the story feels like they chewed it up and spit it out and whatever stuck to the storyboard they went with. I wont ruin the story but its nothing like the anime, as i said before the characters are only similar to the anime by name. It almost seems like they wanted to make this movie as bad and as far away from the original story as they could. The only time an actor or actress acts like their anime counterpart is when they are first introduced speaking mainly about Master Roshi and Yamcha.

For one of the most action packed animes around they sure did the opposite with the movie. I can count the number of fight scenes with one hand and count how long they lasted with two hands. Its pretty pathetic when the first fight scene with Goku and the "bullies" is the best and he never threw even threw a punch. The big screen debut of the Kamehameha is sad and pathetic and all the Ki blasts look like different color fire balls. They don't look pure energy (like they are in the anime) but just like slow motion fire.

I could go on for hours about what they did wrong. If you have never seen the anime series don't watch the movie. The story is probably too confusing for anyone who doesn't know the entire back-story of the anime. The movie only gives you the who and the what but no why. In fact i think why sums up the entire movie. Why did they do this and why did they do that is all i was thinking during the entire movie. At the end of the movie all i could do was ask "Why did they make this movie and who did they make this movie for?" This is not a movie for the fans or anyone who has never seen the anime. It feels like they made this movie for the people who hate the anime.

As a fan of the series I will award this no points and may god have mercy on their souls.

Even the 7 Dragonballs Can't Save This Movie

[classiccase-1 · 2/10 · 20 March 2009]

For manga and anime fans around the world, the story of Dragonball has to be at the top, or at least in the top 3 of their most beloved manga/anime stories ever written. There is already an existing live action Dragonball movie called Dragonball: The Magic Begins (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122050/) made in Taiwan back in 1989. That movie tried really hard to stay as close as possible to the original story of Dragonball as written by Akira Toriyama, but it ended up being more of a comedy. The entire story also only went up to the Pilaf storyline, which was way before the first Piccolo appearance. This movie, although aged and not exactly a direct interpretation of the Dragonball story, was still appreciated by most fans due to the comedic entertainment value.

Now, another live action Dragonball movie has come, called Dragonball: Evolution. When the first few pictures of this movie appeared on the internet, a lot of the fans already predicted that the movie would turn out horrible because the characters don't look like themselves. The characters were heavily changed and westernized too much, especially Piccolo, the main villain, who didn't look like the one from the manga and anime. Fast forward to a few weeks before the latest Dragonball movie was released, a trailer was leaked on the internet. That trailer spelled the certain doom of the movie to the fans of the show. Most of the comments described the movie as "Not Dragonball, but another action movie".

This writer was fortunate enough to be invited to a private screening of the movie, and boy was I surprised! I was already expecting the movie to be bad and not a "real" Dragonball, but what I witnessed was something much more horrible! Granted that the movie was really different, but the way the movie progressed, the introduction of characters, the fight scenes, oh wow, you'd think it was a movie created by elementary kids who had no idea what Dragonball was about, except for the "Kamehameha" move and the 7 dragon balls, just with the financial backing of a millionaire.

Everything seemed rushed in the movie and characters would just pop out of nowhere and decide to join together to beat Piccolo. The love angle in the story seemed forced as well, everybody was simply out of character. Goku's a powerful but lame school boy, Chi Chi's a martial art school girl who can't even open her own locker, Master Roshi's some crazy dude living in the city (at least he still wears a Hawaiian shirt and seems a little perverted), Bulma became Lara Croft and Rambo combined in another body with a bizarre voice, Mai (originally one of Pilaf's hilarious henchmen in the manga) became a cold blooded, shape-shifting killer, Yamcha became a weird cross between a desert bandit who can't fight and a hobo with unwashed hair, and Piccolo became a weird vampire whose outfit seems to be inspired by the Matrix. I think only Grandpa Gohan was close enough to the original character, except for the way he exits the movie early on.

The fight scenes were lame. Dragonball was about epic sized battles that could not be contained in one location. Characters would get punched through mountains, cities would be destroyed, the earth would rumble and split up due to the massive forces of the fighters. In this movie, everything seemed so lame. Even the Kamehameha attack was used to light some candles! Talk about total weakening!

The only "good" things about the movie were the special effects, although the energy blasts seemed very weak.

My advise is, if you're going to pay to watch this movie, DON'T DO IT. Listen to what almost everybody has been saying because they're right, the movie is worse than what you currently have in mind!

Hollywood is ruining my childhood memories!

[mikely115 · 3/10 · 18 March 2009]

This movie is just plain disappointing to say the least. I don't care if this is an adaptation of Dragonball. The only reason why I gave it a 3 out of 10 rating was for the special effects and production value which were semi-decent. I don't understand what was wrong with the original storyline that needed to be changed and messed with. It's the original storyline that made fans love Dragonball in the first place. "If it ain't broke don't fix it." I think this movie would do a lot better if they stuck with the original story and had better casting. The real fans would flood the theaters to watch it which would bring hype to the movie for new viewers that don't know about Dragonball, kind of like how Watchmen did. Street Fighter was horrible and they expect to do a sequel to it, this movie was a travesty...I guess next up will be Thundercats and Voltron for Hollywood to mess up for me. Thank you Hollywood for ruining my childhood memories.

For the love of god, if you respect the original series at all, do NOT pay to see this crap!

[vas_deferens · 1/10 · 4 April 2009]

Let me just start off by saying that there are no redeeming qualities to this movie at all. The multi-million dollar budget has amounted to a teen drama mixed with power rangers. The final product is insulting, to say the least.

The creators of this horrible, horrible adaption should take a good long think about what they have done and why they should have just followed the source material instead of taken it for granted. Do they really think that the entire Dragonball fan-base is this stupid? Akira Toriyama probably has a noose around his neck right about now.

To finish this off: The acting is atrocious, the butt-rock scattered through the soundtrack will make you want to punch the guy running the theater in the face, and the story is basically the manga's, but cut up, put into a blender, stuffed into sausage skins, and stitched back together with an American flag tied around it.

If you want your Dragonball fix, just buy dvds of the show instead, skip the movie, and if you don't skip it, then at least don't pay for this thing. I heard that a sequel is already in the works, and we don't need a trilogy, that would be three of these movies too many.

Insulting as a Dragon Ball fan, as a movies fan, and probably as human(?)

[educallejero · 1/10 · 16 August 2018]

As a Dragon Ball fan this was clearly not anything even similar.

As a movie fan, this was atrocious.

Its hard to understand what kind of drugs all the people involved were in

A beyond Sub-par interpretation of Dragon Ball onto the big screens.

[robin_dhanju-1 · 1/10 · 24 March 2009]

This is a total butchering of what I had held great hopes of seeing. The movies attempts to follow the dragon ball story line, meanwhile adding a "modern" spin on it (ie. chi chi's castle, and Master Roshi lives in a regular semi whats up with that?). What the viewers want to see is a storyline that follows the cartoon series without any changes, and additions. Overall, the plot is weak, the characters do not look like the cartoons (ie. Yamcha, Master Roshi), the 2D cartoon series had better special effects than the movie (and the series had NO special effects, thats how terrible it was). I created an IMDb account JUST to comment on how they butchered Dragonball for me and I hope that Hollywood is smarter next time as to when they bring such a strong fan based series onto the big screens or they will only infuriate more of the audience.

A contender for the worst live-action film for an animated TV series

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 9 March 2011]

As bad as Inspector Gadget and The Last Airbender are, they look like masterpieces compared to Dragonball Evolution. The TV series was very, very good, the movie was half-baked and bland. The only good thing was James Marsters, while he mayn't look exactly like Piccolo he at least tries to capture the essence of the character. Just a shame he isn't in enough of the movie to elevate it even more.

Why do I say that Dragonball Evolution is a contender for the worst live-action film for an animated TV series? The scenery and costumes are nice to look at, but the cinematography does nothing for me, the editing is shoddy and the lighting is dull. The special effects don't impress either, they do distract rather than enhance and it doesn't help that some of them are half-baked.

The film is also too rushed, and in all honesty I was left bored by the end, nothing really interesting in my view happens. The story is juvenile and predictable, the dialogue is terrible either being cheesy or due to the delivery very rarely ringing true and the direction is bland. The acting is nothing to smile about, Goku and Yamuka especially are complete disasters and show a complete lack of acting ability. Not only that, the characters here are treated in the most banal way possible and are difficult to like as a result.

Overall, a very poor movie. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Dragonball Evolution - What a screw up!

[movie-goers · 1/10 · 16 March 2009]

What is wrong with this picture man? Nothing personal to James as a director. I love his Final Destination series, but I think James is NOT the right person to direct this million plus dollars franchise. Why James is hired to direct this movie in the first place? It is a big mistakes. Like having Ang Lee directing the Hulk. Hiring an Asian to direct an Asian animation epic doesn't mean the movie will turn out great. The director must have a vision of the given materials.

The entire outcome is a disaster and disappointment. It is understandable that the film isn't exactly the same as the original comic, but the characters and the plot just suck as a film on its own. From observing the promotion materials of Dragonball, it seems that Fox doesn't want to do this movie at all. The posters suck and the trailers suck. The studio spends a lot of money on making Marvels and DC comics into movies, look how successful those films had become. The studios should pay more respect and faith in Asian materials.

To me this whole thing isn't making any sense at all because there are established fans across the globe, and Dragonball comic and cartoon itself has last more than TWO decades. This is why I think 20th Century Fox was putting money into this project initially. Everyone is looking forward to see a Hollywood version of Dragonball. Soon as I saw the first teaser, I knew I shouldn't put up in any hope into this movie. Even though I went to see the movie without any expectation, the movie still suck! Despite the led down of the Dragonball fans, it creates negative impulses to those who is new to Dragonball.

Dragonball is a hot cult in Asia and it hits the western market because of the stylistic action and fight sequences. However, the martial arts choreography in this movie is another led down. Not to mention the screenplay, the production design of this film is not consistence at all. Wardrobes, props to makeup, nothing fits together! Not only nothing in this film resembles the original DB, it is a disgrace. No wonder they use the word "Evolution". But when they say evolution, I don't expect the studio turns something respectable like Dragonball into rubbish. I've seen a live action version of Dragonball shot by the Malaysian years ago. Although it is an exact duplicate of the animation. But the movie is far better than Dragonball Evolution.

A lot of us are looking for a remake of this movie.

Overall F grade or 0/10, Save your money! wait until you can watch it online for free!

[scorpionlgr · 1/10 · 20 March 2009]

This Movie plain and simple insults our intelligence, I mean I'm no Geek, but tham they were way off!, this should not even be called dragonball, because of stupid 20th Century Fox, now dragonball is ruined, if someone wanted to make a better movie with the real story that Akira Toriyama made, they made so many changes and mistakes that the dragonball that we know is gone forever, on Watchmen they made some changes but only so the essence of the show could be shown on film, but Dragonball is dead they killed it, I'm sorry Akira Toriyama they ruined your work and about every Anime , and dbz fan out there, like my Grandfather just to say "there's cheese all over that movie" It is illogical to spend the money on copyrights if you're not even going to use the story.

Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network, originally disgusted at Otaku decrying the film via leaked set shots and trailers even before the movie was released, gave the movie an overall F grade, admitting that "The fans were right." Criticizing the films lack of explaining plot elements to its hackmead storyline and lackluster effort by the actors, he suggested that the film "Might be fun when you're hammered and surrounded by friends. Or suicidal, and need something to push you over the edge."

A Nutshell Review: Dragonball Evolution

[DICK STEEL · 3/10 · 12 March 2009]

Hollywood plundering Japanese pop culture isn't something new. From "Americanizing" television series for the kids from Power Rangers to Ultraman, and adapting famed characters from Japanese film, games and manga to frequent disastrous effect, it still wouldn't stop the studios from going after one property after another. This time round it's the long running Dragonball series, because the assumption is that the built-in fan base would translate to instant dollars at the box office. Not.

You have to give the filmmakers a little bit of credit though, being either foolhardy, or just plain ballsy. It's a given that they cannot condense and distill the rich content into a surprisingly less than 90 minute movie, and live in the hopes of producing a sequel, or to generate a franchise (i.e. don't leave the cinema hall when the end credits start to roll). But what they successfully do, is to super-summarize the entire mythos by throwing out everything except the main gist of the entire manga, making it extremely simplistic in poor lazy-man standards in adaptation.

For the uninitiated, the film would serve as a quick launchpad to the original manga. For those with a wee bit of knowledge of what it's about (like myself), the film just treads along the same lines and doesn't offer you new information. For the fanboys, I guess you'll only get some kicks at seeing some of your favorite characters come alive, only that they look more Caucasian, and have a head full of hair when they're not supposed to (someone forgot to insist that in the contract?) That's all you're gonna get. Period.

As far as film-making and story-telling techniques go, you can see cliché after cliché being thrown at you, with the poorly and cheaply rendered special effects offering no consolation. Justin Chatwin's Goku is your typical teenager who possesses innate potential yet to be realized, and in his frustration he gets treated by peers as a loser geek. He lives with his grandpa Gohan (Randall Duk Kim in stereotypical know-it-all like in Kung Pu Panda), and develops a crush on school hottie Chi Chi (Jamie Chung). Goku's calling in life is to prevent an apocalypse from happening with the return of chief cardboard baddie Lord Piccolo (an instant shoo-in as one of the worst cinematic villains, ever!) and his temporary sidekick Mai (Eriko Tamura) who attempt to collect 7 dragonballs to fulfill an ancient myth. And of course Goku needs a Fellowship, in the form of irritating tech-wizard Bulma (Emmy Rossum last seen in the sinker Poseidon), mercenary Yum Cha (Joon Park who probably copied Rain's uninspiring cinematic turn in Speed Racer to a T) and Chow Yun-Fat the biggest name of them all here trying his darnest best to act cute as Master Roshi, who imparts skills in double quick time to Goku.

Speaking of time, or the lack thereof, everything is compressed. From two weeks to two days and the day of the blood moon shielding the yellow sun (OK so I made that up), everything moves at so fast a pace, that all you get are cheesy lines of dialog, and an excuse to paste some action sequences together. And James Wong certainly can't direct action (despite being at the helm of Jet Li's The One, which was of course bland and bad), opting to pay homage to Zack Snyder's slow-mo technique, and midway changing the style to having the camera being too close to the action, in the dark, coupled with quick MTV cuts that you don't get to see a thing.

And the rush job just doesn't stop at the narrative or the action. Special effects wise, they look really cheap, and I wonder whether Producer Stephen Chow would roll his eyes at what would be extremely pale when put side by side with his Kung Fu Hustle done many years ago. Ayumi Hamasaki's contribution of the theme song Rule sounded really bad as well (I may get flak from her fans), and I guess having some Asian participation doesn't legitimize what is essentially a poorly done movie. Not even Chow Yun-Fat's star status could save this, and you wonder what figured when this is the movie that he gave up Red Cliff for.

This is basically a movie that only children below the age of 5 will enjoy tremendously, despite having to see 6 half-balls, contributed courtesy of the 3 lead female characters, being continuously flashed on screen, thanks to some neck plunging wardrobe (where's that malfunction when you need one?) Totally bland and really uninteresting, I would suggest sticking to the manga instead.

Is a shame what is done to great stories/franchises.

[supermankelly · 31 March 2009]

It gets done wrong then have to wait another 10 years for someone to come and do it right. This has potential to be a great movie and introduce a whole new audience to DragonBall. Characters need to be older, as we all know Goku as a father not a high school kid. Not point starting the character young to build up to future movies if the first movie is at risk of flopping.

I'm sure will be a nice movie, but nice movies don't get remembered and turned into sequels. Well that is not totally true, for some reason some people tend to make average movies into less than average sequels. But also the reverse does happen. If this flops for obvious reasons they may come back with a improved sequel the way the fans want it.

www.dragonballz-themovie.com

Not the best movie but not worse either

[asim_ali-101 · 8/10 · 19 March 2009]

I have been waiting to watch this movie since I heard that 20th century fox were making this it.

I didn't really care about who they cast in the movie or who was directing the movie, all I really cared about was that this movie should not be disappointing and after seeing the movie for myself and not judging it by what other people have said in their reviews I can say it's a wicked movie.

There are some points in the movie that I can say need to be redone but overall the story was catchy and the action even if it was short it was good. The most disappointing thing about the film was the misuse of the oozaru and the short timing of the end battle between goku and piccolo.

Overall the movie was good and it kept me entertained and still I think it was worth the wait the movie soundtracks and music are excellent and I think the cast did a pretty good job playing their characters, the best performance has to be Chow Yun Fat, he did a awesome job as master roshi and roshi kept me laughing quite a bit and also Joon Park did a wicked job as Yamcha, he sounds just like the cartoon character which was amazing. Justin Chatwin try to do his best as goku and he did make me laugh a bit but he was just too serious and the Goku I know is funny and carefree.

Emmy Rossum and Jamie Chung were good as Bulma and Chi - Chi and James Marster made a wicked piccolo but his time in the movie was short and kind of reminded me of Vemon's amount of time in spider-man 3 but piccolo was another good thing about the movie.

This movie is not going to be the best movie of the year or win any Oscars but it's still fun to watch and enjoyable and I seriously recommend this movie to true dragonball fans who actually know the meaning of adaptation and don't mind a bit of change in something you liked for years.

My rating 8 out of 10

It is purely for entertainment but even that it can disappoint.

[helmutty · 6/10 · 14 March 2009]

The runtime is 1 hour 26 minutes. It is undeniably short and so you cannot expect some fantastic plot but non-stop action and some good action scenes. I would say that Dragonball has achieved being a mindless flick with non-stop action. But I must say I am a little disappointed with the action scenes and how short it is. First thing, the action and fighting scenes-they are messy and short. One fighting scene runs about 3-4 minute and they are not that fantastic. There is nothing special about the fighting scenes as some of them look messy. Even the final battle is short. I feel that it is quite short and if it is true that it cost US$100 million, it is very expensive. The special effect is not that awesome that makes you go "Wow!".

The story: Yeah, as expected, the story is truly simple for all ages to understand. The strong point of Dragonball is supposed to be the fighting scenes but they are disappointing. The story is about Goku going on an adventure to find the seven hidden dragon balls after his grandfather tells him to before his death. From there, he needs to find master Roshi and some others company them on his quest to find the dragon balls before evil force finds them. As usual, Brian Tyler 's music is good and epic. His music makes the film more watchable.

Overall: Kids will like this non-stop action adventure and the adults, depending on their taste, might also enjoy it. I have to say that I don't know much about Dragonball so I enjoyed the fun ride. Those looking for a mindless flick, may be interested in it. Those who hate plots that are lame and messy fight scenes, this may not suit you. It is slightly better than average.

Student Film

[filmmanic99 · 1/10 · 13 March 2009]

The entire assembly of the film crew and casting is WRONG (excluding the catering and the grip and electric guys). Asia has the first priority to watch such a bad film done by JAMES WONG. Why is he still getting work from Hollywood anyway? "The One" was badly done and James is just the worse director ever, I tell ya, he is walking on thin ice in the film industry. He has absolutely no vision of this film. Who hired him anyway? This film is so amateur done that it looks like student film. I can't believe 20th Century Fox distribute a student film worldwide. Btw, did they just put Stehpen Chow's name as the producer as a marketing strategy for Asia? The film ended with a hint of a sequel, and if it does, it will most likely end up re-shooting the entire film (remember of The Hulk). King Piccolo lacks of drive for him to destroy the world. Plot is flat, character drives are lame. Dialogs are stereotype. Ben Ramsey did a poor job as a screenwriter, he is lack of experience to write such an epic movie.

Casting: God damn it, wrong cast dude! Carla Hool, please go back home and do some home work first! Who hired the casting department? I recall the same casting director did the Forbidden Kingdom also cast this movie -- Popping AuYeung. She sucks! Did such a bad job casting in Forbbiden Kingdom and in Dragon Ball. I wonder why is she still surviving in the industry at all. Jamie Chung tries too hard to be cute, and she is ugly. Master Mutaito is a black guy? Emmy Rossum was great in The Day After Tomorrow but not in this movie. I can assure you that it's not really her fault, James just doesn't know what he was doing. Eriko Tamura as Mai is just a redundant character, the wardrobe department tries very hard to dress her up sexy while she is not. By the way, her boobs didn't override her bad acting and ugliness. She must have missed Acting 101 class.

Visual Effect: At some point of the movie, when Guko turns into a gorilla the visual effect was so poorly done that it looks some what like "Rubber Chicken". Did they slip in few shots done by stop motion? The face of Gozoru looks like it was done in After Effects, it doesn't look like 3D at all!! First scene of the film, Goku was training with Gohan, the matte painting of the house was so badly done that it looks 2D (cardboard stand) in the background. Blue / Green screen spill was all over, color correction sucks. Visual effect was done much like fresh grad student level. Hollywood have done so much super hero movies in the recent years, and I think the producers just hire the wrong bunch to do such a visual effects intensive film. I believe that Fox knew this film wouldn't go anywhere so they cut budget from hiring the good guys to work on this film!!!

Art Design / Production Design My recommendation is to get Stephen Scott, Simon Lamont and the bunch who did Hellboy to work on DragonBall. The original DragonBall story heavily involves with aliens and action, and I believe that they are the right group of guys to do this film. Their creature designs and makeup fits in this category. Piccolo looks like alien from Mars, one of those "Mars Attack" films from the 60s. Costumn in the entire film doesn't match the theme at all, looks like they shop wardrobe from Wal-Mart. The story will be more interesting if it were to take place more into the future (like in the movie Minority Report). The location of Master Roshi's house is totally mismatch to the surrounding backdrop. The matte painting of the city lights and buildings doesn't fit into the picture at all. It is like cut and paste without considering the style, time and place between Roshi's house and the city backdrop.

Stunts / Action Choreography: Poorly done dude! One of the marketing factor of Dragonball is the fighting style and its creative art of fighting sequence. Whatever James did, it looks worse than Street Fighter done by Steven De Souza back in 1994. Yeah, Van Damme could've star in this Dragonball movie. The "ki" effect is all over the place,the establish shots of the fight covered up by "ki" effect and I couldn't even locate the characters on the screen. They add to much vapor on the "ki" effect.

Conclusion: If you want to have endless conversation with your friends about how bad this film is, then go watch it. I believe that Hollywood is running out of idea and beginning to tackle Asia stories. But studio got to have more faith in selling these stories with huge fans around the world: Dragonball, Akira and whatnot. If you cut back the budget, it will end up with a disaster like what James Wong did with this movie! Consider Matrix, Wachowski Bros did a total ripe off from a Japanese Animation "Ghost in the Shell". Look what they can achieve with the budget they've got. Of course, skills is also a factor and they have better vision than James as well.

Please re-shoot this FILM!!! I can assure you that all the fans worldwide is looking forward to a re-shoot with different Above the Line and casts

Don't you just hate Hollywood?

[trevor-johnson · 1/10 · 24 March 2009]

From looking at some of the reviews on here, I will keep mine simple as people seem obsessed one way or another. I am reviewing this film on the credits.

1. Relation to the original series. 2. Quality of script 3. quality of actors/actresses/acting 4. quality of effects 5. Final product.

This film bears two relations to the original. The characters and the Dragonballs. There is nothing else to link the two. This is so sad when you consider how much they had to work with and all they could produce was this. The characters also bear little resemblance to their anime predecessors. None of them do what they are supposed to do, except Chi Chi, who didn't do much anyway. Where's Roshi's turtle shell. Why does Bulma carry several fully automatic weapons? And why is Yamcha now a ladies man? To their credit though, Roshi's behaviour soon after he appears is very accurate even if it is short lived.

The script for this film is its downfall. It's just awful. The writers have tried to fit too much into a short period of time. This film needed to be 2.5 to 3 hours long to even come close to allowing all the characters to be fleshed out. Attention should have been paid to Transformers when they were making this film. If you want to make a film based on a TV series, as those who watched it, not a bunch of suits that are paid to watch it and come up with a story. Many people who enjoyed the show could have given suggestions throughout the whole movie making experience.

AS bad as the film was, it doesn't take anything away from the actors themselves. They did the best they could with the tools they had. If you ask a builder to build you a house out of sticks, don't complain when it falls over.

This film had all the effects of an 80's movie. Think of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and the scene where the Freddie battles the kid in the wheelchair. That's the level of effects in this film. And I will leave the dragon, Shenron, so you come to your own conclusions. I don't want to seem prejudiced.

This film lands not just way off the mark for a spin off movie, it's in another continent. They should never have made it if it was going to be so lack lustred. It could have been done with a comedy element, which would have saved it, but no. They even try to throw in romance, but you have only seen the characters for an hour so who cares. Why so many inconsistencies from the original anime series? For example, Roshi does not live on an island. All these little details could have been included with another hour of film time. No one wants to watch an 88 minute film nowadays. Its just not value for money. Some may think that 1 out of 10 is harsh, but when they made such a hash of what could have been another Transformers, its all it deserves.

this movie is good for non db fanatics

[docThugx · 6/10 · 7 March 2010]

This was a fine movie. it wasn't great. Before I rented it I read some reviews and after I watched it I thought I should post that it wasn't that bad. Some die hard DB fans wrote they hated it. Wasn't mad that I spent a dollar to watch it or that it took 2 hours of my life. One of my favorite movies was transformers. I am a gamer but not a db fan. This movie is good one to watch on HBO or rent for a dollar at the r box. If there is nothing on then I would watch this by myself late at night. Don't think I would watch it more than 2 or 3 times though. Not one to put in your collection of DVD's. If you have kids they might like it, there is no blood or naked girls. a little violent but nothing we haven't seen in other fight movies or game movies. I liked the special effects. It wasn't too long. You don't need to know the story to like the movie. The acting wasn't too bad and the girls were cute.

God save their souls

[gbowles76 · 1/10 · 22 March 2009]

I almost vomited when I saw the preview for this movie. It's like taking a child, raping it and then throwing out of a moving car at 80 mph and leaving it for dead. Did anyone in the making of this movie even watch one episode of DB, DBZ, or DBGT? Special places in hell are reserved for asses like this. For one, the whole base of the story is completely off, not that it makes a huge difference because the acting alone is enough to make even the smallest of fans to the Dragonball universe cry and hang their heads in shame. This is nothing but a baseless rip off of one of the most celebrated anime classics and unfortunately more and more movies are heading in this direction. Can we please get a director with a set of balls to direct a movie based on the actual characters and plots of the story they are trying to show?

This movie had potential . The Director never had any.

[xploratio · 3/10 · 19 March 2009]

I saw the movie with not too much expectations.. I am one of the skeptics but for a moment there i kept a certain positivism toward the movie.

The movie Is an embarrassment to the manga , the anime , the fans and above all to Akira Toriyama. When I think that the budget for that movie was of 100 Million ..i'm confused of the result.

Special effects are OK they're not AMAZING they're just OK .. Acting seems out of place at so many parts ..

Parts that are supposed to be taken out are not. you can not deny how bad the script was .. I mean Potentially Changing the original story that much i was OK with it because DB-Franchise is very airy so you can revamp characters and situations. However The way the story was presented SUCKED BIG TIME ..Its Amazing Cheeziness for 2009 .. But then again thats James Wong for you .

I'm not really against the actors and their fitting ..they could've fit if there was a better directing .

WE DO NOT WANT PART II TO BE RUINED BY WONG !! MICHAEL BAY/BRYAN SINGER ALL THE WAY!!!!!!

This is cinematic filth of the highest degree.

[baseballrunner76 · 1/10 · 26 March 2009]

My childhood is ruined. I have witnessed the death of a beloved franchise millions have come to adore and respect. This movie is not an adaptation, nor is it an homage of any sort. It is a mockery. A sheer insult to all those whom cherish Dragonball deep within their hearts and souls.

Why does this video-tape recording (I absolutely refuse to deem it 'film' status) fail to such a devastating degree? It does not capture any of the charm, wit, excitement, humor, or bad-assery to be found in its source material. James Wong has simply taken the title, characters, and... errm, hairstyles, and has furtively stapled them to the bloody forehead of a poorly scripted, heavily underdeveloped movie about collecting seven golden balls that when gathered, will summon a flying dragon who will grant you one magical wish! How fantastically whimsical!

Who cares.

There is nothing compelling about this film. It's painstakingly difficult to care about any character in this film, and that goes for Goku as well. Right from the get-go, you bare witness to a horribly underwhelming fight session between Goku and his Asian(?) grandfather Gohan, who carries a bizarrely flawless American accent.. go figure. The reason I imply confusion behind Gohan's Asian ethnicity is that his grandson Goku is, well... nevermind. It isn't even worth getting into; the casting for this movie made no sense. No consistency whatsoever. Disgusting.

The dialogue is cheesy and executed improperly in every way conceivable. You want cheesy dialogue done right? Go watch the Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer released last year, truly a masterpiece as far as anime adaptations are concerned. What is improper about it, you inquire? It causes you to cringe without the ability to hold back. Every single word muttered is a bleak reflection on each actor's terrific inability to act in any way, shape or form.

Speaking of form.. Don't even expect half a thrill from this movie's excuse for action sequences. These actors cannot fight under any set of circumstances. The wirework is so blatant and poorly imposed that I swear to have caught eye of a couple unedited out wires left in some of the more acrobatic scenes.

Really? Come on, Hollywood. Come on, Fox.

These sort of mistakes became a thing of the past DECADES prior. If a movie based on the almighty Dragonball franchise is going to suck this severely OUTSIDE of the fight sequences, at LEAST refine those few scenes (Dragonball's saving graces, so to speak) into something worthy of admission price. Get a couple professional choreographers on the set to help out, if you don't mind. (what a strange and unusual concept, huh!?)

I've said it before and I'll say it again; if this entire project had been up to the legendary Stephen Chow, we could have had a sheer masterpiece on our hands. (refer to Kung Fu Hustle, what I believe to be the most faithfully Dragonballesque live action movie ever made)

I shall continue no further. This movie does not deserve any longer of a review. In fact, slice this eloquently written verdict in half and it would still be far too flattering in length.

I feel that if FOX wishes to maintain any credibility they have left with their audiences, they will hold back on dumping this atrocious landfill upon the United States' precious array of cinemas. Of course, we know this is not realistic.

It's nice to dream.

The Sharknado of martial art films

[benjaminweber · 2/10 · 23 July 2018]

Reading the reviews, it's possible to think that this is regarded as bad purely because of a vocal fan-base for the original. For instance, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a good film, but thanks to a small group of noisy 'fans' a lot of the reviews online are negative. This is not the case here. I have never seen/read the original, and I still found this to be a bad film. The CG effects look like something from a SyFy original, the acting at times is reminiscent of Neil Breen, and the whole thing comes across as a goofy mess trying desperately to look like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. If you enjoy bad films like I do, it's worth a watch as it will make you laugh at how bad it is. 2/10

Wow, wow! An episode of Power Rangers circa 1994 is better than this tripe!

[senorashish_part_II · 21 March 2009]

Master Roshi, played by the great Chow Yun Fat, is the only one that seems to be competent enough to make this movie work. The other actors, are just, well, way over the top and a little too much when it comes to overacting. I mean, I haven't seen this much overacting since the opening scene of "Mortal Kombat." Anyways, and Justin Chatwin?! What?! Why?! Oh, yeah, that's right, Dreamworks has Shia so Fox has to have their "it" kid at the moment, and I guess that kid is shaping up to be Justin. Well, good luck. But not for a single second will I buy a kid that looks like him having a name like "Goku." *sigh* And the fight scenes -- Are you kidding me?! I mean, they jump up, and while in mid-air they slow down, turn sideways, and spin around and around and around like a screwdriver and launch themselves at each other. And then they land. Yikes. Normally, scenes like this are okay because all they do is require you to suspend your disbelief. However, in this case, it requires you to suspend any and all brain function.

And let's not forget the synchronized explosions. One after another, they all go off in a succession akin to that of a typical Power Ranger episode in which the Rangers stand victorious, facing the camera, while the evil monster cries in agony in the background and explodes setting off a massive fireball along with several other explosions that just happen to come out of literally nowhere.

Yes, we all know that "Transformers," a movie that was based on a line of toys (no, serioulsy) was a massive success. The movie had a basic stock plot that didn't take much brainpower to muster up -- I'm a teenage kid that can't get the girl! I find magic robots! They fight evil robots! I have to help the magic robots get a magic cube! I got the cube! The evil guys are defeated! I got the girl! The end! Exclamation mark! So Fox seeing the success of this decided to tap into their own Japanese treasure chest and bring to life "Dragonball." Sad to say, it seems like they would have had better luck with "Transformers" because, unlike "Dragonball" which has an actual backstory to the characters, a bad "Transformers" movie would have illicited a response of sympathy from those that hated the movie, "Hey, it's based on toys. That's the best they could have done." With "Dragonball" and the gazillion manga volumes of it, along with the anime, there is no excuse if movie's story, characterization, or fights fail. No excuse. I mean, it's all right there in front of them. Hopefully, they did their homework. From the looks of it, no, it seems like they didn't.

My boy and his friends loved it!

[bcrain · 10/10 · 22 April 2009]

I know this is probably heresy to some of you who have seen this movie and were hoping for the ultimate Dragonball epic and were hacked off when you didn't get it, but I recommend it highly to anyone who has young boys. I took two nine year old boys, a 7 year old boy, and a 5 year old boy, and they had a great time. They talked about it non-stop for hours that evening. I went to see the movie because of the great Chow Yun-Fat, and I was able to somewhat enjoy the movie on its own terms. I wouldn't recommend thinking about it too much on the way home. I do admit that it's probably best that I didn't know much about Dragonball heading into the theater and thus I didn't have very high expectations going in. Therefore, in summary, I would personally give the movie about a 5 or 6 out of 10, but as entertainment for my boy and his friends, I give it an enthusiastic 10 out of 10.

Power Rangers meets live action anime

[cirenosa · 6/10 · 19 February 2022]

Any movie that can draw the attention of a house full of young boys deserves at least a 6 ⭐ IMO. Don't expect anything more than that. Don't discount until you've done at least that.

Speed Racer (2008) ain't looking too bad right about now....

[genstarzz · 1/10 · 28 March 2009]

This movie is an abomination and a disgrace to the great anime and manga. The acting is crap and the whole thing is really cheesy, but the worst thing above all are the creative differences made. I am a big fan of the original dragon ball and dragon ball z anime and it is pretty clear what the main flaws are. First, the completely left out Krillin, a central character of the manga and anime. Second, none of the characters look ANYTHING like the did in the source material. They also changed MAJOR parts of the storyline, etc. It's just BAD.

I'm pleased to know that the advertising of the movie is pretty damn bad. The less non-dragon ball fans who know about it, the better. I don't want this film to taint dragon ball's reputation.

It's just plain sad

[mehungy · 1/10 · 26 March 2009]

I don't understand how people can consider this movie to be part of the dragonball franchise. Taking MAJOR characters out IS NOT a MINOR adaptation, it is just plain stupid. This movie is just fox trying to make a quick buck and they don't care what they rip off. I'm a HUGE fan of Toriyama and when i heard that he isn't even involved in the writing of the movie i STARTED to have doubts. When i saw the first trailer and i heard gokus character say "I don't think i can do this" I pretty much lost all faith in the movie. It's an insult to toriyama it's an insult to the franchise and it's an insult to the fans of the dragonball series. Goku is a highschool student while in the series he'd never even met a girl before. In the series he didn't even know the meaning of the words "give up". Minor adaptations i can handle but this is just plain sad...