Dragonball Evolution Film Review

There's no denying the fact that live action anime films are usually really bad heck just look at films such as Death Note 2017 and Ghost In The Shell 2017 as proof of that. With both Death Note 2017 and the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today having something in common in that they tried to make something be very Americanized when it worked just as fine in the original source material and so then join me as I review the film that is actually the only official Dragonball live action film with the film in question being called simply just "Dragonball Evolution" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when his grandfather is killed and his dragon ball is stolen a teenager named Goku must team up with several people to stop the person who took it from taking over the world. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that good as while this films plot is basically just covering the entirety of Dragon Ball it's doing so in such a lazy way that it doesn't fully understand just what it was that made that plot work so well in the first place as instead of choosing to just adapt one of the saga's which would have made for a good film in the first place we instead get what is basically the whole of the Dragon Ball manga condensed into one film when it would have worked alot more better if the film just did one of the manga's sagas and that's it as then the makers of the film would have an inbuilt way to do a sequel and have a franchise that could have been the next Harry Potter but they instead chose to make a cheap and lazy film where the plot of the film itself isn't given alot of focus due to the fact that it has all of these different character arcs in it all of which don't work and all of which take up very valuable screen time away from the main plot of the film which is something that should have been the main focus with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Justin Chatwin as Goku , Chow Yun-fat as Master Roshi and Emmy Rossum as Bulma. Also starring in this film is Jamie Chung as Chi-Chi , James Marsters as King Piccolo , Joon Park as Yamcha , Eriko Tamura as Mai , Randall Duk Kim as Grandpa Gohan , Ian Whyte as Ōzaru , Texas Battle as Carey Fuller , Richard Blake as Agundes , Megumi Seki as Seki , Shavon Kirksey as Emi , Jon Valera as Moreno and Ernie Hudson as Sifu Norris.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really bad. With all of this films actors all of whom have turned in good performances in other projects here just being given terrible direction as it's made perfectly clear that this films director  James Wong who has made solid films before this one and yet here he comes across as someone who was just hired because he was the cheapest director and because of that it does also come across that he didn't really direct his actors with them feeling lost and unsure of themselves this is due to the fact that alot of them are a bunch of really good actors in their own right and heck even James Marsters is a fan of Dragon Ball with him even doing the voice of Zamasu in Dragon Ball Super for free which yes was done as a way to redeem himself for this film but that's something that he didn't have to do with there not really being a best actor in this film as all of them are equally bad just like how all of them are equally good in this film and yet if the makers of this film put alot more thought and effort into this films acting that they did in the films action then we would have gotten alot more better performances in this film as all of them especially Justin Chatwin do come across as being really wooden with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that the script for this film is just so bad as it gives none of this films absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film is Frantic Films , Prime Focus World , Hybride Technologies , Zoic Studios , Soho VFX , CafeFX , Wildfire Visual Effects , CoSA VFX , Big American Films , Spin VFX and West Wing Studios. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad as this film did have a budget of around about $30 million American dollars and therefor didn't have that big of an effects budget to work with which is something that you can tell as alot of the films VFX have aged like milk with the best example of this being Bulma's bike as when she first gets it transform and unfold itself you can tell right away that it wasn't done for real as it just looks a little bit to fake for it to be realm with the film even making use of alot of green screen which in all fairness to the film isn't that bad but it's also not all that good either as while you can tell that it's either green or blue screen it's not offensively bad but as this is an effects heavy film and was really always going to be an effects heavy film there should have been more money given to the films effects teams as when it comes to the make up effects they look really good with Piccolo being a good example of this but it's when you get to the VFX where you can tell that they had a budget and that it was a small budget as everything that requires CGI is either hidden in darkness so you can't see how cheap it is and when it's not hidden in darkness it look cheap and fake with Oozaru being the films best looking effect and even then he's hidden in darkness alot of the time as well.

Much like what Netflix did do with there version of Death Note this film does also Americanize the entire Dragon Ball franchise. With this film making alot of changes to both the story and the characters as now Goku is eighteen when his grandfather is killed and not a little boy with him no even having a monkey tail and he now suddenly goes to high school but he's eighteen years old so he wouldn't be attending high school with his crush Chi-Chi in the first place and heck there's even a key character from the franchise and this era of the franchise missing that being Krillan a character who is meant to be Goku's best friend and yet he's nowhere to be found in the film and while these changes might seem small and even some reviewers on Amazon have tired to justify these by saying that it's still the same basic story yet what they either didn't realise at the time or just straight up forgot about was the fact that it's those small things that make the bigger things seem all the more impactful as Goku basically being left homeless as someone who is nearly in the there twenties hits differently that someone being homeless when there just a small kid and if the makers of this film were willing to make those kinds of changes to the story then they might as well as called the film something else as while they do have the iconography there they don't have the understanding of what it was that made those things so iconic in the first place and heck even the late Akira Toriyama even suggested to fans that they treat the film an alternative telling of his story due to the fact that he wasn't allowed to be involved with the creative process and that is something that does shine through as no matter what the makers of this film had in mind for the character no one is going to know these characters and this world better then the person that created them in the first place.

To be frank Piccolo is pretty much a none character in this film as he barely gets any screen time in the film and he barely has any interaction with the main characters. With the most impactful thing that he does is play a part in the deaths of both Master Roshi and Grandpa Gohan and that's it with his sidekick Mai getting more screen time and being more involved with the films plot then what Piccolo is and he's meant to be the films main villain look the film does get some credit for including and obscure character like Mai when they really didn't have to do but they also sidelines Piccolo when he should have been the one that was doing alot of these things with Mai's help as that would have made him seem like more of a threat instead we get told how evil he is and we get told how powerful that he is and yet we are barely if every shown in when actually showing us these things would have made us hate the character something which is helped by the fact that he does play a part in the death of Grandpa Gohan but even then we hadn't had the time to fully get to know ither character before he's killed off and therefor his death isn't as effective as it really should have been with even Piccolo's main scheme in this film being about as generic as it could have been as he wants all seven dragon balls to take the world and that's really it and that's just a plain and boring plan as it's one that could have been given to any other character in the film and it noting would need to be changed as there's nothing unique about the plan and something that only Piccolo could do with him not really being that threatening as a character either which is again due to the fact that he barely appears in the film and barely has any interactions with characters then then Mai.

While the rest of the characters are done somewhat well the same thing cannot be said for the character of Yamcha. Who goes from being this cool and cocky character in the original series to being what can best be described as being an Asian surfer bro as he spends alot of the time talking like a surfer bro and being the films lame attempt at comic relief then he is in being the cool and cocky character then the fans of this franchise no him to be as as he should have been the easiest character in the whole of the Dragon Ball franchise to translate to the big screen as there's nothing problematic about him like there could be Roshi and he's not always going after this one girl like Goku as Yamcha is the kind of character who is cool and cocky just for the sake of it think of him as being like Goku but only with less power and heck even in the original show and it's sequels Yamcha is a pretty good fighter in his right and none of that is put into this films version of the character which given that they can barely handle one character with fighting skills that might be a good thing as Goku does come across as being a tad bit whiney in this film which is something that does make alot of sense as he did loose his Grandpa just a few days ago but it's also something that does help to make him more of an annoying character rather then a character that you want to route for and that you want to see win the day and get the girl and yet Roshi is somewhat like his original self as while yes they did tone down the fact that he's into girls that is understandable in this case and Bulma is just there she has the personality of whatever the scene demands it to be with the same thing also being true for Chi-Chi as well.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty five minuets and twenty six seconds. Which for a film that's trying to condense the whole of Dragon Ball into one film is a really short amount of time to have as the film can't do that plus set up it's characters and how this world works and still tell a good story with this film having more then enough plot there to cover that amount of running time and yet despite this this film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as the film can't fully develop it's plot to the fact that it has to much ground cover and so little time in which to do it in and yet if the film did just adapt one of the original sagas then the film would have plenty of time to fully develop it's plot with this even being true for the films characters as well as much like with the plot of the film then the film can't fully develop it's characters as the makers of this film don't give us a reason to care for them in the first place and nor do they take the time that really should have done to fully develop it's characters in the first place as that would have the add on effect on making the films characters more better and the film itself being more better then what it already is in the first place and yet because of the fact that the film doesn't do that then we are left with a film where the plot leaves alot to be desired and where the characters are ones that have been done better in other and better films with all of this being something that could have been fixed if the makers of this film didn't condense the entirety of Dragon Ball into one film but I really will admit that this film really does have some rally good pacing to it tho. 

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty i in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With this films action being the best part of the film itself as you can tell that the makers of this film put alot more thought and effort into the films action scenes then they did in quite literally any other aspect of the film with this being something that does make alot of sense as the makers of this film did get 87Eleven to do all of the fight scenes for this film and for those of you who don't know 87Eleven is the team that did the action for films like the John Wick films and Atomic Blonde to name but a few and you can tell right away that they put alot of thought and effort into the films action with the best action in the whole film being the huge third act fight scene as we get to see Piccolo and Goku fight each other with Goku even being forced into transforming into Ōzaru to take on Roshi which is a pretty good fight scene with the thing that makes Goku taking on Piccolo with there fight being something that does make the film standout a bit as it's the only time when the film actually feels like Dragon Ball with the film even having some really good hand to hand fights as well like for example the fight between Chi-Chi and Mai which is something that does prove that the makers of this film knew full well how to make this film entertaining and yet they sadly chose to make the film as the films action is the only decent aspect of the film as that's just how good that this films action really is in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.  

Overall while there have been plenty of really bad anime live action films this one surely has to be one of the worst ones just due to the fact that the makers of this film completely miss the mark with this film so much so that alot of them have seen apologized for the quality of the film as that's just how bad that this film really is in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that re in this very film in this very review as such that means that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 2.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I person ally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.