Dragonball Evolution [2009]

As a huge fan of the books, I felt insulted by this big screen adaptation of the Dragonball series. I mean seriously what the hell were they thinking? If you want to make a movie based upon  a very popular Japanese franchise, do it right. In this movie, we’re told that Goku (who’s now 18) must gather all 7 dragonballs in order to save the world from piccolo and his evil alien forces. On his journey, he meets all sorts of characters who will eventually join him in fulfilling his quest. Ok so what went wrong here? 1: it doesn’t feel like a Dragonball world at all. 2: Justin Chatwin is totally miscast as Goku (I wonder if he even bothered to read the books before signing up to do the movie). 3: The events have been altered, so basically the new story sucks big time. 4: The special effects couldn’t be lamer. 5: If you’re a true fan of the books, you’ll definitely agree with me. But if you’re a newcomer, you might find something here. And finally 6: this movie is a joke!

 Fun fact: The film’s title was originally going to be simply “Dragonball” in homage to the title of the original series, but the word “Evolution” was added to show that this would be a more different and advanced version of the saga. Bad idea!

Fiasco!