Dragonball: Evolution

Fans of the graphic novel turned cartoon entitled, Dragonball Z, were probably overjoyed to hear that the show would soon become a live-action flick. Unfortunately, the show wasn't spectacular and neither was this movie. Dragonball Evolution is about a boy named Goku(Justin Chatwin) who has been trained his entire life by his grandfather in hopes that one day he will destroy the evil Piccolo (James Marsters) from the universe. To do this he must acquire seven mystical dragonballs that will enable him to wish Piccolo out of existence, hence stopping the apocalypse. Along the way he meets a girl, an old man (Chow Yun Fat), and a thief, who all have already acquired a dragonball and agree to help Goku on his quest. In a nutshell, Goku fights Piccolo, wins, and gets the girl (there, I just saved you $8.50.)

There are two sides of this movie. There is the special effects side and the theatrical side, which includes the script, the plot, and the acting. First let's talk about the special effects side. This side kicked butt. I loved all of the martial arts sequences, which included well done slow-motion effects. The choreography for the fights was well done. Who doesn't like watching people go at it in mid-air? The only thing wrong about the special effects is that it was the only enjoyable aspect of the film.

Now, the theatrical side. This aspect was very disappointing. I was laughing from the very beginning of the movie to the end at how cheesy some of the lines were. The plot had way too many twists in it so by the end of the movie it had me thinking...huh? The acting wasn't the best either. The actors didn't draw me into the film and reminded me quite often that I wasn't watching another great super-hero movie like Spider Man 2 or The Dark Knight.

Unfortunately for the film, the special effects didn't make up for the acting and cheesy script. This movie didn't have any elements that made it stand out among other hero flicks. This will be one I forget, and with the film only making a little less than $5 million on opening weekend, I think the studio will think twice before making a sequel. 4 out of 10.