“Dragonball Evolution”

Rating: 1/10

“Dragonball Evolution” looks and feels like it was made for a straight-to-video release.

It’s hard to know where to begin with this flop. Should we discuss the terrible elementary dialogue, the cheesy set designs, the brevity and uninteresting story line, the lack of interesting characters, the shabby acting or the fact that this movie has all the aspects that make it a great candidate for some tasteless late-night SciFi original movie?

Even for someone that has never watched the anime series or is even remotely familiar with the franchise, this film was incredibly predictable. There weren’t many twists or abstract ideas behind the story that could keep the viewer interested for the full 84 minutes.

The characters were very one-sided and had one type of thought process: find the Dragonballs. None of them were entertaining, funny or interesting. The dialogue was simple and quick allowing little room for thought and delivery by the actors. Then again, the cast did little to help this wounded movie hobble across the finish line.

Quite possibly the only respectable aspect to this live-action adaptation was the brief action and fighting scenes. Some of the scenes produced decently interesting effects but nothing over the top. However, even during these scenes the movie seemed faked and tacky.

“Dragonball Evolution” may have been fun and cool to watch as a 10-year-old or younger, but anyone outside of that age limit would appreciate how terrible this film was.

This bomb would probably have been more enjoyable if it was done in the original cartoon anime format. That way, audiences would be more understanding and be able to connect better with the characters in their original form.

I wouldn’t at all be surprised if this movie showed up on the SciFi channel in a month at some ungodly hour in the morning. Even that is being generous.