Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
4/14/09
It's amazing how much time,
effort, money and passion can go into a film that still comes out looking
like an afterthought. 20th Century Fox poured tens of millions of
dollars into their film adaptation of the much-loved (but unread by me)
anime Dragonball and populated the cast with an impressive group
of familiar actors at least one of whom (James Marsters) reportedly conspired
with the makeup artist to change the look of his character to be more comic-appropriate
because “Better to get fired than to get Piccolo wrong”. But while
its' spirits are consistently high, James Wong's Dragonball: Evolution
is an 84-minute jaunt through fantasy boilerplate than rarely explains
itself or develops any dramatic momentum. Dragonball doesn't
hurt (at least not if you don't care about the property, I understand fans'
reactions have been less forgiving than mine), but it's not particularly
engaging either.
In some vaguely futuristic
city, Goku (Justin Chatwin) has been raised by his kindly Grandpa Gohan
(Randall Duk Kim) who's taught him mystical martial arts and given him
the gift of a Dragonball, one of seven forged millennia ago to drive off
aliens who attacked the Earth. On his 18th birthday, he happens to
get invited to a party thrown by the Girl of His Dreams, Chi Chi (Jamie
Chung), meaning he's not home when Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) attacks,
leaving Gohan for dead. Before the old guy expires, he tells Goku
he must seek out Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat) and tell him Piccolo “has
returned”. Before he can, he's attacked by Bulma (Emmy Rossum) who's
searching for her own stolen Dragonball and tracked a similar energy signature
to Goku. He convinces her to join him in finding Roshi, who explains
that Piccolo has escaped after his own millennia imprisoned in another
dimension and seeks to unite the seven Dragonballs. Together, they
grant their holder a single wish, and Piccolo's will be to raise the evil
Oozaru (Ian Whyte), with whom he will destroy the world. If Goku
and friends can find the balls first, they'll use the wish to stop him.
Once they've added money-hungry goofball Yamcha (Joon Park) to their team,
the chase will be on!
It actually pained me to
write that synopsis. Dragonball: Evolution has been
shorn of all connective tissue and all but the most basic exposition until
it is an Act 2-free throughline of “a bunch of people go to a bunch of
places looking for Dragonballs”. There's some fighting, but very
little real danger, and many of the battles consist of people violently
throwing inexplicable special effects at each other.
Anybody who knows the genre can follow the story, but the spectacle is
almost completely devoid of “why”s, “when”s and “how”s, the things that
make this kind of thing work as opposed to simply exist. Given that
the movie was originally supposed to come out last August, I assume some
of that stuff used to be there, but no points for “just wait until you
see the deleted scenes!”
Funny thing about Dragonball:
Evolution is that it's actually sharpest and most engaging before the
whole Dragonball/Piccolo plot kicks in. Although the 27 year-old
Chatwin doesn't look like any high school student I've ever seen (and his
rival Casey is played by 33-year-old Texas Battle), he does a great job
in the early scenes of balancing Goku's teen angst and a never-say-die
spirit. The movie's most effective action sequence has him taking
on a bunch of bullies by using his agility to dodge, dive and leap out
of their way while they essentially beat each other up. And he's
got his best chemistry with Kim and Chung. The relationship between
Goku and Chi Chi has zip not the least bit because she sets some kind of
record for love interest self-confidence.
Things get dicier once the
race for the balls begins in earnest. While both Rossum and Yun-Fat
give their roles everything they've got, they're both miscast. Sure,
it's a hoot to see that paragon of Zen dignity as a comic relief goofball,
but it only really works about half the time. Ernie Hudson seems
positively shamed in a silly white-eyebrowed getup as a character named
Sifu Norris. As these mismatched characters wander the countryside
in a not-particularly-heated search for Dragonballs, their goofy high spirits
keep things from becoming turgid, but no more.
In an ironic reversal of
most fantasy epics, while the heroes are broad and silly, the one quality
dramatic performance in the movie comes from the villain. Marsters
is dark, intense and embittered as Lord Piccolo, who has the advantage
of a single monologue establishing his motivation, which is one more than
the entire rest of the cast combined (OK, Bulma DOES want to be famous).
He also corners the market on the movie's coolest effects, with a pointless
but nifty-looking airship and a snazzy moment where he levels a house with
a flick of his wrist.
Dragonball: Evolution
(don't ask me to explain that subtitle) puts a whole lotta money behind
what is essentially a slim Sci-Fi Channel movie that just brushes the surface
of its' source material (in which I'm told Goku has a tail). I didn't
particularly like it, nor did I really dislike it. It just lays there
spinning in happy circles that don't lead to much of anything. But,
I'll admit, Piccolo does look pretty cool. |
