This is just not Dragonball

Dragonball Evolution

Certification: PG

Cast: Justin Chatwin, Emmy Rossum, Chow Yun Fat,

James Masters, Joon Park,

Jamie Chung, Randall Duk Kim, Eriko Tamura

Director: James Wong

Genre: Fantasy, Action

WITH a running time of a mere 75 minutes, or at least that's is the version we're getting in Brunei, that alone is already not worth paying for. Even this part of the world being privy to the world premiere makes no difference.

Angry fans lashed out at the very idea of a Hollywood adaptation immediately after it was announced. Usually the loudest haters come from the most loyal of fans complaining about every snippet of material or leak they can get off the Internet, determined to hate the final product no matter what the outcome is.

But now that the movie has been finally released, we can see that their obsessive whining was justified.

To be fair, Hollywood can do a lot of things right. But they also never seem to learn from mistakes. This is one of the times, same as with (The Forbidden Kingdom, Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li, when Hollywood should have allowed Asian actors to thrive, instead of placing an American in the forefront to lead the movie. How do you address a Caucasian "Goku" with a straight face anyway?

If nothing else, Memoirs Of A Geisha had already proved that a full cast of Asian actors can work. But the producers probably already knew that they didn't have a good enough script, or director for that matter, to pull it off.

James Wong, best known for Final Destination, hasn't done a lot of directing. His last movie with Jet Li in The One three years ago sank like the Titanic. With Dragonball Evolution, Wong again received a sizable budget but is still as lost as ever. A note to Wong: putting in so many cleavage shots does not make this movie any better.

The original Dragon Ball is one of the most popular Japanese anime series, running from the mid-1980s to the 1990s, and is even well received across the Pacific.

The plot, inspired partly by the classic Chinese folklore Journey To The West, sees the monkey-tailed protagonist Son Goku travelling across the world learning martial arts and meeting new friends while searching for the seven mystical Dragonballs that are said to grant any wish. But along the way he encounters those who want the Dragonballs for selfish reasons or to conquer the world, such as the demon Piccolo Daimao.

This movie starts off with Piccolo (James Masters) killing off Grandpa Gohan (Randall Duk Kim) and starting off a chain of events for Goku (Justin Chatwin). In his dying breath, Gohan tells Goku to seek out Master Roshi (Chow Yun Fat) and informs him of the seven Dragonballs and Piccolo's resurface from entrapment.

As Goku sets off on his adventure, he recruits the spunky Bulma (Emmy Rossum) and thief Yamcha (Joon Park). Jamie Chung plays Goku's love interest, Chi Chi, who helps him out along the way as they fight off Piccolo and his accomplice, Mai (Eriko Tamura).

The plot itself is weird, vague and confusing. What made it worse is the lack of pacing throughout the entire movie. The scenes jump from one to the other without much development. Thus, the actors suffer from some serious amateurish acting and character crisis.

The lovely and talented Emmy Rossum, following a promising elevated performance as Christine in The Phantom Of The Opera, somehow landed herself in this role with the most hideous outfit and hairdo. The great Chow Yun Fat has been reduced to a character akin to that weird and sleazy uncle who refuses to dress his age and who nobody in the family wants to invite to family functions. Even though he's Asian, he is the most miscast of the lot.

The production design as well was amateurish. The fantastical locations never looked real and somehow in a strange way complemented the characters and all the lines the actors are forced to throw out; because everything just looked fake.

Coming out of the cinema, you don't feel like you've just watched a Dragonball movie. It's as if this isn't the real movie but an imposter.

Reviewer's Rating: 2 / 10