"The fact that Dragonball Evolution is an engaging spectacle is a triumph. It could have gone so wrong at several different points. Director James Wong seems to have a vision, appropriately modest but respectful enough to deliver solid entertainment."

I disagree. It's not good entertainment. I admit to be a DB fan, but also went into the theater to be entertained. The story, dialog, acting, graphics, fight scenes, comedy, lines, etc... they're all on par with a B rated movie. The story line was rushed at the end. I think if the director really had a vision, he should have went with a 2+ hour movie instead of a movie just over an hour. It should have been deeper and more character driven than trying to get to a plot.

In terms of the plot twist... it was set up poorly with very vague flashbacks that had no influence on Goku during his development from simple boy to hero.

The relationships were forced upon and there was little to no chemistry between the characters.

B rated movie. Something to watch maybe once. That's about it. There's nothing spectacular about it.

It was terrible. Absolutely terrible. This review has got to be a pay off. At the best the special effects SHOULD have been good, but they were lackluster. The ending so anticlimatic, and while the story doesnt follow the series, it still could have done a much better job. Too many mistakes to name in this movie.

I'm seeing a TON of mixed reviews around the net. They generally lean a bit towards the negative (of course), but what is surprising is the amount of good reviews. They can't all be payoffs. This is probably one of those love it/hate it movies, but it's apparently better than Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li (which had a lot of potential, just REALLY CRAPPY WRITING). I'm excited about seeing it though, I have no expectations, so I should enjoy it, lol.

I absolutely adored this movie, and kudos to Sci-Fi wire for writing a positive review even though there's an insane amount of negativity online.

It's not Citizen Kane or even X-Men, but it's not Street Fighter either. It's just an enjoyable guilty pleasure that captures the FUN of the series. But yes it could have been a lot better.

I hope it does well at the box office so we can get sequels with a much bigger budget and with a longer running time... preferably 2 hours.

I actually thought the movie was ok. I'm probably the biggest DB, DBZ, DBGT ever, iand i thought this movie was gonna be AWFUL but i liked it. It was too short though...

I'm surprised to read a positive review of this. I hope that there are more critics who share this opinion. I'm pulling for this movie, even if some people thought it was horrible.

it wsnt that great of a movie.too short...but i had such high hopes from the cartoon ...but it could of been worse..so if u wnt to see it get it on dvd or watch it online..

Live action anime adaptions don't work. Hollywood STOP IT!

I liked this movie, for all it's worth. Sure it was dinky and corny, but that's what the original Dragonball was like.

Ok, will someone who actually seen this movie and not get paid to say nice things like mr Fred Topel, tell me your opinion. I mean seriously this movie has speed racer, super mario brothers, battlefield earth written all over it. But then again, it could have an awsome 1st weekend, or its destined for razberry awards.....

Well Mr Fred Topel, it looks like Dragon Ball does drop the ball, beaten by Myley, well I guess thats what happens when you alienate fans who grew up with it, I mean you make a movie for kids when the real fans already grew up to adulthood, you think they wanted to see a pg movie, they're adults they wanted to see it with a little more dark tones and a little less power rangers OY. I think you dropped the ball Fred Topel, I can give honest reviews of movies without being paid to glorify it for studios who know its not going to do well.

This was a horrible film. The dialogue was horrible, the characters implausible and the source material laughable. A bad guy with an effite name like Piccolo? Is that supposed to be frightening? Even the fight scenes, which should have been the centerpiece of the film, were just atrocious. My wife and I were laughing away the painful lines in the film in an effort to make it all the way through so my 8-year-old could watch it in its entirety. His review after it was over? For a magical martial-arts movie, my son gave it a seven out of ten. That's a harsh review from their target audience.

I liked that it was so short. So many movies nowadays don't cut back and limit themselves to an appropriate time. Yes, there were some terrible lines such as "It's always the quiet ones" that just made me laugh, but I think my biggest complaint is the costume design -- the actors had to try ridiculously hard to live up to their characters and their clothing and hair and general look didn't help them in the least. Also, my other criticism is how Dragon Ball was such a goofy series because all of the characters are the extreme and I wouldn't mind lame dialogue and lines if the characters were as outrageous as they are supposed to be. There are some scenes like Gokou eating chicken legs and offering them to Bulma and her calling him an idiot. I just wish that was the entire movie. I was definitely waiting for them to butcher this movie and at first thought they did, but I feel like it was entertaining and that, I feel, is an accomplishment.

dragon ball evolution was amazing!
dragon ball evolution was fantastic!
dragon ball evolution was not a flop!

There are many hostile "fans" out there who claim to hate the movie, but in reality these people are not true fans.

The movie contained so many priceless moments of quirky comedy DB a la mode, and you HAVE to have seen the series to understand some of the jokes.

Every character played their part exceptionally well. Goku was very innocent and happy go lucky like in the series, and he even had a big appetitie! It was demonstrated while he was eating those huge pieces of chicken.
Bulma was sassy and very urgent. She was quite appealing too. Yes, master roshi was not some old japanese bald guy, but do we really want to see some old japanese bald guy? I don't think so. Take the movie for what it is, and be grateful that at least someone made a movie out of it.

The movie is aimed for a younger crowd, and in fact I found it to be much in the vein of twilight, but anime style, yet it was very intense, fast paced, and thrilling to watch characters come to life in a way that could never have been expected.

Go in to watch this movie with the innocence of a child, and let dragonball evolution take you on a journey through a magical land you could never find in real life!

I give Dragon Ball Evolution a perfect 10!

Ps. The movie is great for an "introduciton" to the dragon ball world, and it has a lot of potential for future success. In fact, i heard the sequel has already been green lit.

geovanni if you want a movie with an innoncent child through a magical land watch willow at least that was good and theres more people who love that movie and would rather they make a sequel to that. Anyways the movie was made for kids, kids dont make money, nor have the money, the true fans do have the money, most of them dont have kids, and those who do arent shelling out the cash for them to watch a movie and for them to say the cartoons are much better. Lets review, it debuted in America in 8th place 4.8 milion and this week, Crank 2 and 17 again are coming out this week, theres no way theyre going to let people see more of that.

Okay, I flipping loved this movie. It WAS great. Everyone whose bent over it not being like the anime - I strongly suggest you go back and watch/read the interview with the director AND cast, because they themselves said that it is an ADAPTATION. It wasn't meant to follow the manga.

Anywho - I enjoyed it alot! And it did do decent in the box office. 30 mil. That's not horrible. Of course Miley won. She's freaking Hannah Montana. Every child in America and everywhere else loves her.

But back to Dragonball I loved the modern day twists they incorporated into it. Love the fact that Goku is in school, and struggling with fitting in. I also really loved Bulma's character. There is great humor, and there definatly are similarities to the character personalities that were from the manga. So while it is different there is still that reminder of the character we know and love.

And MAJOR props to Justin Chatwin. Who played an AMAZING Goku. He nailed the role and he was a joy to watch.

i like this movie and i hope theres more to come all they way till the dragon ball gt episodes yes they can do it.

I wont deny there are those who like this movie, but once again MOST ARE FANS WHO SAW THE SHOW AND WANT A FAITHFUL ADAPTATION WE HAVE THE MONEY TO MAKE IT SUCCESSFUL AND CHOSE NOT TO. AND DIDNT MAKE 30 MILLION STEPHLUVVSYOU, IT MADE LESS THE 4.8 MILLION DOLLARS. You can check out any website that rates the American box office, it doesnt matter if it made enough outside of America, the studio lost it, and scifi hasnt made a single report since it failed. So im happy theres some people who like it, too bad as usual theres never enough. Maybe if they didnt call it Dragon Ball it mightve done better.

You liked it? how much did they pay you to say that, this has got to be one of the worst films of all time do not see this movie its a waste of time and money

its ok, everybody has shut up about it on the internet. Scifi doesnt talk about it no more, neither does the other websites, if they do talk about it again, its only to talk about what a failure it was. Now that the 2nd week is over its not even on the top 10 at the box office anymore. OK who wants to guess when they'll release it on dvd, I'll put 50 dollars on June they'll be desperate to make up for the lost money.

this movie was one of the worst movies ive ever seen. this movie was nothing like the series. the story made no sense at all. and the acting was just horrible. as a dragonball fan i call the movie a disgrace. i seriously hope they do NOT make a sequel. millions of fans hate this garbage that fox created. nothing in this movie was good. they turned a great japanese character that should be the savior of the universe into a weak high school going shy loser white boy. they shouldve had tony jaa and his cast create the movie.

i quit watching after ten minutes, and that was before i phoned a friend to voice my disgust. Dont take the dragon ball out of dragon ball and call it dragon ball, and by dragon ball i dont mean the dragon ball. hmmm,... try using dragon ball in a sentence more then that. obviously the people involved in this flick (pun intended) had no real connection with the original anime. it needs to be done over, and done right, i dont know how anyone in there right mind could be satisfied with this. it happened to street fighter, super mario brothers, and now dragon ball. why was it changed so much??? it could have been a blockbuster. it sucked ass and i wont kiss ass by saying it was ok, ok? so lets not pretend.

I only have 3 words to say - PURE UTTER GARBAGE!

I walked out of the theater not finishing the movie!

I can see how this may be pretty cool to kids but a lot of the fans are a bit older and expected a little more I think. I have been a fan since I was 17 and I am now 30... so no I did not like the movie at all. The truth is, stories like Dragonball belong in a manga or left animated, live action re-tellings are doomed to failure. Just like movies made from comic books are all pretty campy and full of cheese.

I've been a hardcore fan for about 8 years now, since I was 16 years old. I have the entire DBZ and GT series on DVD.VCR.

I've waited paitently for 8 years, watching the previews to every movie I've gone to see in that time, never losing hope that one of the previews would finally be the DBZ live action movie I've been waiting for.

When the preview finally came, I felt so betrayed and dead inside. See, the thing is, this could have been successful if the cast and the directors cared, or were fans of the series.

Firstly, this should have been Z, not DB. Dragonball didn't even come remotely close to having the success that DBZ had in the states. And most of the people that are going to go and see this movie are fans or familiar to some extent with series, so they could have done the Saiyan -Frieza saga in 2 hours, with a little intro monologue background prior to the reunion on Kame Island at the start of Z, just as they did a monologue to this garbage.

Some of you seem to suggest that the character roles were the truest part to the series. I will need to disagree with that.

1. Goku: I'm not even going to address the fact that Goku is not an adult, has a tail, doesn't go to school, etc... that's all just too obvious. Let's address his character. Goku is supposed to be a bottomless-pit, he is charmingly/annoyingly naive, he is not cocky and not a punk. His voice is goofy and happy-go-lucky usually. His Gi is Orange, fitted-style, with blue boots and a blue undershirt. He turns into Oosaru at a full moon, NOT an eclipse, and Oosaru is HUGE, not "slightly bigger than a human."

Justin's as Goku is cocky at times. He is not nearly as dense or naive as he should have been. His voice was never excited and exzuberant as it is in the anime, and one scene where he is eating a chicken leg hardly does his love for food justice.

Also, his Gi pants are not samurai-style flares, and are not blue, as they are portrayed here. He turns into Oosaru at an eclipse, instead of a full moon, and Oosaru is slightly bigger than a human, as opposed to the enormous size he should have been.

2. Bulma: Now you have an actress who kind of looks like Bulma. Would it have been too much to dye all of her hair blue to go the "expected mile?" Also, she is not nearly as annoying and high-pitched as she should have been.

3. Yamcha: Eh, he is alright. Doesn't look anything like him, but his personality is decent for the character.

4. Roshi: He should have been an old man with a beard, more letcherous and goofy, and should have been on Kame House Island.

5. Krillin, Yajirobe, Tien, Puar, Korin: Guess they aren't important.

6. Piccolo: The voice is decent, and I guess the actor is ok, for the most part.

It is this ignorance to obvious detail (especially Goku, Roshi and Bulma) that is most painful and really shows the lack of committment and homework diligence of the directors. Every single fan-made video, even the silly ones, are better than this trash.

An absolute and complete slap in the face to all loyal Dragonball fans.