DragonBall: Evolution

Cast

Goku-Justin Chatwin

Gohan- Randall Duk-Kim

Chi-Chi: Jamie Chung

Bulma: Emmy Rossum

Master Roshi: Chow Yun-Fat

Yamcha: Joon Park

Lord Piccolo: James Marsters, please swoon now ladies

Hey guys. Today on Your Movie Sucks we go back a few years to one of my personal favorites: DragonBall: Evolution. The 2009 film starring Justin Chatwin and Emmy Rossum of Shameless fame and the great martial arts master Chow Yun-Fat of pretty much any Kung-Fu movie that didn't star Jackie Chan or Jet Li. For those of you who haven't seen it here is a quick synopsis.

Goku is a teen who is something of a loser despite being pretty good looking and a bad ass. He lives with his inexplicably Asian grandfather Gohan, who teaches him to defy any and all of the laws of physics using the powers of martial arts. One day while Goku is off at a party getting the hot chick in school, Chi-Chi, to dump her jock boyfriend for him; an evil, recently freed demon named Piccolo (I guess trombone was taken) comes to Goku's house and drops it on Gramps, in search of one of the seven mystical Dragon Balls. Grandpa, as he dies, tells Goku to find Master Roshi to finish his training, blah blah blah, Bulma, Yamcha (from the cartoon) and for no apparent reason Chi-Chi come along and a raccous amount of trying to stuff anime into live action ensues. The whole gang end up in a face-off with Piccolo (played by James Marsters, please swoon now ladies) and Goku becomes a giant evil gorilla, until he gets better and learns the valuable lesson that it's okay to sometimes turn into a giant evil gorilla.

The Experience

This is essentially exactly what a modern B movie should be. Good enough to be shown in theaters, but not good enough or big budget enough for anyone to notice. The performances turned in by the cast are so heartfelt and earnest that you can't help but love it, regardless of how cheap the cgi, hackneyed the script, or confusing the plot.

The real magic of this movie is that regardless of how bad it was, at no point did I feel like making fun of it. It was just too much damn fun the way it was. I must admit that when I was a young-un I myself was a fan of the cartoon show. The nods that this movie gives to the source material are plentiful. Goku's hair is a gravity defying spiky nod to modern art, as it should be. Bulma has a bunch of inventions that make limited amounts of sense, but are incredibly useful in the present situation (have you ever wanted a motorcycle that can fit in your pocket).

The plot of the movie moves along at a fairly quick place, often leaving little time to ask whats going on and requiring that you just accept it. This is in stark contrast to the cartoon (or at least the DragonBall Z cartoon) which will often spend several episodes with characters staring at each other and screaming, all while looking like they are trying very hard to expunge last nights dinner of Chinese take out. Once again the thing is you WANT to go along with the movie so you just hop on for the ride.

The cast of this movie is the key it. It is Chatwin's incredibly guileless performance as Goku, Chow Yun-Fats lecherous Roshi and Marsters suprisingly weighty Piccolo that keep you with the movie. The actors in this movie understand that they are representing a classic. Dragonball has been a part of Japanese culture for over three decades. Every one involved in the movie respects the source material and clearly dedicated themselves to it no matter how ridiculous. What this results in is a movie where it is clear that the cast is simultaneously taking this very seriously, while having a blast. That type of enthusiasm begs the audience to be swept up in it. I for one was not going to turn it down.