This movie was not screened in advance for North American critics. Here’s a review from the Herald Sun of Victoria, Australia.
A popular Japanese manga se ries. Produced by Hong Kong hustler Stephen Chow. Filmed in Mexico. Starring a 26-year-old Canadian. Playing a teenage American high school student.
Welcome to the wonky world of “Dragonball Evolution,” a hyperactively messy little adventure fantasy in which movement is everything and meaning means nothing.
The experience probably works best if scant regard is given to its incomprehensible story line. I made the mistake of trying too hard to follow what was going on and found myself hopelessly lost by the halfway mark.
As far as anyone will be able to tell, “Dragonball Evolution” is largely the tale of a kid named Goku (Justin Chatwin).
For his birthday, Goku receives the present of a dragonball from his grandfather, Gohan (Randall Duk Kim). He tells Goku there are only seven dragonballs in the entire world. Collect the set and a dragon will appear to grant you any wish you desire.
A 2,000-year-old villain, Lord Piccolo (James Marsters), wants that wish and wants it now. With the wicked warrior enchantress Mai (Eriko Tamura) willing to do his dirty work, Piccolo begins his worldwide dragonball hunt.
Only Goku can stop the rot. So he has to start looking for dragonballs, too.
Along the way, Goku acquires a weird support posse, which includes a middle-age mystic in a Hawaiian shirt (Chow Yun-Fat), the owner of the only dragonball-detecting unit known to man (Emmy Rossum) and, umm, the hottest girl in school (Jamie Chung).
All that “Dragonball Evolution” really has working in its favor is the relentlessly restless energy pulsing through every scene.
Despite its baffling story and some suspiciously choppy editing, the movie scrapes by as an over-the-top obstacle course for your underutilized senses.
DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION
Hit or myth?
Running time: 100 minutes. Rated PG (action violence, mild profanity). At the E-Walk, the Kips Bay, others.