I have been forced to play many Dragonball computer games over the years by my brother, so I have built-up an aversion to the brand. It was with trepidation, then, that I watched Dragonball Evolution. I needn’t have worried. The film has appalled fans for its simplified and bland Hollywood storyline, but I don’t mind. Because what it loses in depth, it gains by removing the original’s grotesque animation style. The characters may be played by rejects of High School Musical, but at least they aren’t body-building midgets with hair almost as tall as they are, as in the cartoons.
Goku is your average lonely teenager, spending his time going to school and mastering mystical martial arts with his grandfather. Little does he know that he is destined to save the world. Piccolo, an evil lord of some sort from the past, has returned and Goku and his rag-tag gang have to gather seven magic ‘dragonballs’ to defeat him.
Obviously this is a load of nonsense, but there are some decent martial arts thanks to Chow Yun-Fat, who also stars. The film is aimed at tweens and early teens (Emmy Rossum’s character dresses exactly how an 8-year-old thinks a bad girl would) and will satisfy them with thrills and giggles. The most interesting thing for a non-tween or early teen is the unusual world it presents, a Japano-American utopia (at least until Piccolo comes along) in the not-too-distant future. Otherwise, as long as you aren’t a fan, this is a harmless but low-quality diversion.
No comments:
Post a Comment