Dragonball Evolution

In 2002, 20th Century Fox acquired the feature film rights to the Dragon Ball franchise. In the same year, Stephen Chow was approached to direct the film, and although he said he was deeply interested because he is a fan of Dragon Ball, Chow declined the chance to direct. He, however, accepted a role as a producer via his company Star Overseas. Robert Rodriguez, Mark A.Z. Dippé and Zack Snyder were offered to direct but passed. 20th Century Fox then went on to send the script to writer/director James Wong who accepted. In 2007, James Wong and RatPac-Dune Entertainment co-founder Brett Ratner were announced as director and producer respectively, and the project was retitled Dragonball. Ben Ramsey's first draft was deemed too expensive to shoot, and in the end, he wrote about five different drafts of the script following notes from the studio. James Wong wrote the last draft, again according to notes from the studio, but decided to remain uncredited as the co-screenwriter.[5] Chow was a Dragon Ball fan, citing its "airy and unstrained story [which] leaves much room for creation", but explained he would only serve as a producer because he believes that he should only direct stories he had created.[6]

Differing costs to produce the film have been reported. In January 2008, Marsters spoke to TV Guide that he was told the film had a budget of approximately $100 million.[7] In April 2009, the Spanish television station Telecinco reported that the budget was $50 million.[8] Marsters would later claim that the film in fact was produced for $30 million.[9]

Justin Chatwin was selected to play the film's central character Goku.[5] Ron Perlman was originally offered the role of the villain Lord Piccolo, but turned it down to work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army.[10] James Marsters, who accepted the role, noted he was a fan of the original anime series, describing it as "the coolest television cartoon in the last 50,000 years [because] it's got a Shakespearean sense of good and evil."[11] Summarizing the original concept of his Piccolo, he said the character was "thousands of years old and a very long time ago he used to be a force of good, but [he] got into a bad argument and was put into prison for 2000 years. It got him very angry, and he finds a way to escape and then tries to destroy the world."[11] Originally, Piccolo was going to be depicted as a handsome creature, but Marsters and the make-up artist chose to give him a decrepit complexion to reflect his having been trapped for thousands of years. The first time the make-up was applied, it took seventeen hours and left Marsters with difficulty breathing. In subsequent applications, it generally only took four hours.[12]

Stephen Chow originally wanted to cast Zhang Yuqi, with whom he worked on CJ7, for the part of Chi Chi, but the role eventually went to Jamie Chung.[6][13]

Principal photography began on December 3, 2007,[14] in Mexico City, Mexico. Locations included the Universidad Tecnológica de México.[15]

From January 2, 2008,[15] the crew shot at Sierra de Órganos National Park.[16][17][18][19] The crew moved to Estado de México in March of that year for some shots at Nevado de Toluca.[20] Shooting has also been scheduled at Los Angeles, California.[21] In adapting the Dragon Ball manga, the futuristic cities and flying vehicles were kept; however, the anthropomorphic creatures and talking animals (such as Turtle, Oolong and Puar) were dropped.[22] Many of the locations are very Oriental,[23] and there was some Aztec influence too, particularly from their temples.[24] It was thought that Rossum would wear a blue wig to resemble her anime counterpart, but it was ultimately decided that such a look was too unrealistic. Instead she had her natural brown with blue streaks. Chatwin did not wear a wig as the director felt Chatwin's hair resembled Goku's.[23] A large amount of Dragonball Evolution was shot in an abandoned jeans factory, also located in Durango, Mexico.[25]

Dragonball: Evolution special effects were done by Amalgamated Dynamics, while the visual effects were done by Ollin Studios, Zoic Studios, and Imagine Engine.

On December 9, 2008, it was confirmed that the theme song would be "Rule" by Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki. Also featured on the film's soundtrack is American pop artist Brian Anthony, whose remixed song "Worked Up" was released as a single in English territories,[26] and is included on the home video releases as a bonus feature.[27]

The film's soundtrack, Dragonball Evolution: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released in the United States on March 17, 2009 by Varèse Sarabande.

The score was composed by Brian Tyler, who recorded the score with an 82-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox.[28] The score was met with positive reviews from music critics, who drew comparisons to Tyler's previous works.[29][30][31][32][33]

The film was released on Region 1 DVD and Blu-ray Disc in North America on July 28[27] and on Region 2 DVD and Blu-ray Disc in the United Kingdom on August 31.[45] The Region 4 DVD and Blu-ray Disc was released in Australia on November 18.[46]

On its opening weekend in the United States, the film grossed $4,756,488 from 2,181 sites. Box Office Mojo described this a "paltry", and noted that it was less than Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li earned even though Dragonball Evolution opened at many more screens, and the gross was smaller than similar martial arts action films such as The Forbidden Kingdom or Bulletproof Monk.[47] It ranked 8th at the box office behind Hannah Montana: The Movie, Fast & Furious, Monsters vs. Aliens, Observe and Report, Knowing, I Love You, Man, and The Haunting in Connecticut.[48][49] In its second weekend, it dropped to 11th place.[50][51][52] By the end of its run the film had a gross earning in the United States and Canada of $9,362,785 and an international gross of $48,865,675 for a combined worldwide box office gross total of $58,228,460.[53]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 15% approval rating based on 61 reviews, with an average rating of 3.5/10. The site's consensus states, "Executed with little panache or invention, Dragonball Evolution lacks the magic that made the books on which it was based a cult sensation."[54] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[55] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade C+ on scale of A to F.[56]

Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network, who was initially annoyed at fans of the franchise who criticised the film via leaked set shots and trailers before the film's release, gave the film an overall failing grade and stated "the fans were right." He criticised the film's lack of explaining plot elements, its hackneyed storyline and lackluster effort by the actors.[57] Variety's Russell Edwards found the film "passable", "pleasing if paint-by-numbers", noting it "doesn't take itself too seriously, but avoids campiness", that "the climactic clash between Piccolo and Goku offers a faithful CGI representation of the ethereal powers as drawn in the original manga" and that the climax offers an "impressive character twist for Goku that will warm the cockles of every young Jungian's heart."[58] Luke Thompson of E! Online referred to the film as a "surreal mess" that would only make sense to fans of the original series. He questioned the use of a Caucasian in the main role and felt Chow Yun-Fat was "overacting like never before", but did consider it "fun in a train-wreck kind of way" and that while it was never boring it was also never "logical, coherent [or] rational".[59]

Christopher Monfette of IGN gave the film a positive review, stating that it "is perhaps the most successful live-action film to date to utilize costume, production and audio design—not to mention some inspired fight choreography—to provide the flavor of anime without becoming overly cartoonish". He praised the main cast for "creating characters the audience can actually care about" and felt Chatwin was particularly likeable as Goku.[60] Slant Magazine's Rob Humanick considered the film "uninspired" and implausible with an "aimlessly hyperactive construction and complete lack of substance" and "cobbled-together FX fakery".[61] Reviewing the film for Australia's ABC Radio National, Jason Di Rosso stated the film was "lacking the visual panache of recent graphic novel adaptations". He agreed the film was uninspired and also felt it had dull "high school movie banter" dialog and was "cliché-ridden".[62] The Village Voice's Aaron Hillis called the film a "loony live-action adaptation", but felt it was "more entertaining than it deserves to be" and would likely appeal to ten-year-old boys.[63] Alonso Duralde of MSNBC found the film to be "both entertainingly ridiculous and ridiculously entertaining" and noted that "kids will have such a blast that you can turn this movie into the gateway kung-fu drug that makes them want to watch the earlier work of Stephen Chow and Chow Yun-Fat, that is if Stephen Chow and Chow Yun-fat had a Caucasian actor in the starring role."[64] Jeffrey K. Lyles of The Gazette found the film to be "a fairly entertaining martial arts adventure for the younger audiences" and tolerable to adults. He felt Chatwin was ill-cast as Goku, and that director Wong failed to capture the "frenetic sense of the anime" in the action scenes, leaving them an effort to understand.[65]

Before the film's release, Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama initially felt surprised by Dragonball: Evolution and suggested to his fans to treat it as an alternate universe version of his work.[66] In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun on Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, Toriyama revealed that he felt the Hollywood producers did not listen to him and his ideas and suggestions, and that the final version was not on par with the original Dragon Ball series, and felt the result was a movie he couldn't even call "Dragon Ball".[67][68] Discussing the film in the 2016 Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary "Super History Book", Toriyama wrote: "I had put Dragon Ball behind me, but seeing how much that live-action film ticked me off..."[69]

In 2016, writer Ben Ramsey apologized for the film, writing: "To have something with my name on it as the writer be so globally reviled is gut-wrenching. To receive hate mail from all over the world is heartbreaking. [...] I went into the project chasing after a big payday, not as a fan of the franchise but as a businessman taking on an assignment. I have learned that when you go into a creative endeavor without passion you come out with sub-optimal results, and sometimes flat out garbage. So I'm not blaming anyone for Dragonball [Evolution] but myself."[70][71][72]

The film was nominated for a 2009 Spike TV Scream Award for "Best Comic Book Movie,"[73] but lost to Watchmen.

In an interview to IGN, Justin Chatwin revealed that he signed for three films, though he expressed interest in making seven films.[75] Chatwin also stated that Goku "only really gets interesting in the second film" and that the next films would feature elements from the Dragon Ball Z part of the franchise, likely delving further into his Saiyan origins, and incorporating his son Gohan and his arch-rival Vegeta, which he felt was "really exciting. It goes into the whole legend of Dragonball".[75] A script for a sequel was being written before the film's release.[76] Marsters said that he would have reprised his role in future films, having "every intention of fulfilling the arc of Piccolo in live-action", which he said it would feature Piccolo's reincarnation and redemption, which would merge Piccolo and his son Piccolo Jr. into one character.[76] However, the film's poor critical and financial performance caused every planned sequel to be canceled.

Disney obtained the international rights for the Dragon Ball franchise after acquiring 20th Century Fox, which reportedly includes the rights for a Dragon Ball live-action film.[77]