A step backward in the 'Dragonball Evolution'-ary chain

By Aaron Wilder

Let me color my review for you a little. Until this week, I knew nothing about the "Dragonball" series. I didn't know Bulma from Yamcha (I had to look that up). After a little research, I know next to nothing. That being said, I am judging "Dragonball Evolution" purely on its merits as a film. Or its lack of merits.

Goku is an average teenager, except that he's an incredible martial artist. Goku's grandfather gives him an orange orb for his birthday, a Dragon Ball, and explains there are six more just like it. Whoever has all seven balls can have any wish granted to them. Goku soon learns that an angry green man by the name of Piccolo wants all the balls to destroy the earth (or rule over it, he never clarifies). He then teams up with an eccentric (read: perverted) martial arts master, a technologically-advanced girl and a Chinese surfer dude to stop Piccolo before he can destroy/enslave the world.

There's not a lot to like about this movie. The story moves along at an almost manic pace, jumping from location to location before you can come to grips with what's going on. This was likely employed to distract from the glaring plot holes. The writers often use Piccolo's undefined powers as a crutch to push the story forward. Can he create monster-like henchmen from his blood? Sure! Can he destroy entire villages with fire and move entire bodies of water? You bet! Does he use any of this power in the final confrontation with Goku? No, because it's not convenient anymore. I appreciate them not relying entirely upon special effects during the action sequences, but fight scenes were often too short and too poorly edited to enjoy.

The cast provides an uneven performance, from "making an effort" to "collecting a paycheck." Goku and the perverted martial arts master, Roshi, do their best with the ridiculous script they've been given. Bulma, the aforementioned technophile, and Yamcha, the beach bum, take different approaches at grating on your nerves, but both are successful in the end. Piccolo and his nameless sidekick may as well be props for all the moments they get.

The movie does have one thing going for it. As it's rated PG, this is the perfect opportunity for younger audiences, notoriously more forgiving of bad movies, to experience some martial arts moments. Those looking for an interesting story or strong performances will have to look elsewhere.

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Emmy Rossum, Jamie Chung Dragonball Evolution

MoviesOnline sat down with Emmy Rossum and Jamie Chung at the Los Angeles Press Day for their new film, “Dragonball Evolution,” directed by James Wong. Based on the popular Japanese manga created by Akira Toriyama, the film also stars Justin Chatwin, Chow Yun-Fat, James Marsters, Joon Park, Eriko, Ernie Hudson, and Randall Duk Kim.

Emmy Rossum plays Bulma, a beautiful woman intent on retrieving the mystical Dragonballs. She’s a gifted young actress and an accomplished musician. Nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 2004 for her starring performance as Christine in the film "The Phantom of the Opera," she won the National Board of Review's Best Female Breakthrough Performance Award and the Broadcast Film Critics Association's Best Young Actress Award in 2005. She starred in the action film "Poseidon," in the blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow," in the Clint Eastwood-directed drama "Mystic River," and in the independent feature "Songcatcher," the latter winning the Special Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble at Sundance in 2001. Rossum's performance in "Songcatcher" earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination in the category of Best Debut Performance. Her television credits include guest starring appearances on "Law and Order," and "The Practice."

In 2007, Rossum recorded her first album for Geffen records, "Inside Out." Using her classically trained voice as the primary instrument, she wrote and recorded all her own songs. Rossum is working on her second album in between film roles.

Jamie Chung, who plays the young martial artist Chi Chi, had the lead in the hit ABC Family original mini-series "Samurai Girl." The show revolved around Heaven (Chung), the adopted daughter of wealthy parents, who strives to balance a normal life with the Samurai traditions of her ancestors. She recently completed production on the independent film "Burning Palms," directed by Christopher Landen. Set in Los Angeles, the film interlaces five stories in which each character is pulled toward a comically dark fate.

Chung completed production on the remake of the 1983 horror movie "The House on Sorority Row." The film also stars Carrie Fisher, and is currently scheduled for an October 2009 release. Additionally, Chung recently wrapped Disney's television film "The Princess Protection Program," opposite Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. Chung also appeared in the hit movie comedy "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." Her other television credits include a leading role on "ER," a guest-starring stint on "CSI: NY," and recurring appearances on "Greek."

Emmy Rossum and Jamie Chung are fabulous people and we really appreciated their time. Here’s what they had to tell us about their new movie, “Dragonball Evolution”:

Q: Jamie and Emmy, can you talk about your training for this?

Jamie: Samurai Girl was the perfect foundation to prepare me for the conditioning and physical challenges that 87Eleven, which is the stunt group that trained us [to fight] brought. It was a whole different level. We’re talking cable show training to motion picture training, and it was very different and it required a month prior to filming. We trained every day -- physical conditioning, martial arts, wire-works, fight choreography -- and the days that I wasn’t filming while we were on location, it was physical training

Emmy: This completely kicked my ass. I had never done anything like this before. I grew up loving Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, it’s kind of a little bit embarrassing to say. Anything with him is awesome. And I’ve always kind of wanted to do a film like that and I always wanted to play a tougher, more independent, woman character and this was the perfect opportunity to shoot three guns, learn how to ride a motorcycle and dye part of my hair blue. So, in addition to all the training that we did as a team, which was pretty rigorous thinking back on it, I can only imagine it’s kind of like how women describe childbirth. Like it’s really awful when you’re doing it -- hold on, I’m going somewhere with this, I just thought of this over lunch – but two years later you’re like, “Oh, it was amazing, it’s great.” When you’re in it, it’s really awful, but also fun, because we were doing it as a team and it’s like group childbirth.

Q: Do either of you have a dance background that helped you with the fight choreography?

Jamie: I’m sorry, I don’t dance.

Emmy: I was a ballerina when I was little. A lot of it is kind of similar to a dance in that it’s a choreographed motion. Stunt guys have a thing they call the box, which is kind of like a ballet move when you’re in first position. Your hands are like eight inches from you bellybutton, there’s like a box that you’re not supposed to hit out of when actors are fighting each other, and that’s so they don’t hurt each other. So there is a lot of coordination and dance combinations that come in handy, kind of coordinated and rehearsed in a similar kind of way, but when actors get all method and really emotional in fight scenes, people bust their lips and break their toes and all of a sudden the box is like a whole big circle.

Jamie: It’s muscle memory so it’s repetition, repetition, and you get familiar with the movements and it’s lots of training and it’s to look sharp, but I’m not a very good dancer, no.

Emmy: That’s actually not true, she can dance. She was also the best fighter.

Jamie: I just don’t dance

Emmy: She does dance, give her a beer, she’ll dance.

Jamie: Karaoke and dancing

Q: What is your take on the manga anime characters?

Emmy: I loved the manga because it was a little more R rated, and I thought that the character of Bulma – the relationship between Bulma and Roshi always was very funny, and I really enjoyed that in my studies of her. And I think we kind of took everything we could from the manga and understand that some things are going to be changed just by virtue of the fact that you’re a live actor playing it live action. It can’t be exactly like the manga, but you try to bring the spirit and the energy of the characters, and the back story that you learn from the manga, and you bring it to this story, which is really an introduction of those characters.

Jamie: And then make it PG.

Emmy: And then don’t make it naked.

Q: You have some great costumes and also some serious hair in this. Did you enjoy that?

Emmy: It’s actually really good padding for any kind of somersaults or kicks to the head. It was fun for whipping your head around. I got kind of a whiplash.

Jamie: It was fun to look pretty and then fight real tough.

“Dragonball: Evolution” opens in theaters on April 10th.



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James Marsters on Dragonball

Lord Piccolo has a long history with Dragonball. The live-action origin film Dragonball: Evolution is only a mere introduction to the villain. Played by James Marsters, he tries to thwart the heroes from obtaining the Dragon Balls, but there’s going to be a whole lot more to Lord Piccolo.

James Marsters Talks Dragonball Evolution

“Part of the challenge was to realize that the Lord Piccolo that we see in the first film is the same person as the Piccolo that will be transformed into, which is the more recognizable one for fans who are more familiar with Dragonball Z,” James Marsters. “There’s a younger version that we’re going to get to, but as an actor, it was to realize that it was the same person in both sides of it, that he’s going to transform his body but his mind is pretty much the same.”

It may be an all too familiar story at this point, but Marsters is one of those actors who finds a way to like the villain he plays. “For me, it was taking Piccolo, the wonderful guy, and this is what I love about Piccolo, is that he’s not a nice person, he’s not trying to make friends, but he’ll never let you down because he’s living up to his own code. I always thought that was a really wonderful character because of that, and just to take that character and say, ‘Well, what would make me so angry that I’d want to destroy every human being on earth?’ To know that everybody has buttons. You can do something to anybody and they’ll get that mad. What happened to him? So hopefully it’s really the same character as we go through the next phase in the other movies.”

Dragonball

Perhaps Marsters thought too much about Piccolo. At a certain point, he cost himself epic time in the makeup chair. “The first time we did the make-up, it took 14 hours and it was nobody’s fault but my own because I was really married to the idea that my character be old and decrepit and ugly. I told them that when my girlfriend comes into Durango, I want her to run for the hills, and then she did, which was not so great. In the Manga and in the Anime, he is so old that he needs a walking stick and it’s only at the end of the season of Dragonball that he throws off the cloak and you see he’s all cut and then he starts to fight and it’s a big surprise. The difference that we’ve done is we don’t do the fake out. We just reveal him from the first shot as being powerful, but other than that, it’s kind of the same as the Manga. That was so funny because I kept saying uglier, uglier, more lines, more age, more uglier and finally after 14 hours the make-up artist just slapped me upside the head and said, ‘I’m done! Go to set!’ That was it. But then we got Edward French to come in and do the make-up and he got it down to 4 hours and I shut up. I let him do his job.”

Best known to genre fans as Spike from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Marsters embraced a different sort of monster. “Piccolo is less tortured than Spike. Piccolo is asexual. Spike was always kind of confident except for his love life. That kind of mixed him up a little bit, but Piccolo just does not have that side to him. He’s not male or female. He’s Namek so some of the same colors as the darker aspects of Spike enjoying hurting people, being really angry, stuff like that, but just take all the sex away.”

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Dragonball Evolution Sequel?

Dragonball Evolution star Justin Chatwin talks the future of the manga franchise...

The film hasn't even hit Irish cinemas but it seems there might be more of Goku and company for the silver screen.

Speaking to MTV Splash Page, Dragonball Evolution star Justin Chatwin has revealed that a script for a potential sequel has already been written:

"I know they've written a second one and it's pretty far out there," Chatwin said. He added, "The second one really goes to some different places that I've never seen in any comic book adaptation."

Based on the popular Japanese manga, the live action adventure centres on a team of warriors, each of whom possesses special abilities. Together, they protect Earth from a force bent on dominating the Universe and controlling the mystical objects from which the film takes its name.

The film opens in irish theatres April 10th.

Emmy Rossum of 'Dragonball: Evolution'

At 22, Emmy Rossum stars in "Dragonball: Evolution," the live-action take on the famous Japanese cartoon; it opens April 10. She has appeared in "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Poseidon" and is a singer as well; her 2007 album, "Inside Out," was released by Geffen Records.



Do people ever mess up and call you, like, Rummy Epson?

In school they used to call me Emmy Possum. I prefer Emmy Awesome. I mean, Emmy isn't that common of a name. My real name is actually Emmanuelle. But I go by Emmy because it's easy for people to pronounce.

How in the world did you end up at Perez Hilton's birthday party the other night?

We had some friends in common. He's a nice guy, actually! He invited me to his birthday dinner the night before. He's very funny.

So he's not evil, mean and frightening?

Not to me, at least. Knock wood!

That's beautiful.

Really, I think it's for entertainment reasons. Entertainment has stretched in different ways for people to express themselves -- people are expanding, your favorite musicians are on Twitter. Even Gerry Butler, from "Phantom of the Opera" and "300," is on Twitter! It's a different world. There's a big sense of immediacy in journalism and entertainment too.

How will you join this brave new world?

I'm somewhat involved with all of it. But I don't know, we were down in Mexico shooting "Dragonball," and I didn't have Internet or BlackBerry during the day. There's almost a sense of calm you get.

When you were a little girl, by which I mean, littler girl, as you are very young, did you ever dream that you would star in a movie as the inventor of Dragon Radar?

I used to watch the kids cartoon on the weekends! So I was familiar with the universe. I never read the manga or saw the anime, so when I auditioned, I started watching the shows online and watched a lot of the anime as well. It's interesting when you're taking a character from anime, which in my opinion is one of the most human forms of entertainment. I got to shoot five guns and drive a motorcycle and dye half my hair blue. It was so fun to be out of corsets.

But you do have anime eyes, so that is handy.

People tell me that. I don't know if that means that I'm bug-eyed?

No! So the April Details magazine shoot of you has been out for a while now. Do you feel OK with it?

Am I OK with it? Yeah, I really was excited to shoot with the photographer. I feel OK with myself, and I'm not being inappropriate for my age. They made me feel so comfortable. It's not really a sexy shoot. It's sexual. Though I was confused as to why I was holding a trumpet.

That is very strange.

I know. But I thought: artistic value! It's like trusting a director -- you have to trust your photographer. They're the captain of the ship.

That's wise, usually.


Oh my Emmy Rossum. She's really wonderful! and I really like her. Well, Bulma is really a hot babe in Manga so I think Emmy fits in her character. ^^

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EXCLUSIVE: ‘Dragonball Evolution’ Sequel Already Has A Script

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Dragonball Evolution’ Sequel Already Has A Script
Published by Silas Lesnick

'Dragonball Evolution'With volume after volume of the original manga and hundreds of episodes of multiple anime series, it’s no surprise that next week’s “Dragonball Evolution” only touches the tip of the iceberg in regards to the epic mythology of “Dragonball.” What is a surprise, however, is that a sequel has already been penned.

“I know they’ve written a second one and it’s pretty far out there,” actor Justin Chatwin told MTV News. Chatwin plays Goku, the hero of the tale, who seeks to recover the powerful “Dragonballs” and protect the world from the evil Lord Piccolo, played by “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” alum James Marsters.

“The second one really goes to some different places that I’ve never seen in any comic book adaptation,” said Chatwin.

Chatwin admits that he hasn’t read the sequel script firsthand, but that he’s been told a lot about it and that he and co-star Emmy Rossum (Bulma) would jump at the chance to return for more.

Likewise, Marsters is not only ready for a second chapter, but would like to see the franchise continue indefinitely. A die-hard fan of the anime, Marsters has every intention of fulfilling the arc of Piccolo in live-action.

“We’re going to get to ‘Dragonball Z’ later,” said Marsters, “where Piccolo becomes youthful and he’s going to become the Piccolo that most people recognize.”

Director James Wong was a tad more cautious and wants to reminds fans that, even though a sequel may have already been written (he would neither confirm nor deny the script’s existence), the litmus test is really going to come down to next weekend’s box office. Then again, if “Star Trek” is doing it, maybe the premature sequel is the next big thing.

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Twilight Star Sought for Dragonball Reborn Movie?

RecoSwaVa found this post about Robert Pattinson being courted for the Dragonball sequel. I wondered if this was an April Fool's article, but the date is not 4/1. If it is true, its still probably not gonna happen--even though he's got the fly-away hair for it already...

“20th Century Fox is fast tracking the sequel to it’s as yet seen hit “Dragonball Evolution”. The film, which has earned a collective $21M in 8 Asian markets over the last three weeks; reportedly half its initial budget, opens worldwide on April 10th.

Reborn, the illusive subtitle to the sequel, is based on the popular manga turned animated series created by Akira Toriyama. James Wong is set to direct from a script he penned. Stephen Chow is once again set to produce and the entire cast, including Justin Chatwin as the films iconic hero, and Chow Yun-Fat as his mentor, are set to return.

The studio is also looking to expand that roster and are currently courting Twilight star Robert Pattinson to play the films villain. The film is expected to begin principle photography in Montreal this July, with a tentitive release date of Spring 2010.“

Edward VS Son Goku? wahahaha! It will be cool!

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