Review: Mind-blowing treat for kung fu fans

Film: Dragonball: Evolution (U/A)
Director: James Wong
Writer: Ben Ramsey
Cast: Chow Yun Fat, James Marsters
Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Rating: **

As the movie approaches its climax, there is a scene in which the good guys prepare for the final fight with the baddie, Lord Piccolo (James Marsters). In what resembles a Tibetan monastery with monks in deep meditation sits the head monk, a large Afro-American with a white beard and monk-robes, and Master Roshi (Chow Yun Fat) chanting Om Namah Shivaya.

Once they prepare a magical bowl in which to trap Lord Piccolo, Master Roshi raises one hand and bows to the head monk to say thanks and bye. But instead of saying something on the lines of "May Buddha be with you", he says, "Namaste".

As the scene suggests, the movie is a badly scripted one with terrible lines like "You have to have faith in you" and "to defeat your enemy, you have to be one with yourself and your enemy" repeated again and again. The film tries to incorporate anything exotic to dish out to an American audience. Thus, you have plenty of namastes, chants, monks, and wish-granting dragons; even an intergalactic werewolf.

You can't believe the events unfolding before you, often making you squirm in disgust. So much have they tried to make this popular comic series appeal to an American audience that the two leads are Americans — Goku (Justin Chatwin) and Bulma (Emmy Rossum).

The film revolves around Goku, whose grandfather is killed on Goku's 18th birthday. He learns that Lord Piccolo has returned (after 2,000 years of banishment) to gather seven dragon balls with which he plans to conquer the earth. Goku has one dragon ball and as he seeks the rest he meets other people who help him in his quest.

He eventually faces off with Lord Piccolo (a villain wearing terrible make-up) and realises that to defeat him "he has to have faith in himself" and "become one with himself and his enemy (which means his evil and his good side)". Once he overcomes Lord Piccolo, he summons the wish-making dragon with the seven dragon balls to revive Master Roshi. And yeah, he also saves the earth.

Dragonball: Evolution may or may not appeal to fans of the comic franchise, but those who are looking for a teenybopper kung fu extravaganza (despite a terrible plot and equally terrible lines) are in for a real treat.

The good deal about the movie is that it is honest and unpretentious. It takes itself exactly as seriously as it should — which is to say, not at all. It has been designed perfectly to blow a 10-year-old boy’s mind.