Dragonball Evolution

Dragonball Evolution is a 2009 American superhero film loosely based on the Japanese Shōnen Jump manga series Dragon Ball created by Akira Toriyama. Directed by James Wong, written by Ben Ramsey, and produced by Stephen Chow, it stars Justin Chatwin, Emmy Rossum, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Chow Yun-fat, Joon Park, and Eriko Tamura. In the film, the teenager Goku reveals his past and sets out to fight the evil alien warlord Lord Piccolo who wishes to gain the powerful Dragon Balls and use them to take over Earth. It is the first official live-action adaptation of the Dragon Ball series.

Dragonball Evolution was released in Japan and several other Asian countries on March 13, 2009, and in the United States on April 10. It grossed $56.5 million worldwide against a production budget of $30 million and was considered a box-office disappointment at the time. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, audiences and fans, who criticized it's script, casting, acting, direction, screenplay, characters, visual effects, action sequences, dialogue and unfaithfulness to the source material. It is considered to be one of the worst films ever made. Dragonball Evolution was intended to be the first of a series, though its reception caused Fox to cancel all subsequent films. The film has been accused of whitewashing and has had a negative effect on future anime-to-cinema adaptations, due to its casting, lack of loyalty to the source material, and failure at the box office.