Dragonball: Evolution (2009)

Image credit: Martin Gavica

HAVING A BALL? Alas, we're less than glowing about Dragonball: Evolution (Emmy Rossum and Justin Chatwin, pictured)

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Dragonballs look a bit like cueballs, or at least how cueballs might appear to a person on strong hallucinogens. They glow and swirl, and anybody who collects all seven of them inside the Dragon Temple during the ''blood-moon'' eclipse will be granted one wish — unless the lizard-skinned Lord Piccolo and his ninja sidekick get there first and unleash the evil beast Oozaru to take revenge for Piccolo's 2,000-year imprisonment. Confused yet? Fans of the best-selling Dragonball comics (and cartoons, and videogames...) might have a shot at untangling the knotty dream-logic that strangles Dragonball: Evolution's live-action adaptation. But the rest of us — bored senseless by the story of a high-school outcast (Justin Chatwin) who bands with a mercenary (Emmy Rossum) and a martial arts master (Chow Yun-Fat) to find the precious orbs — have little to do but marvel at the fact that something this trippy made it to our local multiplex. C