Dragonballsup Evolution.

If your gonna make a movie based on a cartoon that 8 year old kids used to like, then aiming your moovie adaptation at the same age group seems the sensible thing to do. WRONG!

First, the kids that used to like Dragonball Z have matured since then. Second, to get the current generation of 8 year olds into the cinema, you've got to entice their parents too, maybe by adding some thoughtful subtext, wiity banter, decent charaterisation or maybe even an involving plot. Ok, Ok, just make a movie thats pretty to look at and you've guaranteed your audience.

So well done for Fox for getting it very very wrong. One of the main problems is the tone; it takes itself so, so seriously. Which means when the looney tunes gags commence, it's daft, embarresing and out of place. Its a weird anime style mash up of impossible machines, monsters, aliens, magic and mysticism. If you do it tongue in cheek, you can get away with the balance of humour and absurdity (see Big Trouble in Little China).

It's cheap and small in scale, relying on poor special effects to beef up the epic scope of the story. Sadly the VFX aren't up to much and the fight seens are shot down by the most obvious wire work I've ever seen.

With the cast, Justin Chatwick aquits himself adequetly but the legendary Chow Yun Fat is reduced to farce here. Fortunetely, the girls add value, with an extremely cute Emmy Rossum ticking the right boxes as the Han Solo-ish Bulma.

So for all you 8 year olds out there, this is the one for you..the way its written, performed, paced, directed and produced. Beware everybody else.