Review by Paul Cote

Rating: ***

Dragonball Evolution is a film that you’ve probably already forgotten based on a tv-show/videogame/toy/merchandising empire from Japan. I know it is as the show that’s occasionally on Cartoon Network late at night when I’m hoping for a rerun of Pinky and the Brain. I’m sure if I sat through an episode I’d have other reasons to hate it. But it somehow spawned a live-action Hollywood movie, and for some reason an actual film composer was hired to score it. Dragonball Evolution probably isn’t the worst film that Brian Tyler’s ever scored, but he certainly seems overqualified for a gig like this. He gives the film more than it no doubt deserves – big themes, big action music, solid orchestrations – everything that you’d get in a children’s popcorn flick that wasn’t directly tied to a line of trading cards. But is the better-than-it-might-have-been quality enough to make this something I would listen to if I wasn’t reviewing it? Eh, maybe. Probably not.

Brian Tyler

That said, there’s nothing particularly wrong with the score. It’s cut from very much the same cloth as Timeline, arguably Tyler’s best action score. It’s full of his signature action licks, and it’s much more melodic and less dissonant than his action scores often are. And that might be part of the problem – without the muscle and edge of his more balls-to-the-wall music, the music in Dragonball is a little flavorless. It doesn’t help that the melodies are all pretty bland – a little like Elfman in superhero mode, a little like Tyler in Children of Dune mode, but without the distinction of either. And that’s to say nothing of the mindless techno interludes that occasionally interrupt the action, the sort of music that exists entirely because a marketing team is convinced that kids still love generic techno music. This ultimately means that however fun the music seems to be any any given moment, I have a hard time sitting through more than 20 minutes of it before getting bored and turning to somebody else. And this is from somebody who usually defends Tyler’s 80-minute album presentations.

Still, even with all of that in mind, there probably isn’t any good reason for liking Dragonball significantly less than any of Tyler’s other recent action scores. But for whatever reason, the spark just doesn’t seem to be there for me this time. Maybe I’ve finally reached the saturation point for Tyler in this mode, or maybe the score sounds too much like a watered-down version of Tyler’s better scores. After all, why listen to Timeline-light when Timeline’s on the shelf? Oh well. Other people seem to really like it, and we can probably consider it a small miracle that a film based on a Japanese toy commercial received a (mostly) thematic orchestral score and not a spaztastic techno-migraine. It’s all fine music. I just doubt I’ll listen to it again.

Music Composed, Conducted and Produced by Brian Tyler; Orchestrations by Robert Elhai, Dana Niu, Brad Warnaar, Andrew Kinney and Pakk Hui; Recorded and Mixed by Bobby Fernandez; Label: Varese Sarabande; Availability: In-print; U.S. Release Date: March 17, 2009

01. The Legend (01:13)
02. Dragonball Evolution (03:26)
03. Fulums (05:14)
04. Kaiou Samma (02:34)
05. Goku (03:09)
06. Gohan´s Special Gift (00:57)
07. Master Roshi (03:45)
08. The Journey Begins (00:58)
09. Lighting the Torches (02:44)
10. Vengeance (05:55)
11. Chasing Dragonballs (02:41)
12. Lord Piccolo (02:51)
13. Mai vs Chi Chi (03:55)
14. A Higher Calling (02:03)
15. Body Work (01:26)
16. I Dream of Chi Chi (00:54)
17. Grime Vinyl (01:52)
18. Unwelcome Strangers (02:12)
19. Bulma and Yamcha (01:51)
20. Things to Come (01:42)
21. The Final Battle (06:20)
22. End Game (01:32)
23. Dragonball Evolution Main Titles (01:32)

Total Playing Time: 60:46