Box office The film had a gross earning in the United States and Canada of $9,362,785 and an international gross of $47,148,672 for a combined worldwide box office gross of $56,511,457. In its second weekend, it dropped to 11th place.
Critical response Audiences surveyed by
CinemaScore gave the film a grade C+ on scale of A to F. Zac Bertschy of
Anime News Network, who was initially annoyed at
fans of the franchise who criticized the film via leaked set shots and trailers before the film's release, eventually gave the movie a negative rating and capitulated that "the fans were right."
Variety's Russell Edwards found the film "passable", "pleasing if paint-by-numbers", noting it "doesn't take itself too seriously, but avoids campiness", that "the climactic clash between Piccolo and Goku offers a faithful CGI representation of the ethereal powers as drawn in the original manga" and that the climax offers an "impressive character twist for Goku that will warm the cockles of every young
Jungian's heart." Luke Thompson of
E! Online referred to the film as a "surreal mess" that would only make sense to fans of the original series. He questioned the use of a
Caucasian in the main role and felt Chow Yun-Fat was "overacting like never before", but did consider it "fun in a train-wreck kind of way" and that while it was never boring it was also never "logical, coherent [or] rational". Christopher Monfette of
IGN gave the film a positive review, stating that it captured "the flavor of
anime without becoming overly cartoonish". He praised the main cast for "creating characters the audience can actually care about" and felt Chatwin was particularly likeable as Goku.
Slant Magazines Rob Humanick considered the film "uninspired" and implausible with an "aimlessly hyperactive construction and complete lack of substance" and "cobbled-together FX fakery".
The Village Voices
Aaron Hillis called the film a "loony live-action adaptation", but felt it was "more entertaining than it deserves to be" and would likely appeal to ten-year-old boys.
Alonso Duralde of
MSNBC found the film to be "both entertainingly ridiculous and ridiculously entertaining" and noted that "kids will have such a blast that you can turn this movie into the gateway kung-fu drug that makes them want to watch the earlier work of Stephen Chow and Chow Yun-Fat, that is if Stephen Chow and Chow Yun-fat had a Caucasian actor in the starring role." Jeffrey K. Lyles of
The Gazette found the film to be "a fairly entertaining martial arts adventure for the younger audiences" and tolerable to adults. He felt Chatwin was ill-cast as Goku, and that director Wong failed to capture the "frenetic sense of the anime" adaptation in the action scenes, leaving them an effort to understand. Since its release, the film has been considered to be among the worst films ever made. It was the lowest-rated film on
IMDb for over ten years.
Creator response Before the film's release,
Dragon Ball creator
Akira Toriyama expressed surprise at
Dragonball Evolution and suggested fans treat it as an alternate universe version of his work. In a 2013 interview with
Asahi Shimbun, Toriyama revealed that he had felt the script did not "capture the world or the characteristics" of his series and was "bland" and not interesting, so he cautioned and gave suggestions for changes. But the Hollywood producers did not heed his advice, "And just as I thought, the result was a movie I cannot call
Dragon Ball." Discussing the film in 2016's
30th Anniversary Dragon Ball Chōshishū - Super History Book, Toriyama wrote: "I had put
Dragon Ball behind me, but seeing how much that live-action film ticked me off, and how I revised that script for the anime movie and complained about the quality of the TV anime, I suppose somewhere along the line it's become a series I like too much to ever leave alone." At the 2014 Wizard World Convention, actor
James Marsters expressed feelings that he was misled about
Dragonball: Evolution, claiming, "they told me it was a $120 million picture, and that Stephen Chow was producing. And I get out to Durango, Mexico and it's a $30 million picture and Stephen Chow is just on paper to fool us down into the desert. And they don't even want to pay for the stuntman to get made up like me, so they never used the stuntman; they just kept putting me up on wires. I still have a separated clavicle from the shoot, because it was just gnarly." He would later take on the role of
Zamasu in
Dragon Ball Super for free as a way to "redeem himself with the
Dragon Ball Z community" following his work on the film. In 2016, writer
Ben Ramsey apologized for his work on the film, writing: "To have something with my name on it as the writer be so globally reviled is gut-wrenching. To receive hate mail from all over the world is heartbreaking. [...] I went into the project chasing after a big payday, not as a fan of the franchise but as a businessman taking on an assignment. I have learned that when you go into a creative endeavor without passion you come out with sub-optimal results, and sometimes flat-out garbage. So I'm not blaming anyone for Dragonball [Evolution] but myself." Following Akira Toriyama's death on March 1, 2024,
Justin Chatwin took to social media to send his condolences while also apologizing for the quality of the film. In 2025, editor
Kazuhiko Torishima pinned some of the blame on
Shueisha. He stated that the company was unwilling to invest in final cut rights due to the financial failure of its previous film effort
Daijōbu, My Friend. Because of this, the company was locked out of having final say over the script, something which he felt was necessary to produce the film.
Accolades The film was nominated for a 2009
Spike TV Scream Award for "Best Comic Book Movie," but lost to
Watchmen.
JoBlo.com nominated the film for its
Golden Schmoes Awards in the category
Worst Movie of the Year 2009, but lost to
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. ==Canceled sequels==