Letterboxd rating for Dragonball Evolution (yikes!)

[PowerPhantom245]

A weeks ago (or month technically), I stumbled upon an episode of "It's Not That Bad" podcast, discussing about Dragonball Evolution.
https://notthatbadcast.com/2025/02/05/e ... evolution/

The podcast discuss about movie that has gotten poor reviews from fans and audience, where they discuss that it's not THAT bad.
If you are fan of podcast, particularly movie review, I recommend checking it out.
On that episode, they've mentioned interesting rating of the movie from Letterboxd; a movie review site that I did not know existed until I heard the episode.
According to that site, it has the LOWEST review among 1 MILLION movies; a 0.86/5 rating.
Here is the screenshot from August 2025; as of October 2025, it hasn't changed that much.


It's mind boggling that it has gotten that low of the rating.
Lower than War of the Worlds (2025) and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. (...dang)
Most movie reviews site I've seen gave rating around 14~30% (sometime 40%) ratings, which is generally fair number (I would probably give 35~40%).
But according to Letterboxd, it's the WORST movie ever... among 1 MILLION MOVIES.
I know movie isn't good but gee wiz, that's brutal.
If I were to come up with worst movie ever list right now, I would not put that movie.
In fact, even if I made worst movie list in 2009, it still wouldn't go in Top 10 nor 50 worst; maybe 100, though, that year didn't have much of good movies. (...seriously, 2009 was pretty terrible year for movie)

What are your thought?

I shared my thought on the movie, thread I made last year (2024) for movie's 15th anniversary (or un-niversary?).
viewtopic.php?t=48787

[PhantomSaiyan]

As it should be. Deserved

If I were to come up with worst movie ever list right now, I would not put that movie.

I would

[MCDaveG]

This movie should be remembered only for one sole purpose... How to not adapt a source material and create a direct to video westernized borefest. Even that Taiwanese "bootleg" movie with bad FX packs more charm and respect to source material.
One Piece on Netflix set an interesting benchmark, working with the original creator and being true to source material albeit with western actors and in english... It exceeded my expectations.

Mackenyu is great as Zorro, which is a shame, as The Knights Of The Zodiac (Saint Seiya) where he plays Seiya is trash on par with DBE.
IMHO, I think that this westernized approach is complete BS and shortsight on the part of producers and whoever is in charge, because the original version (even tho with updated nonsense cringe dialogues and nonstop synth music – DBZ) worked pretty much fine and the core story haven't changed... Why push it further, "because cinema, it needs to be more edgier and rooted in western blockbusters, let's throw most of the story fantasy stuff away and just keep the shinies.", to make it even more shit, than it would be.
It basically throws away the reasons why the source material was succesful – core story, story beats, characters, designs – and tries to push through with nonsensical trends for western audiences.

I never understood why is Goku an american teenager, that gets bullied at highschool, has a weird gel hairstyle and his chinese grandfather trains him in martial arts in his backyard in a weird cyberpunk world. Ah yes, because of some weird BS Ozaru legend, being servant to Piccolo or whatever... Why?!

[coola]

And for worst teaser ever "We f.cked up, don't watch it, just walk away and ignore it" https://vimeo.com/506840576?turnstile=0 ... b193d61058

[WittyUsername]

As bad as the movie is, I don’t know if I’d consider it to be as egregiously bad as something like The Last Airbender or the Ice Cube War of the Worlds.

[Hellspawn28]

A lot of bad movies get review bombed because of other people when they probably never seen the film. It's a bad movie for sure, but there are way way worse films out there. I would rather watch DBE over any of the Michael Bay Transformer films, Fantastic Four 2015, and tons of other crap. People need to watch more bad movies.

[MasenkoHA]

A lot of bad movies get review bombed because of other people when they probably never seen the film. It's a bad movie for sure, but there are way way worse films out there. I would rather watch DBE over any of the Michael Bay Transformer films, Fantastic Four 2015, and tons of other crap. People need to watch more bad movies.

Indeed. Obviously a lot of Dragon Ball fans hate it with a passion but I notice a lot of anime fans hate it on principle, even if they don’t otherwise give 2 shits about Dragon Ball.

The movie is bad but it’s bad in a way a lot of American wuxia films are; with a boilerplate chosen one narrative that places its white lead over its Asian cast.

[JulieYBM]

I haven't watched the movie in fifteen years and I think if we all stopped doing thingd that bring us displeasure, we would be a lot happier.

[BernardoCairo]

I’ve been watching a series called Shameless recently, and Steve is my favorite character. He’s played by Justin Chatwin, and Emmy Rossum is also one of the main leads. Watching it made me want to go back and watch Dragon Ball Evolution, even though it’s a horrible pile of garbage. The only time I actually saw Dragon Ball Evolution was before I became a fan of the series, when I was a kid. I remember it being so bad that it was funny.

[TheGreatness25]

I mean this 100% legitimately, no hyperbole: Dragon Ball Evolution is one of the worst movies that I've ever seen in my entire life. Not a bad Dragon Ball movie, not a bad anime movie, not a bad action movie, not a bad sci-fi movie, not a bad movie that didn't go straight to DVD, no--one of the worst movies I've ever seen start to didn't in my entire life. Saw it once in like 2011 and I never want to see it again.

Now, I'm sure there are far worse movies that I can find if I really cycled through the bottom of the barrel on Tubi or something, but I would never watch them start to finish the way I watched this thing out of a sense of obligation. But, the fact remains. I would rather and happily watch the Twilight movies back to back on an all-day marathon loop than to ever watch that piece of crap again.

[Yellow Flower King]

Are there really 1 million movies? And has someone on that site seen each at least once? I know there are probably more than 1 milion but...

[super michael]

If a person doesn't see the title of the movie, they wouldn't know that they are watching a Dragon Ball movie.

[jjgp1112]

I mean this 100% legitimately, no hyperbole: Dragon Ball Evolution is one of the worst movies that I've ever seen in my entire life. Not a bad Dragon Ball movie, not a bad anime movie, not a bad action movie, not a bad sci-fi movie, not a bad movie that didn't go straight to DVD, no--one of the worst movies I've ever seen start to didn't in my entire life. Saw it once in like 2011 and I never want to see it again.

Now, I'm sure there are far worse movies that I can find if I really cycled through the bottom of the barrel on Tubi or something, but I would never watch them start to finish the way I watched this thing out of a sense of obligation. But, the fact remains. I would rather and happily watch the Twilight movies back to back on an all-day marathon loop than to ever watch that piece of crap again.

Yeah sometimes I waffle between is it really THAT bad or is it just my general vitriol but nah, it really is THAT Bad. Even on it's own, it's just the most shit-tacular amalgam of 2000s superhero/action movie cliches.

I’ve been watching a series called Shameless recently, and Steve is my favorite character. He’s played by Justin Chatwin, and Emmy Rossum is also one of the main leads. Watching it made me want to go back and watch Dragon Ball Evolution, even though it’s a horrible pile of garbage. The only time I actually saw Dragon Ball Evolution was before I became a fan of the series, when I was a kid. I remember it being so bad that it was funny.

Shameless made me 100% convinced Emmy Rossum could play a proper version of Bulma and not whatever the fuck that Trinity wannabe was.

[90sDBZ]

It's a bad movie for sure, but worst movie ever made? I wouldn't go that far.

I often see movies described that way; Batman and Robin, Superman 4, Mortal Kombat Anialation, Street Fighter The Movie, Ghostbusters 2016 etc..

People who use the phrase "Worst movie ever made" either haven't watched many movies, or they're exagerrating deliberately.

I'm a big horror fan, and I've seen countless trashy B movies that make Evolution look like a masterpiece.

[Kid Buu]

It's a bad movie for sure, but worst movie ever made? I wouldn't go that far.

I often see movies described that way; Batman and Robin, Superman 4, Mortal Kombat Anialation, Street Fighter The Movie, Ghostbusters 2016 etc..

People who use the phrase "Worst movie ever made" either haven't watched many movies, or they're exagerrating deliberately.

I'm a big horror fan, and I've seen countless trashy B movies that make Evolution look like a masterpiece.

Yeah, but in the horror commuity, those trashy B movies are all apart of the fun.

Now excuse me while I go rewatch Halloween: Resurrection.

[Hellspawn28]

I would watch Dragon Ball Evolution on a 24 hour lop than watch anything from the Daily Wire.

[PhantomSaiyan]

It's a bad movie for sure, but worst movie ever made? I wouldn't go that far.

I often see movies described that way; Batman and Robin, Superman 4, Mortal Kombat Anialation, Street Fighter The Movie, Ghostbusters 2016 etc..

People who use the phrase "Worst movie ever made" either haven't watched many movies, or they're exagerrating deliberately.

I'm a big horror fan, and I've seen countless trashy B movies that make Evolution look like a masterpiece.

Unlike the other movies you've cited, Evolution really is that bad to warrant the reputation. I'll take a shitty B movie over Evolution any day

[TheGreatness25]

It's a bad movie for sure, but worst movie ever made? I wouldn't go that far.

I often see movies described that way; Batman and Robin, Superman 4, Mortal Kombat Anialation, Street Fighter The Movie, Ghostbusters 2016 etc..

People who use the phrase "Worst movie ever made" either haven't watched many movies, or they're exagerrating deliberately.

I'm a big horror fan, and I've seen countless trashy B movies that make Evolution look like a masterpiece.

The worst movie I've ever seen start to finish. I usually tap out long before the end on something that I'm just suffering through. Then again, my opinion isn't shared by all. I also thought that Suicide Squad and Justice League (including the Snyder cut) were putrid piles of crap. And I feel like I'm the only person in the world that thought The Batman (2022) waa a boring, coma-inducing snoozefest that I actually couldn't wait to end.

And so, obviously this is subjective, but DBE is just the undisputed champion of the worst movies I've ever personally experienced beginning to end. Not a single thing in this could save it. The costume design was atrocious, the CGI was laughable, the script was a pure joke, and the acting was Academy award-winning garbage (which isn't a knock on the actors because the directing was probably the real culprit). Zero saving grace here. And I don't think I'm out of line when I say this: if it didn't bear the "Dragon Ball" name, it would've been forgotten the same year it came out and it damn sure wouldn't come out in theaters.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Yeah, Evolution is not the worst movie ever made, it just fails spectacularly at what it tries to do, which is be a Dragon Ball movie. At least the writer apologized.

[jjgp1112]

It's a bad movie for sure, but worst movie ever made? I wouldn't go that far.

I often see movies described that way; Batman and Robin, Superman 4, Mortal Kombat Anialation, Street Fighter The Movie, Ghostbusters 2016 etc..

People who use the phrase "Worst movie ever made" either haven't watched many movies, or they're exagerrating deliberately.

I'm a big horror fan, and I've seen countless trashy B movies that make Evolution look like a masterpiece.

Well I think there's a difference between a really bad Hollywood movie and some shitty b movie made with a shoestring budget. "Worst" in this instance is also contextual and based on impact and how many people have seen it. Like there are obviously a zillion movies significantly worse than Battlefield: Earth, but Battlefield: Earth is shitty on such a bigger scale.