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duhragonball · 1 year

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Dragon Ball: Evolution (USA, 2009)

The Gaijin Live-Action Trilogy comes to a close with “Dragon Ball: Evolution”. Regardless of which movie is your favorite, I think it’s fair to say that DBE was easily the most disappointing. “Fight/Win” and “Magic Begins” were unofficial, low-budget movies from the early 1990′s, while “Evolution” was produced by 20th Century Fox. They spent seven years and 30 million dollars on this turkey. And they had actually gone to the trouble to acquire the legal rights to make the movie. And yet...

The movie ended up being a critical and commercial flop. In the fandom, “Dragon Ball: Evolution” has become a byword for failure. Even Akira Toriyama expressed disappointment with the film, which is pretty rare for him.

For my part, I was kind of intrigued when the movie came out in 2009, and I had some hopes that it might lead to big things for the franchise. And I remember it being okay when I saw it, but I was quick to notice that there weren’t many people in the theater that day.

I didn’t really get mad about the movie until I saw the 2011 Thor movie, which proved that a big studio could have done a better job adapting a superhero fantasy world. Believe it or not, there was a time when live-action adaptations of comic books were just expected to suck. The studio would just change a bunch of shit for no good reason or to make the movie cheaper and easier to film, and if you didn’t like it then you just didn’t understand movies or something. The idea that the movie people needed to understand the comic didn’t really gain traction until the first X-Men film came out in 2000, and even then, it was understood that the movies were under no obligation to get it right, or even try to get it right.

So I graded DBE on a curve back then, and as the MCU Phase 1 movies started to premiere, I got more and more irritated at Fox for failing to recognize the moment. And now, 14 years later, I’m watching DBE for the second time ever and wondering why I ever thought it was okay. It’s a terrible movie, with only occasional flashes of appreciation for the source material. In hindsight, I realize now that I only enjoyed DBE as much as I did because of wishful thinking. I just really wanted to like it, and I so managed to convince myself that I didn’t hate it.

But now? Yeah, I hate it. This movie sucks ass. Let’s dive in.

We open with exposition, which is generally a bad sign for movies like these. For one thing, they go over this information several times throughout the movie, so there’s absolutely no reason to spell it out at the very beginning.

So, like the Korean and Taiwanese live action films, this one also dares to retell the story of the first Dragon Ball hunt. Goku meets Bulma and they search for the seven Dragon Balls, but this is 2009, and that trick has been done several times already. A timeline...

1984-1985: Chapters 1-23 of the Dragon Ball manga.

1986: Episodes 1-13 of the Dragon Ball anime.

1986: Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies

1990: Dragon Ball: Fight, Son Goku! Win, Son Goku!

1991: Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins

1996: Dragon Ball: The Path to Power

2009: Dragon Ball: Evolution

Even if the audience wanted to see this again, it still would have been a bad idea, simply because of how many times it had been done before. More importantly, this was an American movie, made primarily to attract business from American fans, most of whom were introduced to the franchise through Dragon Ball Z, not the Pilaf Saga. Fans didn’t want to see Master Roshi and Mai, they wanted Vegeta and Frieza and Super Saiyans. This is probably why Fox put Piccolo in the role of the lead villain. Let’s face it, it just makes sense. Korea and Taiwan stuck to Emperor Pilaf, but they ended up turning Pilaf into some overpowered badass. You might as well swap him out for Piccolo, a villain who actually fills that role.

And also, DBE was meant to serve as the first installment of a trilogy. This was all the rage back in the late 2000′s, as movie studios deluded themselves into thinking they could turn any movie into three movies just by wishing for it really hard. Terminator 4, 5, and 6 were each supposed to reboot the Terminator franchise, but none of them made enough money to pull it off, so they ended up becoming a trilogy of failed trilogies.

So rather than having Piccolo and Vegeta fighting Frieza, like everyone probably wanted, this movie tries to take it slow, introducing Piccolo first, in order to set up Vegeta in the next movie. Only there would be no next movie, so in hindsight they really would have been better off putting their best foot forward instead of holding back.

Anyway, let’s get on with this. So in this movie, Piccolo is basically the same as King Piccolo from the manga, except he tried to conquer the Earth 2000 years ago, instead of a few centuries ago. He was defeated and sealed away by a powerful technique called the Mafuba, and in the events of this movie, he escapes and plots his revenge. But he wasn’t alone back in the olden days...

And this right here is where the movie fucked up. Piccolo’s sidekick villain is simply an ape-like creature named “Oozaru”. So any fans watching this thing will immediately see the twist coming. I suppose general audiences might not pick up on this, but come on. Oozaru is presented as Piccolo’s “disciple”, but he wasn’t captured like Piccolo was. Instead he simply... “disappeared”. This is undoubtedly meant to set up the Saiyans in the sequel, but there would never be a sequel.

So we move on to the present day, where Gohan is teaching is adoptive grandson Goku. Goku looks like Frodo Baggins accidentally wandered into the wrong movie. DBE Goku resembles a lot of other movie characters from around this period. Frodo, Edward Cullen, Tobey McGuire Spider-Man. I could probably keep going, but the one guy he really doesn’t resemble is Goku.

Gohan defeats him in a sparring contest, and Goku is too frustrated with his social life to learn anything. The kids at school bully him, and he can’t fight back because Gohan made him promise not to use his power. Goku seems to understand this, but he’s also frustrated that he doesn’t know how to do anything else. This movie tries to force Goku to fit into some sort of classic secret identity trope, where he has great power but he mustn’t reveal it. In ‘09, I accepted this as a new take on the character. In 2023, I’ve pretty much abandoned DC and Marvel superhero comics altogether, and I can see now how stupid this was. It’s like doing a Bugs Bunny movie and making him act like Mickey Mouse. It’s not going to impress Mickey Mouse fans. All it does is expose your inability to understand the classic character you have.

They wanted Goku to be Spider-Man so badly, or maybe Harry Potter. And I’m like, fuck Spider-Man and Harry Potter. Give us Goku, you cretins!

Or... yeah, the Twilight connection is really starting to seem more apparent to me. Everything in this movie is blue or orange and it pisses me off.

So Goku’s in high school and the teacher is explaining what a solar eclipse is, which reminds me way too much of Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four movie, where a college professor literally explains the cosmic MacGuffin that gives the FF their powers. And Goku’s too busy crushing on his classmate, Chi-Chi. He hallucinates her in a field of flowers, eating strawberries, which is kind of like... not exactly horny, but hornier than Goku needs to be, if that makes any sense. Chi-Chi really doesn’t serve any purpose in this movie, except to be a love interest for Goku, which he doesn’t really need because there’s enough going on here as it is. So Chi-Chi just sort of exists in the film, liking Goku for no particular reason and being this hot chick. It’s dumb.

Then the teacher calls on Goku and asks him what their ancestors would say about a solar eclipse, and Goku stammers some crap about how the Earth was nearly conquered by the Namekians during an eclipse thousands of years ago. Everyone laughs at him, but I don’t understand what the hell this movie is trying to establish here. On the one hand, there’s all this secret lore about Piccolo and Oozaru nearly conquering the world, but on the other hand wouldn’t everyone kind of know about that? I mean, there would be historical accounts of this terrible battle, right? It would have altered the course of history, but these high school scenes make it look like the world is basically the same as our world.

Later, Goku sees Chi-Chi struggling with the lock on her locker, and her homework assignment is trapped inside. So Goku uses The Force his ki to open all the lockers. This impresses Chi-Chi, who already knows about ki. Meanwhile, I’m confused. At the beginning of the movie, Gohan told Goku to use his ki, and he couldn’t do anything with it. So why did he even try it here? Maybe his boner for Chi-Chi unleashed his hidden potential?

Chi-Chi invites him to a party at her house, and he ditches his grandfather’s humble birthday celebration to attend. Oh, right, it’s Goku’s 18th birthday, by the way. The bullies from school try to intimidate Goku, but he stands his ground and defeats them by dodging all their attacks and getting them to defeat themselves. It’s actually pretty true to Goku’s style in mismatches like this, and I’d give it a little credit, except it’s too similar to gags used in the Spider-Man and Superman films. One thing that bothers me here: the bullies are using like kicks and flips and shit. They seem pretty skilled in martial arts themselves. Not on Goku’s level, obviously, but they’re not just stock football players or whatever. It’s another example of this world being sort of a half-inch removed from reality. It can’t decide if it wants to be the real world or a fantasy world like the one in the source material.

Meanwhile, Piccolo and Mai barge into Gohan’s house and kill him. They came looking for his Dragon Ball, but don’t realize that Gohan gave it to Goku that morning as a birthday present. Goku took it with him to the party, so it’s not here.

Okay, so let’s talk about the bad guys. Mai is basically Mai from the Pilaf gang, but she works for Piccolo here. She has a hole in her costume, which... I mean I’m not complaining, but I’m starting to see that this movie really uses eye candy as a crutch. Like, Rey’s pretty good looking in the Star Wars movies, but there’s so much other cool shit happening in those things that it’s not the main thing. Here, just about all you have to occupy your attention in DBE is ogling Chi-Chi, Mai, and Bulma.

Piccolo absolutely sucks. James Marsters wanted this role because he was such a huge fan of the franchise, and I always felt kind of bad for him because he seemed really excited at the prospect of playing Piccolo in the sequels, only for this movie to turn into such a huge flop. I guess there’s a non-zero chance he’s reading this, so I don’t want to be too hard on him, but there’s just nothing to this character. He just glowers menacingly, destroys a place, then collects the Dragon Ball and leaves. He pops up briefly throughout the movie just to remind us that he’s doing stuff, but most of what we know about him comes from other characters talking about him. He’s mad about being sealed away for 2000 years, but we never learn how he got unsealed. For that matter, we never learn why he wants the Dragon Balls. He seems to want to wish for world conquest, but he was doing pretty well on that front 2000 years ago.

Also, we never learn how he knows where the Dragon Balls are. It’s like how Baby from GT knew where to send his lackeys. We see Piccolo destroy a Japanese village and then Mai goes down to fetch the Dragon Ball from some lady, and it’s like she knew exactly where to go. But here, they show up looking for Gohan’s Ball, and it’s like they knew it used to be here, but they don’t know where it’s gone?

Back at Chi-Chi’s place, Goku’s Spider-Sense is tingling, so he runs back home to check on his grandfather and finds him buried under the house. He pulls him out the wreckage, where Gohan tells him to find all the Dragon Balls to stop Piccolo, and reminds him to “have faith in who you are.” That’s like the moral of this movie. That and “the first rule is that there are no rules”. Just hackey drivel presented like some profound wisdom. Also, there’s a poem about the Dragon Balls, like the verses etched in the One Ring from Lord of the Rings. Then Gohan dies of terminal cliche and Goku buries him in a shallow grave.

The next day, Bulma breaks into the house... Well, I guess that’s a relative term, since the house is already half-destroyed. She accuses Goku of stealing her “promethium orb”, because she tracked it to this house. Goku realizes she’s talking about the Dragon Balls, and when he shows her his Four-Star Ball, she understands that it’s not the same as the Five-Star one she lost.

Okay, so a couple of things. First, if Bulma has a Dragon Radar in this story, why is she just now learning that there’s more than one of these things? Second, after Goku tells her about the Dragon Balls, she just drops the whole “promethium orb” thing. That seems kind of weird, since she had this whole thing planned where she was going to use them as an unlimited power source. I can’t see her abandoning the name she came up with.

Anyway, Bulma is easily the best character in this movie. She’s not quite authentic to the original character, but she’s constantly pointing guns at people and growling thinly veiled threats. It’s sort of a half-Bulma, with all the badass two-fisted scientist stuff, but none of the flirty, bratty stuff.

Also, I have to give her credit for the one (1) streak of blue hair, which is more than the other live-action Bulmas ever got. Seriously though, this is like a symbol of the entire movie. They wanted to put Bulma in this thing, but they stopped short of giving her all-blue hair. Like, which is it? Do you want Bulma or not? And if the answer is no, then why are you doing a Dragon Ball movie in the first place?

So before Gohan died, he told Goku to seek out Master Roshi at Paozu. As it turns out, Paozu is a big city, and Roshi’s house is located on a weird little island in the middle of a lake in the middle of the city.

Roshi is played by Chow Yun-fat, which was probably a big “get” for the studio. He’s also the worst live-action Roshi I’ve seen, and I wasn’t very impressed by the others. This is just Chow Yun-fat screwing around in a Dragon Ball movie. He doesn’t have the turtle shell on his back, which isn’t much of a surprise, but he also lacks the beard, sunglasses, and bald head. He has a waifu cartoon on his shirt, and Bulma finds a bikini magazine in his stuff, and that’s about as pervy as he ever gets. Seriously, Goku is a bigger horndog in this movie than Roshi.

And I’m not that fussed about this, since I’m not a big fan of Roshi’s to begin with, but it’s weird to me how all three live-action adaptations went out of their way to include Roshi, but refused to go all-in on the portrayal. Like, if you don’t want a problematic sex-pest in your movie, I totally understand, but the solution is not to tone down the character. Now you still have the character in your movie, but you’ve stripped away the only personality he had.

The solution should have been just to do a different story, one without Master Roshi. Just have Chow Yun-fat play some other character, like the Supreme Kai or whatever else you want. But if he’s not gonna ogle girls and wear sunglasses and have a bald head, what’s the point of calling it Roshi?

Anyway, Roshi also has a Dragon Ball, and he fills in the others on the whole deal with Piccolo and the eclipse, and whatever else. There’s a lot of mysticism thrown around with this plot, where I can’t tell if Piccolo’s return was just a quirk of fate or some fufilment of an ancient prophecy or something. Also, every time Goku touches a new Dragon Ball, he has visions of the future.

Roshi’s plan is to train Goku to defeat Piccolo, and to track down the Dragon Balls before Piccolo can get them all. To do that, he takes Goku to some “secret” training ground, but it turns out to be full of kids beating the shit out of each other as they prepare for a martial arts tournament. Goku runs into Chi-Chi there, and she reveals to him that she’s a martial artist, but none of the others at home know. I don’t understand what the point is to any of this.

So the good guys move on to a different, more secluded training ground. On the way, Bulma drives into a hole, and this turns out to be a trap laid by Yamcha. He offers to help them out, but only in exchange for payment. This seems like a really dumb trap now that I think about it. I mean, how long did it take him to dig this hole? And he just assumes someone will drive into it, and that they’ll be rich enough to make this worth the trouble he went to. I mean, past a point, it’d be simpler to just get a job, right? Or at least go rob people in a big city, like a regular criminal.

They sit in the hole well into the night, and Roshi tells the story of Piccolo and Oozaru. He warns that the coming eclipse will bring forth Oozaru, which is why they have to stop Piccolo before that happens. Why? Isn’t Piccolo strong enough on his own? The implication is that Oozaru is like his trump card or something, but I don’t buy that. He killed Gohan effortlessly, and no one else has displayed any greater ability.

Yamcha thinks the story is dumb, but he has to sit here and wait for them to pay him before he can move on. Then Roshi just jumps out of the hole and offers him a deal. If he could do that the whole time, then why did he wait so long to do it?

Meanwhile, Mai has been following the good guys, and she reports back to Piccolo that Roshi is training Goku to oppose him. Piccolo then has blood drawn from his arms, which he uses to bring life to... whatever these things are. They’re like the Putty Patrol from Power Rangers, only even shittier.

Goku just tosses their bodies in lava, and uses them as a bridge to reach the next Dragon Ball. Don’t ask how we ended up in a lava floe. Anyway, when he touches the next Ball, he has visions of Oozaru killing the others, so he resolves to defeat Oozaru, and Roshi starts to lose confidence in their plan. They won’t have time to track down the remaining Dragon Balls before the eclipse, so he heads for Toisan to consult with someone else for Plan B.

That someone is Sifu Norris, played by Ernie Hudson from the Ghostbusters movies. A lot of geek journalist sites said that Hudson would be playing Mutai-Itoh, the master who trained Roshi and developed the Mafuba technique that defeated Piccolo in the original manga. But the character’s name in ths movie is Sifu Norris, and while Roshi bows to him in deference, it’s not clear that Norris was Roshi’s teacher. And he couldn’t have invented the Mafuba in this world, not unless he’s 2000+ years old.

Anyway, Roshi never took the poem about the Dragon Balls seriously until now, when the signs are finally starting to come true. So he apologizes for his doubts, and asks Norris to help him prepare another vessel for the Mafuba. Roshi plans to seal up Piccolo all over again, at the cost of his own life.

See, here’s why this doesn’t work properly. In the original story, Roshi told the other characters all about Piccolo’s original attack on the world, and how his old master sacrificed his own life to seal Piccolo away. That was important, because you need that established up front. That way, when Roshi begins planning to use the Mafuba himself later on, the audience knows exactly what it means, and how desperate the situation is. The audience also understands how Roshi would know the technique, as he was one of the only living witnesses to have seen the technique used.

But in DBE, we don’t get that. We’re only told that the Mafuba is a technique that sealed Piccolo away. We don’t find out that it kills the user until this scene, when Roshi and Norris say so. Roshi says he’s the only one who can do it, but we never find out why. When would he have learned the Mafuba? Why would he have learned it? He was never worried about Piccolo until a few days ago. He certainly never saw it used the first time around, because it was before his time. And why can’t Sifu Norris use it instead? He seems more experienced in this sort of thing.

Meanwhile, Goku meets with Chi-Chi at the Toisan tournament, while Bulma and Yamcha commiserate over the upcoming end of the world. There is zero chemistry between these two, and Bulma says she likes bad men, so she’s already preparing to dump him for Vegeta, and they haven’t even introduced him yet.

Roshi shows Goku how to do the Kamehameha, and Goku says that he’s heard of the technique, but Gohan never taught him because he wasn’t ready. Roshi says that Goku still isn’t ready, but he has to learn it anyway because they’re almost out of time. Well if he’s not ready, then what good does it do to teach him? This movie really can’t make up it’s mind about Goku’s ability. We’ve already seen him use ki powers, even when the movie insists that he has no aptitude for this.

As he struggles to light torches with his ki, Chi-Chi shows up and basically offers to make out with him if he does a good job. That’s the other weird thing about this movie, it keeps presenting this notion that romantic intimacy makes you better at fireball karate. I mean, that sounds awesome, actually, but it’s not Dragon Ball.

Later, Bulma finds Chi-Chi in Goku’s room, and she thinks they’re having sex, except Goku’s not in there, and Chi-Chi’s doing exercises somewhere else. Turns out Mai disguised herself as Chi-Chi. At the Toisan tournament, she was in a match with Chi-Chi, and managed to get a drop of her blood, which she somehow used to shapeshift into her? I mean, that’s fine, I can believe Piccolo has special magic that lets Mai do that sort of thing, but I feel like they should have explained it in greater detail. Anyway, Goku finds the two Chi-Chi’s fighting, and he beats the wrong one, and Mai shoots him.

Goku has a near death experience where Gohan tells him to believe in himself or some shit, while Roshi uses a Kamehameha to revive him. Uh, okay?

So the bad guys have all the Dragon Balls, which normally means they’ve already made their wish, but in this movie there’s still time, because you have to take the Balls to the Dragon Temple to summon Shenron. So Yamcha drives the gang over there, and partway into the trip he just reveals that his truck can fly like the DeLorean in Back to the Future II. So why didn’t he do that before?

The bad guys are already at the Temple, so I’m not sure what the point was of making this like a chase or anything. Fortunately for the good guys, it seems to take a long time for Shenron to get summoned. Roshi tries to use the Mafuba, but Piccolo shoots a ki blast at him and destroys the magic pot? Yeah, let’s go with that.

So all this wild shit is going on and Goku’s just been putting on his costume the whole time. It looks like ass, but it’s a huge improvement over the street clothes he’s been wearing through 80% of this movie. He goes to confront Piccolo and threatens to defeat him and Oozaru, but Piccolo calmly explains that Goku is Oozaru. Or rather, he’ll become Oozaru when the eclipse happens.

This is really the closest Piccolo gets to any meaningful characterization. He doesn’t develop his personality, and we learn nothing about him or his connection to Oozaru or Goku, but at least he gets to talk to another character besides Mai.

So the eclipse happens and Goku transforms into... a slightly taller, hairier ape-man. Why the hell did Piccolo need this to happen? He explains that Goku was sent to Earth in a meteor to hid among humanity until his 18th birthday, when Piccolo would be ready to use him again. So how long has Piccolo been planning all of this? Again, we never learn how he got out of the seal from before, so we don’t know how long he’s been loose, or what arrangements he’s been making. But apparently he had a space baby sent to Earth in preparation for this day.

Also, what is the connection between Goku and the Oozaru from 2000 years ago? The movie seems to imply that they’re the same character, but how does that work? They keep saying Goku’s 18, so is he the second Oozaru? What happened to the first one?

I mean, you have this mysterious figure baked into the lore of this movie, directly connected with Goku, but separated by a vast gulf of time. It’s almost like...

No.

No, we’re not doing this.

So anyway... Roshi tries the Mafuba and gets his ass kicked, and then Oozaru goes to choke Roshi out, but Roshi somehow gets through to Goku, who then... wills himself back to normal? Piccolo can’t believe it, and Goku just repeats the line from the start of the movie, when Gohan told him “there are no rules”. So I guess there’s no point in asking how Goku’s clothes were restored to normal, then.

So they fight, and it looks like crap, and Goku says some nonsense about how he has to be Goku and Oozaru and believe in himself, and I guess that was what had been holding him back. All this time, he couldn’t properly focus his ki because he didn’t know his true nature, but now he understands what he is so he can do it? Anyway he shoots a Kamehameha, and it’s dumb as hell. The poses are all wrong, and then he leaps forward while he shoots it, like he wants to punch Piccolo as he shoots him.

I mean, how did they manage to fuck up the Kamehameha? They made it the climax of this movie, and it’s like no one involved in this production had ever seen the movie before. Either that, or they studied the anime intensively, only to brainstorm ways to “improve” it.

So Piccolo’s defeated, and Roshi’s dead. Bulma says she wishes that it didn’t end this way, and Goku’s like “Oh yeah, that Dragon who grants wishes.”

So they summon Shenron at the temple and holy shit this is bad. This was the best dragon they could come up with?

So Roshi’s alive again, and Bulma says they have to re-collect the Dragon Balls, but Goku has one more piece of business to take care of. He goes back to Toisan to meet Chi-Chi and apologize for beating her up before, and she says she let him hit her, so they decide they need to fight to see who’s really better at fighting, as this is the only way their relationship can move forward. And that’s kind of cute, I guess, but it reminds me too much of the ending of Rocky III. Also, “The Magic Begins” had a similar ending, but with Yamcha instead of Chi-Chi.

And then there’s a mid-credits scene where some lady is nursing someone back to health and the guy rolls over and it’s Piccolo. This was really stupid because they dragged out this reveal like it was some sort of shock. Meanwhile, everyone knew Piccolo would survive, since he would have been needed in a sequel. Also, they show him still in one-piece after Goku defeated him, so it’s not like this is a huge twist or anything.

But, of course, there would be no sequel, so this was the last we saw of DBE Piccolo.

This movie was a real garbage heap of a film, but there was one positive development that came from it. Akira Toriyama really didn’t like how this movie turned out, and this probably had a lot to do with him getting involved with the production of Battle of Gods around 2012. And that movie turned out to be a big success, in part because of Toriyama’s efforts, and this led to the Dragon Ball rennaissance we’re in today. Dragon Ball Super has been a mixed bag in my opinion, but the movies have been great, and even the worst of Super is still miles ahead of “Dragon Ball: Evolution.”

And... yeah, that’s all I got. So ends the Gaijin Live-Action Trilogy. I’ll leave you with the highlight of the series: Puar smoking a cigarette.

#dragon ball #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #dragon ball evolution #dragon ball: evolution #goku #bulma #grandpa gohan #master roshi #yamcha #piccolo #mai #chi chi #and texas battle as corey fuller

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junker-town · 7 years

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2017 Senior Bowl rosters: Which players bolstered their draft stock this week?

In Mobile this week, the good players were good.

A crucial week of Senior Bowl practices has concluded and, well, not much has changed for the players auditioning for the 2017 NFL Draft.

Going into today’s Senior Bowl game, which is at 2:30 p.m. ET on NFL Network, Alabama tight end O.J. Howard was widely considered to be the top player. That didn’t change after a series of three practices where Howard flashed with one-handed catches, good size and athleticism.

Howard could have easily sat out the all-star game and it wouldn’t negatively impact his draft status. Instead, he wanted to prove he was the top tight end prospect and that he could be utilized more than he was at Alabama.

“I know some people out there might say I’m the top tight end in the class, but nothing is certain and I want to prove my case that I’m the guy,” Howard said to Emily Kaplan Sports Illustrated.

If Howard didn’t put in the best week of practice then Temple defender Haason Reddick most certainly did. Reddick’s NFL position is still somewhat ambiguous, but it doesn’t matter. He played end and rush linebacker at Temple, but got shifted to inside linebacker in Mobile, Ala. Wherever he lined up, he starred thanks to his pure athleticism and first step quickness.

NFL Network’s Mike Mayock tabbed Reddick as the star of practices, saying “(Reddick) showed he can do a bunch of things and do them well.” It’s impossible to say that Reddick has for sure locked down a top 64 pick, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise if he goes that high in April.

Another player who looked to cement his draft status was Eastern Washington wide receiver Cooper Kupp. The question about him entering the week was whether or not he could hang in a week of practices against FBS competition. Most suspected he would be fine after he had 12 catches for 206 yards and three touchdowns against Washington State to start last season. Still, the questions lingered and he quickly put them to rest.

Even just watching the televised practices it was clear that Kupp is a smooth route runner who gets open with ease. His hands are good, as is his size. Teams will want to see how he tests next month at the NFL Scouting Combine, but he’s another player who should carry a second round grade, at worst.

Some of the other wide receivers in attendance – particularly East Carolina’s Zay Jones and Louisiana Tech’s Trent Taylor – performed exactly as expected. They should be solid Day 3 draft picks who pull in plenty of catches out of the slot. No receiver at practices helped himself more than Chad Williams of Grambling State. Like Kupp, he had to show he could keep up. He kept up catching passes just fine, and he grabbed headlines for getting into a fight on Wednesday.

If the momentum for Williams is starting to snow ball, it’s completely out of control in a good way for Connecticut safety Obi Melifonwu. Again, his play shouldn’t come as a surprise after a season in which he had 118 tackles and four interceptions. But what stood out for Melifonwu was his range and athleticism. An all-star game setting is often unkind to safeties because they’re not utilized much in full team drills. Still, Melifonwu was covering tight end and receivers with ease and closing on the ball in a hurry. With a good combine showing, the stock might just keep going up and up for him.

Toledo’s Kareem Hunt was the top running back going into practices and it showed every day. He’s advanced as a pass catcher, asserted himself in blocking drills and has a solid combination of power and speed running the ball.

Western Kentucky offensive lineman Forrest Lamp got off to a strong start at practice before suffering a high ankle sprain. With Lamp out of the picture, Indiana’s Dan Feeney looked liked the best blocker participating. His versatility helped him as he proved to be adept playing both guard and center. He’s this year’s version of Cody Whitehair, a second-round pick of the Chicago Bears who started all 16 games as a rookie.

Much like Feeney on the offensive line, Auburn’s Montravius Adams separated himself on the defensive line. That’s saying something on a South roster that also included UCLA’s Eddie Vanderdoes, Alabama’s Dalvin Tomlinson and Clemson’s Carlos Watkins. Adams’ first step quickness stood out compared to his teammates for the week, and could help him land in the top 50 of the draft. Vanderdoes had an uneven week. At times he looked dominant, but there were a few plays where he was on the ground. Tomlinson looked good as well, but teams will heavily scrutinize his health because he’s had ACL surgery in both knees.

Teams will look heavily at the medical report for Tennessee defensive back Cameron Sutton as well. He missed several games last season, but had a nice bounce back at practices playing corner and safety. Iowa’s Desmond King will probably move to safety in the NFL, he also had a good week.

None of the quarterbacks stood out at practices. Here’s a sentence scouting report on each:

C.J. Beathard, Iowa: Everyone’s favorite to be the next Kirk Cousins, aka out of college he projects as a backup with average natural tools.

Sefo Liufau, Colorado: Tough with good size, but placement on his passes was off frequently.

Nate Peterman, Pittsburgh: Has much of what a team will want in a quarterback but doesn’t have much of an arm, which isn’t a good thing for a quarterback.

Josh Dobbs, Tennessee: He sure is athletic, and some team will probably want to stash him on their practice squad.

Antonio Pipkin, Tiffin: The small school George Whitfield pupil could only help himself, which he probably did, but it’s an uphill battle for him.

Davis Webb, California: He looks the part and could have stole the show at practices but seemed to be in a holding pattern all week.

Below are the players in this year’s Senior Bowl:

Quarterback

North: C.J. Beathard (Iowa), Sefo Liufau (Colorado), Nate Peterman (Pittsburgh)

South: Josh Dobbs (Tennessee), Antonio Pipkin (Tiffin), Davis Webb (California)

Running back

North: Corey Clement (Wisconsin), Kareem Hunt (Toledo), De'Veon Smith (Michigan)

South: Matt Dayes (North Carolina State), Donnel Pumphrey (San Diego State), Jamaal Williams (Brigham Young)

Fullback

North: Sam Rogers (Virginia Tech)

South: Freddie Stevenson (Florida)

Wide receiver

North: Amara Darboh (Michigan), Amba Etta-Tawo (Syracuse), Zay Jones (East Carolina), Cooper Kupp (Eastern Washington), Jalen Robinette (Air Force), Jamari Staples (Louisville), Trent Taylor (Louisiana Tech)

South: Travin Dural (LSU), Josh Reynolds (Texas), Fred Ross (Mississippi State), Artavis Scott (Clemson), Ryan Switzer (North Carolina), Taywan Taylor (Western Kentucky), Chad Williams (Grambling State)

Tight end

North: Mike Roberts (Toledo), Jonnu Smith (Florida International), Jeremy Sprinkle (Arkansas)

South: Evan Engram (Ole Miss), Gerald Everett (South Alabama), O.J. Howard (Alabama), Blake Jarwin (Oklahoma), Eric Saubert (Drake)

Offensive tackle

North: Zach Banner (USC), Adam Bisnowaty (Pittsburgh), Julie’n Davenport (Bucknell), Taylor Moton (Western Michigan)

South: Antonio Garcia (Troy), Will Holden (Vanderbilt), Robert Leff (Auburn), Conor McDermott (UCLA), Justin Senior (Mississippi State), Eric Smith (Virginia)

Guard

North: Dion Dawkins (Temple), Dan Feeney (Indiana), Kyle Kalis (Michigan), Jordan Morgan (Kutztown)

South: Jessamen Dunker (Tennessee), Danny Isidora (Miami)

Center

North: Kyle Fuller (Baylor), Tyler Orlosky (West Virginia)

South: Ethan Pocic (LSU), Jon Toth (Kentucky)

Defensive end

North: Tarell Basham (Ohio), Isaac Rochell (Notre Dame), Dawuane Smoot (Illinois), Chris Wormley (Michigan)

South: Keionta Davis (UT-Chattanooga), Daeshon Hall (Texas A&M), Tanoh Kpassagnon (Villanova), Jordan Willis (Kansas State)

Defensive tackle

North: Ryan Glasgow (Michigan), Jaleel Johnson (Iowa), Larry Ogunjobi (Charlotte), Stevie Tu'ikolovatu (USC)

South: Montravius Adams (Auburn), Tanzel Smart (Tulane), Dalvin Tomlinson (Alabama), Carlos Watkins (Clemson), Eddie Vanderdoes (UCLA)

Inside linebacker

North: Ben Gedeon (Michigan), Connor Harris (Lindenwood), Jordan Herdman (Simon Fraser), Haason Reddick (Temple)

South: Alex Anzalone (Florida), Ben Boulware (Clemson), Harvey Langi (Brigham Young), Duke Riley (LSU)

Outside linebacker

North: Vince Biegel (Wisconsin), Carroll Phillips (Illinois), Derek Rivers (Youngstown State)

South: Ryan Anderson (Alabama), Tyus Bowser (Houston), Eligwe Marcus (Georgia)

Cornerback

North: Rasul Douglas (West Virginia), Desmond King (Iowa), Brendan Langley (Lamar), Jourdan Lewis (Michigan), Aarion Penton (Missouri)

South: Corn Elder (Miami), Thomas Justin (Georgia Tech), Damontae Kazee (San Diego State), Arthur Maulet (Memphis), Ezra Robinson (Tennessee State), Cameron Sutton (Tennessee), Dwayne Thomas (LSU), Marquez White (Florida State), Tre'Davious White (LSU)

Safety

North: Nate Gerry (Nebraska), Lorenzo Jerome (Saint Francis), John Johnson (Boston College), Obi Melifonwu, (Connecticut)

South: Justin Evans (Texas A&M), Rayshawn Jenkins (Miami), Jordan Sterns (Oklahoma State), Damarius Travis (Minnesota)

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