The latest of the "Dragon Ball" films finally sees its national DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital release today, and as such, I'm finally able to watch it and review it. I've been looking forward to this movie for quite a while. As a fan of Dragon Ball Z, why wouldn't I be? It's the return of Frieza, one of the best villains of the series and one of the most recurring ones. You can never put a good villain down, I suppose.
The premise of the movie, much like any "Dragon Ball" film, is fairly simple: Frieza's been resurrected and he's headed to Earth to seek revenge on Goku and Future Trunks. Obviously, Future Trunks is no longer around since he returned to the future several years prior, so Frieza settles for Goku. And so the war for the Earth is to be waged.
The film is very well animated in most places. Like the previous film, "Battle of Gods," there are tons of vibrant colors at work that makes this incredibly visually appealing on the eye. I really like the new direction Toei is taking with these films, and it saddens me that we may not get many more films of such quality animation due to the "Super" series currently running (and still not watching). It's great to see so many of the old Frieza Force character designs, like Appule and such, return in the newer animation rather than the typical remaster of the series. It truly does look a step beyond anything we've seen from even the recent renditions of "Kai."
The biggest flaw with the animation is the CGI used in some places. In the beginning, it's pretty bad. When Goku and Frieza are fighting at full-power, their bodies look pretty bad, too. It looked like something out of Arpeggio of Blue Steel-ARS Nova, which was a series that came out two years ago and was meant to be full CGI. While I get what they are going for, a somewhat more realistic-looking battle between the two, it actually makes their characters seem like they're moving much slower. To bring up "Battle of Gods" again, though I don't want to draw too many comparisons outside of animation, the battle between Goku and Beerus was so cool looking and none of it, at least noticeably, was CGI, it was all 2-D and it was wonderful. It just took away from the big final battle. Though the CGI of the Frieza Force was also implemented well, I'll give it that, but it was in those major moments for the film where I felt it was lacking.
I wasn't looking for much in terms of plot for this film, and I didn't really get anything either. Usually that's to be expected of a "Dragon Ball" film, though. I'll give the film credit, though, for the incredible amounts of foreshadowing it had. Early on, there were tons of little hints plopped around that were somewhat obvious but were otherwise forgotten a little until the end. Much of it is used as character development for Goku and Vegeta, and by the end it mostly pays off. For Frieza, he gets some character development, but not a whole lot. Still, at least he isn't acting like a princess, like he was the last we saw him in the main series against Trunks.
There were tons of callbacks in the film, too, such as Mai referring to Trunks as her boyfriend and Frieza constantly saying there were TWO Super Saiyans he wanted to deal with (Future Trunks). It makes me wish that Future Trunks did show up. Heck I just wish that were the case in general. Make a movie about that!
The self-referential humor was good, too, playing up the humor in the movie. Vegeta constantly being told by Goku that he was his lesser was pretty funny as was Goku realizing he kind of is an idiot when he fights. There was good contrast shown once again between Goku and Vegeta through these moments, helping to add to their characters as well as their rivalry.
The new, shining character from the movie was Jaco, the Galactic Patrolman. At first he was a little grating on me, since he was kind of whiny and didn't want to do anything, but he provided sound comic relief throughout the movie and makes for a nice little buddy for Krillin. Given that Krillin is also a cop (just go with it), I hope they continue that budding friendship in the future. It'd be a giant waste if not. Speaking of comic relief, though, Whis and Beerus are incredible comic relief. Their insight to the fight as well as the off-hand remarks reminding everyone that they could blow up the Earth just by looking at it funny was great.
But, this is also where an incredible problem with the movie stems from. There's no weight to the situation. In "Battle of Gods," Goku was taking an incredible risk fighting Beerus in a brand new form, as the entire Earth was on the line if he didn't impress him. Here, it's a super-powered Frieza, yes, but against an even stronger Goku, with Vegeta backing him, and then you have Beerus and Whis (who we know is pretty much ten-times stronger than Beerus) on the sidelines. They mention that they wouldn't care if Earth is destroyed, but, still.
Frieza is hardly any threat. It's cool to see him, but, you know that he's not the biggest threat to the planet right now. I never felt any suspense watching the movie. Frieza has insane doubts going into the fight that the Frieza Force stands a chance even against Gohan alone, and that should be obvious as well. Had all of the Z-Warriors been there (Android 18, Goten, Trunks, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu weren't there, they were being kept safe...despite 18, Goten, and Trunks being far superior in fighting to almost all of the warriors there...) it would have been an insanely quick fight. Also, no Majin Buu. At all. I just realized that. Huh.
But the big thing that bugged me, as well as a lot of other fans, was the ending. As a fan, it killed me. I wouldn't have minded the cataclysm it ends on if it set up another movie, but, nope. Not how it ends. In terms of story, the pacing is way off. It wraps up insanely fast. It's like if a pitcher has a really slow wind-up, but then has a 105-mph fast ball. Bam. Done.
The pacing also bogs down the movie, as six months go by in a single cut. That's just ridiculous story-telling. Then we spend half the movie on a single fight? Tsk tsk.
For it's flaws, though, I can't say it's a particularly bad movie. It has really fun elements and, like I said, there are cleverly foreshadowed moments as well as some great referential and exterior humor to keep the movie afloat, as well as some neat action and pretty visuals. But the poor ending, poor pacing, and abused CGI are what keep this film back from being a leap ahead of the last "Dragon Ball" film, "Battle of Gods." Hopefully their next film outing, if there is one, can learn from these mistakes, as I would hate for this ending to be the last one we get for a while.
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