"Dragon Ball Z Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan" Review

Hot off the heels of yesterday's discussion, let's talk about a quaint little movie featuring our favorite Z-Warriors being kindly summoned to a brand new planet, made just for them, by a one-eyed man named Paragus. It's a very soft-hearted DBZ movie, one that you wouldn't really expect. So with all of that said, let's just sit back

Relax

And enjoy

A simple little family movie...

JUST KIDDING IT'S DRAGON BALL Z BROLY: THE LEGENDARY SUPER SAIYAN.

So...who wants to go a round with him? I'll be over there...

I love this movie. It's nothing but a humongous fight scene. Plot? Oh you mean that little ploy to get Broly to kill Vegeta? Who cares?! Let's have every Super Saiyan (and Super Namekian) in DBZ try and fight this one guy, and see how long it lasts for!

Half the movie, that's the answer.

And there are some other plot elements that I'll get into but really the only thing you get out of this movie is the total smackdown that is brought upon our Z-Warriors. And the ending. Controversial? Yeah, but, I've got a theory/ evidence to back up why it makes sense.

The movie is paced in a very strange way and most of that is due to the imminent destruction brought upon the planet by a comet heading right for it. The first half of the movie takes up a day's worth of time while the other half is merely the fight sequence against Broly.

I'm cautious about where to draw the line for spoilers. Technically, me saying and showing Broly in those pictures is a spoiler because they spend, again, half the movie looking for the "legendary Super Saiyan," but the title gives it away. The comet subplot is also introduced early-on but I won't say why it's in place. You should be able to put it together.

Basically all you need to know for this movie is that Paragus, a Saiyan who survived Frieza's attack (counting the movies, I do believe we are at nine Saiyans that survived--given that Bardock was thrust backwards in time) and has come to bring Vegeta to New Planet Vegeta so that he may rule the planet and rebuild the Saiyan race. You already know it's probably a set-up, since Trunks is all up in arms about it. And always trust Trunks, he knows what he's doing.

Goku, actually, isn't a part of the main story until everyone arrives on New Vegeta, since he's in an interview process with Chi-Chi. Goku's early bits are good comedic relief as he gets scorned by Chi-Chi and hangs out with King Kai, which is always a fun time. The movie has an odd way of interspersing humor throughout it, but it also shows off Goku's laid-back attitude. When Broly is destroying him, he still has that goofy smile on his face because, well, he never really feels fear. The only time he did was when Frieza came back to life and that was just no fun.

There are certainly some weirder elements to the movie, namely the animation and the knowledge Paragus has of the Saiyans. I'll get into the animation in just a bit.

When Paragus arrives on Earth, he addresses Trunks formally, as Prince Trunks. Technically, he is right, as Trunks is the son of the now-King of all Saiyans. But, how does he know who Trunks is? I mean outside of plot convenience of course. Trunks is from the future, the only way for him to know who Trunks is would be as a baby, and as a baby he is only two years old. Knowing where to find Vegeta probably wouldn't be that difficult given that he was on Namek and fighting alongside Earthlings for a while.

Curiously, too, Paragus knows who both Goku and Bardock were. I suppose, since Paragus was also a lower-class Saiyan, that he would know who Bardock was--given how Bardock led the attack against Frieza--but nobody knew who Goku was. He was the son of Bardock, he was so weak that a lot of people made fun of him. Sure there's the uncanny resemblance (Frieza notices it when they fight), but still. What if Bardock looked like Raditz, would he recognize Goku then?

Also the way that Paragus escapes Planet Vegeta is stupid and makes no sense when you think of how Cooler was watching it all along and would easily have noticed it but that movie is way less canon than the Broly movie. At least with the Broly movie you can sort of fit it in that window of nine days before the Cell games, but even then that's a stretch, because there are many complications there (like how Gohan could probably transform into a Super Saiyan 2, Trunks and Vegeta didn't become Ultimate Trunks or Super Vegeta, blah blah blah).

The movie is extremely inconsistent in the animation department, too. The first time we see Broly turn into a Super Saiyan, his hair looks purple, but the next time he does it, his hair is light blue. Even though there is a night and day difference, it still doesn't make sense. Light blue would stand out against the blackness of night, it wouldn't make it purple. And there are several moments when someone gets hit really hard, they transform out of their Super Saiyan state for a brief flash before we see them again and they are Super Saiyans. It happens a lot with Vegeta.

It just seems like laziness on the art department--though there are several scenes that look really cool still--to be so inconsistent with it. The Super Saiyan's hair and aura sometimes fluctuates between light blonde and golden. I do, however, like the fact that Broly's Legendary Super Saiyan look is distinguishable from the regular Super Saiyan look.

Here's where I can begin to deconstruct the climactic, um, punch.

LSSJ (Legendary Super Saiyan) is a completely different form that a regular SSJ (Super Saiyan). I mean, think about it. SSJ, SSJ2, SSJ3 are like a sequence. You climb the ladder to reach each one, with little mini rungs in between like USSJ (the form Trunks takes when first fighting Perfect Cell). But then you have someone, in the canon, like Super Saiyan God. Which, obviously, looks a lot different than a regular Super Saiyan.

Thus, LSSJ, sort of another divine status, will look different from the regular Super Saiyan look. I can't exactly explain why Broly's Super Saiyan transformation is blue hair, but that form is pretty much not at all important. It's LSSJ we're talking about here. And so the lime-color of it would just be the color of the hair and aura, much like how red was the color of Goku's hair and aura when he was a Super Saiyan God in "Battle of Gods."

Here's why, spoilers I guess (though if you haven't seen the movie yet you probably never will), Goku's final attack against Broly worked: To become a Super Saiyan God you need the energy of five other Saiyans, they don't even have to be pure-blooded. Goku was given energy in this movie from three Saiyans (Gohan, Trunks, Vegeta). By that logic, as he was fed energy progressively from them, he would have sort of climbed up and up toward becoming a Super Saiyan God, which as we know, is the most powerful form of Super Saiyan. If we do a bit of (fake) math, he was sort of half of a Super Saiyan God when he was given that power.

The gap in power between SSJ God and SSJ3 is enormous, as we saw when Goku tried to fight Bills/ Beerus in that form. If LSSJ is supposedly equivalent to that of a SSJ3, then 1/2 of a SSJ God should be enough to be at least on par against Broly.

The thing about Broly, though, was that his body was completely untested in battle and would not be able to withstand that kind of power, one similar to his. That's why, when Goku punches him right in the gut with his own force, Broly's body cannot withstand the attack and explodes.

And we never see Broly again.

Never. Again.

I know I made this seem a lot more complicated that it is...and yeah, that's pretty much it.

This movie has little substance to it. If you're looking for a movie with strong character development, a thick plot, and tension to fuel you through it, then why are you watching a DBZ movie? This movie is the typical Shounen movie: you've got an unstoppable bad guy and it takes our hero to beat some insurmountable odd to defeat him. In this case, you've got Broccoli...er, I mean Broly. If Broly were in the canon, I would say that he would be the strongest opponent the Z-Warriors have fought thus far, but that's just me. Cell is still my favorite, but Broly has a special place in my heart.

As a villain, like a character, he's pretty lame. His motivation is stupid outside of just being a plain old psycho, but as a threat and a monster, he's pretty darn swell. Broly punishes all of his opponents and shows no mercy. Oh, and he can blow up a planet with a single energy ball. So that's a thing.

Does this movie have it's pitfalls? Absolutely. The pacing is wonky, the animation is inconsistent, the ending is rushed to the point where you just start rolling with whatever they throw on screen. The fight ends on a pretty anticlimactic note, but on that note the fight itself is pretty spectacular and it's just great to see the Z Warriors taking on this unstoppable beast for forty-five minutes straight. If you're a DBZ fan, you've probably seen this movie already. "Battle of Gods" may be a better movie, but, I'll freely admit this:

This is my all-time favorite animated movie. Period. Broly, the legend, you're pretty cool.

But your sequels suck.


Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @seanovan13. Thanks for reading!

Since I won't be posting until after Christmas, I'll say once again: Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you have a safe holiday. Next week, we shall wrap up 2014 with one final post: my favorite anime of 2014! I'm actually going try and watch and then catch up on two anime that have premiered, but I think my opinion is solid so far.
Also, last note: I'm starting another blog (wordofsao.blogspot.com) in which I shall be doing episode-by-episode reviews of the anime Sword Art Online, so stay tuned for when that starts January 1st!