Part 2
Movie 3-Tree of
Might (The Decisive Battle for the Entire Earth)
They call it the Tree of Might. Once planet on a world, it grows rapidly and
drains the life force from every man, woman, ocean and plant it can find. And a group of Space Pirates just unleashed
it on Planet Earth in order to attain the tree’s fruit, which would make them
the most powerful warriors in the universe.
Standing in their way are Goku and the legendary Z-Fighters: Gohan,
Krillin, Tienshinhan, Yamcha, Chaotzu and Piccolo. As the battle for Earth begins, the leader
reveals himself…a Saiyan survivor who bears an uncanny resemblance to
Goku. It’s the greatest challenge for
the Z-Team yet. And this time even
Goku’s Spirit Bomb technique may not be enough to win.
I always felt odd about watching Tree of Might. On the one hand, I first saw it as a special
three part episode to make up for the fact that the rest of the Frieza Saga was
unavailable to broadcast on TV. So it
was different but I still wanted to see Goku fight Frieza. It also made no sense to jump to this point
without any context. Did this take place
before Namek? Why would the Z-Fighters
all be fighting together when if they hadn’t fought the Saiyans, Piccolo was
still their enemy? It was here I learned
of the self contained stories films based on Anime series usually tell. So, looking at Tree of Might on it’s own…it’s
not as good as the first two films. The
film wastes a lot of excitement bringing the original seven Z-Fighters together
only for most of them to be dispatched pretty easily. Even Piccolo doesn’t get much action in this
time around. Again, it falls to Goku to
kick all the ass that the others cant.
But the villains are duller than usual and even the image of Goku
fighting Mirror, Mirror Goku…ahem I mean Turles, doesn’t do much for me. It’s pretty dull. Which sucks because this is the only time we
will ever see the original Z-Fighters team up like this in any of the
movies. Wasted opportunity.
5/10
Movie 4-Lord Slug
(Super Saiyan Son Goku)
A spaceship crashes to Earth and begins to freeze the
planet. Onboard is the aging Namekian
warlord, Slug. And he’s well versed in
the power of the Dragon Balls, using them to restore his youth and power. As the planet freezes around them, Goku,
Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo find themselves facing an unstoppable foe whose
power knows no bounds. If Goku is to
win, he’ll need to tap into strength he never knew he had and perhaps…surpass
his own power to become something Super.
You know, one thing that I never understood about this
one? Why was it called Super Saiyan Goku
in the original Japanese title? I mean,
Goku never goes SSJ, maybe a one step higher Kaio Ken at best. So why advertise it like that? I mean had the Super Saiyans even been shown
on TV yet? I don’t get it, but a lot of
people don’t like this one because of that.
For me, it’s fair. Some of the
actions alright. Mostly I like it cause
Piccolo gets one really good fight in, reminiscent of the ass kicking he gave
that one guy in Dead Zone. Otherwise,
this really is just a recycling of the King Piccolo Saga from the original
Dragon Ball series, it’s just not King Piccolo looking for eternal youth. It would have been fun to see a Namekian at
the forefront of the villany this time.
But Lord Slug’s wayyyy to generic to be interesting or a threat. Definitley not a must see on the Dragon Ball
Movie List.
5/10
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