Thursday, March 24, 2016

Dragon Ball Z: ROCK THE DRAGON Marathon Part 7

(Welcome, one and all, to the Dragon Ball Z: ROCK THE DRAGON Movie Marathon, here at the Anime Corner. For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting reviews for all 15 Dragon Ball Z movies, from Dead Zone to Resurrection F.  A couple of notes to remember about these movies: For the most part, these are not series cannon (those that are, I will point out when I get to them).  They don’t fit into the series at all.  There isn’t even a need for backstory.  Everyone’s favorite fighting warriors club is thrown into a life or death situation with a villain of the flick.  That’s all the basics there.  You may see some familiar faces that may confuse where they fit into any timeline.  But just treat them all as what they are, stand alone, mini universe tales.  Everyone good?  Ok, let’s summon the Eternal Dragon and get these thoughts shared.)


Part 7

Movie 14-Battle of Gods (God and God)
After a slumber that’s lasted an eternity, Beerus, God of Destruction, has awoken.  Upon hearing that his long time nusciance, Frieza, has been slain by a Saiyan, Beerus seeks the one who finished him.  Traveling to Earth with his aid Weiss, Beerus encounters the Z Fighters and their families during Bulma’s birthday.  When the trouble begins, Beerus proves worthy of his name as none of the Z-Fighters, even Goku or Vegeta, are a match for him.  Goku’s going to have to take it to a whole new level, beyond Super Saiyan, if he wants to save the world this time.  To battle a God...Goku will have to become a God himself.

Battle of Gods was kind of a big deal for the Anime community.  It had been 18 years since the last Dragon Ball Z movie (Wrath of the Dragon).  Could Dragon Ball Z still measure up with a slew of imitators, imposters and successors all around it?  Well…for the most part no.  Battle of Gods was as far removed from the older Z-Films as you could get.  It seemed more focused on humor than action and at times, it was downright cringe worthy.  Seeing Vegeta have to dial up the clown factor to appease Lord Beerus was so sad, it was like they were trying to turn him into a more adult version of Goten and Trunks (though he was redeemed during his freak out when Beerus struck Bulma.  Huh, I guess he does care).  And why the hell is Emperor Pilaf here with his cronies?  They served their purpose a long time ago and don’t really matter in this age of Dragon Ball.  This slows the movie down to the point where, for a moment, I didn’t want to finish it, even with the prospect of a new level of Super Saiyan to be discovers (SUPER SAIYAN GOD!!!).  But once the action got going, things got a lot better.  Beerus and Weiss, for all of their laid back laziness, are both pretty fascinating and fun additions to the Dragon Ball universe.  The fact that Beerus is able to go toe to toe with Goku as Super Saiyan 3 and defeat him is nothing to scoff at.  He does feel like a credible threat that none of the Z-Fighters can defeat.  I would have liked this film better if they’d dumped most of the comedy and skipped right to the action.  I would have even been more ok with everyone getting defeated right away if we’d started things sooner.  Either way, Battle of Gods isn’t the triumphant return of Z I was looking for, even with familiar faces I grew up back once again.  I can only hope things get better from this point cause there’s good ground work for more.  Just…less humor, more fists flying, please?

Oh and yes I know Beerus is supposed to be modeled after an Egyptian Cat diety…but those ears make him look like a bunny to me and that will never change.

6/10

 

Movie 15-Resurrection F (Resurrection of F)
For the last few years, Goku and his friends have dealt with powerful enemies: The Androids, Cell, Majinn Buu, Lord Beerus.   Peace seems like it can last a lot longer now.  But others have been waiting for this cadre of enemies to be cleared out as well.  With the power void of evil temporarily empty, long time servants of the tyrant Frieza use the Dragon Balls and their own technology to resurrect the evil overlord.  Frieza is not about to let the same mistakes happen again.  Taking time to train, he returns to Earth stronger than ever before and he is dying to settle the score with the Saiyans.  Will personal training from Lord Beerus himself be enough for Goku and Vegeta to slay their oldest and deadliest enemy once again?

Now THIS is what Battle of Gods wanted to be.

You know how you never truly know how much you’ve missed something until it shows up again?  Well that’s how I felt when Frieza returned.  That arrogance, the smugness, the drop of a dime decision to kill any expendable soldier.  Since I came into Dragon Ball Z around the second season, Frieza was the first villain of Z for me.  He was a threat, he was fierce.  And even if he never truly comes off as such in this movie, it’s still great to see him again.  Now what do I mean by “never truly comes off as a threat”?  Well, even with his new level of strength, the way Frieza battles Goku is a lot like an afternoon spar for the Saiyan hero.  Heck, the two are trading jabs like friendly old rivals, though Frieza still fully intends to kill them all.  I cant explain it, but I was fine with this, even more than the full blown comedy routine that was the first half of Battle of Gods.  In a way though, this was the essence of the older Z films: a simple or familiar villain, conquer the world ambitions, long fight with the heroes.  Resurrection F doesn’t try to do anything really different, probably making the nostalgia factor a bit high for me.  What made this more fun is, even if the scene did go on a bit long, we got a Z-Team that could handle their own.  Goten and Trunks were (Thankfully) left out of this one so we could get a solid Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Tien and freaking Master Roshi reunion.  Even Vegeta finally gets his Frieza beatdown he’s been waiting for his whole life.  As for that weird Jaco character, I’m guessing he’s from Dragon Ball Super but his presence didn’t really matter to me, he was pretty forgettable.  I even liked Beerus and Weiss a lot better here than in Battle of Gods, and they were my favorite part of that one.  All in all, this is a good bookmark for the Z Film Franchise.  This definitely isn’t the last we’ll see of this universe or these characters.  Good (Dead Zone, Resurrection F), Bad (Lord Slug, Battle of Gods), or totally horrific (Brolly Second Coming, Bio Brolly), it’s always an exciting time when our first heroes of Anime return for a visit.

8/10

And that at last concludes this little Pre-Easter special on the Anime Corner.  What more is there to say than what I said above right there?  Dragon Ball Z is still a key pinnacle in the lives of many an Anime fan and always will be, especially for this writer here.  I hope that it stays that way and that a whole new generation will find the joy in a special Japanese intro song that goes something like, “CHA LA HEAD CHA LA!!!!”
Anime Corner’s back to its normal routine next week with new Bamboo Blade on Monday; a new T5W Wednesday and FIF on Friday.  Oh, maybe not fully normal.  I forgot, a special day is next week.  What occasion might this be?  Well…it’s a surprise of course but I think the choice of title I’ll be looking at will more than suit the special event.  See you around everyone. 

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