Dragon Ball Z Movie 08: Moetsukiro!! Nessen, Ressen, Chougekisen

I rented this movie for 99 cents last night and both my sister and I were very disappointed with this movie.
We are both big fans of the Dragon Ball Z series and were hoping for a story that would capture what we loved about the series in it's story and delivery but it did not. The biggest problem was the severely rushed atmosphere of this movie. I do understand that the movie was only an hour long, but if they are going to choose a plot that would say, normally take hours and hours to complete if it were an arc in the series, trying ... to fit the story into a one hour movie did not work for me. My favorite thing about Dragon Ball Z was the slow story-telling, it never tried to jam too much information at once and was always an easy watch, which was one of the things that made the series for me, but the movie was the complete opposite. Still, there were moments that still captured that care-free pace, such as when goku would take time out to just eat himself half to death for a few minutes, or when he was taking time out to be whipped by Chi-chi. Yes, not the most entertaining scenes, but I the shoving of the story down my throat would cease for a few moments during these scenes.
The second biggest problem was the characters personalities, especially Vegeta. Other than a few fleeting moments, it felt like Vegeta's in your face personality was almost gone completely. There were points were it seemed like everyone was just dragging him around (Literally at one point!) and he had nothing to say about it. I felt like I was watching a Vegeta on anger management drugs, and that's not the character that I came to love! Then there was the little trio that came along- Trunks, Gohan, and Krillan (and Roshi and Oolong but who cares). Their role was very boring. In fact, I can hardly remember it because it was just... dull. Yes, their little adventure did help uncover the "mystery" of Planet Vegeta and the Legendary Super Saiyan, but it was still unentertaining and the aliens slaves they helped were a COMPLETE eye soar. Yellow and pink put together on a creature that is already hideous was almost eye-searing for me. Goku was at times rather funny as he was in DBZ but it came off too strong several times, I was starting to think Goku got too hungry and happened to eat some happy grass while out in the woods helping some dinosaurs. Roshi and Oolong were as annoying as always and and Chi-chi was as menopausal as ever, king kai was still being the professional peeping tom that he is, and unfortunately due to poor CD quality I missed a portion of Piccolo's scenes so I can't speak for him, but all that being said I GUESS the characters balanced out to a decent portrayal of the whole gang. Still, Vegeta being one of my old favorites, I was disappointed about how boring he was even though he was playing a seemingly important role.
Okay, it's time to address, to put it quite simply, everything else. Yep, all that other stuff. First, the idea of the story wasn't half bad, and the twists always brought my attention back to the movie right when my interest would begin to stray. It's just too bad they had so little time to tell it, I think even a half hour more would've benefited this movie greatly. The art I was very pleased with. I guess you could say the style was a bit more like the earlier arcs of the Dragon Ball Z series rather than the last one, or two, I don't remember, but I was also happy about that because I liked the style in the beginning of the DBZ more. The music was okay, but my sister did not like it because she preferred the music in the series and was hoping for something similar. She has pointed out in the past how the music in DBZ was like animation for your ears- for every punch, kick, and throw, the instruments would play something to emphasize it. In this movie, I didn't pay much attention to whether the music still did that frequently or not, but it did seem that it was just plain soundtracks playing instead when I was listening, and one of the first things she mentioned was that she was not pleased with the music. The new characters weren't too bad. Paragus was pretty obvious from the very beginning, although I wont say how. I'm not a big fan of lying manipulators, but he played his crappy part well. Broly was a silent type, And interesting because he was more mysterious and he had an oddly different look to him, his face immediately made me think of the blank, peaceful expression of Android 16, but that's because he was hoped up on personality tranquilizers, and I'm not gonna lie, he really needed them! The ending seemed rather abrupt to me. This may have been due to the slight skipping right before the end, but it just didn't have much flare to me, and gave no sense of accomplishment or satisfaction.
ALRIGHT! Last but certainly not least is the fight scene, one of the most important points of the movie. This may be considered a spoiler, sort of. The big fight scene was.. well, kind of pathetic. My CD was skipping through parts of it, but the parts went like this: Vegeta crying and moaning on the ground while spreading flowers about himself to prepare his deathbed, while the mysterious Legendary Super Saiyan ran around with a fly swatter and flattening everyone with his beefy arm that was bigger than Goku and laughing or screaming maniacally, never really saying much of significance. Then everyone took timies out to hold hands and give their life blood to the cult leader, but Vegeta forgot to take the previously mentioned anger management drugs that morning, and at this point his withdrawals and feelings of hopelessness ceased, so he was back to being butt hurt over goku being stronger than him, and refused to share his glowing green life jellies with him. Then my CD proceeded to skip through Vegeta's intervention were he was verbally spanked by everyone, and he made the final decision- did he share his life jam, or did he continue to cradle his knees and stick his tongue out defiantly at Goku? You'll have to watch to find that out, and then you can decide what you think of how the fight ends after that.


All of those elements combined, I have gave this movie and average overall rating of 5 (Mediocre), the individual ratings being:
Art: 8 (very good)
Story: 6 (fair)
Sound: 4 (decent)
Character: 4 (decent)
Enjoyment: 4 (decent) (Although at many times it was more of a 3 (poor) I decided to be nice since Goku did make me laugh.)
And that gives you an average overall rating of 5.2! (r5).

This is the first DBZ movie I have seen.
I would probably never watch this movie again unless I was trying to show someone else the points of it that were not good.
and I would not recommend it to someone unless I know they are not picky and don't mind rushed work.

The whole Legendary Super Saiyan thing is only something that will cause the DBZ diehard to go crazy about, simply because they more than likely bought into the whole Saiyan deal. Admittedly, I was very interested when coming into this because it's a really nice concept; the true Super Saiyan of legend who finally appeared to lay waste to everything in his path. I thought it was a very good move to introduce this killing machine as the real deal, in oppose to the good natured Goku whom was supposedly the legend. Despite the premise of this feature movie, in the end, it's nothing more ... than the usual Dragonball Z; bad guy shows up, everybody gets beat up, etc. The movie could have been a little more than a mere beat'em up.

The plot follows Goku and Vegeta as they separately try to discover the whereabouts of this monster. Paragus assists Vegeta but it becomes quite clear he has other intentions. While this is going on, Gohan, Trunks, and company, begin to unravel the mystery of the ruined planet Paragus claims to be rebuilding as the new Planet Vegeta to begin the Saiyan empire anew.

The production values are on the level of Cooler's Revenge. There are some nice character designs with Broly being the absolute best. I mean this guy is a muscle bound juggernaut, and he looks like he can kick some serious ass left and right, in which he does. Seriously, this guy probably has muscles in his shit. The animation is a bit more vivid than the TV series, and even though there are traces of the reused cels simulating action going on, there are some good physical moments and entertaining action scenes. The soundtrack also uses several groove metal songs from notable bands, such as Pantera and Haji's Kitchen.

The story was actually interesting since Broly didn't immediately fall into the typical villain role, which is someone who was plain out to rule the universe or something. There was obviously a reason why he snapped. Too bad Broly eventually becomes just another villain and joins the ranks of various villains of the DBZ universe as missed potential, and the character only becomes far worse in later sequels. The plot is pretty slow, plus it has a very weak script. There's this ultra cheap effort to keep the identity of the Legendary Super Saiyan secret from the viewer, when the title of the movie completely gives it away.

Things pick up when the action finally kicks in. Plus there's various attempts to squeeze in the usual comedy in various spots. Unfortunately, the ending was very weak though; I just didn't like the cheap feel of it at all.

In the end, Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan is an average DBZ movie at best. It will only be truly valuable to fans of the series. If you're already sold on DBZ, then this is just another title for you.

Highs: Production values

Lows: Weak finish, same ol' same ol'

This is actually my fave dragon ball movie in the entire franchise nearly 100% based on the character of Broly. In the entire series we think Goku is the legendary super Saiyan who Vegeta kept rambling about during the Frieza saga but then we meet Broly who totally demolishes everything and anything in his way.

The concept of a character so powerful so early in the series was pretty great to me. Before all the super saiyan 3 and Vegeto fusions and stuff this was like the best enemy ever. Broly is just some quiet character till he becomes enraged and then he is this hulking ... energy overflowing planet destroyer that the entire cast of DBZ has to fuse power with just to defeat.

I think the fights in this movie are the best in this franchise and by far the most entertaining part of watching in any movie that came before or after except in maybe Brolys second coming which was another great movie. Tho the first is always the best in my opinion cause the concept was just fresh and new to me when it came out.

That what we assumed about the main character was horribly wrong and that the super saiyan was not some hero, he was actually the greatest enemy they could imagine(at the time)

I have to give this only a fair rating since it is not filled with a colorful plot,amazing art or even great music but the action and concept was just great to me. I suggest this movie be your first in the DBZ library.

Story: 3/10. The story had a lot of potential, but failed in the execution. After whining for the majority of the movie, Vegeta decides to give his power to Goku after a lot of pouting; Gohan and Trunks are basically useless in this movie (despite Gohan being around the same level of power as Goku). And to drive the nail in the coffin, there's a friendship power-up to save the day against all odds, probably the worst, most unoriginal thing a shounen can do.

There are some good points about the movie: it has an interesting premise, the atmosphere feels ominous and foreboding, and we ... get Broly, an iconic figure in DBZ. But the movie overall presents itself in an awkward way, from its bad pacing to our characters having flat personalities.

Art: 9/10. Great art and animation; the Broly fight is brutally intense.

Sound: 7/10. I watched this in the dub with the English OST, and I really liked the heavy-metal tracks played during tense moments. Although, at times the soundtrack didn't complement what was going on in the movie at all

Character: 3/10. Everyone in this film comes off as one-dimensional and bland compared to their actual Z counterparts. Vegeta in DBZ is a prideful prince who holds himself above all else; when faced with someone of superior strength, like Frieza or Android 18, he'll keep fighting until the end to prove his dominance. Yet here, Vegeta takes one look at Broly and just falls on his knees and says "We're all doomed!" I get that Broly is the pinnacle of your race Vegeta, but Frieza literally wiped out your entire race and you still had the courage to fight him until you were down on the ground. Why are you choosing now to be a coward?

Also, as I mentioned before, most of the Z fighters in this movie like Gohan and Trunks only have a few lines of dialogue and are just meaningless. Goku himself doesn't really have a personality in the film; even his eager-to-fight character trait is missing here. He just gets beaten up alot and then gets a power-boost in the end.

Broly might have the least (or most) personality of all, depending on how you look at it. When he's not the legendary Super Saiyan, he's just reserved and does nothing at all; as the legendary Super Saiyan, he adopts a more psychotic personality and enjoys hurting others. For a psychopathic, unfeeling villain, he does alright.

Among all this, there's no character development or any meaningful sense of conflict at all. The only reason Broly goes crazy on our heroes is because, and I'm serious, Goku cried in the bed next to him when they were both babies. I don't get why they used this when there was an actual good backstory in parallel with this. Basically, when Broly was born King Vegeta feared he would overthrow him, and so he ordered Broly and Broly's father Paragus to death. Broly was able to save himself and Paragus from death. This would culminate Paragus's hatred for Vegeta, and I guess it also made Broly somewhat unstable/psychotic.

If the movie focused on this, it would be a more reasonable motive. It would make Broly a more humanized character with an actual intention and would develop an interesting conflict between Broly and the Z fighters. All in all, the characterization of our heroes and villains and how they (didn't) develop was the weakest aspect of the film.

Enjoyment: 6/10. The action scenes were great, and the introduction of Broly's LSSJ form was a high point in this movie, but all in all the awkward pacing and lack of character personality made this somewhat of a chore to get through.

Overall: 5/10. Alot of what makes DBZ great is absent in this film. The characters we love are watered-down, with most being irrelevant except for Goku, and the conflict in this film is one of the most contrived and superficial I've seen.

"KAKAROTTO!"

DBZ Movie: Legendary Super Saiyan Broly was the 1st movie on my list of "not looking forward to watching". I was expecting to hear an idiot screaming that name every 10 seconds, but I was surprised. This movie isn't bad, and if the plot device was more intelligent and some pointless characters had fewer scenes, then I would rate this movie easily 8/10, but sadly not.

Anyway, let's get into the positives and negatives. LSS Broly is a non-canon movie, meaning it is anime original, and Broly doesn't appear in DBZ manga. However, he appears in Super manga, but he's "redone" into a more interesting character.

My ... positives from LSSB:
1, Art and sound in DBZ coat, easy positive.
2, The main fight is pretty entertaining most of the time.
3, I am going to give a plus for the TRY to make Vegeta a spotlight for this movie, but it didn't last :(
4, That small interview with Chi-chi and Goku was pretty nice and refreshing to see them do some "normal" human stuff.

My negatives from LSSB:
1, Goku's crying is the plot device. Wth? That is the worst, the most boring excuse for the villain to have a reason to hate Goku. It only made me laugh at this pathetic reason. How does that even work? Are Saiyan children able to memorize events from an age of below 1 year?
2, Drunken master Roshi and some Z warriors on an alien planet. Why? Why was this even the part of the movie? It's just pointless wasting of time and potential to grow Broly, Paragus or Vegeta's spotlight. I can somehow understand the picnic at the beginning of the movie, but I just can't stand they went into the ship to travel on "New Vegeta". Only to be there and do nothing and add weirdness to the movie.
3, Paragus. What was Paragus trying to do? Kill Vegeta or what? Paragus sent Vegeta with Broly to a different planet alone and had a small villain laugh. I was expecting to see a fight between those two or see Broly returning without Vegeta. Nope, nothing happened. This could add some tension and importance to Paragus. His only role was keeping Broly under control, which didn't work out anyways, cut him out of the movie and you won't miss anything. Yes, the sun was a time bomb, but c'mon you have an insanely strong Broly, but you try to kill Vegeta with the freaking sun? ALSO, that wouldn't work out anyway, because Goku has his Instant Transmission, so the sun added literally 0 tension. The only difference would be some dead slaves bodies, MCs would have lived.
4, Goku saves the day. C'mon, just let someone else be the hero, let it be Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan. This is just like every single other movie before Broly, with Dead Zone being an exception.
5, Trunks was in this movie only because it's in the Cell Games saga. His impact on the story was 0%.

Summary:
It's not a bad movie. It is an interesting movie, that could have been done way better if Goku's crying wasn't the plot device and if we could cut Drunken ones from an alien planet and have someone else be the ending hero. Also, it would be a plus if Broly tried to kill Vegeta on their subjugation quest.

Final Rating: 6/10, I've enjoyed this movie. I was pleasantly surprised, and I think I can recommend you to try this movie.

One of the better DBZ movies and one of the most memorable characters. There are some minor problems with the story, but overall I think it works fine, though the plan does seem a bit strange. The story actually gets a lot darker than any of the other movies. They shove in some unneeded comedy bits, which kind of take away from some more serious moments, but maybe they felt it was needed to balance the tone. You have a sympathetic backstory, yet the characters went on to do such terrible things they themselves aren't really redeemable.

There's a good amount of action, and you see ... an enemy that's just completely overpowered. He's almost like a slasher villain. Thankfully not too much time is spent on extra characters, and what is shown is actually relevant to the plot and enjoyable enough. I like the little bird babies.

This is completely separate from the dragon ball super Broly character and universe or timeline. It is connected to the second and third Broly movies DBZ Movie 10: Broly Second Coming and DBZ Movie 11: Bio-Broly but they're terrible. I would only recommend watching this and the DBS movie.

You're a big guy, Broly. For me.

The first DBZ movie since Dead Zone to be legitimately pretty good; there's an actual emotional core buried in here somewhere, and the story mixes it up as a kind of mystery plot intesecting with the fights, not dishing out on the brawling until the final thirty-ish minutes. The production design for New Planet Vegeta is really cool, and the twisty narrative is classic Akira Toriyama-style silliness (though it's clear he himself wasn't that involved).

It could have ascended to greatness except for a few factors holding it back-- first off, the main villain plot is a bit weird ... and could have used some touching up in the writer's room before the final draft; there's also an extended flashback in the middle that spoils everything pretty early on, and it isn't very well-placed because the characters are nowhere near finding out and there isn't enough audience tension created from it. Second, this movie is 70 minutes long, the longest DBZ movie yet, and you can really feel that length as the final battle goes on a bit too long. There isn't QUITE a "Goku gets a genki dama and blows up the bad guy" ending, but it's still too drawn out for its own good.

Still, despite that, this is the best movie in the series so far, with a fairly compelling plot and villains memorable beyond five minutes after the movie ends. For people who aren't big fans of Dragon Ball this might fall flat, but for anyone else, it'll work well.

And for my running continuity check, this one is luckily already voided by the apparently canon Super Broly movie that came out this year, so I don't have to lament that much on how this, like most of its predecessors, doesn't fit anywhere in the timeline. It's the same reason as why Super Android 13 probably doesn't work-- Gohan trying to get into cram school again, and Trunks being there-- but even more egregious this time because Trunks has long hair, implying this takes place in the seven-day gap where Cell has started the Cell Games and the entire world is in a massive panic as the world nears its end. I... really don't think that is what they were shooting for when they made this movie.

It's a good DBZ movie that explores the myth of the Legendary Super Saiyan. It delves into both the scenery and the characters, including the powerful force of the villain.

The fight scenes are very good, with each character, even Piccolo, battling against Broly. The destruction of the scenery during the fight blended well and had various changes in terrain.

It's a shame that in some scenes we see Goku being comedic, as this is a high-risk situation and there's no room for funny expressions, only seriousness.

Vegeta and his interactions fit well with the context, as he's obviously more influenced by the tradition and myths of the ... Saiyan race. This generates an atypical fear of the Saiyan and creates a humiliating scene.

Certainly, the most important focus of the movie is the character of Broly, who has a very cool design and, when he transforms, becomes an unstoppable monster that increases his power infinitely. Broly has a sadistic characteristic that fits well with his transformation, and this is demonstrated in the fights and in the destruction of the enslaved alien planet.

The way the fight ends is very simple and bad, something that is repeated in many DBZ movies. It's not easy to swallow, considering Broly is a very powerful character.

Anyway, the animation has the same quality as Z, and the soundtrack is also the same as Z.

Overall, this movie manages to create a good fight, realistic interactions for the characters, but with a poor conclusion