If you were looking for character development you may want to look elsewhere, aside from a couple lines pointing out Goku's and Vegeta's flaws our characters largely don't change. Despite Frieza's new form he is really just the same as you remember him from the end of his fight with Goku. If you were like me I had a soft spot for Gohan when I was growing up and to see him become the most powerful fighter at the end of the Cell Saga, by the Buu Saga his character was probably the 3rd most powerful amongst the heroes. If you are wonderings where I am going with this I wanted to say I still think that Gohan may have been the most powerful fighter on Earth despite his lack of any training while Goku and Vegeta were away. It's hard to say exactly since the power levels of these characters has gotten so disproportionate as time has gone along. In the end I hope Gohan gets back into fighting in DBS, would make things more interesting assuming that DBS goes into unknown territory.
Now for the "transformations," largely they are cosmetic and serve only to tell us that certain characters are more powerful than others. Also when Frieza invades Earth the Z fighters didn't even bother we just got a couple lines explaining that Frieza is more powerful than before and there it is. His final form is something akin to when Goku went Super Saiyan for the first time but if you are expecting some new attack or anything like that you will be disappointed. Also the form of Super Saiyan God that we saw in Battle of Gods may have been an incomplete form so we do see a slight variation but as I said it's merely cosmetic. This is where the padding in DBZ comes in. While we make fun of the fact that it took characters forever to change into a new form there was some gravitas to that. Because now the transformations happen so quick you feel underwhelmed by the experience unlike when we first saw Frieza take a new form or when Goku went Super Saiyan.
Kind of in line with what I was just saying because of the lack of time we don't feel that our heroes are in any kind of danger. A good example is how frequently Bulma goaded Frieza and yet he did nothing. I think in DBZ chances are Bulma would be dead, even with the 5 episodes of filler. Perhaps it was that I couldn't imagine Frieza magically getting so strong that he would be more powerful than Majin Buu. In any case there are just one too many deus ex moments that undercut any possible danger we may feel for the characters.
The fights were well done as one would expect for anything Dragonball related, however...there was an increased use of 3D animation which for the most part did not blend well with the traditional animation. There are a few cases where you couldn't tell the difference, but the filmmakers made a point to make it obvious to us when they were using it. I hope for future features or Dragonball Super that they either stop trying with the 3D or develop and blend the technology for better use.
I may sound fairly critical of this movie but it's way easier to point out faults initially than the pluses. Look at the score(s) that I gave this movie, I do feel this is a step up from Battle of Gods and this definitely had my attention more there was a point where I could tell I was truly drawn in versus being aware that I was watching a movie. If you are a fan of the series or just want a trip down nostalgia lane this a good way to spend your time for an evening.
