The story begins with Frieza being resurrected by his men with hopes that he would lead them once again. Frieza has something else on his mind and that's revenge against Goku for defeating him and Trunks for killing him. He learns that Goku has gotten much stronger, thus understands fighting him at the moment makes no sense. He then leaves to train on his own and come back stronger.
I have to say that this movie kept me greatly entertained for many reasons. One element that stood out to me immediately was the character designs and animation. There's a fresh, clean like feel to the character designs with everything feeling updated. Characters like Roshi and even Gohan in his silly jumpsuit look strong and confident. Plus I liked the change in outfits for Bulma, and the small details added to Goku's uniform. It all feels up to date and right for this movie.
The animation is by far a huge step up. The meshing of CG with 2D & 3D graphics was done a lot better this time than the last movie. Characters in the background had some nice life to them and nothing came off awkward. The action was simply amazing as it focused on the characters martial arts backgrounds, this area could have been a whole helluva lot better had more characters taken part in the fighting, but I was still satisfied to see some really quick strikes, strong blows, and various kung-fu styles thrown in with the punches. Even if some one comes away hating this movie for other things; they will have to admit that for a DBZ movie the action is tight. The animation was done really well for the energy blasting spectacles.
DBZ almost always rules with its ear blistering soundtracks. While this movie may not be on par with Cooler's Revenge or Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan. It definitely gets the job done not only bringing life to the action but also to character interactions.
One last thing that definitely brought a smile to me had to be the focus on Goku and Frieza's rivalry, along with the latter's overall hatred not only for Goku, but also his experience with the Super Saiyan itself. This is where the dialog comes off very strong, as Frieza is truly obsessed by this point, and it puts his blood feud with the Saiyans in perspective; I think this added to the drama a good deal, and the handling of drama is not something DBZ has always been strong on.
I enjoyed this movie a whole lot but I did have to watch it twice because the first viewing left me very uneasy. It just so happened that Akira Toriyama decided to completely ignore previously established story elements that he himself put into play. There are continuity issues in this movie big enough to fit planets through and it's just a shame because the story could have been so much better had everything been told properly. These things also hurt previous character development and lessens them as characters. I mean who would think that Frieza was such a slacker that he never trained? It's hard to buy into that considering how seriously Frieza took himself. I also straight up didn't like the ending, because I'm long tired of Vegeta getting screwed over.
Overall, this is definitely something fans should come into expecting it to be good. The updated animation, action scenes, and focus on the feud of classic characters makes this a DBZ movie that should be seen. I can imagine non DBZ fans getting something out of it as well.
Highs: Action, animation, and characters done well
Lows: Complete ignoring of previously established story elements hurts it
