Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler

When New Namek falls under attack by a massive planet of metal called the Big Gete Star and an army of lethal robotic soldiers, the new Guardian of Earth, Dende, calls upon Goku and the rest of the Z-Fighters to save New Namek and his Namekien people. Not knowing what to expect the Z-Fighters find themselves landing in a heap of trouble, for the force behind the invasion of New Namek is none other than Cooler, Frieza's older brother, who Goku thought he killed. With Cooler more powerful than before, seemingly invincible, the power of a Super Saiyan may not be enough to save the galaxy this time. But Cooler and Goku are about to find out that they're both full of surprises. 

This film is the first and only film in the Dragon Ball Z franchise to be a direct sequel to a previous film, also the first DBZ movie to feature Vegeta.  The Return of Cooler doesn’t have what its predecessor had in terms of a soundtrack, it lacks luster near nonexistence in fight scenes. It’s hard to tell when this movie takes place in the “Dragon Ball Z” timeline, it happens sometime after the Trunks saga but before the Cell saga. The plot is decent but a little more detail in how Cooler survived getting blasted into the Earth’s sun would have been nice. It does however explain how he is alive because of the Gete Star. The action is there but not as deep or as brutal as other DBZ films. In all this film isn’t one of the best DBZ films out there and would have much rather not have been made. 

Good:
-Krillen even though he doesn’t mean to provides decent comic relief in this film
-A straight forward plot with some depth

Bad:
-Not a very good explanation of how Cooler survived
-Hard to tell where in the DBZ timeline this takes place
-No soundtrack to keep you on edge during fight scenes
-Lacking luster during fights

Scully Rating: 5 out of 10