Thursday, October 11, 2012

Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone

Goku the world’s strongest man and best martial artist has married Chi-Chi and together they have a son named Gohan, all seems quiet at their nice mountain home  until Gohan is kidnapped for the Dragon Ball he wears on his hat. Garlic Jr. is behind the kidnapping and wants to summon the eternal dragon, and wish for immortality, worried about his son Goku heads off to find him. The battle between good and evil commences and only the strongest will survive. With help from Krillin, Goku’s best friend, Kami the Earth’s Guardian and even Goku’s nemesis, Piccolo, they all set out to defeat the danger the Earth now faces. 


“Dead Zone” is the first film in the Dragon Ball Z franchise and the film is set sometime between the end of “Dragon Ball” and the start of “Dragon Ball Z.”  “Dead Zone” is only Forty-one minutes long and is the shortest film made for the DBZ universe. The writers tried to jam far too much action in such a short time frame and the movie suffered for it. The fight scenes between characters were short and very underwhelming, with each different fight only lasting mere seconds. Once we get to the final fight it starts to pick up, but still wasn’t up to par with what we see in the anime. Going back to before Goku was flying and using powers that we all wish we had is nice. One thing that I really disliked was that they didn’t mention that Kami and Piccolo are one, and the fact that if one dies so will the other. This is important because if ether one dies the Dragon Balls would disappear. All in all, “Dead Zone” being the first movie had some issues but is a worthy installment in the Dragon Ball Z universe.
 
Good:
-Easy to tell where in the DBZ story this takes place

Bad:
-Fights are short and underwhelming
-Plot is unoriginal and has holes in it
-Movie could have been longer
-Didn’t explain the whole Kami Piccolo being one so new viewers will be lost

Scully Rating: 4 out of 10