Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’

By: Robert Murphy

Dragon Ball Z has wasted no time with its comeback to the world as a second movie has made its way to theaters fresh off the heels of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. This latest movie brings back a time old favorite and the original evil mastermind to the first few season of the original show. That’s right, Frieza the galactic dictator has been brought back to life and he is all too eager to repair his damaged pride after being beaten by not just one but two Super Saiyans before finally being laid to rest in Earths hell. This charming little fact is something that has made his rage far more infinite considering the grueling torture he was put through and by grueling torture I mean being strung up like a piñata and sung to day and night by pixies and their magical stuffed animal friends.

Our story picks up a couple of odd years after the events of the last DBZ movie, no doubt the new series Dragon Ball Z Super is going to fill in that down time but for now let’s stick with what we know. Frieza’s former empire is having a tough go of it since he has been killed and the remaining forces could sure use his legendary strength once again and as it just so happens they have been looking high and low for the dragon balls so they can. Finally giving up, Frieza’s forces turn to Earth and wish him back to life with Earth’s dragon balls without the Z Warriors being any the wiser. Once he is revived he reveals a bit of a secret about himself and that is that he has never trained a single day in his life. Frieza was always the strongest being that the universe had ever known right from the get go and so no one ever was able to challenge his awesome power, until Goku that is. So with new resolve Frieza sets out to train and raise his power level to a height that Goku could never dream of reaching.

This made Frieza feel like an even better choice in villain than it ever had before, we already know how ruthless and terrifying he already was and now that he is actually trying and not underestimating his opponent, things will definitely get interesting. This is coupled with the fact that any fan of the series knows who Frieza is so there was no need to introduce him as a whole new character to get to know. I know that it felt insanely good to here Frieza call Goku and Vegeta monkeys all over again and return to his classic arrogant nature.

The humor in fact has never been stronger for a Dragon Ball Z film. Movies for the series have been quite serious in the past and involved Goku and everyone fighting some new terrifying enemy that has appeared and that was basically it. Battle of Gods though introduced a much more appealing dynamic to the films with its introduction of Beerus the terrible God of Destruction and Whis his faithful…butler…alien…person. I found myself laughing hysterically over the jokes spread throughout the film but at the same time there were some incredible action scenes between Goku and this new foe. Resurrection ‘F’ proved to keep this new style of DBZ movie going as it spent plenty of time poking fun at all of the characters. The banter between Vegeta and Goku during their training being the height of it all as it finally points out what fans have been saying for years about the twos abilities.

However, the one thing that didn’t seem to transfer over as well as it did with the previous film was the action. Don’t get me wrong, there are some phenomenal fights between all the Z Warriors as well as the main attraction of Goku versus Frieza. All the characters get their shot to show their moves as they take out Frieza’s grunts who are basically just pushovers for our seasoned fighters. Master Roshi can even beat these guys and that’s saying something.

Even our new character Jaco, a Galactic Patrolman, can take out these low level fights and he is just an alien with no ability to fly or shoot energy blasts. He is a welcomed edition to the group though as he further adds to the level of humor for Resurrection ‘F’. Despite his title, Jaco is a rather cowardly sort and has come to Earth only to warn Bulma and her father of Frieza’s return to Earth and only stays do to some nagging on Bulma’s part. The character is actually a member from a short manga series called Jaco the Galactic Patrolman and he is charged with the section of the galaxy that Earth resides in. The story is brief but during its span Jaco crashed on Earth and a young Bulma fixed his spaceship for him.

The overall problem to the fighting though was the fact that we know how far Goku and now even Vegeta have come since their last meeting with Frieza. Even though he has reached a superior level of power and a brand new form, Goku has gained the powers of a God pretty much. He isn’t as strong as Beerus but he is getting to be at that level and this makes for tension issues in the fighting. There is never any feeling that Frieza may actually win even when he transforms into his new form, love how it looks by the way, and Goku more or less toys with him. Goku has also reached an even further level since his fight with Beerus on top of all this, it also looks pretty awesome too, but where does that leave the momentum for the action?

This factor becomes even more apparent as Goku and Vegeta fight to take turns against Frieza and you realize that Vegeta is just standing on the side lines, fresh faced and ready to go when it’s his time to shine. I was insanely happy to see that Vegeta also was able to go toe to toe with Frieza and that there was every intention of including some amazing moments for his fight. My hopes were dashed however when you realize just how weak Frieza was at this point of the story and even his moment of glory he still doesn’t get to stand proud. To avoid any further spoilers I’ve left that previous statement intentionally vague but needless to say that there is a exceedingly weak cop out at the end of the story and Vegeta fans will be tearing their hair out.

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ proved to have a truly promising start when it began, it had plenty of the laughs, action and even a brand new character to love. Things however take a sour turn at the halfway marker when Goku and Vegeta arrive on the scene and the final battle begins. The final portions of the film had no tension to them and even the humor of our two most powerful Saiyans fighting over who gets to fight Frieza proved to further weaken the already failing sense of danger. While I did enjoy my experience with Frieza and other aspects of the film there is no denying that there were definite flaws with the return of one of my favorite DBZ villains.

Good:

- Plenty of laughs

- Frieza is still an amazing DBZ villain

- Action scenes still look great and everyone gets their moment

Bad:

- Film falls downhill at the halfway mark

- Total lack of tension between Goku and Frieza

- Dialogue comes to a halt at the end along with an insanely weak cop out

Scully Rating: 6.0 out of 10