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
