Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug

Lord Slug has landed on Earth and is planning on terraforming it into a new space station. Gohan plans to stop this from happening. But before Gohan can stop him, Lord Slug calls upon the eternal dragon and wishes for eternal youth. Now faced with odds beyond his capability; it is up to Gohan to hold off Lord Slug, with the help of Piccolo, until Goku can show up. 

“Lord Slug” is the fourth installment into the Dragon Ball Z movie list. It is set a year after “The Tree of Might,” but it is unclear when it takes place during the anime timeline. Most people assume that it takes place sometime during the 3 years that they are training to fight the androids. This makes some sense with Gohan having short hair, and Piccolo being alive. The one thing that is fighting against this timeline placement is the fact that Goku turns into a false super saiyan, which is a shock to king ki; who not only thinks he turned into a full blown super saiyan, but stated that this is a new power of Goku. If it happened during the three years of training Goku would have no issue turning to a super saiyan. The movie itself is one of the better written Dragon Ball Z movies, but not one of the best either. The soundtrack is lackluster: no big names and mostly music that they used in the actual anime. The main fight scene between Lord Slug and Goku is good, but not great. The fights with Gohan and Piccolo fighting the henchmen of Lord Slug are great: lots of explosions, which make us all happy. My biggest gripe about this movie is how they are able to beat Lord Slug. Without ruining it for anyone that sees it, it is not in the usual DBZ way.

Good:

-Good Plot

-Good fight scenes

Bad:

-Finding out where in the timeline this takes place is hard

-The defeat of Lord Slug is upsetting

Scully Rating: 6 out of 10

 Watch "Lord Slug" at: http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/dragon-ball-z-movie-4-lord-slug-english-dubbed-online-free

Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly

A few days have passed after the world tournament, and number 18 is at Mr. Satan’s to collect her winnings for throwing the fight. While there, Hercule is challenged to a fight with a man named Jaguar. Goten and Trunks sneak into the castle gates and begin to fight alongside of 18. After defeating the first of Jaguars bio-warriors, Goten and Trunks find out that Jaguar has created a secret weapon: Broly. The boys try to destroy Broly before he can be released from his container; but before they can use their energy blast, Broly escapes. With only Goten, Trunks, and 18; will Broly finally get the revenge he is so eagerly looking for?

“Bio-Broly” is the eleventh installment to the Dragon Ball Z franchise, and is set soon after “Broly Second Coming” and soon after the world martial arts tournament. This film is also the first and only film that is part of a Dragon Ball Z trilogy; with “Broly the Legendary Super Saiyan” and “Broly Second Coming” being the films that lead into this film. Again, this is another DBZ film with absolutely no music to carry you into the fight scenes. Also, you will find that the people in the film annoy you; and not just a little, they really get on your nerves with Hercule being the one that bugs the hell out of you the most. The one nice thing is that there is absolutely no Goku in this film whatsoever; you only see him in a flashback scene. The plot is nothing to be thrilled about, and unless you are a true DBZ fan you won’t find yourself picking this film up to watch more than once. All in all, with no music, terrible plot, and annoying characters, this is a film you will not find yourself coming back to. 

Good:

-A new hero

Bad:

-Annoying characters

-Terrible plot

-No music

-Absolutely no replay value

Scully Rating: 1 out of 10

Watch "Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly" at: http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/dragon-ball-z-movie-11-bio-broly-english-dubbed-online-free

 

Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn

An explosion has occurred in King Yemma’s domain and now all the spirits from heaven and hell are walking among the living. Grand Kai sends Goku and Pikkon to the area to find out what is happening, what they find is a creature named Jamemba a seemingly innocent creature but whom is capable of devastating things. Goku must turn Super Saiyan 3 to defeat such a foe, or so he thought. Suddenly, Vegeta appears to take over the fight. Both Saiyans are overpowered by this new foe. Vegeta must swallow his pride and work with Goku or else everyone he cares about will be lost.

“Fusion Reborn” is the 12^th Dragon Ball Z film made, and the film takes place after the Majin Buu saga. This DBZ film is a lot like the others: there is no enticing music and no real original plot.  However, though the plot is not the most original it does have its creative points. Like Jamemba for instance a seemingly gentle enemy until it transforms into the sleek and slender Jamemba who’s near indestructible. Another interesting twist is the fusion of Vegeta and Goku, yes they fused in the show, but that was with the earrings that were given to them from the elder Kai. This fusion, not being permanent, gave Gogeta only 30 minutes to defeat this new enemy. Jamemba had a few interesting powers that we have never seen nor even thought possible, like being able to portal attacks and disassemble himself and move into a whole new area. The fight scenes were not as great as some of the other DBZ films, but they would please many DBZ fans. The fights were well balanced and not to one sided to where victory seemed to go to the evil character until the very end when out of the blue something amazing happens and the good guy wins. With that said, “Fusion Reborn” was a good, but not great Dragon Ball Z film. Sadly, again we're not given a soundtrack to draw us into the fights; and the plot was unoriginal for the most part, except for a few key details. All in all, “Fusion Reborn” being the 12^th film does well compared to the others and is a buy for any serious DBZ fan and for the casual fan of anime movies, a must see.

Good:

-New abilities by our bad guy

-Fusion between Vegeta and Goku

-Plot though unoriginal has a few nice key features

Bad:

-No soundtrack

Scully Rating: 6 out of 10

Watch "Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn" at: http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/dragon-ball-z-movie-12-fusion-reborn-english-dubbed-online-free

 

Dragon Ball Z: Bardock the Father of Goku

A low-class Saiyan and his team are destroying the planet, Kanassa. After the battle, Bardock, the leader of this squad and his men are sitting around enjoying their victory. All of the sudden, a Kanessan comes out of nowhere and wishes to give Bardock the “gift” to be able to see the future. Passed out, his men bring him back to Planet Vegeta, the Saiyan home world, to recuperate. During this time, Bardock has a newborn son who is preparing to get sent off to Earth; to destroy the inhabitants. Eager to get back with his squad, Bardock heads off without seeing his son, Goku. When he gets to the planet he realizes that his squad is all dead, at the hands of Lord Frieza’s men. Just then he gets hit with another vision: one of grave danger. Bardock rushes off to warn his fellow warriors of the impending danger.

“Bardock the Father of Goku” is one of my favorite Dragon Ball Z films. It has a great storyline, decent action, and has Rise Against as a artist on the soundtrack. Not only is it one of my favorite films, Akira Toriyama himself said that it is his favorite. The film takes place 12 years before the start of Dragon Ball and is meant to be a precursor to the events of the whole story from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball GT. There are some inconsistencies though with the film and the anime, like in one of Bardocks premonitions he sees his son face to face with Frieza in his first form, something that Goku never did. Those are minor things though, since the story is great. This film has high replay value not only because we are introduced to Bardock, but we get a glimpse of what it was like to be a Saiyan before the planet's destruction. Also, this film is completely different from most of the others because Goku has only a minor role in the film. He is only seen as a baby and in premonitions, he doesn’t even have a speaking role, which is a nice change in pace. All in all, “Bardock the Father of Goku” is a must see for any true DBZ fan and is a film that the person who has not followed the anime can hop right into and enjoy. 

Good:

-Amazing story

-Decent fight scenes

-Good Soundtrack

Bad:

-Inconsistent with the anime in parts

Scully Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Watch "Dragon Ball Z: Bardock the Father of Goku" at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8lDZdqlLOc

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

Watch "Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone" at: http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/dragon-ball-z-movie-1-dead-zone-english-dubbed-online-free