DragonBall Z – Battle of Gods: Review All Build-Up, No Kamehameha Masahiro Hosoda | August 5, 2014 Nostalgia is a powerful drug to cloud the mind. That’s what happened to me when the latest movie in the DragonBall Z franchise was announced and I was surprisingly excited. I know the show is slow and plodding; characters take hours to reach their final transformation, battles are flashes of indescribable light and everyone except Goku is cannon fodder. But besides that, I remember the world fondly. Set after the events of the Buu-Saga but before DragonBall GT, our cast of zany characters find themselves in a typical DBZ scenario. Goku is training on King Kai’s planet being upbeat, Vegeta is training by himself being brooding and the rest of the gang is enjoying Bulma’s birthday. All of this changes when the world, and worse the party, are threatened by the arrival of Lord Beerus, the God of Destruction. He wants to fight a Super-Saiyan God. One problem, no one knows who or what that is. Power Level Over 9,000!!!! Fan service is present throughout this adventure: almost every named character, still alive, is on screen; the standard plot structure of an entire season is distilled into a single movie; the classic humor and style of the show comes through in every scene. There are humorous moments. Not as many as the constant barrage of failed jokes and deadpan delivery hope for, but I did laugh a few times. A couple of my chuckles were because of the ridiculously convenient and over-the-top plot…but it was still funny so I’ll call it a win. The best gag was a running joke where random civilians would see the team’s shenanigans in the distance and comment “not again.” This is the most gorgeous interpretation of the cast to date. Characters, energy blasts, backgrounds and transformations look great. The plot and humor might not have grown up since the last DBZ episode aired, but the animation style certainly upgraded. Home for Infinite Losers I expected a resurgence of the franchise to be action from beginning to end. I was hopeful that as animation improved, the blur affects of battle would be replaced with choreographed battles and large ki blasts. I was wrong. This film is 15% setup, 80% campy jokes and some action sprinkled in haphazardly. Most of the film is extremely slow, characters literally sit around waiting for something to happen and so do audiences. This series of events would feel right at home as filler between seasons of DBZ, but doesn’t work out as a full theatrical release. Minor complaint, but Christopher R. Sabat does the voice of four characters (Vegeta, Piccolo, Shenlong and Yamcha). He does an excellent job but you can tell that it’s the same guy behind the mic. Scouter Summary Battle of Gods is a 1990’s DBZ experience at its core. The movie does nothing new that wasn’t seen during the show’s initial run. I couldn’t’ recommend this to anyone who has never seen the show, too many inside jokes and references. As a fan of the series, when I was younger, but haven’t seen it in years, I didn’t enjoy this adventure. If you recently finished the franchise and are clamoring for more, than this is the experience for you. If you prefer your animes to have complex characters, large battle sequences or stories with purpose then you should fly past this film. If you are a pure of heart DBZ fan than this is a movie worth powering up for. Score: 5.0 /10 + Funny Moments + Interesting Ending – Slow Battle Sequences – Lots of Jokes, most meh – Tons of Exposition – Nothing New Level Up, Friends!
