With Dragonball Z: Battle of Gods breathing new life into a franchise that was seemingly fine living a quaint life of retirement, content with video games, crossovers, and the occasional anniversary TV special, it probably came as no surprise that another theatrical feature soon followed that one.
What does come as a surprise is the difference in quality between Battle of Gods and the newest film, Resurrection F.
Read on, citizens, for SWOOORDPLAY’s review of Dragonball Z: Resurrection F.
Resurrection F‘s plot is straightforward enough. One of the earliest villains of the franchise, Frieza, has been revived from some of his empire’s remaining underlings, and he’s returned to Earth to take his revenge on those who killed him. While this isn’t particularly the most original plotline in the world, especially as a followup to the riveting Battle of Gods storyline, as Frieza is a fan favorite that raised the stakes multiple times, whom many believe should have been the final villain of the series, the potential for a fantastic film was there, at the very least.
The movie’s structure can be divided into three parts, more or less. We have the buildup in which Frieza is revived and we’re introduced to the players of the movie, followed by Frieza’s invasion of the planet, wherein we’re treated to some enjoyable action sequences that make interesting use of the scenery. Lastly, as per tradition, Goku and Vegeta finally arrive on the scene, and the final portion of the movie serves as Goku’s showdown with his old nemesis.
While this summary might seem as though it leans towards them, I hesitate to use traditional labels here, because this would mean I’d have to use terms such as “rising action” and, most troubling, “climax” in regards to this film, and in my humble opinion, Resurrection F is a film that kept drawing us towards a climax that never actually came to fruition.
Perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves here, so let’s backtrack.
After being greeted to a delightful sequence where we find Frieza in what we later learn to be the Earth’s Hell, the film continues with a very solid start.
The remnants of Frieza’s army have come to Earth to seek out the mystical Dragonballs, which they intend to use to revive their lord. Thanks to the aid of some unlikely “allies,” these otherworldly henchmen manage to succeed and get out of there before anyone can rush to the scene where the wish-granting orbs were used.
Upon reviving their lord, still in pieces after his death, they stuff him into a refrigeration container to transfer him to their ship, at which point, after briefly seeing the reactions of the heroes who have been tracking the sudden appearances and disappearances of the energy sources that we know to be Frieza’s henchmen, we skip ahead to see the villain reviving in full, making his plans known and declaring them for all his sorry henchmen to hear.
All in all, the movie was looking fairly good at this point. It does feel as though these scenes left something behind, particularly the early ones on Earth. It’s comes off as though there might be an extended version of those scenes in the DVD/Blu-Ray release, but all the same, the beginning was still quite good. It doesn’t come off too rushed, it just feels as tough it’s part of something more, or that this part of the movie could have been longer.
Not the worst criticism to toss at something by any means.
It’s as Frieza begins his return to Earth to exact his revenge that the movie starts to take form and show itself for what it is.
It goes without saying that Resurrection F, as a sequel to Battle of Gods, would borrow elements from it as Battle of Gods did with the series as a whole, the way the two do so is in itself something that was handled rather differently. Unlike Battle of Gods‘ connection to Dragonball, knowledge of the prior movie’s events is vital to “getting” this one. While Battle of Gods either took the time to explain relevant points that related to the series’ history or used contextual clues to help viewers along, Resurrection F isn’t nearly as forgiving in this regard.
This is made immediately apparent when the perspective changes from Frieza’s crew to that of the Earthlings. While the concept of a timeskip isn’t new to Dragonball, past instances of them have never happened with the time constraints of a film to deal with, or at least have never crammed in so many sudden changes all at once for the viewer to have to process and deal with.
It isn’t a completely hopeless situation for those who skipped Battle of Gods, at least, as many of the things that have been added or changed between the two films may potentially be hard to follow even for fans who had seen Battle of Gods as recently as just before going into the theater for Resurrection F.
Perhaps the most confusing of these issues is the introduction of a Galactic Patrolman who goes by the name Jaco and claims to be friends with Bulma’s sister, Tights. Now, Tights doesn’t actually appear in the movie and likewise, to my knowledge at least, has never before appeared in any Dragonball media beforehand. Thankfully, Tights’ existence is merely used as a way for Jaco’s familiarity with Bulma and her family to be handwaved.
For those who are unaware of Dragonball author’s recent manga, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, or its loose connections to the Dragonball universe, the inclusion of Jaco will likely just leave viewers wondering why this character they’ve never heard of was included over so many other fan favorites. The fact that so many fan favorites are left out of the movie is another shortcoming of the film when all of them possess the ability of energy sensing.
Although the movie ultimately glosses over quite a few things in its introduction (leaving viewers with an aftertaste akin to “Does anyone else feel like there was another movie between this and Battle of Gods?”), most of them, such as Jaco’s sudden appearance or Krillin’s relocation to the city after years of living on an island in the series, can be safely ignored for how relevant they are to the movie as a whole.
Jaco becomes a welcome member of the cast soon enough, and Krillin’s role as a police officer and the following scene between him and his wife give viewers some moments with a long neglected character that many have wanted since the days of early Dragonball. If the issues were as extensive as these, they would be no different than any other movie’s issues (a movie where Goku is trying to help Chichi get Gohan into school comes to mind, and likewise, another where Gohan is at a tournament with many of his fellow warriors comes to mind as well).
What many Dragonball fans may find themselves particularly frazzled by, though, are the various developments that took place between the two movies regarding Battle of Gods newcomer Whis and how involved he’s become with members of the cast (particularly Goku, Vegeta, and Bulma) out of seemingly nowhere.
With Whis’ relevance to the plot, combined with his former place as a more mysterious being in the previous movie, the sudden focus on him, his mentoring Goku and Vegeta without much warning, and his amazing abilities all comes off as somewhat cheap, as though he’s been demoted to plot device rather than almighty enigma. Make no mistake here, the ideas do have the potential for an interesting story, but between the loss of time between the two movies combined with how this one executed these ideas, and you just have something less than spectacular on your hands.
As far as the mentoring of Goku and Vegeta is concerned, at this stage of the movie, it seems innocuous enough on its own. Goku and Vegeta’s flaws are analyzed by Whis, and it seems like the movie intends to lead us to a point where Goku and Vegeta are forced to overcome their personal flaws by working together.
Already, the inevitable moment where Goku and Vegeta find themselves backed into a corner against Frieza, strengthened from training for the first time in his life, is receiving its due foreshadowing. The buildup is real.
Beerus, Battle of Gods‘ “antagonist,” also makes an appearance, but he too seems to have had a demotion in role of sorts, entertaining though he may still be.
Despite all of this, the makings of this movie by this point are still fairly grounded, and it could easily have turned itself around. What’s more, the following sequences as Frieza and his soldiers land would give the impression that the earlier segments were just a small bump in the road towards a much greater film.
Upon arriving on Earth, Frieza makes his presence known by destroying the nearest city. Although Earth’s heroes had already been alerted of the tyrant’s coming thanks to Jaco informing Bulma, who in turn informed those whom she could, this scene is what really sets things into motion.
Frieza unleashes an army of a thousand men on those who have scrambled together to hold Frieza off while they keep things safe for Goku and Vegeta’s return, who are currently still training with Whis due to the thinly outlined reasons the movie has presented for us.
While the reasons for why many characters being absent are either flimsy as all else or outright nonexistent (Majin Buu is even referenced by name multiple times, even specifically by Krillin as someone who could fight against Frieza, yet Buu is never on screen once nor given a reason for why he never appeared), this is arguably a one of the more forgivable flaws of the movie due to what it allowed to occur.
By keeping characters like Majin Buu, Gotenks, and so on out of the battle, we’re able to enjoy a surprising battle featuring many of the long running series’ oldest, and once upon a time, most respected heroes. For while it might make no logical sense for Master Roshi, Tien, and Krillin to be able to keep up with Gohan and Piccolo at this point in time, by turning their foes into mere
This doesn’t excuse the lack of other characters being present, of course, and in fact might just make it worse. These characters don’t do anything else for the rest of the movie, so what would a few extra minutes have been to include the rest of the cast, one might ask?
Well, why take focus away from this wonderful moment of nostalgia? This would be the response of another, and it’s like the mindset that went into making this decision in the first place.
The problem is that this mindset — forgiving certain flaws or holes in due to those issues being tied to offering fans service or shoutouts through nostalgia — is one that is present throughout the film, rather than just this sequence of battling irrelevant henchmen.
… That said…?
It’s still a really awesome battle, full of interesting uses of locations and different fighting styles blended together to make for a fun, action packed battle. It does look awkward during a few instances, not entirely due to the CGI either, but on a personal note, it’s still actually one of my favorite parts of the movie, as well as what I feel was its strongest note.
Once the henchman are taken out, Frieza shows off how much stronger he is. To be exact, he shows that he is so strong that none of the people who almost effortlessly cleared away his goons feel as though they should even bother trying. If this seems strange given how in Battle of Gods, multiple characters fought against Beerus in what at least a few understood was a losing battle, then don’t worry, because it is.
Luckily, Goku and Vegeta are able to arrive just in the nick of time, at which point Goku takes to fighting the space tyrant while Vegeta ducks off to the side to watch.
Beyond this point, the fight against Frieza is divided into a few basic portions, with little of interest to be said about any of them:
- Goku and Frieza have a brief exchange to “warm up,” both choosing to hold back. It comes across as though either Goku has an advantage. At one point, Vegeta demands to have “his turn,” but he’s shot down by Goku and Frieza.
- Goku and Frieza both transform into new, never before seen forms, Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan and Golden Frieza respectively, to duke it out. During this short, early part of the fight (prior to the arrival of spectators Beerus and Whis, who offer charming banter and commentary throughout the rest of the fight), the battle shifts only slightly between appearing even and in Frieza’s slight advantage.
- Upon discovering Frieza’s “weakness,” Goku turns the tables with regained confidence and the fight quickly turns in his favor. It seems as though victory is assured, if not for a cheap shot from one of Frieza’s henchman, a pre-planned “contingency” that they had worked out beforehand. As a note, at this point, Vegeta has yet to lay a hand on Frieza and the movie is nearly over.
While the fight between Goku and Frieza is certainly entertaining to watch at times, as it offers multiple parallels to not only the original Goku and Frieza fight, but to Goku’s fight with Cell as well, the biggest problem here is that there’s very little tension to this whole situation. As soon as the first hurdle in the fight against Golden Frieza passes, the movie (and its protagonists) no longer treat Frieza like a competent threat. Even after Goku is shot down, he’s immediately revived moments later, all smiles, as Vegeta finally gets his turn in the ring.
For all of the building up this movie put into reviving Frieza and giving him a form beyond that of anyone other than Goku and Vegeta, thanks to some convenient off screen training (which, in a way, downplays much of the prior movie’s well written tension as a consequence), he ends up as much of a joke as the series has always treated him after his initial story arc.
It’s a rather disappointing change to witness as well, because it feels as though some kind of decision was made as the change takes place on screen.
Throughout the entire movie, he had been going on to his troops about how one can’t understand the might of a Super Saiyan until they see it in action. He’d been defeated by them twice, and had seemingly been acting as though, even if he so clearly hadn’t learned any kind of lesson, that he had at least learned more than that he needed to have a backup plan in the form of a minion carrying a laser gun.
Imagine if he had somehow tracked down Trunks instead of Goku. We viewers may know that such a thing is impossible, but Frieza has no way of being aware of that fact. His entire plan was built on the assumption that it would be Goku and only Goku that would be able to best him, despite the fact that he had access to recordings of the events of Dragonball up to Majin Buu’s defeat at his fingertips and the knowledge that it wasn’t even Goku that killed him.
These comments may come off as overthinking is, but the point being stressed here is that this is all just poor writing. Partway through the movie, Frieza suddenly shifts into the Frieza we all know, the Frieza we all are oh so familiar with when he’s on the ropes, and it’s nothing but a disappointment. For this, a sore loser, to be what we’re treated to after the success and new ground covered in Battle of Gods?
Oh… Apologies, readers, I’ve gotten ahead of myself again. Where was I?
With Goku out of the ring, though no longer injured in any way, Vegeta finally is able to take his long awaited turn against Frieza. Considering that this is a moment that many fans have likely been waiting years for — the moment where Vegeta finally gets to show Frieza what for — one would think that this would be one of the highest points of the movie, wouldn’t they?
Initially, it certainly seems like it will be.
After rejecting an offer from Frieza to rejoin his army, Vegeta pulls a transformation to Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan himself and beats up the already thoroughly beaten up tyrant. There’s nothing particularly impressive about it, and Frieza loses his Golden Frieza form very quickly into the quick skirmish. Vegeta moves in for the kill, and Frieza, frustrated by his imminent return to Hell, quickly blows up the planet before Vegeta can fire his energy blast.
This moment of tremendous sore losing kills Vegeta and most of the Earth’s population in the process, sparing only those who were close enough to spectators Beerus and Whis and the force field the latter sprung up at the last second.
To summarize, everyone who had been present so far except for Vegeta was killed, while Frieza escaped.
Maybe we have the makings of a tense movie after–
Never mind! All hope is not lost! Thanks to a vaguely mentioned ability of Whis’ from earlier in the movie, time is rewound three minutes, and Goku is able to rush in and slay Frieza from right under Vegeta’s nose before Frieza is able to blow up the planet. The day is saved, Goku and Vegeta never learned to work together, Frieza’s revival was a waste of time, and so was this movie, ultimately.
The movie has its high points, but most of them are in its action sequences and its nostalgia offerings within many of those action sequences. Given some of the sacrifices the movie’s writing had to make to make some of those possible (though not all, as the early scene with Emperor Pilaf harkening back to the King Piccolo storyline of Dragonball shows), one would think that simply bringing back Frieza would have been enough, but apparently this was not the case.
The movie’s soundtrack was well done, and the inclusion of the Maximum the Hormone song, “F,” that inspired the movie’s title was a very welcome addition. Its dubbing was, as expected of a cast that has been doing these characters for years (decades in some cases), fantastic. Some of the fight scenes suffered from strange choices in angles and positioning of enemies, but are easily glossed over during a first viewing of the movie.
Given the franchise’s history with movies, with some good and some just not, this is not one that should be considered bad. Conversely, given the movie immediately prior to this one, it simply does not hold up when compared.
Battle of Gods was able to give humor, character, tension, and so much more equal attention to the quality action sequences it offered, and every piece of the pie that made up that film was just as excellent as the last. With Resurrection F, however, if you’re looking for something more substantial than just action sequences, as Battle of Gods offered before, you will likely be left wanting.
There is perhaps some irony to be found in that if Frieza had stayed away, he could have become a much more fearsome foe. In turn, he could have provided a much more entertaining movie. There is likewise perhaps also some irony in that if they had continued down the path Battle of Gods had started on, rather than focusing so much on paths they had gone down so long ago, then this too could have been a much better movie.
The cynical part of me has been wondering since my first viewing of the film if, at some point, plans actually did change: specifically, if Dragonball Super‘s introduction to the picture shifted the direction that they were going in for this. It will be interesting to see if the televised version of the movie featured in the currently airing series suffers from these same flaws, or if it’s able to work around or correct them, as it could very easily fix every single one of them.
From the pacing, the lack of tension, all of the moments missed between the two movies, to the moment the movie was building up the entire time (where Goku and Vegeta worked together) that never actually came… They could very well have turned this film into a commercial for Dragonball Super‘s version of these events, and as much of a shame as that would be, at least we would get to see them done right.
Let’s just hope that’s what the plan actually is.
Whatever the case, that’s all for this review! I hesitate to give it a score before I’m able to see the inevitable better animated version with more content, but I’ll be sure to update the blog once that comes around. For now, let’s say that Battle of Gods is worth about two Resurrection Fs or so, shall we?
In the meantime, this isn’t the last time we’ll be talking about Dragonball on SWOOORDPLAY! So stay tuned, as I’ve decided to continue discussing a few more elements of these two movies that I chose to leave out of this review as they were too specific for it.
Until next time!
SWOOORDPLAY 