Thursday, April 21, 2016

Dragonball Z Movie 10: Broly Second Coming

Featuring the TRIPLE KAMEHAMEHA and high-definition shots for 2016.


The movie opens on Earth as an unidentified pod flies towards the planet and enters the atmosphere. This is just like the beginning of The Thing.

Wow, the ship crashes in a frozen lake and gets sealed under the ice. Who knew that DBZ had a scene so similar to The Thing? I didn't, and I've been a huge fan of both for decades. The other time I watched this (2003 or so) I didn't notice any of this stuff.

Broly lays there and whines about Kakarot. Man, get over it!

And then, he freezes. Not sure how he got to Earth after his defeat in the depths of the cosmos before. Probably the same way Cooler's head got to the far reaches of space after he burned up in the sun.

Seriously? "Broly Second Coming"? We're really going with that?

Intro credits! This is the first DBZ movie to have the final show intro, which is very Gohan-centric. He's grown up now, with the Cell Saga a few years behind him.

Kuririn now has hair...and a baby with Android 18. Don't ask.

The final shot of the intro shows us the five main characters at this point. Gokou is dead, Future Trunks has returned to his own time, Gohan is the new hero, Vegeta and Piccolo are still around doing their thing. And introducing little Trunks and Goten, the boy wonders. They are, of course, the children of Vegeta and Gokou respectively. Which means Trunks has the world's worst dad. I don't know if that's any better than growing up in the apocalypse, like his future self had to do.

Goten is Gohan's little brother, while Trunks doesn't have any siblings. Well, he DID for a couple of minutes, but it was a girl, and Vegeta...well...

Intro ends with a nice shot of the extended cast. Well, "extended". I like how Gohan's random classmates appear on the right, while Tien and Yamcha don't appear at all. Yikes.

 Of course, Gohan has to share top-billing with Gokou in that final shot, and the screen zooms in on the two of them to make sure we know whose band this is. No wonder Gohan didn't get over.

Goten looks just like Young Gokou, which makes me think Toriyama just wanted to draw him again. I liked Mirai Trunks more than little Trunks, but the kids are alright.

Also introducing Videl, daughter of Mr. Satan. She's also Gohan's ::giddy giggling is heard:: GIRLFRIEND

Videl is hanging out with Goten and Trunks when they stumble upon a town that offers little girls as sacrifices to some mountain beast. Didn't I see this in Dragon Warrior III?

Videl dresses in a very cute outfit and poses as the sacrificial waif to lure out the monster. SHOW YOURSELF, BEAST!

 ...SON OF A BITCH. I KNEW IT.

Goten gets tired of waiting for the monster to show up and starts bawling like a maniac. His crying sounds just like the crying of Young Gokou, which - somewhere in the mountains nearby - triggers Frozen Broly's murder-cortex.

 Uh-oh.

 The monster that demanded the sacrifices turns out to be...this dinosaur. It's odd the way dinosaurs have always been this background component of DBZ. Basically, they exist, and no one really acknowledges how weird this is. Same as the bizarre animal people.

What follows is a Shadow of the Colossus battle as our heroes scale the dinosaur and give it a walloping! NO MORE EATING KIDS, OROCHI!

Speaking of eating, the next scene has the townspeople eating the roasted, chopped-up remains of the dinosaur.

Holy shit! What did you guys do??

Suddenly, the empty stares of these townspeople begin to feel a little bit malevolent. But that's okay, because we never see them again.

 Meanwhile, Broly awakens and breaks out of his icy prison and starts throwing green fireballs around. That was quick. Not sure what the point of having him frozen in ice even was, aside from further emulating The Thing after the spaceship-crashing intro.

Videl floats across the water to find out who is throwing all these blasts around. NO! DON'T DO IT, VIDEL! It's...

...Broly. HE'S BACK.

Broly unleashes a vicious clothesline on the 103-pound Videl! That rat bastard!

Videl has to fight in a dress in this movie, so she gets worried about her modesty after doing a somersault. I'm more concerned about how she hasn't been vaporized yet considering she's fighting a SUPER SAIYAN.

Broly likes to swing people around by their ankles, so he does that to Videl here. NO WHY I LIKE VIDEL

Broly notices the presence of Goten...and thinks he's Gokou. He must have forgotten that Gokou grew up. People don't just turn back into kids after they've grown up! Not unless the people writing the show are idiots, anyway.

Goten and Trunks join the battle, but they more or less bounce off of Broly. He isn't even in SSJ1.5 here either, he's in his normal super form. That's enough to pretty much run over this crew, though if we're following the continuity set by Movie 8... Broly should be able to defeat them all in like one minute.

Meanwhile, off somewhere, GOHAN senses the fight and decides to go check it out. Given the big storyline time-gap between this and the previous movie, Gohan is all grown-up here, and that's pretty cool.

Broly is cooler-looking in this movie than 8, for the most part. He's less inflated, and his clothes are all torn up. Guy looks like a formidable beast, and I'd like to see him take on Gohan at full-power in a real battle.

Goten and Trunks go Super Saiyan, which lets them dance around Broly...a little bit.

That is, until he uses his deadliest move: Grab-by-ankle-and-swing-around... TIMES TWO

Trunks and Goten come up with a plan. This reminds me of the cover picture of Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.

That plan includes...oh, come on! Do we really have to see Goten peeing? We'll see Trunks peeing soon too. If you want to see DBZ characters peeing, this movie is par excellence.

The plan includes Goten using the Dragonballs that they've been collecting, summoning the Eternal Dragon, and wishing Broly away. Unfortunately, Goten doesn't know HOW to summon the Eternal Dragon, so he just sorta...looks at them.

Meanwhile Trunks distracts Broly by getting beaten up by him. It looks like Trunks is covered in blood here, which would be pretty dark if it were the case. He's actually hiding in a waterfall.

Broly is not one to be fooled for long, and finds our intrepid hero. RUN, TRUNKS!

Meanwhile, Goten continues to fail to summon the dragon.

Broly with a Lex Luger Torture Rack to Trunks! This is ridiculous.

Trunks proceeds to pee all over Broly's face. Yep.

Broly tires of this, so he bellows out his usual dialogue and throws a big green fireball at our heroes.

The fireball gets deflected by an unseen force, crashing into a distant mountain. Every time this happens in DBZ, it should be accompanied by a chorus of screaming from whatever town just got annihilated. Hopefully it was that town of dinosaur-eating creepozoids.

The unseen force is Gohan, arriving just in time to save the kids. He recognizes Broly right away, and the fight is on!

Here we go, the main event. They brawl for a bit without using their full power, as is tradition.

Broly has some sweet moves, like this handstand thrust kick.

The entire wasteland starts coming apart around them during the fight, which is a cool effect.

Here we get a pretty awful scene, as Gohan just stands there and flinches while a Broly fireball meanders towards him. BLOCK IT OR SOMETHING DUDE

I know Gohan has never been the fight-minded guy that his dad was, but it still seems really unlikely that he'd let himself get hit by a slow-moving fireball because he's afraid.

Broly powers up to SSJ1.5 (Muscle Super Saiyan), the form he spent most of Movie 8 in. I think he was a lot more compelling before he turned into a whale filled with helium, but whatever.

Gohan also powers up! To...uh...SSJ1. I think. Maybe this was supposed to be SSJ2, but it lacks the defining SSJ2 features and he went right from normal into this form.

Gohan then proceeds to get beaten down by Broly some more, because Broly's new form is badder than Gohan's new form.

Gohan sees a river of molten lava that has been exposed by their fight, and says...

Or...ya know...you could go SSJ2...like in the movie right before this

Did different people take over DBZ after the Cell Games / Movie 9, or something? Why is everything suddenly so stupid?

Gohan lures Broly down to the lava river, flying low enough for Broly to get engulfed by the lava waves like a moron.

As he sinks into the lava, Broly gives a thumbs-up. He knows now why we cry, and it's because of this shitty movie writing.

Gohan then falls asleep against a rock, thinking that it's all over. That's wishful thinking.

The lava nearly overtakes Gohan, but Piccolo flies down from somewhere and hauls him to safety.

But wait! It isn't Piccolo at all, but Kuririn in a Piccolo-costume. I think this is supposed to be Gohan's old Cell Saga outfit, and if so that's a nice callback.

Piccolo and Vegeta seem to be completely missing from this movie, oddly enough.

SURPRISE, Broly lives. He hovers up out of the lava looking as evil as possible (but still saying nothing besides "kakarooooot" over and over... even in the dub version. What happened to his Movie 8 dub dialogue?)

Turns out he has this bubble-shield that makes him impervious to everything and totally invulnerable. Like WoW healers.

Kuririn gets one-shotted with a quick fireball, and crashes into some nearby rocks while groaning a lot. Gohan swings into action, as I realize that times have changed since I watched these two fight on Namek as equals. Points for that one moment and realization.

Gohan fights Broly a little more and gets manhandled. While all of this is happening, in the dub version there's this awful, droning background "music" that sounds like death metal. Whatever that "song" is, it pretty much goes on and on for most of this movie. The licensed music has really gone downhill since Movie 4...

Broly with an energy attack assisted punch! Yet another awesome move from him.

He follows up with a vicious bearhug to Gohan! What's with villains always bearhugging Gohan? And will Gokou jump in to save him again with zero regard for the laws of storytelling?

Broly musters up his energy and unleashes an energy blast towards the Earth. If Gohan dodges it, Earth gets blown up. If he doesn't, Gohan is doomed.

...or he could go SSJ2. Come on, movie. SSJ2 Gohan Vs. SSJ1.5 (or 1.75, whatever) Broly with both guys roughly equal in strength (but Gohan much faster and with the edge) could have been one of the great fights in the series. The continuity was already in place for it.

Gohan unleashes a huge Kamehameha to try and push back Broly's blast. But he can't do it alone, and quickly starts losing a lot of ground.

Goten joins him! That actually slows down the loss of ground a bit as the beam tug-of-war continues. Let the record state that I'm a fan of beam tug-of-wars in DBZ.

Unfortunately, Broly is still overpowering their beam. Is there no hope left?

::trumpets sound::

::a choir of angels begins to sing::

Indeed, Gokou is back from the dead, and he quickly goes SSJ to join his two sons. They actually bothered to explain this: Goten wished aloud for his father to be able to help them, and the gathered Dragonballs nearby heard him and granted it. Even though there was no sign of the dragon or any of that stuff. Whatever.

Gohan/Gokou/Goten triple Kamehameha! This is the greatest thing this movie gave us. As far as I know it's the one time we ever see Gokou and his two sons onscreen at the same time, much less him joining forces with them to win a fight.

Now the beam is strong enough to overpower Broly's attack...barely. They still need an assist from...

 ...Trunks, who throws a fireball to momentarily distract Broly. I think. They didn't really show where the fireball went. Regardless, this is Trunks playing the role that Vegeta played against Cell.

The Triple Kamehameha finally cuts through Broly's attack. Broly quickly turns on his invulnerability bubble, and thus the beam pushes him out into space rather than hitting him. That's actually a good move for this movie to make; the bubble may be impenetrable but it can be pushed by a strong enough attack.

And pushed it was, all the way into the sun.

 ...and through the sun. Yes, Broly got pushed through the sun. Even his bubble couldn't withstand that, and he was completely disintegrated by all of this.

Well, this is the second of the only two movies that Gohan ever got to be the hero for. ...and he needed Gokou's help to win both times.

Now Videl gives Gohan a hard time for taking so long to get to the fight. So...how DOES it take the main heroes so long to arrive at fight scenes where everyone else is getting beaten up, given that they can fly at like Mach 50 and stuff?

Oh yeah, remember Kuririn? He's still smashed into a rock nearby. He's a little concussed and keeps asking where Marron is.

This movie is somewhat infuriating in everything it gets wrong and all the potential it wastes (a portent for things to come with this series), but it has a few really cool moments. The ending was great, and Adult Gohan main-eventing was a fun time even if he got stomped on.




9 comments:

  1. Dragon Warrior III AND IV, though IV is the one where Alena plays the Videl role.

    Man, Gohan was eating dino-tail meat when he was 5. This thing is no threat at all!

    Broly has a cool look before he goes steroid-insano. Though either way he's still just all "KAKAROOOOOOOOT" ...Gokou was never that into you, dude.

    The nice thing about animation is that modesty is set to auto-on... unless the animators turn it off.

    You know, if I was a saiyan, and I could go SSJ, and I was fighting another saiyan who was already SSJ... I'd transform immediately. The little kids have an excuse, at least.

    Mostly it's a callback to how Piccolo ALWAYS saves Gohan in these movies. Since Kuririn is the one doing it this time they gave him Piccolo clothes. Not sure why Piccolo isn't actually here though.

    Since Gohan seems to be having trouble with SSJ2 as it is after he grows up they could totally write that into the film too, so he finally gets it back in time to match Broly for strength while now being able to outmove him. Oh well.

    Poor Gohan. At least he gets to one-shot Freeza in Movie 12.

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  2. "Videl has to fight in a dress in this movie, so she gets worried about her modesty after doing a somersault."

    Don'y worry, Videl is wearing some trusty stockings/tights so Broly wont perv her has much XD!

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  4. Human sacrifice?! Really glad the kids and Videl were around to set that straight.

    The crying woke up Broly, eh...so it would.

    Yeah, this is definitely a step down from the last movie. But it stars some of the best characters so there is that. Agree with you Toriyama wanted to draw young Gokou again. Loved the father-son-son energy beam. Broly getting peed on is really dumb since he's been built up as maximum power.

    Did this movie give us the idea for throwing Natrec into the sun? Overall, this was still...better than the Buu saga.

    Starting to get why Broly has so many fans. There's something enticing about a pure force of nature, particularly for fans of this show.

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  5. It's stupid how a couple movies ago Broly was destroying the whole cast without even trying and in there he's walking around SSJ1 until Gohan shows up.

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  6. Power ssj1.5 broly's power is even more so in the movie 8

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    1. I've always thought that Broly and Trunks were both able to reach SSJ 1.75. Trunks and Vegeta both had Muscle SSJ 1.5 forms where they'd beef up (and slow down) while Gokou and Gohan and SSJ1.5 forms without the beef up or slow down. Meanwhile, Trunks had another form past Vegeta's form, and Trunks' special form beefed him up to almost a Broly extent. I think that was SSJ1.75, something beyond what even Gokou and Gohan could do at the time, but with the same slowdown that hampered Muscle SSJ1.5. It's still likely faster than standard SSJ1, which the heroes were at in Movie 8, and thus why SSJ1.75 Broly was able to smash a bunch of SSJ1s there.

      In Movie 10, Broly definitely seems weaker. Like he's deflated to SSJ1.5 instead of SSJ1.75.

      None of this is ever particularly confirmed though.

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  7. Se tivesse como montar um fancaps.net seria bom com todas as imagens igual a de bojack unbound

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  8. Gohan had the SS2 design but no lightning. Also, they avoided SS2 lightning in movies 12 and 13.

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