Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Dragonball Z Movie 8: Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan


Time for one of the most popular DBZ movies. It isn't my favorite because the villain is pretty one-dimensional. Also he's all blown up like Scott Steiner. Not that there's any kind of issue with that, if you're reading, Mr. Steiner. Sir.




The movie begins with Gokou and Chi Chi in line to enroll Gohan in a private school. Well, Chi Chi is in line for that. Gokou is just sorta there, trying to remember his one line for the interview.

That line? "I like reading and sports". Because Lord knows anything more interesting might get you kicked out of private school.

We also get lots of nonsense with The C-Team as Roshi prances about. Well, at least the trees look good.

Two hours later:

"Reading...and...and..."


Kuririn sings Karaoke! THIS... IS DBZ!

You can see Future Trunks on the right there. He's too good for any of this.

Now two Trunkses exist. Here's baby Trunks. As in, non-Future Trunks. He's also the world's luckiest baby... debatably. Some would say Goten is the world's luckiest baby.

The festivities (??) are interrupted by the arrival of Paragus, another Saiyan who survived the destruction of Planet Vegeta.

Get it? Paragus? Because all Saiyans are named after food.

If this were...five movies ago, Paragus might be the big villain. Not the case now, though.

VEGETA is here. This movie takes place some time in the late Cell Saga (in the parallel dimension where DBZ movies replace the show).

Meanwhile, King Kai informs Gokou that an evil force has appeared in "The South Galaxy". Gokou then uses this as an excuse to teleport out of the meeting. So much for Gohan's new school! Gokou, you son of a bitch!

Gokou pops up to King Kai's planet to get briefed on the situation. ...wait a minute, what's this "South Galaxy" stuff all about? I feel like DBZ gets astronomy very wrong.

Gokou uses his OP Instant Transmission to warp to a distant world and look for the Evil Power. Since the distance is so vast, by the time he appears, the bad guy has already moved on. So...it isn't instant?

Meanwhile, Oolong whacks Roshi with mallets! Comedy GOLD!

Paragus lures our non-Gokou heroes to some distant world, which he dubs "the new Planet Vegeta". Old Freeza-minions from far and wide put on their dusty old Freeza armor and make the pilgrimage to this planet so that they could appear in this one shot. Seriously, we never see any of those guys again. This might be the last time OG Freeza armor ever appears in the DBZ series, too. Man, that armor still looks cool.

Trunks, Gohan, and Kuririn proceed to explore New Planet Vegeta while Vegeta himself hangs out with Paragus, who insists on Vegeta taking the throne of the planet.

But wait! The other guys discover the DARK TRUTH behind Planet Vegeta. Most of it is in ruins outside of the nice area prepared for Vegeta to look at. IT'S ALL A LIE

Turns out the planet wasn't created for the Prince of Saiyans after all. It belonged to these little green people until Paragus' goons took over. With their whips.

Gohan and Kuririn beat up the whipmaster guys and then we don't ever see them again either.

Meanwhile, Gokou continues to follow the trail of the evil power until he arrives at...the same planet the other characters are on. His search takes him to Broly, son of Paragus. HMMMM. If the title didn't already give it away, the mystery would be very close to being solved. For some reason, Gokou keeps the knowledge that Broly is evil close to his chest for now.

We get some backstory of how Broly was an angry, overpowered kid who would go on rampages. Paragus played Paul Heyman and cheered him on from the sidelines... until it got really out of control. Then he had to find a way to get Broly tamed.

Paragus created a crown that'd keep Broly docile, and after nearly being murdered in the process, managed to get it onto Broly. An interesting story, but why was Broly so pissed off in the first place?

Because this. He was stuck in the crib next to Gokou as babies (back on ZEIST), and Gokou would incessantly weep.

This drove Broly completely insane before his brain was even finished forming. We also find out here that Gokou was born with a pitiful power level of 2, while Broly was born with a power level of 10,000. There was absolutely NOTHING left of his mother.

And we go right from that surprisingly-good backstory scene to THIS. It's the single worst scene in the DBZ canon, as Roshi rubs his face all over Oolong's feet. Apparently they're doing this in their sleep. I could have sworn they were awake when I watched the Japanese version, but who knows. In that version Roshi also talks about how "baby soft" the feet are.

why

WHY

WHYYYYYY

WHYYYYYYYYYY

We get the most welcome run-in ever as Broly crashes through the doors.

This leads to him and Gokou slugging it out for a minute. I've probably said it before, but one thing the DBZ movies have over the show is visual quality. The backgrounds in these movies tend to look pretty awesome, as opposed to the wasteland-upon-wasteland that most of the show fights transpire in.

Broly UNLEASHES HELL with green blasts until Paragus gets him under control via his FFVI Slave Crown. I like the outfit that this guy has, it's very Buu Saga. ...except Broly is actually cooler than any of the Buu Saga villains. Or at least, has the capacity to be, easily, had they done more with his character.

WHY
WHYYYYYYYY


The next day (wait, whuh? Gokou went back to sleep after all that?) Gokou reveals the truth to everyone. This planet is a LIE and Broly is pure evil. And Paragus...lured everyone here so Broly could kill them, I guess.

Broly then proceeds to go Super Saiyan, significantly buffing up in the process. Does this make him SSJ1.5 (also known as Muscle SSJ)? I think it does. Though given that he also gets more hair, it might be more like the SSJ1.75 thing that Trunks went to when fighting Cell.

It's implied (by the very title of the movie) that this guy is the Legendary Super Saiyan that supposedly existed in the past.

A few issues with that: The LSS was supposedly centuries ago, and this guy is Gokou's age. If we're talking about the modern LSS, the show already pretty much established that Gokou was the first Super Saiyan of the modern era. I'm fine with them saying that this guy went SSJ before Gokou, somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, since his power was so ridiculously high already. But they don't actually explain any of that or when/how he went SSJ, so all of that storytelling potential isn't exploited.

Regardless of all of that, he immediately GOES ON A RAMPAGE~!

This guy has some pretty sweet attacks, like this chest-bump that actually causes an explosion. His aura is humongous and spiky, too. His whole look is badass.

More backstory, as we learn why Paragus hates Vegeta and wants to kill off the Saiyans. It seems that when Broly was a tot (being driven insane by Gokou), King Vegeta became aware of his super-high power level.

In the old Saiyan society, no one was allowed to have more power than King Vegeta (though Prince Vegeta, the one we know, was implied to have more power, that was allowed). The royalty (first class) were allowed to be top-level, but everyone else, be they a commander (second-class, like Nappa) or a soldier (third-class) had to stay below the royalty.

I guess if a third-class Saiyan advanced enough they could become a second-class, but from there they had to watch themselves and not get near King Vegeta. Explains a lot, actually, like why Nappa's power was so much lower than Vegeta's way back when. He wasn't allowed to get near Vegeta in power. If we wanted to, we could say that this is why dub Vegeta was so miffed about "Over Nine Thousand" even though it wasn't a threat to him. It was higher than third-class Saiyans are authorized for.

I'd like more info on this. Third-class might be 0-3000, Commander might be 3000-10000, and elite is whatever. Bardock got to around 10,000 so he must have been a commander. Turliss was essentially an elite despite not being of the royal family. If we really want to explain him, it's likely that after the fall of their planet there weren't any power level rules anymore.

Since Broly was so powerful, King Vegeta knew that he'd be surpassed by him fairly quickly. So he ordered that Broly be sentenced to death. Paragus attempted to beg for Broly's life...

...so King Vegeta blasted him, which likely explains why he's all scarred up.

Yanno, if King Vegeta were smart, he would have tried to utilize Broly against Freeza. I doubt it'd have worked, but...perhaps.

Regardless, later that day Freeza blew up their planet, yet Paragus and Broly managed to escape right before it happened.

Now Paragus gets to laugh at Prince Vegeta while Broly wreaks havoc. Vegeta is completely in awe of Broly's power, to the point where he breaks down and becomes non-functional for most of the movie. Ehhhh. I get Vegeta being upset at being so massively upstaged, but come on.

Meanwhile, Broly FRIES LOTS OF LITTLE GREEN PEOPLE~!

As horrible as this is... it's weirdly comedic. I think if anyone besides DBZ were doing this, it wouldn't be comedic at all. DBZ is so lacking in gravitas most of the time, though...

Broly says "KAKAROOOOOT" a lot and NOTHING ELSE... at least, in the Japanese version. In the dub they gave him an actual personality, but it still isn't much. He only speaks a little bit, so there's only so much dialogue they could add.

As one-dimensional as the bad guy may be, I get why this movie is as popular as it is. Broly is a complete force of nature, a Super Saiyan wrecking machine the likes of which we perhaps never see elsewhere in the DBZ saga. He has a truly Olympian presence about him and a ton of charisma for a DBZ villain. Unfortunately, his massive potential is largely wasted due to the aformentioned single-dimension character.

Speaking of Super Saiyans, we get the movie debut of Gohan going SSJ. Trunks is also in his post-hyperbolic time chamber phase. So this puts Broly at Perfect Cell-level, debatably.

It's Trunks Vs. Broly in the battle of SSJ1.75s! Behold, they have the same hair! Trunks pretty much gets stomped, though. I would have liked to see him put up slightly more of a fight power-for-power against Broly than the other guys, for continuity's sake, but ah well.

Meanwhile, the entire assortment of Useless Characters end up falling into a neat pile somewhere while continuing to be useless.

Muten Roshi buffs up, Broly-style, to help with the fight! Or so I thought, but instead he just dances around and does stupid weird shit. Okay then. Man, the C-Squad is irritatingly useless in this movie every movie.

Double clothesline to Trunks and Gokou! BAH GAWD KING!

Broly with a PUNT TO THE PENIS as the slaughter continues! He just suplexed Gokou FIFTEEN TIMES MAGGLE!

Gokou and Piccolo (yes, Piccolo has arrived) launch an all-out assault on Broly. Not gonna lie, this is actually pretty cool. He's blocking EVERYTHING they've got. This is madness!

We're about to get the single greatest shot of the movie, as Gokou charges up his biggest Kamehameha wave...

BLADOWWWWWW!!!!

...And Broly no-sells it! Holy shit!

Vegeta FINALLY gets off his ass and helps with the fight (up to now he was whimpering about being outclassed by Broly). Hell yeah! If anyone can take Broly on, it's the Prince of all Saiyans! YOUR TIME HAS ARRIVED, VEGETA!

Vegeta hurls fireballs at Broly, but they have no effect. This guy is a monster.

A battered Trunks leaps to Vegeta's defense! That won't sit well with the Prince.

Meanwhile, Paragus attempts to escape in a Saiyan spacepod while the "Spaceballs" theme plays.

...then Broly finds him and crushes the pod, with him in it.

SPACE-BALLLLLLS! WATCH OUT! DUN UN DUUUUN UN! DUN UN DUUUUN UN!

Vegeta is even MORE frustrated. Now he knows how Bulma feels after they have sex.

Meanwhile, Broly decides to stomp Gokou to death. Man, this is rough. Gokou only survives because Broly gets distracted, and that gives Gokou time to beg everyone to send their energy to him. If everyone combines their power, Captain Planet style, then Gokou can use that higher level to kill Broly.

It makes sense, actually. In DBZ, if your power level is lower than your opponent, you can't do very much to them if anything. If it's higher, you can. So if Broly is at, I don't know, 50 million and everyone else is at 40-ish, he'll run them over. But if they all send their power to one guy, and they all have like 20M left, then that one guy will be at 100M for a minute and can obliterate the 50M guy.

...I guess.

If nothing else it's a poor man's fusion dance.

Vegeta refuses to send his power over for a REALLY LONG TIME. He has been so unprofessional and hard to work with in this movie, it's amazing Gokou hasn't cut a Christian Bale style rant on him yet.

In any case, he FINALLY lends his power to Gokou. At that point I would have just gone without him. Trunks/Piccolo/Gohan sending their power over are nothing to sneeze at.

Gokou gets a HUGE powerup momentarily, blocking Broly's latest attack. HE'S HULKING UP, GORILLA! HE'S HULKING UP!

Gokou then punches an energy blast right into Broly's chest that basically impales him, winning the fight in one shot.

Well, that was another "Gokou gets super power and wins in one punch" BS ending. I was hoping for a real (albeit brief) fight between Gokou and Broly. I guess it was better than the constant Spirit Bomb endings to these movies, at least.

Gokou then saves everyone from the planet exploding by using Instant Transmission like ten times really fast. What's it like being so wildly OP, Gokou?

Back at the ranch, Chi Chi is ENRAGED that Gohan didn't get enrolled at the private school because he was in another galaxy saving the universe. Everyone laughs a lot! Hooray! ...And roll credits.

Since Broly was basically a terminator, and since we're in the era of DBZ movies with licensed music... know what these credits need? "You Could Be Mine"

YOOOOOOOU! COULD BE! MYE-EYYYYN! BUT YOU'RE WAYYYYYY! OUT! OF! PIE-AYYYYE!

WHEN YOUR LIPS START SMACKIN' AN THE FOOD GETS COLD AH SAY YAWWW YAWWW YAWWW.

CAUSE YOOOOOOU! COULD BE! MYE-EYYYYN!





6 comments:

  1. This part in the beginning with Gokou and Chichi is my favorite scene in the movie. ...and not just because I don't care for this movie much! I just really like this part.

    Considering the world Trunks comes from, I bet he treasures moments like this.

    I like the idea in the movie where someone tries to make a new Planet Vegeta for ...uh, Vegeta to rule. It's a ploy of course, but that's kind of interesting.

    Broly sure did come into the world with a high power level, but if babies went nuts from other babies crying they wouldn't be allowed to be near each other. ...so I'm gonna blame his insanity more on his freakishly high power.

    It'd be funny if they did an episode like this with someone born with crazy strong power, who gets one shotted by Kuririn because it was only crazy strong by like, Vegeta Saga standards.

    Another thing I like in this movie is that the dubbed soundtrack has a Pantera song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7nwmqLoiCw

    Let's not forget the biggest reason Broly is so popular: His power is maximum.

    Did... did Trunks just explode his jacket?

    That power fusion does make sense as a thing that could really help. If only they had figured out how to do it in the series, am I right?

    Awwww yeah. "I'M A COLD HEARTBREAKER FIT TO BURN AND I'LL RIP YOUR HEART IN TWO!"

    Out of pie? Gokou will not be pleased.

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  2. Trunks probably should treasure moments like that, but it's hard to think of things that way when the show itself never gives us that kind of gravitas.

    I've never known the correct lyrics to "You Could Be Mine". I've been making them up since 1991, much like "Fear Is How I Roll"

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  3. It's really nice to see cherry blossoms in DBZ. First time I ever have.

    Gokou TELEPORTED OUT OF THE INTERVIEW? Well if I were a school I would make this a reason to let Gohan in because wow his dad is someone amazing, but still, dick move!

    Noo, Roshi and these feet, nooo, nooooooo...

    You're right, how can a galaxy be to the south when everything is spinning all the time? Just..what?

    This is my first time ever seeing super-strong Broly and knowing his origin, and I agree he's very interesting by show standards. So is the story of the inequality on Planet Vegeta. The connections between all these guys really are interesting.

    These images look terrific.

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  4. Broly has an interesting origin, if only they'd kept that going and made him an interesting character once he went psycho. I'd have loved to see him return as a diabolical bastard who learned from his mistakes in Movie 10 only to have to deal with SSJ2 Gohan in an even fight, but that didn't happen. The fact that he's so crazy over with the fanbase despite being largely wasted is a testament to how Broly could have been the biggest DBZ villain ever if done right.

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    Replies
    1. I really like Z Broly if only they stuck with him and developed him more instead of rebooting him with a blander version of himself.

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  5. Broly didn’t hate Goku because he was crying. He hates Goku because he associated Goku with his trauma about being stabbed by king vegeta. And almost blowing up due to the destruction of planet vegeta.

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