High flying kicks and furious fists. Primal screams and energy blasts. Magic balls heralding almighty dragons. And the timeless tale of belief and friendship against the forces of evil.
This is Dragon Ball, a franchise that feels like a fever dream of supernatural martial arts whimsy slammed together with space operatic sci-fi. And truth be told, it's a combination that somehow shatters the threshold of absurdity, while still enrapturing the masses with simple, but heartfelt messages regarding the power of grit, determination, and faith in oneself.
This franchise has countless memorable moments involving its flagship character, Goku, most of which come by way of his epic throwdowns with legendary baddies like King Piccolo, Raditz, Vageta, Captain Ginyu, Cell, and Majin Buu. But arguably, his most iconic throwdown was against everyone's favorite, almighty space-nazi, Freeza. It's a rivalry so iconic that creators of the show decided to resurrect it with a globally released animated feature 24 years later.
Aptly titled Resurrection F, this canon Dragon Ball adventure sees the infamous Lord Freeza resurrected by the last of his remaining loyalists by way of Earth's dragon balls (magic orbs that offer the opportunity to grant wishes to whoever gathers them together). Once brought back, Freeza trains to power levels unimaginable and obtains a new golden form, all in order to get revenge against legendary martial arts good-ster, Goku, and destroy the earth.
And if that synopsis isn't enough to get you hyped for the rematch of the millennium, then the bombastic trailer surely will. But after all the hype and hope swelling inside every over-throttling heart of every DBZ fan worldwide, does the movie deliver?! Well ...
By and large Resurrection F does deliver on its promise. Freeza comes back stronger than ever in all his gold skinned glory and has a flight of earth-shaking fisticuffs with Goku. Earth's other champions are there as well facing off against a nameless horde of henchmen. Energy blasts volley across the sky. Battle armored brutes are battered and blown to pieces. Signature moves are shouted and performed with upgraded stellar animation. I mean, it's all there, but it just feels a tad bit ... meh ... dare I say ... trite.
Now I'm not saying it's a bad movie, nor that I'm bored with DBZ antics and iconography. And for some people, fans or not, they might deem what offered to be great. And I'm happy for those people. But for me, the movie has entertaining moments and more "member-berries" than you can shake a power pole at, but nothing else. And without spoiling too much, it feels more like the movie is setting up plot lines and stories that are to come in future episodes of the show after this movie has wrapped. Case in point would be the Checov's Gun that Goku and Vegeta are told that working together would make them unstoppable if they could manage to put aside their egos and do it. It's brought up, but never manifests in the runtime of the movie. In fact, them working together has practically no bearing on the major conflict of the film at all.
Beyond that, the bigger problem is that the promised rematch feels slow and underwhelming. I would argue that the miscellaneous fight of DBZ's less prominent heroes against Freeza's henchman feels more exciting than the main throwdown. But even that action felt like a bit of a phoned-in gesture. Add to it, the pacing and tone of the film really do nothing to exude the dire nature of the proposed conflict, thus resulting in a lackluster experience overall. Now if you think that is far too harsh a criticism, I would posit that even something like the non-cannon DBZ movie, The Tree of Might (1990), does what this movie is trying to do, but only better in almost every way.
If anyone broke these two films downside by side, one would see that the basic plot structure of both is more or less the same. An alien invasion hits earth led by a super powered baddy. The Z Fighters gather to thwart the invaders. Minor heroes battle the henchmen, while Goku focuses more on the main villain. Minors heroes struggle and it comes down to Goku in a one-on-one throwdown against the Big Bad. A twist in the fight puts Goku back on his heels. He somehow overcomes that obstacle and wins. Return to status quo. The key differences however (other some obvious character inclusions/exclusions) are that The Tree of Might inserts a vast amount of more passion and intention into its visuals and narrative.
And keep in mind, The Tree of Might has only a one hour run time (including credits) and doesn't even have the luxuries of modern animation, nor the concept of super Saiyan forms to help bolster the action on screen. And yet this made for tv film (although still very flawed) offers more interesting and captivating visuals, superior pacing, more memorable henchmen, and better action; action that actually makes you feel the struggle of the ongoing fights, the mortality of the characters involved, as well as the weight of the stakes in the film. So if The Tree of Might can create a more compelling narrative and deliver on better everything in one hour, then there's no excuse for the major problems present in Resurrection F.
Can anyone (DBZ fan or not) enjoy Resurrection F? Yes. Is there real artistry and effort on screen? Yes. Does it still feel like DBZ? Yes. It just has the energy of build-up filler episodes rather than main line DBZ slugfests. My honest opinion is that Resurrection F is mostly hype and almost no real delivery. In addition to what I've already mentioned, it also wastes the opportunity to do anything interesting with a Vegeta, it lacks any sense of urgency, and fails to capture the imagination despite having so much to play with for a feature length run time. Go watch The Tree of Might. Rewatch Battle of the Gods. Hell! Go watch the Resurrection F trailer and then just make up your own movie. Any choice is bound to reap more fun than Resurrection F.
Resurrection F ... The "F" stands for "Failure."
BETTER DBZ WATCHES -
Resurrection F trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiONylGn8Xw
The Tree of Might: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O53WlS0VRc
The World's Strongest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNfTOtUeLtU&t=8651s (02:24:11)
Legend - A Dragon Ball Tale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JKLM45aIik
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