Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F Review

Written by Shiggins

One of the greatest villains has finally made his epic return!

I missed getting the chance to review Battle of Gods, which I deeply regret, so I'm not wasting my chance this time and I'm going to review the second film that has restored the name of Dragon Ball to modern anime. Just like Battle of Gods, it gives us a great nostalgia trip while also providing some new experiences... Unfortunately, this one might be more flawed than Battle of Gods.

Spoiler alert: Frieza is in it!

The events of Resurrection F begin shortly after Battle of Gods, with peace restored to Earth yet again after the technical defeat of Lord Beerus, the second-strongest existence in the universe behind his own attendant and teacher Whis. And instead of starting off with Goku and Vegeta like we expected, we instead see our new secondary antagonist "Sorbet", who has taken over as commander of Frieza's army and is now going to collect the Dragonballs so he can restore Frieza back to life.

Whoever named the entire Galactic Frieza Army after foods is truly the most evil villain of all time.

While not hugely interesting himself, Sorbet does answer most of the questions you might have had about Frieza's fleet after the events of Namek. We now know how many of that army survived, and how powerful the remainder of those aliens are. Unfortunately, there is nobody as engaging or silly as the Ginyu Force or Zarbon. They aren't bland. Just nothing special.

Of course, Sorbet is not the main evil focus here. He's a means to an end and in this case, the end is Frieza himself. And thankfully, Frieza never disappoints. He's just as evil, irredeemable and psychopathic as before, and you will love it. He is by far the highlight of this entire film and I'd be surprised if someone disagreed with that. If you need an example of how much of a bastard he can be, he gets asked if they want to bring his father "King Cold" back to life at a later point. His answer? Nah!

He's too busy becoming fabulous to care about his daddy.

Frieza's interactions with the Saiyan characters have tons of tension in them. From hearing Goku declare Frieza would have made a wonderful rival (if he wasn't basically alien-Satan that is), to Frieza's harshest line in the series, "Prince Vegeta - Ruler of no-one!", the series makes sure to never bore you when the characters are just talking and that is an achievement on its own.

Once again, the rivalry of Goku and Vegeta plays a major factor within the story. Thanks to a fairly entertaining scene provided by Whis' training, we get an analysis of what makes them so different and what potential they could have if they worked together more instead of bickering. The banter they have throughout is quite funny, especially from Vegeta who comes out with my favourite joke of this feature.

Vegeta: *unzips*

Speaking of jokes, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman makes his first animated debut here and if you don't know who he is, then don't worry because the film won't explain shit! It's almost surreal actually. He appears to warn them about Frieza, makes me laugh, does some fighting, makes me laugh again, then the film ends. Any casual fans of the series or anime in general might find this annoying, but I'll admit that as soon as this film was over I went to buy Jaco's book so this might have been a genius marketing ploy actually. And if it helps, Jaco is fun and unique enough to carry himself amongst all these characters, even if you have no idea who the hell he is.

However, you came here to check out the action! And how is it? Well luckily, it's fairly exciting and tense with some surprising twists and turns here and there. There aren't any amazingly unique abilities displayed, which does come across as slightly disappointing and I know that the animators thought that 3D animation would make it look better, but whenever they went 3D for brief flashes of action, it unfavorably resembles a video game and makes me worry it won't look timeless in the years to come.

Press Circle to find out who this guy actually is!

Since I've begun complaining, I might as well mention my biggest problem with this film; The story is just two fights. Frieza returns from the dead, comes to Earth 6 months later, the supporting characters fight his army, Goku and Vegeta each fight Frieza and that's it. I'm ignoring specifics of course but that is the gist of it, and while it's not a bad film and has enjoyable combat and jokes, that does make it feel somewhat... empty. The plot is somewhat too basic for my liking. 

Another criticism I have to give is the surprising disappearance of supporting characters. If you're a fan of Goten, Trunks, Mr Satan, Majin Buu (although Kami knows why anybody would be...) or even Yamcha, then you're going to be a bit annoyed because they don't make a single appearance here. Why? ...I'm not really sure actually. Master Roshi and Tien came along so you'd think they'd want as many Super Saiyans and fighters as possible. It's very strange. Thankfully, the characters that do actually show up all get at least one amazing moment before Goku steals the spotlight again. Master Roshi in particular had me grinning from ear-to-ear.

"Do we want Yamcha or the perverted old man that lives with a turtle? ......Old man!"

It has to be said that the revival of the Dragon Ball franchise has been both kind and brutal to Vegeta most of all. He's gotten development we never knew he needed and his relationship with his rival Kakarot has always been at the center. He's never gotten to surpass Goku despite his best intentions but he has come out on top in several other areas. Without spoiling too much, I actually felt a bit bad for him due to the somewhat anti-climatic ending. I'm sorry to say but Vegeta does seem to be quite cheated of the resolution he was deserved. I'm praying he truly gets an amazing ending in Dragon Ball Super that the Prince of Saiyans deserve.

Of course, I watched the dubbed version of Resurrection F and I have to say, I think it's one of the best I've heard yet. It's the same cast as Kai, which is a huge improvement over the original Funimation dub from the 90s. Sean Schemmel (Goku) and Christopher Sabat (Vegeta) do a great job but it's Chris Ayres as Frieza who really needed to do his best here or the movie would collapse. And in my opinion, Chris Ayres is by far the best Frieza voice of all time. His tone, his mannerisms, his laugh, his snarky attitude... It's perfect. 

Oh and the music isn't half-bad either.

"Angels of Hell". Hugely appropriate, I feel.

Summary: 

Resurrection F is a beautiful and powerful movie that perfectly captures the evil capabilities of one of anime's great villains, yet it doesn't seem to be focused on doing much else. Golden Frieza vs the stupidly named "Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan" is great to watch, and characters like Piccolo, Tien and even Gohan get moments they deserve, but when compared to Battle of Gods, it lacks story and has far too much of an anti-climatic ending. Still an enjoyable film, but just shy of greatness.

Rating: 7.5/10

Character of the Movie: Frieza for reminding us all why he is one of the best in the business.

Best Part: Every time Frieza talked to Vegeta or Goku.

Worst Part: The ending is surprisingly disappointing.

Come on, guys! Why can't you just do what Beerus would do and settle this with rock-papers-scissors?

Shiggins:[Admin]
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Born under the stars of the Dark Gods, Shiggins owns the power of the Great Eye and is utterly magnificent in his omniscience. If you dare to discover more about someone as great as him, then go ahead. And to all my friends and family members, YOU are wrong and I should be disappointed! Not the other way round!,. You can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere or go to his tumblr page http://otakugajeel.tumblr.com/