Dragon Ball Super: Broly had everything going for it when it was released in 2018. A film based on one of the most beloved animes of all time that is still releasing new content to this day, showcased some great animation from the trailers that gave off a different vibe to the original anime, contained a story including favoured characters, and reintroduced a new version of a character once considered non-canon but was incorporated by the original Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama, due to the fan’s love, it’s no surprise it exploded with popularity in theatres. Stepping back from the absolute action rush and hype that the film builds up, the film, while good for what it is, had a lot more potential that was not properly utilized. Goku and Vegeta (voiced by Sean Schemmel and Christopher Sabat) are faced with their greatest enemy, the tyrannical space emperor Frieza (voiced by Chris Ayres) who harbors a strong grudge against their kind, the Sayians, a humanoid alien race that Frieza destroyed in fear of their power years age. Out of revenge against the two, Frieza and two other surviving sayians, Paragus (voiced by Dameon Clarke) and his son Broly (voiced by Vic Mignogna) plan to eradicate the heroes, but Broly happens to harbor too much energy for his own good, making him mentally unstable and proceeds to lash out at anyone who gets in his way, who just so happens to be the two heroes. Now out of control, both Goku and Vegeta must pull out all the stops to calm the raging beast before he destroys the planet, maybe even resorting to desperate measure which forces these two rivals to combine their powers to stop this threat in its tracks. With a story that just seems to welcome an easy blend of action and character, as well as great marketing, Dragon Ball Super Broly doesn’t feel very different from the other Dragon Ball Z movies made in the past, containing very similar pros and cons. It definitely has more going for it and in terms of their movie line-up, it is one of their stronger options, but that still isn’t saying too much.

The story doesn’t require as much inside knowledge as expected. For a franchise that is so expansive, it isn’t one that really requires that much inside knowledge to really enjoy it. The film does a decent job establishing character motivations early on without having to relate to the show. The set-up has amazing potential behind it, as it could easily include a lot of action, but also include a great amount of character progression for all four of the main cast; Goku, Vegeta, Frieza and Broly. Having Akira Toriyama, associated with the film actually gives the hope that it will factor in some more important stuff and not just be another ‘villain of the week’ kind of thing that the other films mostly relied on. But instead, much like most Dragon Ball movies, the priority always seems to be more on the action than the plot. Even though director Tatsuya Nagamine had never really worked on Dragon Ball previously outside of as a director on the current show at the time, Dragon Ball Super, he does a decent job blending into the formula while also seemingly improving upon some past mistakes. This is a bit of an odd conundrum as in comparison to other DBZ movies, it not only has a heavier focus on a semblance of a plot, but it actually has some pretty great set-up that incorporates its lead characters into quite nicely. It’s a movie that feels very split in nature; where the first half is nothing but build-up and expositional backstory, while the second half is a constant action scene that keeps building until the very end. This isn’t a bad thing as this format is fine (even if it could’ve been more intricately woven), but the problem is that none of the opening act really influences much outside of just fan service (especially the opening) and a quick establishment of who the antagonists of the film are. It has these great seeds of ideas and could have very effectively written a story that develops its four lead characters in an interesting way as they do all have a sort of connection, but none of these ideas really come to any sense of fruition, or if they do, it doesn’t feel earned. While this is honestly nothing new for these Dragon Ball movies (as they barely have any kind of good story pieces), but since this one did, it honestly hurts more when it’s wasted like it is. Outside of that though, the fact that they have any serviceable plot at all is pretty refreshing this late in the game.

The characters at this point have plenty of coverage and everybody will have known who they are and won’t need any new introductions. They thankfully restrict the cast to only really the four leads and everybody else is left as a background role, which is honestly better as it doesn’t result in over-stuffing the film and keeps the focus where it needs to be. Overall, none of the characters really develop or change from this movie’s experience (at least not in a manner that feels earned or even that big of a step), but that’s not too uncommon at this point so it should be expected. The old cast is perfectly fine, and fans will like seeing them in their new get-ups, and the new characters are decent additions that could open up better potential down the road if they make them more intriguing. On a surface level, some of them stand out more; Frieza is a great villain, being a mix between an insane murderous dictator and a spoiled royal brat, and even Broly’s soft spoken Tarzan style of communication is fun to see and gives him his own identity compared to the others. Broly as a character is still not particularly interesting because his development is rushed, but compared to his early counterpart, which was used in a separate movie, he is still superior and has a nice moment near the halfway mark involving a connection that he shares with a piece of his clothing.  All the voice actors are clearly very comfortable in their roles at this point and all of them do very good jobs at the slower talking moments and the more screaming-heavy action parts as well, especially Chris Ayres as Frieza, giving him so much dimension and intimidation through simple dialogue.

The fighting and the animation seem to be the main drawing point to this film, and to their credit, both have very stand-out moments. The action is only reserved for the last half, and it is a continuous rush throughout the rest of the film. It keeps the tension high, and it does effectively continue to build upon itself.  The camera shots make the audience feel part of the action in the way it seems to fly along with the characters, leading to some really cool looking shots that are more dynamic than usual for Dragon Ball Z. The fighting is a bit too fast paced to see the blows, but each snippet is very well crafted with great choreography and beautiful animation. It’s a decent mix between hand to hand and explosive power moves, and the punches feel legitimate because of how well animated they are. The animation in the film is clearly trying to replicate the style of a manga, with smoother lines, darker line coloration, and a bright color palette. This works well in the fight scenes because it allows for more fluid motion and crisper models, but a few of the still moments look a little rushed and almost look incomplete. But the detail that goes into the great colors, the amazing looking backgrounds, the beautiful angles and lighting and great facial expressions and set pieces makes it more than worthwhile and will definitely stay with people long after they stop watching. It’s hard to say how effectively it works as while it is truly great looking (probably the best the franchise has ever looked), it goes at such a quick pace that it almost doesn’t fully register when viewing, and that’s a big draw when witnessing a cool battle. But considering how well the action has been taken in by people, it’s clearly not that big a deal. The music, composed by Norihito Sumitomo, is pretty nice and has its fair share of good moments during the action sequences, but they aren’t stand-out points where it can be heard very well, so it kind of fades into the background. The ending theme is nice and unique for Dragon Ball Z, but again nothing that noticeable.

The film does exactly what others of its kind have done in the past, and it results in a good Dragon Ball movie, but not to the level it’s been hyped up to. The story is interesting and has great set-ups, but doesn’t follow up on most of them, most of the characters are likeable and entertaining enough, but they aren’t allowed to develop because of the focus on action, and the fight, while very well done and fun to watch, does take away from what could be more interesting developments. It’s an experience movie, and it’s a fun one at that. The spectacle is worth it, and fans will enjoy watching their favorite characters beat each other up. The animation is nice, the colors are great, the voice acting is top notch, the story has some interesting aspects, and the action at the end is very much worth the wait. Probably not one that will sway non-dragon ball fans, but for them, seems like a pretty good wish was granted for them.

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