My writer’s brain is going absolutely ballistic at seeing the word super being used twice literally right next to each other in the title. That’s going to drive me bonkers to the day I die.
Anyways, this movie was pretty cool and I’m gonna shout about it for a while now.
One of the biggest problems with Dragon Ball: Super is how it treated its side characters. It was very much the Goku and Vegeta show. Meanwhile, characters like Gohan, Piccolo, and everyone else got left by the wayside.
Super Hero addresses this to spectacular effect. The result? One of the best movies Dragon Ball has ever had!
The Red Ribbon Army is reborn once more, now under the leadership of the late Commander Red’s son: Magenta. In order to achieve world domination, and to destroy our heroes for revenge, he hires Dr. Hedo, Gero’s grandson, to build the most powerful androids in history. With Goku and Vegeta off-world and unreachable, it’s up to Piccolo and Gohan to stop them. But with Gohan having taken it easy for the last few years, will he be able to keep up and protect the earth?
Going into it, I expected this to be the Gohan movie. The film that finally makes Gohan cool again, after years of him being swept aside. To my surprise, however, this movie is more about Piccolo! He has the overwhelming majority of the screen time and he’s the one that pushes the plot forward. I love this; Piccolo has always been one of my favorite Dragon Ball characters, so seeing him step into the starring role is incredibly refreshing!
Not to say this isn’t the Gohan movie. He gets plenty of time to shine too! The writers finally find the balance between Gohan being an adorable dork and being an unstoppable badass! It’s nice to see him finally go back to being as awesome as he was in the Cell saga.
Also, Pan. Pan is great. She’s actually cute and fun to watch. This is the best version of Pan, bar none.
Though her only competition was GT Pan and a little baby. So… low bar, I guess.
The villains in this movie are all fairly strong, too. Magenta is the only really evil person here. Everyone else is either heroic and misguided or just really chill and stupid. I especially love both the Gamma brothers; they’re both like little kids making their comic book super hero dreams come true and it’s a ton of fun to watch.
As for the movie’s final big boss… I have mixed feelings. Like, it makes for a cool fight scene. But it’s completely devoid of personality; it’s just a blatant attempt to recreate the iconic Gohan VS Cell scene. It serves its role in the plot well, but I think we would’ve been better off getting a new villain, maybe one with some personality.
But it does have Shin Godzilla lasers. So… positive point, I guess.
There are also just a ton of small things that made me unreasonably happy. Android 21 from DB Fighterz is made canon. Goten and Trunks finally got older. Broly gets to hang out with Goku and Vegeta on Beerus’ planet. Cheelai and Lemo weren’t written out for some dumb reason. We even get a scene of classic Toriyama gag humor between Magenta and Hedo!
Unfortunately, while everyone is at top form here, I can’t say the same about Goku. One reason I loved Super: Broly so much was that Goku felt like… Goku. He wasn’t the brain-dead muscle head that the rest of Super had given us. Sadly, in Super Hero, Goku has gone back to being an absolute idiot. Though that blow is softened by him not being the main character of the film this time around.
Now, let’s talk presentation. Unlike every other Dragon Ball movie that came before it, Super Hero is animated largely using CGI. There are plenty of shots drawn in 2D, mostly the flashbacks to events from the original Dragon Ball or Z, and those all look fantastic. But the overwhelming majority uses 3D animation with a few touch-ups.
And honestly? It looks amazing! All the characters are on-point and highly expressive and everything looks really good in motion. Not to mention the environments; this movie makes really good use of lighting, color, and rain to create some really cool visuals.
When the action kicks up, then things really start to get crazy! This movie has got some badass fight scenes, dudes! The choreography, the beam effects, even the auras all look jaw-dropping! If you’re just looking for something exciting to watch, this is the film for you!
As for the music, it’s decent. Like, none of the OST is bad, per say. But it all gets buried under the mix in most scenes.
No one is shouting the character’s names, either. 0/10 soundtrack.
I adore Super Hero! This was such a fun and refreshing Dragon Ball movie! It wasn’t perfect, but it did such a good job of bringing back the things I love about this series – the side characters, the gags, and not-Goku related action – that its flaws are easily forgiven!
At this point, Dragon Ball Super should just stick to doing movies. We’ve seen more plot and character progression in two of them than we did in over a hundred episodes of the show. And don’t even get me started on the manga!
For all I know, that’s what they’re gonna do. It ain’t like Super 2 is happening any time soon.
Jonah's Daily Rants 