Dragonball Z - Movie 13: Drachenfaust

This is not the best DBZ movie but by no means the worst. There is plenty of violence and no curse word is spared. The Godzilla-esque monster Hildegarn is quite awesome espcially his teleportation technique. Goku's Dragon Fist is quite an attack. Goten and Trunks have plenty to do and are the main source of the comic relief. As a DBZ movie I'd give it a seven-out-of-ten.

I enjoy the DBZ movies, but they usually all have the same flaw...they all could have used about 10 to fifteen minutes of plot development and about five more minutes of battle time. This one is no exception to the rule. Overall I enjoyed, but I thought it could use just a bit more. Here it is nice to see they take a differing approach with the evil foe as this monster is rather large and is not the usually just smaller or just bigger than Goku villain. This monster is about Godzilla size. They also introduce a new hero character as well and he is the main focus for the story part of the movie, the time before the ultimate ending battle. The plot has him and Trunks sort of becoming friends. Of course, this also has the part of the story where our plot is established and it is rather interesting, just needed a bit more to it. Then the last bit of the movie is a rather cool battle featuring many of the DBZ warriors including Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Goten and Trunks. The battle is rather nifty as the DBZ warriors get knocked around a bit by the behemoth foe. So on the whole it is a good movie just needed about 20 more minutes of play time to it.

This is a good movie. Recommend you watch is It. The fights are amazing.

You know about that saying "save the best for last?" It's in the case here. There have been good ones(12 and 6) and bad ones(11 and 7). But they're all nothing compared to this one. It has Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, Goten, Videl, Bulma, Master Roshi/Kame Sen'nin, and Kuririn of the DBZ cast. It introduces Taipon, and the plot focuses on Trunks quite a bit. I can't say any more without spoiling anything, but it does have some good character development in some of the characters. Of course, the title is Dragonball Z, so of course you're going to see a huge, destructive battle during the second half of the movie, but I'm not spoiling anything! It's too good to reveal any important plot points!

BOTTOM LINE: This one's awesome!

"Wrath of the Dragon" is one the best DBZ movies. It is nice when the conflict of the movie is a bit more than simply punch the bad guy. With the conflict of Tapion and Hoi, it adds a layer of mystery to the usual Dragon Ball story. Yes, it is obvious who the bad guy will be, but it is nice to have some mysterious elements.

The story this time around gives other characters, particularly Trunks, some well-deserved time to shine. Tapion is a fun new character, kind of looks like a combo of "Ocarina of Time" and "Chrono Trigger". The relationship between Trunks and Tapion is believable and endearing.

Hildegarn is an interesting villain. He doesn't have much of a personality, but he has a cool design. With him being a kaiju, it leads to some unique fight sequences between him and the heroes.

My main problem with the film involves its ending. I won't go into spoilers here. Suffice it to say that it felt like they back tracked on all they built up. The ending feels rushed an undeserved. It is all very well animated, but the ending lacks a certain...punch. I'm sure saying that will unleash the wrath of the Dragon Ball fans.