Dragon Ball Z : Le Combat fratricide

What I have grown to love about Dragon Ball is that all the stories tend to lead to something big happening at the end. When i started watching this movie I assumed the same would be true. We learned about what the Tree of Might can do to planets and its purpose. We are introduced to a few new Saiyans, one of which has a rather familiar face! The characters involved get into some pretty epic battles and we even get to see the Big Ape come out.

It was all looking like it was going to lead to something huge happening. However, when the big reveal and final battle were revealed I felt somewhat deflated. I don't know if it is just me, but this is not what I had grown to expect from Dragon Ball. This movie is great for fans of the series, but don't expect great things.

Although I gave this movie an 8/10, I didn't like it quite as much as the other Dragonball Z movies. The whole reason was the ending. I don't want to give anything away, but it seemed like they got 45 minutes of the movie done and said "Uh-oh, we made this movie too long! We have to think of some way to end it, fast!"... The final battle was somewhat of a disappointment. If they would have spent a little more time and made a really excellent ending to match the rest of the movie, it could have been so much better. Still a must see for any DBZ fan.

While whatever little happens in this movie is top notch and nothing less than spectacular, it only lasts for 1 hour and ends up less than satisfying especially after the screwed up ending. The fight scenes are the best of any DBZ episode and the special effects are superb. However, there's really not much story and too much time is wasted on the usual 'staring' present in DBZ. To illustrate how good the few scenes and action are, take note that the majority of the scenes in the DBZ series title song are from this movie. The animation standard is much better than the average DBZ episode. A major shortcoming is that Turles and his team spend too little time fighting. They should have had much longer fight scenes when it came to his team and they were too easily defeated. However, I prefer this to the Brolly movie any day. There is very little in this movie but that little is top notch stuff. Definitely a must see. Is it a must purchase? I really can't say the same.

If you like the series this is one of the more enjoyable movies I have seen in the series (Dead Zone and the World's Strongest are the only other two I have seen). If you are a DBZ fan one thing to keep in mind is that this does not conincide with the series. It is best to think of them as different entities (I do wish they could get the same people to do the dubbing though). This one is especially good because you actually see some of the other characters involved in the fight for the earth. Yamacha and Tien and Choutzou all actually take part in the action. In the series they rarely do anything after the Saiyan Saga (the one where Vegeta is introduced). Aside from the fact Vegeta is not in this it is very good. Goku fights a Saiyan named Turlos who is threating the earth. There are some very good battles and you get to see Goku use the Kao Ken technique and the spirit bomb. A very good ending fight as well make this movie very entertaining.

This is another good "Dragonball Z" movie, but I don't think it's one of the best. I think it's mostly because of the villain. He looks just like Goku and I kind of think that was a bit too obvious to represent as an evil counterpart to him. He doesn't have much depth and I felt like they could have done more with him. Hey, we get an environmental message in the series! It's kind of weird to see the Dragon Balls being used for something like that. Besides this, it's still quite watchable.

This introduces Gohan's pet dragon, Icarus. Alright, I'm not sure if he appears in the later movies, but it's interesting to meet this character. I think it's a good idea to have a main character with a pet. There really is something you could do with that and it works here. At first, I thought they wouldn't go all the way and make Gohan the great ape, but they did! The plot is also pretty cool. I like the idea of a giant tree, especially with all the details with the roots. It's a pretty original idea. Turles (I thought his name was pronounced "Turuls" and not "Tur-less") has some colorful henchmen too. ***