Dragon Ball Z: ResurrectionFFFF– (contains spoilers)

Dragon Ball Z is not, shall we say, succinct in its storytelling. The “sagas,” as they’re known, can take so long to make progress that in many cases it’s prevented new viewers from ever getting into the series at all. The series so well-known for its long, sluggishly drawn-out battles that Dragon Ball Z Kai and DBZ Abridged even exist to force the series to get to the point and move forward faster.

Luckily, no one has to slog through the 291 episodes of DBZ in order to get a good story out of this fighting anime. As of this writing, the series has an impressive 15 associated movies – 20, actually, if you also count the TV specials, OAVs, and that god-awful live-action trainwreck. (And that number’s just limited to the Z series; there are even more movies for the original Dragon Ball, and another TV special for Dragon Ball GT!) For the most part these movies came out long before DBZ was popular in the United States, meaning we got them years after the fact just like the rest of the series. However, by the time Battle of Gods kicked off a new era of DBZ movies, the franchise had spread to worldwide cult status, meaning that it would see theatrical releases in more than just Japan. The same happened with the latest film, Resurrection F – and I’m pleased to say that I’m one of the lucky few that’s gotten to see it during its limited showing!

I am not, however, pleased with how it ended.

Before I get into the specific problems with Resurrection F, I want to take a moment to discuss the DBZ movies in general. What happened in this specific instance isn’t an isolated incident, and I want to establish that context prior to diving into the meat of it (largely because if I don’t, I just come off as a salty Vegeta fan instead of someone legitimately critiquing the storytelling).

There are a handful of DBZ movies that have a serious problem with the way their endings are constructed. They’re set up to follow a specific set of characters, which notably do not include Goku (or include him in a limited capacity), and yet he’s still the one that steps in to defeat the antagonist at the climax. There are four movies that suffer from this problem the most: Lord Slug, A Dangerous Pair, Exploding Dragon Fist, and now Resurrection F. Each of these films step away from the typical formula of the main series to give us more of a side story with a new protagonist – which leads to some extremely disjointed storytelling when Goku abruptly barges in at the end to finish off the villain. It necessarily begs the question of how this disconnect got on the screen at all; if it’s not Goku’s story, why is he the one wrapping it up?

It appears that the writers believe the movies are supposed to follow the same general structure as the main series; that is, lots of conflict happens and then Goku swoops in to save the day at the last minute. It’s unfortunate enough because it cheats the narrative as a whole, but even moreso because the movies are a perfect opportunity TO follow a character other than the central protagonist. None of them are canon to the TV series, and with a movie’s time constraints, it’s just long enough to tell a single story. They’re the ideal vehicle for the series to engage in contained character studies – which the ones listed do indeed attempt, but the character arcs are never completed because Goku steals the culminating moment, leaving the audience without a real payoff.

This is not to say that Goku should never be the one to finish off the villain in stories that feature secondary characters, by the way; rather, it depends on the kind of story the movie is telling. Is it one that primarily follows Goku’s point of view? Is it an ensemble movie wherein there are several main characters that Goku is leading? In instances like these, it does logically follow that Goku steps in to defeat the story’s antagonist, because these stories are still centered around Goku himself, even when he’s sharing the screen with other characters. Three Super Saiyans, World’s Strongest, and Violent Fight are excellent examples of this sort of storytelling. The plots are focused more on how the characters, as we already know them and in a familiar dynamic, respond to a situation they haven’t seen before.

The four movies with “stolen” endings, on the other hand, spend a lot more time delving into character backgrounds or switching up the conflict formula. Lord Slug presents the first namekian antagonist, requiring the most relevant characters, Piccolo and Gohan, to put their experiences and lesser known information to good use. A Dangerous Pair spends extensive time pointing out that the two youngest fighters in the series, Trunks and Goten, are not equipped to properly handle the threat they’re presented with and forces them to scramble without help from the adults they rely on. Exploding Dragon Fist allows us to see a less mischievous side of Trunks, revealing qualities in him that we’d previously only seen in Mirai Trunks and putting those new traits to the test. Resurrection F puts Vegeta face-to-face with the monster that controlled and abused him for the majority of his life, whom he was unable to defeat himself when he attempted to break away. Even if Goku is present in these movies, they are not his stories, which means he has no place resolving them.

And as far as I’m concerned, Resurrection F has the biggest missed opportunity of these four, because it’s the one that draws the most on existing elements from the main series. This necessarily means it has the strongest means to tell a compelling story because it can spend less time explaining backstory to its audience. It banks on the idea that you’re highly familiar with DBZ lore and will not only understand who Freeza is, but also what he represents. Pulling so much lore and history from the main series instead of making everything up from scratch makes the scale feel much bigger than just its 95 minute runtime.

Initially, nothing. There’s a lot to appreciate about this movie, such as Whis casually clunking Goku and Vegeta’s heads together, Piccolo babysitting infant Pan, Master Roshi hulking out and participating in the battle for the first time in years, actually getting to see Capsule Corp operate as a business, and the riot of laughter in the theater when Tien mentions that he didn’t bother to bring Yamcha, to name a few. There’s a steady balance between intense moments of uncertainty and comic relief, without one cheapening the other. We learn some new tidbits about Freeza, such as the fact that his absurd power level has always been innate and he’s never needed to train before. There’s also a great moment where Goku and Vegeta receive feedback on their performances, confirming some of the points the fanbase has made for years. For the first half of the film, I really have nothing to complain about.

The problems don’t really begin until we get to the real heart of the narrative: The battle against Freeza himself. I understand that the reason Freeza comes to Earth is because he wants revenge against Goku specifically, but one has to admit, this film has every element one could ever ask for in a rematch between Freeza and Vegeta, as well; unfortunately, it just sort walks unmovingly into a corner like a badly programmed AI companion. Freeza and Vegeta are robbed of their opportunities to really face off and resolve any outstanding issues they have against one another – Vegeta for the fact that Freeza made his life hell until just recently, and Freeza for the fact that someone whom he’d always disregarded as an easily dominated plaything now poses a real threat. I’m shocked that neither of these points ever come up, because there was no reason to think they wouldn’t. Freeza came to Earth looking for revenge, and in doing so walked right into the path of someone that might want it against him, too.

In any case, the way the battle is supposed to operate is that Goku and Vegeta have agreed to take turns fighting Freeza – and Goku’s turn goes on for way too long, which Vegeta points out himself. He gets so frustrated that Goku’s hogging the action that he loses his patience and jumps in to forcibly take it from him (via punching him in the face, because why the fuck not). Vegeta is immediately rebuffed by both Goku and Freeza and told to wait, after which he… backs down and resumes his place on the sideline??? What?!?

Nnnno, I don’t buy that for a second. Vegeta doesn’t take orders anyway, least of all from Goku or Freeza. They’re seriously the LAST people he would EVER willingly obey. I could maaaybe see him listening to Goku after some bickering, if just because he’s learned over the years that he needs to cooperate once in a while, but Freeza? No way. He would never roll over to Freeza’s will again. Even if he had been willing to yield to Goku, the very fact that Freeza agrees with him should’ve been enough to make Vegeta dig in his feet and refuse. Against all logic, however, Vegeta doesn’t even so much as grumble when he obediently goes back to the sideline.

The matter is only confused further when Goku and Freeza power up, after which Goku jokingly offers to finally trade off with Vegeta because Freeza’s new form looks like a headache. Vegeta, who literally JUST attempted to coerce Goku into backing down, sputters that he doesn’t want Freeza unloaded onto him now that he’s powered up. I think I literally muttered, “What the fuck??” in the theater. Vegeta ducking the offer to switch gives the impression that he’s too scared to step in now that he’s seen Freeza’s new form – which, based on how he handles the situation later in the movie, he’s not. I just don’t understand at all what they were going for with this. It serves no purpose other than confusing the audience by sending a conflicting message, along with embarrassing Vegeta for no reason (something else the DBZ movies have a habit of).

When Goku finally goes down and Vegeta is able to step in, there’s a TON of layered nuance in the moment that should’ve been expanded upon by the filmmakers. This scene could’ve been unbelievably tense, and would’ve really gotten to the core of Vegeta’s character arc. It’s a crime that this opportunity was missed, so let’s take a look at what did (and didn’t) go on here.

In lieu of being able to beat Goku any other way, Freeza cashes in a back-up plan in which Sorbet shoots Goku while he’s off-guard and distracted. It’s a perfectly aimed shot that nails him through the heart and fells him instantly. Just as Freeza’s about to finish him off, however, he decides to make things interesting by offering to spare Vegeta and let him do it, in exchange for his renewed fealty. He even offers to give Vegeta a top position in his army should he comply. It’s the first real exchange between the two in the movie, and it’s already laden with Freeza trying to assert his dominance once again.

The weight of this moment should’ve been enormous. Not only is it an abuser trying to get his victim back under control, it’s a moment that Vegeta has pursued for almost the entirety of DBZ itself. Eliminating Goku and taking his place as the most powerful fighter in the universe has driven Vegeta to insane lengths to improve himself for years. He’s repeatedly rescued Goku from serious danger due to what is essentially a territorial claim, stating each time that he won’t allow others to kill Goku because he wants to do it himself.

Well, here you go, Vegeta. Here’s your chance to get that carrot you’ve been chasing (no pun intended), served up on a silver platter. There’s a fleeting moment when you can see him legitimately thinking about it, but sadly, it doesn’t go on anywhere near long enough. This needed to be drawn out MUCH longer, enough to cause discomfort in the audience. We needed to be unable to tell if Vegeta would really do it or not; after all, it canonically wasn’t that long ago when Vegeta willfully allowed Babidi to take control of him in exchange for enough power to finally wipe out Goku. The opportunity he’s offered in Resurrection F should’ve been the final apex of this ongoing feud – which would’ve given Vegeta’s decision not to kill him that much more impact. If they’d just drawn this moment out a bit longer, it would’ve been the perfect bookend to this subplot.

The scene is made even more poignant by the fact that Goku and Vegeta are in a perfect reversal of their roles on Namek. Goku’s injury is nearly identical to the one that killed Vegeta, and Vegeta stands over him in almost exactly the same position as Goku all those years ago. The only major difference is that back then, there was nothing Goku could’ve done to save Vegeta. In this story, Vegeta is not only capable of helping Goku, he chooses to do so – and the way he does it is also a throwback. He specifically tells Krillin to give Goku a senzu bean, and he stops Freeza from killing Krillin (again) in order to ensure he delivers it.

This is important because it strongly mirrors what happened back on Namek. When Goku first arrived and found Vegeta, Krillin, and Gohan utterly wrecked by the Ginyu Force, he put a stop to everything and healed his teammates with senzu beans – which, to everyone’s surprise, included Vegeta. Everyone else still regarded him as one of the bad guys (which, to be honest, he really still was), but Goku wanted to help him and work with him anyway. It was the first gesture of alliance and acceptance that Goku had ever shown him. Of course, Vegeta wasn’t really ready for that level of trust at the time and threw it back in his face, but he’d still gotten the message that Goku didn’t want to be his enemy. It’s a message that Goku continued to send every day, during every interaction, ever since that first senzu bean.

When Vegeta orders Krillin to give Goku a bean, he’s doing more than just reviving him. He’s pointedly making a gesture that claims Goku as his teammate. He could’ve simply told the others to come get him, or to deal with him, or he could’ve ignored the situation entirely and left them to manage him themselves. But he specifically called for a senzu bean. It’s finally acknowledging after all this time that they ARE on the same side, that Vegeta DOES consider Goku an ally, and that he’ll look out for him moving forward.

In any case, it’s now finally Vegeta’s turn. The showdown is perfectly lined up: He and Freeza both have new super forms to test on each other. Freeza just failed to seduce Vegeta back into subservience, which means a lot of bitter emotions are bubbling to the surface on both sides. We all know that Vegeta was easily killed the last time they faced off, but they’ve both been through a lot since then, and now they can finally size each other up. Even Vegeta’s new outfit suggests that they’re going to sort out their old issues; if one looks at Vegeta’s design over the course of DBZ, he starts out with a full-body jumpsuit and full-body armor, and upon deciding to break away from Freeza, he chips away at his uniform more and more over time. First he wears armor that doesn’t cover his legs, then armor that doesn’t cover his arms, then armor that doesn’t cover his shoulders (or at least not as well), then loses the armor all together along with the sleeves of his jumpsuit. The more Vegeta leaves Freeza behind and moves on, the more he sheds elements of his old uniform – until this movie, that is, when he’s suddenly geared up in armor that bears a very strong resemblance to the one he wore when Freeza killed him on Namek.

Unfortunately, Vegeta’s turn is over in one minute.

I’m not kidding. I wish I was, but I’ve literally timed it with my phone. If you’re generous and time it from the point where Goku says it’s Vegeta’s turn, it’s almost two and a half minutes, but the actual combat portion is just one. After more than TWENTY minutes for Goku’s turn (which I also timed), giving Vegeta a mere sliver of that is just insulting. It’s completely unsatisfying from the perspective of storytelling, narrative structure, and just generally from the perspective of a fan of DBZ.

So after Vegeta’s whole friggin’ minute of fighting, Freeza loses his shit and blows up the planet. Now that’s not necessarily a problem in and of itself; the entire point of the planet exploding is to freak out the audience and make use of Whis’ temporal reset ability, which was planted at the beginning of the movie. Rewinding time enough for Goku to get back into the fight and stop Freeza from destroying Earth is fine, but they made this moment double as the final blow. He doesn’t simply stop the event from happening, he stops Freeza from existing, much to Vegeta’s chagrin. It’s difficult for this to feel like anything other than a stolen moment under these circumstances.

The problem really isn’t even that Vegeta should’ve finished Freeza off instead of Goku, it’s the fact that it shouldn’t be just ONE of them. The movie emphasizes repeatedly that the bigger issue is Goku and Vegeta aren’t working together, and if they’d quit squabbling for five goddam minutes and be team players, they’d accomplish way more than either can do individually. Whis directly plants this idea in act one, and the audience is reminded of it TWICE in act three. There’s absolutely no reason why this theme shouldn’t have been paid off at the climax. There’s even a precedent of Goku and Vegeta cooperating in 10,000,000,000 Power Warriors and Rebirth of Fusion, so allowing them to defeat Freeza as a duo isn’t even out of the ordinary.

First and foremost, the pacing of the third act needed to be completely reworked. Goku’s turn, from the moment he and Freeza take their fighting stances to the moment Freeza offers a deal to Vegeta, clocks in at a shameful 22 minutes, whereas Vegeta gets about a tenth of that. In fairness, there are several idle conversations during Goku’s turn that bloat the runtime, but there’s also a lot of time spent posturing and gloating and just kind of making faces at each other, too. While this isn’t exactly unheard of within the context of DBZ, it’s worth it to trim that shit down when you have limited time and another character with a lot of story attached to them just standing around on the sideline. Bottom line, if you’re going to set up this battle as the two protagonists taking turns, let them actually take turns. At the very least, Goku’s turn needed to be cut in half.

“Alright,” some of you are saying aloud to your monitors, “so Vegeta gets more time. How do we utilize that extra time?” First of all, I can’t hear you speaking IRL, and second of all, I’m glad you asked.

As much as I think it’s hugely important to this conflict, let’s set aside the past grievances between Vegeta and Freeza for a moment. Instead, I’d like to talk about the present – in particular, Earth itself as a metaphor for the major developments in Vegeta’s character. This is where he chose to live after escaping Freeza’s empire. This is where he unexpectedly found love and built a family. He’s put his life on the line repeatedly to protect this planet, when once upon a time he’d have unblinkingly destroyed it on Freeza’s behalf. Earth represents every way in which Vegeta has grown outside of Freeza’s influence, and as we saw in Battle of Gods, he really will do anything – even throw away his pride – to keep it safe.

But the problem is, Freeza never finds out about any of that. For him, this is a battle on any old planet that his target just happened to live on, and the fact that he resorted to blowing it up was really just a desperate temper tantrum. If he and Vegeta had really gotten into their issues, it might’ve come up that Earth is Vegeta’s home. He might’ve found out that Vegeta has a wife and a child – and furthermore, that the future version of that child is the one that killed Freeza. Sorbet’s team mentions at the beginning of the movie that they could never figure out what happened to Freeza’s killer, and finding out about Vegeta’s family could’ve upped the stakes while simultaneously resolving that question mark.

If this information had come up over the course of their battle, Freeza’s attempted destruction of Earth would’ve taken on an entirely different tone. It wouldn’t just be Freeza lashing out in frustration, it’d be a direct assault against Vegeta himself. As the movie stands, Freeza threatens Earth because it’s important to Goku; blowing it up because it’s important to Vegeta, on the other hand, would’ve not only been yet another attempt to take away everything Vegeta cares about, but it would also resonate with the fact that Freeza destroyed his original home planet as well.

Now as I mentioned earlier, the fact that Goku steps in to stop Freeza from releasing the attack that destroys the planet isn’t a problem in and of itself; the narrative needs Goku to stop him, because Vegeta isn’t aware of the temporal rewind and can’t see it coming. It only becomes a problem when Goku stopping Freeza also doubles as Goku killing Freeza. The plot would’ve been better served if Goku had only stopped him at this point, and instead he and Vegeta were forced to come to terms with the fact that they need to take Whis’ advice. They’ve each just demonstrated the flaws that were pointed out to them in act one, so it stands to reason that if they try the proposed solution, they’ll have what they need to defeat their opponent.

“But wait!” some of you are still saying to your computers, “they wouldn’t need to team up against Freeza at this point! He blew up the planet because he realized he couldn’t win any other way, because he hadn’t refined his golden form!”

One thing that immediately stands out to me about Golden Freeza his how much more strongly he resembles the rest of his (known) family, particularly for the fact that he too now has purple skin. Both Coola and King Cold are canonically known to be more powerful than Freeza, so the fact that Golden Freeza shares their skin tone could mean that he’s broken into and surpassed the power range of his brother and father. We know that Coola had at least one transformation at his disposal, so what’s to say that “Golden Freeza” is truly Freeza’s ceiling? He readily admits that he didn’t properly acclimate himself to his new form, which means that he also didn’t take the time to test its limits.

Imagine the scenario from Freeza’s point of view. Blinded by his appetite for revenge, he rushes into battle without properly preparing and finds himself up against two super saiyan gods – both of which, in his mind, he ought to be able to easily dispatch. But things aren’t exactly going as planned; one of them gives him so much trouble he needs to resort to dirty tactics via his secret subordinate, and the other (whom has never posed a real threat in his life) can not only handle his new form, but Freeza realizes he’s actually running out of energy and can’t win. In what is perhaps the largest scale sucker punch in history, he then attempts to blow up the planet, thinking surely this will ensure his victory… and even that is deterred by these two saiyans. Nothing is going as planned. Everything is turned on its head. Freeza is out of options and about to lose, and that is absolutely unacceptable. He lashes out wildly, as we’ve seen him do several times already just within this same movie, but this time something different happens: This time, in the midst of his frenzy, Freeza breaks through to a new level yet again. He transforms before everyone’s eyes, into something even he doesn’t know or understand.

I’ve got to admit, when Freeza exploded with rage at the end, I honestly expected he was going to unlock another burst of power, if just due to his crazed adrenaline. He clearly loses control of himself, so why hold him back? Let him go completely off the deep end and become an even bigger threat, on a scale that even he himself didn’t know he was capable of. He could’ve become a force so out of control that it really would require two super saiyan gods to stop him, giving Goku and Vegeta real incentive to put their egos aside and truly unite to save their world. It would’ve been a magnificent ending to a movie with a lot of weight, tension, and build-up to that moment.

But… sadly, that’s not what happened.

Let me emphasize again that I DO like this movie and I’m pleased with a lot of it, but liking some parts doesn’t mean I have to like all of it. It had an incredible potential for greatness and deserved a lot more time spent in the planning stages. The only thing more frustrating than an actively bad story is one that’s almost good but just misses the mark, and this is one of the closest cases I’ve seen. I suppose that’s why I’m so stuck on it.

 

Obligatory Legal Crap

I do not own Dragon Ball Z, Resurrection F, Goku, Vegeta, Freeza, or any other associated property. I just really, really like engaging in critical analysis when I’m dissatisfied with a story. Yes, I know I’ll never get the ending I wanted, but critically examining the things you love only helps to make your own skills stronger, and I’ve just spent 4,500 words waxing about a friggin’ anime movie. I’m the geeky writer equivalent of a super saiyan god myself now, bitches.