Dragon Ball Z: Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan [1993]
Otherwise known in Japan as "Burn Up! A Close Fight, A Violent Fight, A Super-Fierce Fight!", which is pretty inelegant, to be honest. The eighth Dragon Ball Z movie, this movie introduces what is ostensibly the most hyped and popular of the non-canon movie villains, Broly, who enjoys an immense fanbase that I actually know of him even before getting into Dragon Ball lore as a whole. He has three movies, with the tenth and eleventh movie also starring Broly. And the character Kale from Dragon Ball Super is a gender-flipped, alternate-universe homage to Broly. I picked up a stack of old anime DVD's last month, and this was among them. And how does this movie (and, really, Broly himself) stack up?
It's actually quite good and solid, to be honest. The other older DBZ movies I've watched, Fusion Reborn and Cooler's Revenge, had a mute force of nature and a generic doomsday villain as their antagonists respectively, while this one... well, Broly is essentially the Incredible Hulk, but at least he had backstory -- that he is, of course, THE Legendary Super Saiyan, instead of just being A Super Saiyan. He also plays second fiddle for the first two acts to his more sinister father, Paragus, which is neat.
However, the movie runs for 72 minutes, which is nearly twice the length of either of those two other movies I've watched, and by god the ending just goes on and on and on and on and on with Broly just being reduced to a boring, smirking giant shouting "KAKKHARROTTT" over and over again. Any semblance to the Hulk, or any sort of attempt at making him conflicted over controlling his immense power levels is discarded in favour of turning him into a boring, boring rampaging indestructible monster (which is why I thought Kid Buu was so bland compared to all previous and future canon main villains). And while it's unfair to compare Broly to Kale, who came much later and with a lot of retrospect, Kale essentially starts off the same character as Broly, with the genders flipped... but Kale actually goes through character growth. And yeah, Kale's just straight-up better than Broly at the end of their respective character arcs.
Anyway, back to this movie. In a pretty hilarious WTF-ing of power scaling, apparently Broly has, off-screen and in like what amounts to overnight, a mysterious being destroys the South Galaxy. The entire South Galaxy. (Insert "ALL OF IT?" meme here) Keep this in mind when the climax of the movie hinges on a mere comet. (Oh, and that the entire plot has Paragus go through a long-winded trap to get Vegeta to stay on a planet about to be hit by a comet, when by this logic, Broly could've just hung back and blown up the entire galaxy)
Anyway, this ends up getting King Kai to summon Goku, interrupting a parental interview to a prestigious school, which is just fluff to give us more Chi-Chi antics because pre-Super DBZ was pretty... horribly one-note-joke with a good majority of its female characters. Meanwhile, Paragus shows up with an UFO and interrupts a cherry blossom watching picnic where Krillin's giving some amazingly bad karaoke, and goes "All Hail King Vegeta" which gives our favourite Prince the biggest genuine smile on his face. Paragus is yet another one of those blasted Saiyan survivors, and he wants to apparently create New Planet Vegeta.
Future Trunks is around, and he and Gohan sneak on board the ship because he doesn't trust Paragus. While Roshi is straight up drunk (the dub zigzags about this, with Roshi noting that he is "hung over", but Oolong and Bulma attributing his behaviour not to alcohol, but... "tuna sandwiches"? Oh, silly dub.) and wanders onto the ship, followed by Krillin and Oolong. After a bit of investigation on New Planet Vegeta, the Trunks Squad stumble upon ruined cities and an enslaved race, and Krillin scares off the slave-drivers, the only thing of note he does here before blending into the comedy trio with Oolong and Roshi.
Oh, and this is where we meet Broly, who is meek (but god dang that gravely voice) but oh-so-mysterious. He's introduced as Paragus's son, and Vegeta is just pissed off that all these rumours about the LEGENDARY Super Saiyan ends up relatively fruitless, and he has had enough with this whole 'stay in the castle my liege' crap. Broly sees Goku and gets suddenly angry, and they almost fight until Paragus uses a mind-control device to get Broly to simmer down. It is this that prompts Paragus to tell Goku and Vegeta about Broly's backstory. Or part of it, at least -- Broly's power is so great and he blew up at least one planet and blinded Paragus with an elebow to the face, and he is forced to use the mind-control device to get Broly to simmer down.
We also get some information that Paragus doesn't divulge -- Broly and Kakarot were born on the same day, with Broly boasting a power level of 10,000 at birth which really made be blurt out laughing. Oh, power levels. And also, oh, power levels as a baby. And apparently -- and I kid you not -- Broly is pissed off that baby Kakarot cries for days. Somehow the information that the baby next to him is called Kakarot is stored all the way to adulthood, and this raging vengeance towards a crybaby is the genesis of a rivalry that allowed Broly to break through the mind-control.
Which is the most stupid-ass backstory I've ever seen. Come on, movie writers. You piqued my interest. So he's the Legendary Super Saiyan? And he's got a grudge against Goku? And, as dumb as it is, he has a high power level as a baby? But at the same time... the Legendary, all-powerful Super Saiyan is... motivated by his hate of a crying baby. Let that sink in and can I just say that this is dumb and hilarious. I'm not sure if this is intended to be some pre-Z or Super style comedy, because the entire movie treats the whole Broly crisis as this super-serious and tense moment, but the fact that Broly's motivations is a crying baby sounds like some silliness that belonged in a different movie.
While Oolong and Roshi have some sleeping hijinks, the more competent side cast of Trunks, Gohan and Krillin expose the slavery and Broly's complicity in blowing up planets. Pargaus then goes into a full-blown motive rant, damning Vegeta for the sins of his father, King Vegeta, who failed to kill Paragus and Broly back in the past, being afraid of a child with such a high power level. Somehow Broly is able to save both himself and Paragus from Planet Vegeta's destruction (I buy that Broly's strong enough to survive planets blowing up since he's a magic legendary baby, but also protect Paragus?) and then Broly hulks out, breaks free from Paragus's mind control device, goes into that same berserking green-haired form that Kale homages lovingly in Super (some shots of Kale transforming are even lifted almost directly from this movie, and it's nice that they went an extra mile with the Super homage).
And the Broly just absolutely no-sells every single fighter on the battlefield. Super Saiyan Vegeta does nothing, Goku and Gohan gets whacked, the slaves' planet gets blown up for shits and giggles, a triple Super Saiyan assault from Goku, Gohan and Trunks does nothing, Piccolo shows up just for the shit of it and also does nothing... throughout it all, Vegeta is uncharacteristically quiet and just in utter disbelief, and I really like it. Comparing it to the very flat characterization everyone has in the Cooler and Janemba movies (again, I don't have a wide net to talk about as far as DBZ goes) it's nice that they actually acknowledge Vegeta's obsession with the Legendary Super Saiyan myth, and now faced with its overwhelming power he lost all his bluster and battle-rage. It's not until Piccolo literally tossed him off a building before he gains his rage back.
Not that it matters, because Broly just lays waste to everyone nonetheless. And kills Paragus! There's a very cool scene where Broly just stands still while Goku and Piccolo pound at him from both sides, and another where he drags Gohan's face through a building -- that looked like it hurt.
Of course, the day is won with a bullshit power-up, which is like a running trend throughout all these movies, and a very disappointing one to end it in. Everyone pours their energy to Goku, nevermind that all of them combined didn't even faze Broly at all, and somehow Goku manages to... one-punch Broly, blowing him and the comet up? Yeah, after spending like close to 30 minutes showing off how Broly is just so, so invincible and powerful and untouchable and silly 'mere' Super Saiyans mean nothing to him, he gets taken down by a random 'put all our powers together' and one punch? I get that things like Super Saiyan 2 isn't around yet considering this seemed to be made back during the Cell Saga, but really? A single punch? And apparently Planet Vegeta blowing up isn't enough to kill a baby Broly, but a comet and a punch is enough to kill a roided-out adult Broly?
Yeah, the movie absolutely fails to stick its landing, and Broly's motivations being a crying Kakarot is still pretty fucking dumb, but the movie itself is pretty entertaining. Broly's neatly interesting conceptually, and execution wise his constant roaring, invincibility and occasional jackassery taunting like going explicitly for Goku's child and blowing a planet just to fuck with the alien slaves are a very effective way to build up the villain in the here and now... but really, the movie would probably have been perfect with a couple of changes. Change Broly's vendetta to King Vegeta, for crying out loud -- he tried to get both him and his father killed! And maybe make the mind-control thing have some sort of merit to defeating Broly, or to maybe Spirit Bomb him with the power of the slaves? I dunno. There are so many ways that this movie could've been done so well, but it just didn't manage to do it.
Overall, though, I've watched the Broly movie and I know who he is, and everyone around tells me that Broly is shit in his next two movies, so... yeah, he's all right. I don't fall into any of the camps that super-hate-him or super-love-him. He's a decent enough movie villain with a neat backstory and a relatively neat design, but overall the movie is really hurt by its way-too-long runtime, a crappy ending and a crappy backstory. It's probably the strongest of all the DBZ movies pre-Beerus, though, which is a neat little accomplishment.
It's actually quite good and solid, to be honest. The other older DBZ movies I've watched, Fusion Reborn and Cooler's Revenge, had a mute force of nature and a generic doomsday villain as their antagonists respectively, while this one... well, Broly is essentially the Incredible Hulk, but at least he had backstory -- that he is, of course, THE Legendary Super Saiyan, instead of just being A Super Saiyan. He also plays second fiddle for the first two acts to his more sinister father, Paragus, which is neat.
However, the movie runs for 72 minutes, which is nearly twice the length of either of those two other movies I've watched, and by god the ending just goes on and on and on and on and on with Broly just being reduced to a boring, smirking giant shouting "KAKKHARROTTT" over and over again. Any semblance to the Hulk, or any sort of attempt at making him conflicted over controlling his immense power levels is discarded in favour of turning him into a boring, boring rampaging indestructible monster (which is why I thought Kid Buu was so bland compared to all previous and future canon main villains). And while it's unfair to compare Broly to Kale, who came much later and with a lot of retrospect, Kale essentially starts off the same character as Broly, with the genders flipped... but Kale actually goes through character growth. And yeah, Kale's just straight-up better than Broly at the end of their respective character arcs.
Anyway, back to this movie. In a pretty hilarious WTF-ing of power scaling, apparently Broly has, off-screen and in like what amounts to overnight, a mysterious being destroys the South Galaxy. The entire South Galaxy. (Insert "ALL OF IT?" meme here) Keep this in mind when the climax of the movie hinges on a mere comet. (Oh, and that the entire plot has Paragus go through a long-winded trap to get Vegeta to stay on a planet about to be hit by a comet, when by this logic, Broly could've just hung back and blown up the entire galaxy)
Anyway, this ends up getting King Kai to summon Goku, interrupting a parental interview to a prestigious school, which is just fluff to give us more Chi-Chi antics because pre-Super DBZ was pretty... horribly one-note-joke with a good majority of its female characters. Meanwhile, Paragus shows up with an UFO and interrupts a cherry blossom watching picnic where Krillin's giving some amazingly bad karaoke, and goes "All Hail King Vegeta" which gives our favourite Prince the biggest genuine smile on his face. Paragus is yet another one of those blasted Saiyan survivors, and he wants to apparently create New Planet Vegeta.
Future Trunks is around, and he and Gohan sneak on board the ship because he doesn't trust Paragus. While Roshi is straight up drunk (the dub zigzags about this, with Roshi noting that he is "hung over", but Oolong and Bulma attributing his behaviour not to alcohol, but... "tuna sandwiches"? Oh, silly dub.) and wanders onto the ship, followed by Krillin and Oolong. After a bit of investigation on New Planet Vegeta, the Trunks Squad stumble upon ruined cities and an enslaved race, and Krillin scares off the slave-drivers, the only thing of note he does here before blending into the comedy trio with Oolong and Roshi.
Oh, and this is where we meet Broly, who is meek (but god dang that gravely voice) but oh-so-mysterious. He's introduced as Paragus's son, and Vegeta is just pissed off that all these rumours about the LEGENDARY Super Saiyan ends up relatively fruitless, and he has had enough with this whole 'stay in the castle my liege' crap. Broly sees Goku and gets suddenly angry, and they almost fight until Paragus uses a mind-control device to get Broly to simmer down. It is this that prompts Paragus to tell Goku and Vegeta about Broly's backstory. Or part of it, at least -- Broly's power is so great and he blew up at least one planet and blinded Paragus with an elebow to the face, and he is forced to use the mind-control device to get Broly to simmer down.
We also get some information that Paragus doesn't divulge -- Broly and Kakarot were born on the same day, with Broly boasting a power level of 10,000 at birth which really made be blurt out laughing. Oh, power levels. And also, oh, power levels as a baby. And apparently -- and I kid you not -- Broly is pissed off that baby Kakarot cries for days. Somehow the information that the baby next to him is called Kakarot is stored all the way to adulthood, and this raging vengeance towards a crybaby is the genesis of a rivalry that allowed Broly to break through the mind-control.
Which is the most stupid-ass backstory I've ever seen. Come on, movie writers. You piqued my interest. So he's the Legendary Super Saiyan? And he's got a grudge against Goku? And, as dumb as it is, he has a high power level as a baby? But at the same time... the Legendary, all-powerful Super Saiyan is... motivated by his hate of a crying baby. Let that sink in and can I just say that this is dumb and hilarious. I'm not sure if this is intended to be some pre-Z or Super style comedy, because the entire movie treats the whole Broly crisis as this super-serious and tense moment, but the fact that Broly's motivations is a crying baby sounds like some silliness that belonged in a different movie.
While Oolong and Roshi have some sleeping hijinks, the more competent side cast of Trunks, Gohan and Krillin expose the slavery and Broly's complicity in blowing up planets. Pargaus then goes into a full-blown motive rant, damning Vegeta for the sins of his father, King Vegeta, who failed to kill Paragus and Broly back in the past, being afraid of a child with such a high power level. Somehow Broly is able to save both himself and Paragus from Planet Vegeta's destruction (I buy that Broly's strong enough to survive planets blowing up since he's a magic legendary baby, but also protect Paragus?) and then Broly hulks out, breaks free from Paragus's mind control device, goes into that same berserking green-haired form that Kale homages lovingly in Super (some shots of Kale transforming are even lifted almost directly from this movie, and it's nice that they went an extra mile with the Super homage).
And the Broly just absolutely no-sells every single fighter on the battlefield. Super Saiyan Vegeta does nothing, Goku and Gohan gets whacked, the slaves' planet gets blown up for shits and giggles, a triple Super Saiyan assault from Goku, Gohan and Trunks does nothing, Piccolo shows up just for the shit of it and also does nothing... throughout it all, Vegeta is uncharacteristically quiet and just in utter disbelief, and I really like it. Comparing it to the very flat characterization everyone has in the Cooler and Janemba movies (again, I don't have a wide net to talk about as far as DBZ goes) it's nice that they actually acknowledge Vegeta's obsession with the Legendary Super Saiyan myth, and now faced with its overwhelming power he lost all his bluster and battle-rage. It's not until Piccolo literally tossed him off a building before he gains his rage back.
Not that it matters, because Broly just lays waste to everyone nonetheless. And kills Paragus! There's a very cool scene where Broly just stands still while Goku and Piccolo pound at him from both sides, and another where he drags Gohan's face through a building -- that looked like it hurt.Of course, the day is won with a bullshit power-up, which is like a running trend throughout all these movies, and a very disappointing one to end it in. Everyone pours their energy to Goku, nevermind that all of them combined didn't even faze Broly at all, and somehow Goku manages to... one-punch Broly, blowing him and the comet up? Yeah, after spending like close to 30 minutes showing off how Broly is just so, so invincible and powerful and untouchable and silly 'mere' Super Saiyans mean nothing to him, he gets taken down by a random 'put all our powers together' and one punch? I get that things like Super Saiyan 2 isn't around yet considering this seemed to be made back during the Cell Saga, but really? A single punch? And apparently Planet Vegeta blowing up isn't enough to kill a baby Broly, but a comet and a punch is enough to kill a roided-out adult Broly?
Yeah, the movie absolutely fails to stick its landing, and Broly's motivations being a crying Kakarot is still pretty fucking dumb, but the movie itself is pretty entertaining. Broly's neatly interesting conceptually, and execution wise his constant roaring, invincibility and occasional jackassery taunting like going explicitly for Goku's child and blowing a planet just to fuck with the alien slaves are a very effective way to build up the villain in the here and now... but really, the movie would probably have been perfect with a couple of changes. Change Broly's vendetta to King Vegeta, for crying out loud -- he tried to get both him and his father killed! And maybe make the mind-control thing have some sort of merit to defeating Broly, or to maybe Spirit Bomb him with the power of the slaves? I dunno. There are so many ways that this movie could've been done so well, but it just didn't manage to do it.
Overall, though, I've watched the Broly movie and I know who he is, and everyone around tells me that Broly is shit in his next two movies, so... yeah, he's all right. I don't fall into any of the camps that super-hate-him or super-love-him. He's a decent enough movie villain with a neat backstory and a relatively neat design, but overall the movie is really hurt by its way-too-long runtime, a crappy ending and a crappy backstory. It's probably the strongest of all the DBZ movies pre-Beerus, though, which is a neat little accomplishment.
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