Dragon Ball Super: Broly [2018]
It is honestly impressive how well Dragon Ball Super: Broly did as an anime movie, but I really think I have to state just how impressive it is not just as a money-making movie, but also as a part in an ongoing franchise. It not only acts as a canonical continuation of the Dragon Ball Super anime, it also is faced with the somewhat daunting task of adapting not one, but two of Dragon Ball's more controversial plot points that have remained ambiguously canon. The first is the titular Broly, who is... a controversial character that has only appeared in movies but has been one of the most popular characters in the franchise. The second is the adaptation of Dragon Ball Minus, an alternate backstory for the Saiyans that is in stark contrast to the very much beloved Bardock special. If this sounds like Greek to you... yeah, Dragon Ball canon is kinda in flux and there are a lot of stuff that exist outside of the main anime/manga canon that is sorta-kinda canon but might be contradicted at any time.
And it does so... beautifully. I have been pretty vocal in that I have never been a big fan of Broly. Having experienced a majority of the Dragon Ball franchise as an adult without the benefit of nostalgia, I saw Broly for what he honestly is -- a fun, throwaway movie-exclusive villain that was decent for the one movie he's in, but ended up getting two particularly shit sequels made. Broly was a decent rampaging monster villain, but he was a far cry from being an actual interesting character -- and that is using the standards of Dragon Ball villains, where villains are honestly more of a huge, extended boss fight than actual fully-fledged characters.
Thankfully, Dragon Ball Super: Broly delivers not only in integrating Broly into a modern-day era of Dragon Ball, but also in actually making him a proper character. This movie basically jettisons every single one of the previous movies, but updates some key aspects of Broly's origin story into this movie. And it's done amazingly well.
My big complaint with Dragon Ball Super: Broly when I went to watch it in the cinema is that it feels... truncated. Particularly in the first half. It's essentially two movies, with the first thirty or so minutes acting as a huge prequel, but it's from this prequel that I do feel that there are things that genuinely felt rushed. We get some genuinely fun bits of backstory that both adapts and alters parts of the Bardock: Father of Goku prequel OVA, showing in a pretty badass moment how Freeza first came to power after King Cold's retirement in a quick display of power.
We also get a surprisingly amazing combination of various plot threads -- Freeza's tyrannical rule and eventual genocide of the Saiyan race; Bardock deciding to send his son to space and lead one last desperate stand against Freeza; and Broly's backstory. Without going into too much details, we do get a genuinely fun integration of multiple plotlines, and working it all into a cohesive backstory by using the Saiyan's disdain of Freeza as a backdrop is pretty well done. Hell, even Freeza showing up and introducing Scouters for the first time even works into the power level comparison that King Vegeta did with the babies. Sure, there seemed to be some truncated scenes between Bardock sending Goku to space and Bardock seemingly leading a futile resistance against Freeza's Death Ball attack, but you get the gist of what's happening.
We get to see how three Saiyan fathers -- King Vegeta, Bardock and Paragus -- react to the Freeza rule. King Vegeta, despite all his talk about pride and strength, is far too willing to bow the knee to overwhelming force, and ends up launching baby Broly essentially to his death for the crime of having a higher power level than his own son. Paragus ends up going off to rescue his son, but ends up being driven more out of spite and anger at King Vegeta's betrayal, and all his talk about Borly being the salvation of the Saiyan race gets symbolically thrown out the window when he shoots the other Saiyan that went with him. Bardock, meanwhile, a lowly grunt, ends up putting the pieces together and figure out that something's amiss, and ends up sending his son to space. Honestly, Bardock gets more depth to him in the brief ten or so minutes we see him in this movie than two entire specials did for him, which is nice.
I'm not convinced that the parallels are truly there, but the little opening sequence of three Saiyan children -- Goku, (Prince) Vegeta and Broly -- as they grow up is an amazingly pretty sequence. And while Goku and Vegeta ended up growing and maturing in their own different ways, poor Broly ends up basically stranded on an island but still continues to train in the pursuit of strength, something that all Saiyans are shown to do.
And then we get to the real meat of the episode, which takes place in the present day. Freeza was last seen in Dragon Ball Super brought back to life and re-gathering his army, the Freeza Force, and it seems to be building up to something big. He ends up being more of a catalyst for that goes on in this movie more than the actual Big Bad, though, because... well, this movie wants to tell a story about Broly and how he comes into conflict with our heroes, and less about 'Defeat The Big Bad Of The Movie', which is definitely well-done.
And Broly's easily the star of this movie. We spend a not-insignificant amount of time with Broly in this movie, and comparisons between Broly and Tarzan is... apt. The relationship between Broly and Paragus is also pretty interesting. Sure, Paragus is only a man, and they have been trapped on a feral island for upwards of 40 years. Throw in Broly's uniquely high power levels and how Paragus has barely been able to control Broly, and it's... it's not right, and pretty damn evil what Paragus did, but you can sort of understand the cold logic reasoning of what Paragus did.
When two of Freeza's goons (which are more irate part-timers than actual soldiers), Cheelai and Lemo, basically rescue Paragus and Broly from the hellhole planet they are stranded in. And we actually end up following Cheelai and Lemo as they go around basically discovering Broly for the first time. Paragus is grizzled and tired, but is still pretty obsessed about getting his vengeance against Vegeta -- the son, this time, now that King Vegeta's dead. But the way that Paragus demonstrates his control over Broly, and just how poor, poor Broly freaks out at the sight of the remote for the shock collar around his neck... man, it makes you really feel for Broly. He might be a rampaging monster, but throw in the genuinely heartbreaking performance that the voice actor did for him when the shock collar gets triggered, little bits of dialogue and animation of Paragus basically telling Broly to not talk to anyone else... and the later story about how Paragus shot off the ear of the only animal he ever befriended just because it distracted Broly from training... yeah, poor Broly's backstory is delved in a far, far better way than the movie trilogy ever did. Also, Cheelai and Limo quickly take to befriending Broly, and one of the acts that Cheelai ended up doing -- which would influence the eventual final act of the movie -- is to steal Paragus's control remote. That's cute.
And while Freeza's excuse to go to Earth is honestly quite petty, the fact that he's just willing to sic Broly onto Vegeta just for shits and giggles is honestly quite in-character for him, especially after the development he's gotten in the later arcs of Super. The little juxtaposition between Bulma's desire of wishing that she grow younger by five years and Freeza's desire of wishing that he gets taller by 5 cm (it makes sense in context) is also hilariously petty and I honestly love it.
And then we get fight scenes as both parties arrive on the Ice Continent in search for the final Dragon Ball! Paragus ends up mostly just being utterly confused at Freeza's expectations of all these 'Super Saiyan' forms, and while Broly ends up being pretty much a match for Vegeta, he ends up breaking out the Super Saiyan, and then the Super Saiyan God form. The animation for the Vegeta-vs-Broly fight is absolutely majestic, particularly Vegeta's God transformation, which is the first time we ever see it animated. And... and I am just going to note that even if you don't really give a shit about the story, the animation for this entire movie is just... it's just BEAUTIFUL. Everything moves smoothly, and the big budget that went into this movie is pretty damn great. The fight between Vegeta and Broly isn't just repeated punchy-punch animation followed by a Final Flash, but an actual, visceral and simply amazing fight to watch.
It's then followed by Broly being enraged and entering a bulked-up Hulk-like state, leading into a fight between Broly and Goku and it's... it's not as spectacular as the preceding Vegeta fight, or the final climax of the movie, but I really do like how Goku quickly realizes that Broly is not like any of his previous (canon) enemies, in that... Broly is being forced to fight. He's neither evil nor willing, and it's a nice little touch from Goku that kinda addresses many of the complaints thrown his way during Super's multiverse tournament arc. Broly isn't being receptive, though, just reduced to roaring in anger. Paragus actually compares this to the Great Ape/Ozaru transformation, and it honestly is a pretty great little nod to earlier Dragon Ball stories while also providing an explanation to Broly's animalistic rage. At one point during this fight we get a genuinely neat bit of Broly just wailing on poor Goku, grabbing him by the leg and just smashing him to the ground repeatedly.
Oh, and Freeza, again, seemingly just for shits and giggles, ends up wanting to experiment. Remembering what triggered Goku's transformation into Super Saiyan on Namek, Freeza shoots Paragus to death and fake-acts about "oh no, how terrible, your father was killed by a stray blast!" Paragus was an asshat who deserves to die, but this does still trigger the Super Saiyan evolution in Broly, which... which is way too much for anyone there to handle.
We get Goku going into Super Saiyan Blue, which is a pretty badass sequence, but it goes by quickly as he and Vegeta figure out that it's not enough to stop Broly, and basically lead Broly's rampage towards Freeza before Goku teleports the two of them away, leaving Broly to basically wail on poor, poor Freeza. Who, again, also deserves it. I thought that the sequence with Vegeta and Goku learning the Fusion Dance honestly went on for way too long, and if nothing else, was probably something that should've been left for the Director's Cut.
Regardless, though, we get the birth of Gogeta, the always not-quite-as-canonical alternate fusion. And it's... it's pretty cool. I've never been a huge, huge fan of either Gogeta or Vegito, since it's honestly just another power-up with a slightly more intricate way of reaching it, but the way this movie portrays it? It's pretty cool. The subsequent fight is... it's basically a huge curb-stomp in Gogeta's favour, where Broly is just barely keeping up with Gogeta as they fight through the lava-encased hellscape and eventually briefly through some psychedelic landscape. It's pretty and exciting, in any case, and while some 3D animation 'cheats' are used, it's nowhere as obvious as this movie's predecessor, Resurrection F. Some particular standout bits of animation is Gogeta's... "Stardust Breaker", I think it's called? As well as that rain of laser beams. 
Anyway, I do love that unlike most one-shot movie villain outings, this fight isn't just about "okay, how do the good guys beat up the bad guy?" It's not like Old!Broly or Janemba or Cooler or whatever, or even Freeza from Resurrection F. As the audience, the intended reaction is to cheer for when Gogeta is beating the bad guy and stopping him from killing everyone, but at the same time, we are privy to something that neither Goku nor Vegeta really knows -- that Broly is a victim of circumstance, and while he is rampaging like a wild dog, he doesn't really mean what he's doing. 
Which is honestly what leads to the real climax of the movie. Gogeta and Broly fight on seemingly equal terms, and then Gogeta gains the undisputable upper hand when he activates Super Saiyan Blue... and then Broly is straight-up about to get vaporized by Gogeta's blast. But Cheelai and Limo have been running around in the background stealing the Dragon Balls from Freeza's other lieutenants, and use the dragon ball wish to basically send Broly back to the planet where he was, putting the poor, tortured soul back where he belongs. Hopefully he meets with his Baah-baah friend again! Goku, eventually, ends up finding Broly on that planet and basically giving him and his buddies living essentials, understanding and comprehending Broly's real nature and being glad that there's another Saiyan out there. After years of denying his Saiyan heritage, it is also interesting that apparently this encounter had made Gokue embrace the name 'Kakarot', which... I dunno. Something I'm somewhat ambivalent about -- I feel like we're lacking a scene where Goku uses Broly as his own stepping stone to embrace his past.
Ultimately, it's a pretty great ending in that it made me really care for Broly as a character. He's a villain, yes, but he's a misunderstood beast and one that genuinely doesn't want to harm anyone but ends up doing so due to the uncontrolled temper issues. The movie ends with Broly alive, basically buddies with Goku, and me walking out of the theater actually liking him and wishing that he'll be a recurring character in whatever comes next.
The movie is, perhaps, a little over-hyped by fan response. But it is definitely a very solid movie, and I genuinely like it. It fixes a lot of my complaints with the previous movie outing (although since this review's gone on for some time, I'll probably talk about Rez F versus Broly as movies in another article), and even fixes a lot of my problems with Dragon Ball villains in general. Sure, Broly is basically just kind of a fusion of Tarzan and Hulk, but that honestly ended up with a character that I genuinely care about. I do have some gripes with the movie, but ultimately? It was such an exciting, fun romp and such a fun little standalone story that I don't actually have the heart to do so.
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