Finally, a genuinely good film with Broly in it! Well, the second half is really good, at least. And the version of Broly presented is different in a lot of ways from the previous incarnation, so it's almost a new character; but Broly is still amazing, right? Well... Look, if the Dragon Ball Super version of Broly had been the first one, I'd probably be fine with the character, but having lived with the Broly fanboys since the late 1990s, I'm kind of just done, sorry. Recasting Broly as a childlike innocent forced by his father's hubris to live on a nightmare world for most of his life before happenstance improves his lot is at least more interesting than having him hate Goku because he cried a lot that one time they were babies. The thing is though, Broly is still pretty shallow, even for a DB character; he gets mad and loses control and is really powerful for unclear reasons. Once the fight starts, it's great, on the best looking fights in DB history, hands down, and it manages to stay engaging for most of it, but the time to get there isn't all that great.
What Broly does have is some interesting world-building that I really enjoyed, like having characters who joined Freiza's army for a diversity of reasons and Bulma using the Dragon Balls to keep herself young. That is so bang on for who Bulma was back in the Dragon Ball days, it's nice to see character continuity over such a distance of time. Bra is born, so hopefully we'll have some more of her down the track if we get more DBS at some point, I like that a Sayian character exists who isn't into fighting and would rather spend time at the mall. It makes a nice contrast to Goku and Vegeta, whilst also showing more of the slow integration into humanity that started with Gohan. I think I've asked this before, but why are fans so hyped for Gogeta, but less so for Vegito? I really cannot tell the difference between the two other than the cosmetic and method of fusion. Super Sayian God fusion is pretty fun though, especially with the return of failed fused forms, which was always a nice touch, given how ridiculous the power levels are at that point.
I know a fair few people are big on the Broly soundtrack as well, but I really don't get it. It's just anime music with the characters' names being chanted, nothing special as far as I can tell. I do enjoy getting to see a more devious side of Frieza, who plans and schemes a lot more than he has in the past; making smart choices for the most part and making use of what advantages he has over Goku and Vegeta. The real star of Broly however, is the animation, which seems to draw as much from Into the Spider-Verse and psychedelia as it does traditional Shonen anime, with a fluidity of motion unlike essentially anything that has appeared in DB before. With the continued addition of cell-shaded CGI to help flesh-out the fight scenes, Broly is a visual delight, even if much of it is two or more burly men without shirts punching each other and yelling. Broly probably isn't a good jumping-on point for the broader DB franchise, but I really hope it does indicate what's in the future. More experimental animation, revising Movie characters into better versions and building the setting apart from the Sayians.
No comments:
Post a Comment