#that crack ship got me out of nowhere which brain dead idiot at toei thought that was a good idea

[dragonballer1]

OKAY SAW THE MOVIE and I have thoughts about it’s structure and core ideas see spoilers under the cut

SO LETS GET INTO IT

so besides all the perv pandering (like that one full five second shot of every crevice of bulmas ass? Really? Plus poor cheelai)

I thought the movie was a lot of fun but it lacked key emotional themes which makes it differ from the broly movie. Super hero tries to talk about generational expectations and strengths but fails in that attempt because it doesn’t apply enough emotional attachment to fatherly figures to make it like. An actual theme

None of the characters felt like they had enough time to express themselves or develop in relation to the idea of growth compared to father before them, and in addition there isn’t any emotional weight out into the idea. Gohan doesn’t talk about it, magenta only mentions it, pan says she can’t see her father as a fighter but never grows away from that view explicitly (only like smiling and hugging her dad), only piccolo actually comments and connects the dots on gohans potential in relation to his father and his ability to grow. There was so much potential here to have an impactful story but the time that could have been spent building up that emotional attachment was taken away by exposition and even more exposition in a really slow start to the movie

Here are some ways it could have been done differently

- make hedo either want to live up to his grandfather or feel like he needs to be an android builder because of him. This makes it so the idea of generational expectations is established early in the movie and makes hedo sympathetic because of it

- have hedo be a more explicit father figure for the two androids. That way you can have the androids foil that generational expectation by having hedo realize he doesn’t want his creations to die for him or try to live up to his image, but to be the best version of themselves. This make gamma 2’s sacrifice carry more emotional weight since it changes the character of hedo and gamma 1

- have pan explicitly say that she wants to live up to her father and that’s why she wants to rush her training. This allows for gohan to see how important training is to her and how he’s neglecting her as a parent. He could say that he just cares about HER, not what she can do, so her discovering her power on her own time has real emotional weight to it. Or have pan not want to be like her father at all and becomes inspired throughout the movie that her father is indeed super strong and can push her to her limits with her own power through that inspiration. Pan had a lot of potential to grow in relation to gohan but instead was relegated to the side for more piccolo shenagins.

- have gohan talk about the expectations of being the son of goku and how it makes him feel, maybe have some say that he shouldn’t feel like he needs to live up to him (like his mom?) But it doesn’t sink in. This sets up gohan having that character growth later, that he can be strong in his own way

- more explicitly father coding the relationship between gohan and piccolo. Then the approval at the end, and using piccolos techniques, carries more emotional weight

ALSO this movie needed a better editor there should have been more cuts. The entire scene with goku on planet beerus could be cut with no difference in the main story, it adds nothing and wastes time in an already slow beginning. The end credit scene was enough. Cut some of piccolos adventures in the beginning, cut the exposition scene at the beginning (since it’s all parroted again anyway) and have it be explained to the audience as the movie goes on, maybe at the same time Hedo learns it. I’m really surprised they didn’t go with that, it would have added more legitimacy to their whole “bulma is evil” set up if the characters in the story actually argued against it

Although I loved the humor, they should have cut some of the slow beginning which, though filled with lovely slice of life, just goes on and on before the plot gets started

Overall the movie is solid, a good 6/10, but it could have used more production time and editing to be stronger. It had some real ideas on what to say about gohans power and piccolos usefulness but just couldn’t stick the landing

ALSO WHAT WAS THAT BEERUS X CHEELAI CRAP—