Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' is the nineteenth Japanese animated feature film based on the Dragon Ball series and the fifteenth to carry the Dragon Ball Z branding, released in theaters on April 18, 2015. It is the first ever Japanese film to be screened in IMAX 3D and also received screenings at 4DX theaters.
Resurrection 'F' is the second film personally supervised by series creator Akira Toriyama, following Battle of Gods in 2013. The movie depicts the return of the villain Frieza, as well as the God of Destruction Beerus and Whis from Battle of Gods. Funimation announced that their English language dub of the film would receive a limited release in North American theaters on August 4 and it ran through August 13, 2015. Madman Entertainment released the film in Australian theaters on August 6, where it ran through until August 19, 2015.
The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)
With their power dwindling due to the absence of their leader, the remnants of Frieza's army are led by an alien named Sorbet, who decides to revive their master. He then sets off to Earth with one other minion, Tagoma, where they convince Pilaf, Mai, and Shu, who have collected the Dragon Balls to let them summon Shenron instead. As Shenron is unable to fully revive Frieza, he brings him back to life in pieces, which his minions reassemble using their advanced technology over the following two months. Once restored, Frieza plans revenge against Goku, and then kills Tagoma when he objects to this, and learns that Goku has gotten much stronger, to the point of defeating Majin Boo and thus, he decides he too needs to become more powerful. Frieza reveals that, since his power was inborn, he had never trained a day in his life, and so he trains himself for the first time, before returning to Earth with his army four months later. Jaco the Galactic Patrolman travels to earth to warn Bulma that Frieza is approaching, and she gathers the other Z fighters to fight him. With Goku and Vegeta training on Beerus's Planet with Whis, unaware that Frieza has been revived, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Master Roshi, Tien Shinhan and Jaco fight off Frieza's soldiers. Frieza, even in his base form, is more than a match for the five and almost kills Gohan with a single punch.Bulma's message eventually reaches Whis, and Goku and Vegeta travel back to Earth to fight Frieza. Whis and Beerus, the God of Destruction join them in order to eat a strawberry-flavored dessert Bulma has prepared for them, however neither of them care about the outcome of the battle. Despite Frieza's power increase, Goku is able to fight him in his final form with ease, however Goku deduces that Frieza is holding back. The two then agree to fight at full power, with Goku transforming into a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, and Frieza evolving into a new gold-plated form which he dubs "Golden Frieza". Frieza is finally able to gain the upper hand, however Goku and Vegeta soon realize Frieza's greatest weakness. Due to his hastiness for revenge, he rushed to Earth after learning the Golden form. Therefore, the form drains his powers quickly, leaving him vulnerable afterwards.
Goku turns the tables, and eventually gives Frieza the chance to leave earth forever, but is shot in the heart by Sorbet. After torturing Goku, Frieza stands over the incapacitated Goku and offers Vegeta a chance to kill Goku for him in exchange for his own life. Vegeta refuses and transforms into a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form as well, much to Frieza's shock. Vegeta tells Kuririn to revive Goku with a Senzu bean. As the latter moves to do so, Frieza attacks him, but Vegeta intercepts and deflects Frieza's blast towards Sorbet, killing him. Vegeta attacks a weakened Frieza, defeating him with ease. Frieza, fully drained of his power, reverts back to his final form, finally realizing that he cannot win. Frieza decides to destroy the planet, killing Vegeta in the process. Shortly afterwards, Earth is destroyed, but Whis creates a barrier around a small piece of rock to protect himself and the others. While the Z fighters lament the loss of the earth, Goku regrets not killing Frieza when he had the chance. Whis tells him that he has the power to set back time but only three minutes earlier. He does so, and they arrive back right before Frieza destroys the Earth. Goku immediately attacks with a Kamehameha and kills Frieza.
As the characters say their goodbyes to Beerus and Whis, Goku and Vegeta discuss Whis's assertion that, if the two of them were to team up they would have easily killed Frieza. Vegeta states that although this is true, he still prefers to fight alone in order to test his own abilities and become the greatest fighter on his own. Surprisingly, Goku agrees with him and the two share a laugh over having finally found something they agree on.
In a post-credits scene, Frieza returns to hell and is welcomed back by the dancing happy angels, much to his dismay.
The Verdict:
After seeing Battle of the Gods in 2013 and finding myself starting to watch Dragon Ball Super (recently stopped after about 3-4 episodes in since they are retreading over the same familiar territory) over the last few months, I honestly didn't race to the theaters to watch this like everyone else. With Battle of the Gods, I watched in subtitles after "acquiring" a copy months before the N. American theatrical release and I did the same here but this time I waited for the English dub to come around since I actually like Frieza's voice in English, especially since Chris Ayres took over since Dragon Ball Z Kai. Kudos to Linda Young who voiced Frieza in the original DBZ English dub too. Seriously, I've played enough imported DBZ games to the point that I'm sick of Frieza's Japanese voice.From what the bulk of the hardcore DBZ fans are saying online, this film is best viewed after watching episode 6 of Dragon Ball Super to ease confusion with fans, but for the most part it works as a stand-alone film in my opinion. The only thing that was confusing to me was why Goku and Vegeta were training with Whis at the start and no one didn't even bother to contact them about Frieza being back. That and the fact that Bulma is the resident genius and her renown Dragon Ball detection technology didn't alert her or anyone else at Capsule Corporation that all seven Dragon Balls were gathered together. I didn't understand why did the Eternal Dragon make a fuzz about Frieza's body being destroyed before wishing him back to life when Frieza atomized Krillin and it wasn't an issue to bring him back to life, along with the numerous other various causes of death to the other Z fighters throughout the series. Like when is the cause of death an issue to bringing someone back to life in this universe until NOW?
For the most part, I thought the film was hilarious, especially the ongoing rivalry between Goku and Vegeta. I'm glad it's to the point where even the writers can make jokes about it instead of things being so damn serious between them all the time. It was ironic that Whis and Beerus were making critiques on the two Saiyans that fans of the series have been saying for YEARS now, yet this is the first time that someone actually points out their flaws perfectly. The first portion of the film that saw the Z warriors fighting against Frieza's henchmen was one of the stand-out parts for me, ending with Gohan completely being outclassed by Frieza here. Man, if Gohan spent as much training as his dad as he does in his school books like a nerd, he would've beaten Frieza with ease himself without the need of Goku and Vegeta needing to step in and break a sweat. Then again, we saw that in one of the other misc. DBZ movies (Fusion Reborn if I remember correctly...) in the past so I guess we don't have to go down that road again. The action here is pretty much what we've come to expect out of DBZ after all of these years, but at the same time, I didn't think the film looked as visually amazing as Battle of Gods' finale. The CGI cell-shaded style to Goku and Frieza's battle was a nice touch, but seemed like it belonged more in a video game than in this movie. I'm sure most die-hard DBZ fans will love the animation regardless, but that's just my opinion.
Let's not forget the moment that I thought was the funniest part of the ENTIRE movie - exposing Frieza's weakness in his new "Golden" form. Apparently, Frieza ran into the same problem Goku and Vegeta did while trying to reach Super Saiyan 2 during the Cell Saga. Imagine the thought that Frieza could only train for FOUR months and catch up to Goku and Vegeta's YEARS of training with ease. I guess it just comes down to the fact that Frieza is just fucking lazy to do any hard work unless he's motivated for revenge like in this case. I loved how Goku and Vegeta explained it like a know-it all but they were embarrassed like Frieza during the Cell Saga when they (and especially Future Trunks) ran into a similar dilemma.
In terms of narrative, they really gave away the plot twist after Whis explained to Goku and Vegeta that he could reverse time and adjust past events, so when Frieza blew up the Earth in his final desperation attack to avoid being killed by Vegeta, it's not a surprise that this convenient ability was going to come into play. All these years later and Goku is STILL showing mercy. What the hell, man...
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