Category: Letterboxd Reviews

Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, 1990 – ★★★½

The first two Dragonball Z movies were fine enough films, but they did feel a bit like they were still kind of feeling out the format of how these stories should play out. Less interested in giving our characters new scenarios to face, and more interested in just…testing the characters out with the audience and finding a good fit for what would or wouldnt work.

‘The Tree of Might’ is the 3rd film in the series, and I think they’re really starting to move in the right direction with how these things should work.

The film unashamedly ditches the mainline manga plotting and instead reintroduces the Saiyans in a totally different way to the series. But here it feels like an actual experiment in ‘What if?’ storytelling. Turles isnt exactly the greatest villain the series ever has. But I found him a lot stronger a player than Garlic Jr. or the scientists from ‘The Worlds Strongest’.

Theres a lot more interesting visuals on hand in this one, though that does work to the films detriment, as I realised fairly early on that footage from this film makes up about 75% of the western intro seqence for the ‘Dragonball Z’ anime series.

All in all? This felt more in line with what I was hoping a ‘Dragonball Z’ movie would be, a self contained <60 minute ‘what if?’ runaround that has some nice moments, some genuinely dark pieces and just that right twist of light heartedness to let you know your watching something made by Toriyama. I absolutely HOPE things continue to improve from here, but so far? this has been the first one i’ve actually ‘enjoyed’ watching, and that I could see myself watching again.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dragon-ball-z-the-tree-of-might/

by tytdreviews

Dragon Ball Z: The World’s Strongest, 1990 – ★★★

The second of the Dragonball Z movies, and this one has a bit more pep in its step over ‘Dead Zone’, in this one a henchman of a long lost mad scientist uses the dragonballs to ressurect his master. Leading to the genius creating a group of ‘super fighters’ which he wants to put up against our ‘Z’ fighters, with the ultimate goal being to create the worlds strongest fighter.

This one I feel was more worthy of the ‘film’ length runtime, clocking in at just shy of an hour, it feels a bit more grander, theres a bit more at stake, and the fight scenes feel more solidly choreographed. Again, much like ‘Dead zone’ I cant say I ‘Loved’ this one. But I had a more than fine enough time checking it out, and visually this films in a different league. Deadzone felt like an extended episode of the show, this film felt like an actual attempt to do something that the shows budget couldnt stretch to usually. and I apprecitated that.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dragon-ball-z-the-worlds-strongest/

by tytdreviews

Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone, 1989 – ★★½

The first of the ‘Dragonball Z’ movies, and a kind of middle of the road entry in my opinion.

The plot revolves around a mysterious character called ‘Garlic Jr.’ who is attempting to gather the dragonballs in order to wish for immortality, and with it, the ability to take over the world. Goku and the gang end up running into Garlic Jr.s Cronies while they’re hunting the final dragonballs, and all of this leads to a fairly epic showdown with the ultimate fate being a one way trip to ‘The Dead Zone’.

At 40(ish) minutes in length, this plays out almost like a 2 part story from the series. In that sense, theres a distinctly ‘filler-ish’ vibe to this one. I enjoyed it for what it was trying to do, but I wasnt particularly ‘wowd’ by it. Elements of this story would be reworked into the mainline dragonball Z anime as its own arc, and I feel this film handles the plotting better than that arc. But this isnt exactly a ‘must see’ movie for this series…Its a fun enough way to kill 40 minutes. But i’ve definitely seen better.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dragon-ball-z-dead-zone/

by tytdreviews