DBZ Movie 2: The World's Strongest Review

DBZ Movie 2 stars the regular gang, and was a vast improvement on Movie 1. Better animation, characters, and more.

SOUND: 7/10 (Above average): This movie has competent sound, but nothing more. The music Is fairly good, but it doesn’t always fit in with what is happening. When it does fit in though, it does its job perfectly, and provides extra enjoyment for the audience. Unfortunately, like Movie 1, there is another terrible little music video involving Gohan. This time he is thinking about Piccolo, and the music that plays during it is unbearable. The little cartoony pictures aren’t too bad though, and if you watch this little music video with the speakers turned off, and the TV on mute, then it can provide a fair bit of amusement. the laugh of Dr Kochen though is the most annoying thing that you are ever likely to hear.

CHARACTERS: 7/10 (Above average): The characters in this movie are all drawn well, with Gohan looking a fair bit older than he did in the previous movie, and everyone else looking cool as ever, especially Piccolo, who to me, looked a lot cooler than he usually does. The main bad guy – Dr Willow – was only a brain in a big mechanical suit, and for most of the film, he just stayed there, looking boring. This was a total waste of him I think, as they could have made a far more sinister enemy, which would make it a lot better. When he turns into the dreadnought-like robot thing though, he looks pretty spectacular. He attempts to blow up the Earth too, and he captures Bulma, with other things too adding to the hatred you give out towards this guy. Dr Willows assistant was good to make us hate him, mainly because of his annoying laugh…..so is that necessarily a good thing? Overall, the characters were quite good, and definitely an improvement on the ones from the last movie. I wouldn’t give them a higher mark though, but only because they are on the border line of an ‘eight’, but just missing out.

FIGHT SCENES: 8/10 (Very Good): The best part of the whole movie for me were the fight scenes. They were exciting and intriguing, as there was never really an obvious winner to them. The final fight was impressive in the way that it looked as though it was all over, but Goku managed to pull out a final trick, and destroy Dr Willow. Anyway, I’m not going to ruin the ending for you, as you can watch it to see the resilient trick.

The other fight scenes are good in the way that Goku actually starts to lose quite badly, and impresses all the time, making you gasp with awe as he manages to brake out of the coffin of ice that he was put in.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the fight scenes to this film, and think that it contains some of the best fights in any movie.

THE START: 5/10 (Below average): Once again, the movie starts with Shenron being called up, but this time the wish is to free someone from an icy crypt. Whilst it is  a different wish, it really isn’t all that original. Dr Willow is freed, and then the bad guy is left to reign terror on the world. It’s been done before. The other thing that happens is that Gohan, Oolong and Piccolo are attacked, and they are all knocked out (Sound familiar). Kinda like the first movie really, where Piccolo is attacked.

PLOT: 6/10 (Average): A nice premise, where Bulma and Master Roshi are kidnapped, and Goku must go on a quest to save them, but it has been done many, many times before. The only good thing is that this is the first time that DBZ had done it. Goku must go through three bad guys (Definitely sounds a  lot like Movie 1 don’t it?) and then the showdown with Dr Willow. It is basically almost an exact replica of the first movie, but with different characters, and the odd plot twist here and there. The part where Gohan sneaked off to fight was a nice idea, as he starts to disobey his mother, and the part where Piccolo is possessed by Dr Willow is another good point, with original features.

THE ENDING: 7/10 (Above average): The ending once again has the main bad guy being defeated by the good guy, although that is what is expected in movies of this sort, so I wont dock marks for not being too original. There are points where you think Dr Willow has the fight won, and parts where you think that Goku will win, but in the end, it all boils down to one last attack from Goku, which is unlike any of the other attacks used, and whilst it was only a small ball of energy (Guessed what it is yet?) it burst through the huge energy beam that Dr Willow shot to destroy the Earth, and after narrowly avoiding Gohan, Krillen and Piccolo, the ball hit Dr Willow and destroyed him.

All in all, there wasn’t anything to write home about in the ending, although it is quite a good fight, despite the fact that it is fairly predictable, and has no major difference to most of the other movies of its sort.

OVERALL: 7/10 (Above Average): A very good DBZ movie, with good animation, and absolutely superb fight scenes. This is a major improvement over movie 1, but has a little bit too much talking to allow it to go up a point above 7, despite the fact that it is very close to an 8.

If the movie didn’t have all of the tedious talking, and more of the excellent fighting scenes, then it would be a real winner. As it goes though, this is still a good film, and worth watching. Don’t go out of your way to buy this video though, although you should see it if it is going cheap, or you need to see all of the films.