DBZ Movie 1: The Dead Zone Review

DBZ Movie 1 is the first of the popular spin-off films from the makers of DBZ. It involves the evil Garlic Jr, capturing the Dragonballs, and gaining immortality. Only Goku, Piccolo, and Gohan (with a very low power level) can stop him. It comes down to the decisive battle, where Garlic Jr opens his dead zone, which sucks in everything, and entraps it in a small, dark, inescapable room for all of eternity. I wont ruin the ending for it, but I will tell you that it was fairly unexpected.

SOUND: 6/10 (Average): The sound on movie one was just the regular blasts and smashes that we have come to expect from DBZ, which amuses me, yet it doesn’t provide any extra entertainment though. Whilst the sounds are ok, there is nothing too original, just stuff that has been tried before. There are some really bad sections of music, but on the whole, most of the music is quite good, and fits in well. The one bad section is where Gohan eats the weird fruit, and goes into a strange state, as if he is on drugs or something. The music accompanying the bad dancing is equally as terrible. The sound for this film isn’t the best, but it isn’t too shabby either. It is average, nothing more, nothing less. 

CHARACTERS: 7/10 (Above average): Garlic Jr is a formidable foe, and whilst he has an appalling name, he does actually turn out to look pretty cool (After he transforms) and is quite dislikeable. When he tries to kill Kami, you get a surge of hate for him, which means that the characterization is good. Garlic Jr has a bunch of minions too (3 in fact) which all look fairly impressive after they transform, but don’t have what it takes to become hated more than anything else. When they are fighting, you just want them to die straight away because of their slightly boring personalities. 

The movie has all the regular characters in too, like Goku, Gohan, Piccolo and Krillen. They all utilize their likeability, and their usual skills to provide a fairly entertaining film throughout. The reason why the score was only just above average though, was mainly because of the terrible names, and the small amount of extra characters that were added.

FIGHT SCENES: 6/10 (Average): This is one of the most important factors of a DBZ movie, and unfortunately, this one doesn’t score too highly in it. The fight scenes are many, but they lack the enjoyment of some of the other movies, as there is never really any doubt of who will be the victor. The fight scenes do lack a little excitement too, with the best one probably being Goku against two of Garlic’s minions, both armed with weapons. Although this one is pretty good, with a lot of movement, and speed, the rest are a tad dull, and slow paced, meaning that they are not utilized to their full extent, for in a DBZ movie, fighting really needs to be a of a high standard.

THE START: 7/10 (Above average): The start of the movie has an original premise, but just doesn’t cut it in terms of excitement. It involves Garlic Jr making a wish with the Dragonballs, but the wish was different to most, it was the wish for immortality.

Another thing that happens is that Piccolo is attacked, and appears to die. This was quite a good idea, and was utilized fairly well. On the whole, the beginning of the film was actually quite good.

PLOT: 8/10 (Good): The heroes must deal with an immortal opponent this time, which is something that has never been done before. The two forms of Garlic Jr was an original premise at the time too, where there weren’t any other changelings, as Frieza hadn’t yet been introduced. The twist at the end was good too, as Gohan showed his true power, and impressed everyone by saving his own dad.

It is fun to watch all the way through, and there are some funny bits too, such as where Gohan pees on Krillen's head, and where Krillen runs away from Piccolo when he comes to help.

A good change in the usual proceedings was where Piccolo and Goku sided with each other, and ended up fighting when they thought that Garlic Jr was beaten. When he rose though (Due to being immortal, he can’t die) the two warriors were forced to side once again to beat him.

The way that Garlic Jr was defeated was actually quite good, and impressive. I wont ruin it for you, but it is a nice, unexpected twist which comes from out of the blue.

THE ENDING: 7/10 (Above average): Textbook ending with the bad guy being defeated, but what else would you expect from a movie about good vs. evil. The fact that it was a kid which managed to finish off the bad guy was a whole lot different to usual standards, but it still didn’t manage to save the general dullness of the ending. Piccolo lets Goku walk off, without fighting him, which makes you feel happy inside. Other than that, it was just the regular happiness, and laughter of the gang, and Gohan losing his memory. A better fight scene at the end would have improved this film no end.

OVERALL: 7/10 (Above Average): A good movie, although there wasn’t really anything too ground breaking in it. The few original features were used very well, and were made very enjoyable. The plot was quite good, although the movie was let down by the poor fight scenes, and a variety of bad music. The movie itself it fairly fast paced, but unfortunately, the fight scenes aren’t. Overall it is a fairly good film, worthy of a watch, but don’t go out of your way just to see it.