“Revival of F” is an immensely enjoyable film, greatly improving over the almost jokey nature of the first film. The soundtrack is typically old-fashioned DBZ flare, zooming in and out with quirky chants and roaring guitars to elevate the more “Oh shit!” moments. But the Japanese cast do a fantastic job as well, one-upping their game when it comes to screaming transformations that must’ve done a number on their throats. Not to say its necessarily bad, but my choice of voice acting is mostly towards the talented English cast who provided the best voices the show could possibly attain. Having watched the film in Japanese, there’s very little I can honestly say about the voice actors. Simply put, the animation equates to a 90-minute assault on the eyes, especially evident in all its breathtaking and gorgeously animated fight sequences. Backgrounds are now textured and feel more alive as opposed to being paintings like in the series. The character models are also well-shaded and very kinetic, not bound to stiff animation. There was definitely time thrown into the big climax as well, where it seems most of the budget went. The fight scenes are fluid, fast-paced, and provide incredible amount of detail and depth rarely seen in any modern action anime today. “Revival of F” boasts the most jaw-dropping animation in all of Dragon Ball history. They appear, and serve the purpose of nostalgia, but don’t expect much from the lower end, especially Gohan, who undergoes a disappointing “cool dad” transformation. None of them are given the opportunity to really showcase their strengths, and often it’s overshadowed by the fact that Frieza could break their spine with his pinky finger now. However, apart from those three, the rest of the Z fighters arrive in disappointing fashion. He’s menacing without seeming hideously overpowered, and is pretty much the scene stealer for a large majority of the film. With Frieza actually posing quite an intimidating challenge on the Z fighters, he also shines as a worthy antagonist that everybody came to love and hate from the series. And for fans of Vegeta, you’ll be more than happy with this film, trust me. Goku and Vegeta are the stars, front and center, and make it known that they have the spotlight because of their pure badass charisma alone. Unlike “Battle of Gods”, the film decides to take its characters a bit more seriously this time around.
#DRAGON BALL Z REVIVAL OF F MOVIE#
And God bless this movie for delivering on all those fronts. The film never overtly explains itself for why Frieza had to make a powerful comeback other than two idiots taking a piss in space and stumbling on Frieza’s DNA, but let’s be honest, we don’t watch DBZ because we wanna get too immersed in its shallow story, right? We came here to see ultimate transformations, flashy attacks, and a lot of screaming. A lot of complaints that popped up usually resulted around flame wars about how Super Saiyan 3 Goku could easily annihilate Frieza, so what would be the point in bringing him back? Well, your guess is as good as mine. Now, granted, it’s nothing spectacular at first to hear about the return of Frieza. This is, until two bumbling minions decide to collect the remnants of Frieza floating in space and revive him with an ultimate power using Shenron. Goku and Vegeta have disappeared with Beerus and Whis to train, while the rest of the Z fighters we’ve come to love are enjoying a blissful life on Earth. “Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F” takes place a little while after the previous film “Battle of Gods”. And after watching the latest “Dragon Ball Z” film, as a 22-year old guy, I honestly felt the need to do that again. Much to the dismay of our parents, who constantly thought we were having a hernia. We spent joyful days pretending to scream our lungs out so that our hair colour would change a golden shade. I watched marathons upon marathons of the show, and memorized every single attack to show off to my friends the next day, who all took pride in performing the most effective invisible Kamehameha ever.
There was a time in my life when “Dragon Ball Z” may have been the most important thing next to food for my survival.