Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ is the fifteenth theatrical Dragon Ball Z movie, and the second to be personally overseen by original creator Akira Toriyama. The first overseen by him being Battle of Gods in 2013; as such these are the only two theatrical movies to be considered part of the Dragon Ball Z canon. Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ is available to buy from Manga UK, in a variety of editions including a dual-format Collector’s Edition, Standard Edition Blu-ray & DVD and a movie double pack also containing Battle of Gods, again on Blu-ray & DVD. The movie also received a theatrical run in the UK during September and October of last year. This was a resounding success, coming 5th in the official UK Box Office and achieved the second-highest screen average on its opening day being beaten out only by Twentieth Century Fox’s The Martian. The movie again hit cinemas this past week on the 20th for one day only, this time as a Japanese language, English subtitled 3D presentation.
The movie opens with quite possibly one of the funniest scenes in the entire Dragon Ball franchise. Imagine living out a children’s television program, and I mean those pre-schooler shows that seems rather insane to an adult, full of colours, animals, all happy and nice but without a sense of direction. Well, that’s Frieza’s current Hell; I actually feel for him a little, aside from it being hilarious. When Manga UK ran the movie in cinemas back in September and October of last year this scene caused one of the loudest roars of laughter I’ve heard during a screening.
Gohan is easily the biggest disappointment of the movie, essentially being reduced to the role that Yamacha (who is absent from the movie) usually fills, mopping up grunts. It’s a shame considering his popularity amongst fans of the franchise. His luck may have turned around however in the currently airing Dragon Ball Super. Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, another of Akira Toriyama’s more recent creations, makes a few appearances throughout the movie. His role during the movie is mainly to warn the people of Earth of Frieza’s resurrection. Opting to inform Bulma of this urgent matter, things take a turn to the comedic side as do the majority of his appearances, still fun nonetheless.
If there’s one thing to take away from this movie it’s that you should never attempt to rob a bank while Krillin is the on-duty policeman! In all seriousness though, the movie features some awesome fight scenes and comedy moments that long time Dragon Ball will love. If you didn’t get the chance to see the movie while it was in cinemas then you should definitely pick up a copy on Blu-ray or DVD.
Visually the movie looks great as you would expect from an entry into the Dragon Ball franchise. There is some obvious use of CGI throughout the movie especially with Frieza’s henchmen as they dominate the screen at times and during some of the Frieza and Goku fight. Not really any reason to be put off but it is noticeable in areas. Frieza’s new Golden form (I still prefer the white) is a great design; essentially keeping that same iconic form but with a different colour scheme and it works well. I think this was probably the only course of action they could take with Frieza as his final form is just perfection in my eyes and to change it would only garner a negative reaction from fans.
It was nice to hear “Cha-La Head-Cha-La” albeit only for a fleeting few seconds of the quick title sequence. The rest of the soundtrack is largely forgettable apart from the scenes focused on Frieza, which I suppose is appropriate.