DBZ has been around for a long time. It has spawned many video games and over 10 movies through the years. The manga had over 20 volumes and people still debate the ole Superman vs Goku battle. (The latter easily wins) The old movies for DBZ have been Very good, (Usually getting a solid 8-9) which definitely amped up the pressure for this film. There had been a lot of hype revolving around Goku’s rumored…Saiyan God Mode! Let’s see how the film did.

Well, the plot of the film is pretty basic. Bills has finally woken up from his slumber and he wants to find the Super Saiyan God and do battle with him. Whis informs him that a Saiyan has defeated Frieza and that most of them are on Earth. Goku is training on King Kai’s planet when Bills pays him a little visit. On Earth, Bulma is celebrating her birthday and the whole cast is basically invited. Chi Chi’s dad looks pretty impressive and he seems to have gotten stronger over the years. His appearance definitely suggests this. (Not to mention that he doesn’t seem worried for most of the film) The Z Fighters are all having fun, but they are told that Bills may be coming!

The plot’s good and all, but when you watch a DBZ film, it’s for the fights! The film has several fights sprinkled through the film. The film is less than 90 minutes so they have to make sure and keep the side characters from having long battles. The animation is pretty solid and definitely one of Toei’s best showings thus far. Before I go more into the fights, let’s take a look into the characters. (Yes, I did imply that I would talk about fights in this paragraph, but I decided to move it to a bit later in the review)

Goku is the protagonist and he’s pretty solid. There was something a little off about him in this film. He obeyed King Kai a lot more than usual and even hid from the main villain. Granted, Goku was told to hide, but that was pretty sad. Goku does pull the whole, “I can’t defeat you right now,” trick, which I was never a fan of. Goku’s Super Saiyan 3 mode looks awful, but it always was his worst transformation so ignoring the power levels, (Which will Definitely be discussed) it was all right. Goku’s portrayal was definitely better in the older DBZ films, (Particularly Broly, Cooler, Bojack) but it could have been worse. He still beats 100% of the protagonists in any live action film.

Vegeta is in this film (Of course) and he gets a decently large role. Unfortunately, the writers pull a “Broly” on us. Longtime fans will probably get the reference, but I will explain. In the first Broly film, Vegeta was very out of character and feared Broly. He didn’t even try to help until we were nearly at the end of the film. This gets repeated in Battle of Gods, since Vegeta fears Bills’ true power. He knows that if Bills gets upset, then the Earth will be blown up. Realizing that losing his honor is a small price to pay for saving the world, Vegeta throws it all away. It was one of the worst scenes in the film and was definitely sad. The fights are so good that this didn’t take away any points from the film, but it made things closer than they should have been.

The other characters are mostly obsolete. Gohan dons his superhero getup, but he seems to not be as alert as he once was. He decides to challenge Pilaf’s gang, (In a way) which leads to a bullet hitting Videl. The scene was extremely unexpected and also felt very forced. Gohan could easily stop the bullets and quickly catch them after they were deflected, but he didn’t do it in this round.

This brings me to the Pilaf gang. They were definitely unneeded and they were actually pretty boring. Their subplot didn’t bring anything to the table and can be regarded as filler. They have a plan of their own, but it definitely doesn’t go anywhere. Trunks and Goten are basically here to get beaten up and show how tough Bills is. Piccolo and the other Z Fighters barely even give it a good try. Bulma is present (It is her party after all!) and at least she keeps Bills in line. Unfortunately, bravery is not usually enough to stop a being who can end galaxies in an instant. Master Roshi is basically here for no reason and Shenron looks pretty awful.

We can’t forget about Whis and Bills! I really don’t like Bills as a character and he has far too many comedy moments to be taken seriously. His intro was one of the least epic, villain intros that I’ve seen in a long time and he would have worked better as a Hero. Whis is all right and he likes foods, but the end plot twist didn’t really help him. I don’t like when comic relief characters actually turn out to be extremely powerful. It just doesn’t work like that! I may not like Bills, but I can at least respect his power. Whis? I’m not so sure about his power.

Now, it’s time to finally check out the fight scenes! The first battle scene involves Super Saiyan 3 Goku vs Bills. The fight scene is definitely not as fluid as the others and is easily the worst big fight scene in the film. (“Big” meaning that the Z Fighters and Goten don’t count) Super Saiyan 3 looked astonishingly bad and one would almost be disappointed. I know that I was disappointed in Goku’s performance. Goku has fought enemies like Cell and Buu already. (Frieza was already mentioned in the film and he’s the only one who’s hyped up.) Goku’s hand to hand combat skills are flawless and there’s no way that he would be so outmatched. (2 hits…really?) This was definitely to show how strong Bills was, but it just made Goku look bad.

The next big fight scene would be Vegeta vs Bills. This is where the power levels really start to get dicey. Vegeta is overwhelmed as well, (Since he’s only using Super Saiyan 1. It’s debatable that he was using 2, but I’m skeptical to say the least) but Bills makes the mistake of incurring Vegeta’s wrath. Vegeta lands a couple of solid hits on Bills and he exceeded Goku’s SSJ3 mode. The film really doesn’t want you to miss this, so they make sure to mention it at least 3-5 times. So, even with rage, Vegeta’s Super Saiyan 1 passed Goku’s Super Saiyan 3? Since we know that SSJ3 = 4X Super Saiyan 2 which = 3X Super Saiyan….that’s a reeeeeally big jump. There’s no way that I would ever buy that! The animation for this fight scene was much better than the first and you definitely felt the impact from the blows. It was really short, but that’s a decent price to pay.

The next/final fight was another Goku vs Bills. This was a long fight and had several stages. The animation is top notch and it’s definitely fun to watch. There was one questionable scene where they looked to be in VGA, (Video Game Animation. Looked a bit like Raging Blast or Ninja Storm) but I like that animation as well. Not nearly the same as anime, but good enough. Goku and Bills actually fought in the city for a while, before going underground and in space. The fight was very fast paced and we even got an insert song, which was fun. Whenever a lyrical song appears during a fight scene, you know that things have gotten to their height in epicness. That part of the fight was easily the best and won’t be forgotten. It felt like the Man of Steel film, but if it were animated and 1000x cooler. The fight was very satisfying and it played a large role in the film’s overall rating. Goku finally unleashed the powers of his Super Saiyan God Mode, which was what many fans had been waiting for. (Although it didn’t play a huge part in the battle. His god status did, but the form didn’t help as much)

This did raise some questions about the morals of such an ability. Is it really a good thing to ascend to the realm of the gods? The same gods who couldn’t even beat Frieza? (King Kai!) This film seems to ignore the fact that the gods in DBZ are actually weak and they hype the power up. With Goku’s (Possibly incomplete since Pan couldn’t help much) God Mode, he definitely puts up a good fight. The only drawback is that Bills is basically toying around with Goku. I dunno, I’m all for “Overpowered” characters, but I just don’t believe that he is so much stronger than Goku. This film definitely tried to prove that he is the absolute strongest DBZ character in existence, but is he?

Back to Goku’s God Mode, (Which is a good super form, but a lot riskier than you may think. The time limit seems to be shorter than fusion and the original Super Saiyan God couldn’t stop the extremely weak inhabitants of Planet Vegeta…just saiyan) he essentially cheated to get it. His power level wasn’t high enough to unlock this mode, so he jumped ahead by siphoning off power from his friends. Goku seems to regret this right away and he only did it so that he could save his friends. He really wanted to beat Bills with his own power, but “borrowed goods”. I’m sure that Goku would have unlocked the powers at some point anyway, but it’s too late now. I think I’m inclined to agree with Goku about the morals of such power, but if it’s the only chance to save his friends, then it is definitely worth it. After using it once, Goku’s natural fighting instincts have memorized the pattern and now Goku is essentially a god. What this means, is that all of his forms have been dramatically increased in power.

Upon learning this, Goku uses his Super Saiyan abilities. He probably should have gone to SSJ2 and SSJ3, which would have crushed Bills, but perhaps he cannot? It would seem that Goku may not be able to go past SSJ1 anymore, of maybe he was just too weakened. This could be like Gohan’s Mystic Mode, which stopped his natural Super Saiyan transformations. This also means that Goku will probably never use God Mode ever again, since it is now inside of him. Too bad, since it was a pretty solid form, but it is basically a recolor of his SSJ1. (Which is still his best form) There is a plot twist, which can make things tougher for Goku and pals in the future, but I wonder how. If Goku can still use his SSJ3 mode, but infused with God energies, no being in the multiverse should be a threat to him.

I do need to talk about the power levels a little more. We saw that Vegeta’s SSJ1 surpassed Goku’s SSJ3. That was just one moment where it feels like the movie messed up. I believe that Toriyama has forgotten most of the Cell Games and the Majin Buu saga. Bills even mentions that Goku could not defeat Frieza in his current state. He was probably just talking about Goku’s base form, since Super Saiyan could still defeat him, but that’s just wrong. Goku’s base form is far superior to Frieza at this point and it wouldn’t even be a close fight. Their power levels aren’t even close anymore! Also, this movie takes place before Uub appears, which makes things even trickier. How could Uub hurt Goku, when his strength increased so drastically? I think they haven’t thought things through enough and this is why people say that Superman could win. Goku and friends keep getting stronger, but their feats and power levels are extremely inconsistent. I hope that they do a better job with this in the next movie, but that’s why it’s best to just look at the idea behind the scenes and see the feat that was meant to be, but not necessarily present.

In short, this was a solid film. Their were several negatives and inconsistencies, which hurt the film, but the overwhelmingly great fight scenes were enough to keep them at bay. The threat was real and the animation was pretty solid as well. The ending has a nice collaboration of pages from the manga and near the beginning of the film, we get a little Goku vs Frieza scene. Goku also gets to use the classic Kamehameha wave, which looked pretty impressive. No Spirit Bomb this time, but I can’t really say that I missed it. Hercule gets one epic line which reminds us why he’s so epic. I almost wanted him to challenge Bills! This is definitely a solid movie for DBZ fans to watch and it will hopefully convince people that Goku does beat Superman in overall ability. You won’t regret checking this film out!

Overall 9/10