I was just going to call it Mighty 7, but unfortunately Stan Lee’s is always ahead of that part. I will admit that adding his name is sure to help the film do well and it’s a pretty epic name, but Mighty 7 would have been an even better title. Ah well, time to see how Stan Lee successfully shows us that we can still have a happy superhero adventure!

The plot of the film is essentially what you would expect from a superhero film. Aliens have decided to invade Earth and it’s up to Stan The Man Lee, AKA, Super Stan, AKA, Stan Smashing Lee to save the day! He was driving and thinking of new ideas when a spaceship crash landed near him. After some hasty introductions, Stan helped the aliens get to his friend’s mansion that is near the beach. The heroes are going to have to learn to follow Stan Lee’s advice if they are going to have any chance of defeating the powerful aliens!!

The main villain is Xanar and his power levels are definitely considerable. It’s not unreasonable to assume that he could defeat several of the heroes in a one on one fight. He’s essentially the Lizard…so he’s a pretty uninspired character. I can’t say that I cared for the villain and I’m hoping that he doesn’t come back for the sequel. He can jump around a lot, but that’s basically all that he can do.

The real villain is Mr. Cross and he’s a member of the government! He seems to think that he’s doing the Earth a service by taking the heroes down, but he has misinterpreted the situation. He actually captures Stan The Man Lee at one point, but things don’t go very well for Cross. One simply does not try to capture someone like Super Stan! Still, this is someone that I can root for as a villain and if the ending is anything to judge by, he’ll definitely be back. I can’t wait to see him defeat Strong Arm and then take on Stan Lee.

Unfortunately, the main team of aliens aren’t very likable. Strong Arm is the leader of the group and he acts as the hero. Unfortunately, he actually turns out to be one of the meanest heroes and he isn’t likable. He doesn’t want to protect Earth since it’s outside of his jurisdiction and he’s always trying to show the world why Lazer Lord is a villain. Strong Arm thought that he saw Lazer Lord commit a criminal act, but he was probably seeing things. He’s just not someone that you can root for. He’s certainly not the next Captain America, but I suspect that the writers were trying for us to dislike Strong Arm. If so, they succeeded!

Lazer Lord is another one of the big players and he used to be a respectable hero. The only problem was that he was framed for destroying someone and then Strong Arm made sure that he was taken to court. Lazer Lord escaped and that’s how we get to the Earth subplot. He wants to save the planet from the aliens, but Strong Arm and the other heroes quickly stop him. To their defense, he didn’t bother to tell them that he was after an alien and they just thought that he had cracked. He definitely could have explained things a little better! He does have the best power (aside from super speed) and he’s definitely one of the tougher members. He’ll be critical in the sequel!

Silver Skylark is Strong Arm’s partner, but that doesn’t mean that she’s quite as petty or annoying. Silver Skylark is always willing to give people a second chance and while she’s not the best fighter of the group, she definitely seems to be more of a hero than Strong Arm. She hasn’t gotten that much development yet, but we’ll likely learn more about her in the sequel. She’s a decent character overall.

We also have Lady Lightning, who has the power of super speed. It doesn’t even need to be said that super speed is one of the greatest powers of all time. She should be invincible right? Relatively speaking, nobody can really match her in this film. Unfortunately, she gets an unneeded origin that doesn’t help her toughness, but it’s tragic……(This film didn’t need any tragic elements to it!) It’ll be tough for any of the villains to realistically fight her in the sequel, so I’m already guessing that they’ll just use plot hax.

We’ve also got Kid Kinergy and Micro. They get to share a paragraph because it’s easy to mix theme up. They’re probably as bland as a character can get personality wise. Micro is decent since he accepted his name so quickly, but it’s hard to root for him. I can’t really root for either of these guys and their origin story didn’t help matters. All teams have their weak link and these guys would be that link. (If not for Strong Arm) Kid Kinergy does have useful powers, so at least that’s a plus.

We can’t forget about Roller Man……yeah, that’s really his superhero name! I’m guessing that he didn’t give Stan the proper respect. He’s all right at best, but he’s basically a Bouncing Boy ripoff. There isn’t really anything that makes him unique and that’s always a bad sign. I do like his voice a lot since it’s about as annoying as a voice can get. He’s essentially mocking the other characters whenever he talks. It’s usually intentional, which just makes things worse for everyone else. Although, the drinking from the toilet scene was pretty unnecessary. (You may want to back away from the TV for that scene!)

(Super) Stan (The Man) Lee is one of the main characters and I can easily tell you that he’s the best character. Stan Lee isn’t a noble hero and he’s only helping the others so that he can get rich and famous. He always looks out for himself and he’s realistic. At one point, he lets Strong Arm know that he can’t help them save the world because he has bills to pay. That’s a man who knows his priorities! Stan’s best line is when he says, “Fear isn’t in my vocabulary!” as the aliens “threaten” him. I gained a lot of respect for Stan in that scene and that’s tough since I’m already a huge fan!

Stan Lee has a pretty incredible car and he doesn’t let anybody badmouth it! One of the very rude heroes tries to do so, but Stan puts him in his place right away. Stan Lee is definitely a likable fellow and he always speaks his mind. If the sequel is to be as good as this one, Stan Lee will definitely have to play a critical role. Seriously, just about every line that he uttered was priceless! Stan Lee even gets his own car chase scene and we see how he handles an interrogation. This guy is definitely made of sterner stuff!

The Animation may definitely take some getting used too for most. It reminds me of the little cutscenes that you may find in a book or a Burger King/McDonalds video game. I’d say that it’s classic 80’s animation and while it’s definitely no DBZ, it can hold its own against today’s modern entertainment. (Hulk Agents of Smash) Hulk may be better in fight scenes, but at least the teeth don’t glare out at you. There is a really sped up scene where the heroes escape from a burning ship, but it just didn’t work. The scene felt artificial as if the writers wanted the viewers to feel a sense of danger. That definitely did not happen!

There aren’t really any fight scenes in this one so I can’t gauge that too well, but it’ll have to rank as the worst fight scenes in a “serious’ superhero film. Teen Titans Go has better fight scenes and that’s a comedy with a little action. It shows you how bad the fight scenes and animation have become in recent years. DC manages to stay strong, but Marvel and even Stan (The Man) lee can’t stop themselves from using animation that gets out shined by media from over 30 years ago. I would go more into the big animation conspiracy in America, but that would get us off topic very quickly and it’s tough to say in a short manner.

So, the target audience throws the film off a bit. They don’t want to really show any fight scenes, but at the same time, we get some tragic back stories. (None of them were necessary btw) The heroes also have the generic moment where they get surrounded by a lot of enemies and then the screen cuts away as they’re easily knocked out and thrown into a prison cell. I never liked that kind of scene because I want to see the heroes fight. Getting knocked around like that makes them look pretty sad to be honest.

Overall, this was a fun throwback to the old days of superheroes. It was pretty fun and I’d say that it was more entertaining than the current Marvel programs on TV. They may have better fight scenes, but the writing wasn’t quite as good as this film. I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel and I’m hoping that Super Stan will get some more screen time. He definitely stole the show in this film and he singlehandedly kept it afloat. I’m also hoping that we get some more fight scenes in the sequel and that the main character looks better. (If not, then he should be written out of the franchise) One problem that probably won’t be addressed is the fact that none of the characters are really likable aside from Super Stan. Still, I highly recommend this film if you enjoyed the good ole days of Superfriends, Scooby Doo, or the 1960’s Marvel cartoons. If you’re looking for something a little more modernized, then check out Batman The Brave and The Bold Justice League.

Overall 6/10

(Spoilers will be included since the Man of Steel ending curse is upon us!) Well, this is the film that we’ve been waiting for since it was first announced. It’s based off of the first Justice League arc in the New 52, but with many significant changes to adapt it for the modern audience. We’ve already had some pretty strong Justice League films in the past, so it would be interesting to see how it stood up to those!

First of all, you must ignore the cover. The cover hints that the animation is the worst that we’ve ever seen from DC and luckily that is not the case. I’m not sure why they decided to use a cover that looks like Kingdom Come style of art, but the live action approach was not necessary and hopefully it won’t affect ticket sales. The plot is pretty simple for the film since it involves a classic alien invasion. These aliens seem like they want to take over the planet and the Justice League members must learn to team up and work with one another. Will they be able to stop these villains!?

I always like to see team origin stories. If DC were to announce that their next film was another case of the Justice League banding together to stop a common threat, I’d still be pretty psyched. The concept doesn’t get old and it’s always fun to see the members meet for the first time since fights will usually ensue. It’s why I enjoyed the recent Avengers film and Ultimate Avengers film so much and why I don’t believe that future installments can pass them. It’s always possible of course, but it’s rare to beat that initial team up!

Since I’m a huge Justice League fan, I will definitely be breaking the film down more than I would for say….A Hulk and Iron Man team up film! (Although the latter should have enough negatives to make for a solid review!) This film is easily one of the best that DC has whipped up and you can expect a pretty high rating, but there were also several areas where I thought that they could improve. I’ll likely alternate between goods and negatives as the review goes on. Let’s talk about one of the most important parts of the film…the characters!

Batman is one of the first fighters to appear and he’s a very good character as you may have expected. There are several scenes that may make you nervous like his first battle against the Parademon. He was actually on the losing side of the battle and that can be a little hard to accept. With a lot of help from Green Lantern, the two heroes manage to subdue the creature. That being said, it may have taken a little more effort than it should have.

Batman got some pretty good props when he managed to steal GL’s Power Ring and we also got to see him take on Darkseid. The big thing that fans were looking forward to was the Batman vs Superman fight and we actually got a rematch as well! Batman looked all right in the 2nd fight and he was clearly outmatched in the first one, but I can live with that. If anyone can overwhelm Batman like that…it’s Superman. He is the strongest comic book character of all time, so it’s only fair. Batman ended up being the best character in the film and he even beat Superman for me in this film, but it may have been due to Superman’s lack of screen time. He basically missed out on the whole climax! A +1 for Batman’s depiction in this film.

Green Lantern is definitely one of the more iffy parts of the film and I’m afraid that it’s one of the film’s biggest negatives. The writers wanted to show us that Hal Jordan is basically a joke who cannot fight for beans. One Parademon is easily overpowering him and nearly destroys him several times. His constructs fall apart far too easily. This is supposed to be funny since he’s constantly talking big, but I can’t say that I liked that. I’m actually a big Hal Jordan fan, so seeing him look so bad was pretty sad.

I actually liked his characterization in the film, but I don’t like the fact that he’s so weak. When Darkseid shows up, Green Lantern is the first one to charge in and fight, but he looks extremely bad. I’m not completely sure who I would choose in a straight fight, (No composite) but either way it would be a very close battle and not as one sided as the film would have you believe. Hal actually gets one of the biggest roles from all of the characters in the film so his scenes can be a little tough to watch for his fans.

Superman is back with his new personality in this film. In the New 52, they tried to make him a little more like Batman. He’s definitely not quite as intense as he was in the DCAU, but he’s all right. I can’t say that I liked many of his lines during the second half of the film, but he started out as a pretty cool character. I still liked him by the end, but his lines about how almost nobody understands him felt a little out of place. It was good to see his skills being used a lot as he beat Batman and Green Lantern without much effort.

Unfortunately, that’s one of the changes that I think the film should not have made. Flash doesn’t get to fight with Superman in this version like he did in the comic. That’s a pretty bad change since I wanted to see Superman’s complete victory! After Superman’s impressive performance in the beginning, he looks pretty bad during the Darkseid fight. He can’t outrun the Omega Lasers and they also knock him out in a single hit. The film also shows that his will power is not enough to stop him from being mind controlled and letting his morals be corrupted. Finally, he gets a chance to change everything and defeat Darkseid, but he epicly fails in that regard. His portrayal isn’t as bad as Green Lantern’s, but he just looked too weak when it counted and I have to say that I do not like his costume/character design. It just doesn’t look right in this film.

Wonder Woman is also sporting a new outfit in this film. As with Superman’s, it definitely does not work as well as her classic costume. I even prefer the Diana Prince superhero uniform that she used during the early 2000s. Ignoring that, she mainly uses her sword to fight in this version and she’s able to use it to beat many Parademons.

Now, I may or may not have mentioned this in the past, but I don’t like when Wonder Woman has a weapon. It would be like Superman drawing a sword…I just don’t get the purpose. Wonder Woman was raised with the Amazons, so they likely had her train with a blade, but it undermines her strength. She fights without the sword briefly, but I wouldn’t have minded if they cut it out altogether. Weapons are only all right if their unique designs help to compliment the hero’s ability or if they lack any ability like the Punisher.

They ended up cutting out Wonder Woman’s most iconic line in the arc from the movie and that was a little disappointing, but she still gets to defeat many Parademons. Wonder Woman also does pretty good against Darkseid and she lands many hits against him. Aside from her appearances with Superman, she’s a good character in the film. Aside from her very inaccurate fight against Cyborg, they did a good job of showing that she is one of the stronger members of the JL.

The Flash is in the movie, but you can easily forget that at times. He definitely has the smallest role in the film since they cut out his most important scene. Sure…he’s there for the final battle and he beats some Parademons along the way, but he doesn’t really do anything important. I still like him more than some of the other members like Cyborg and Shazam, but it would have been nice to see him do more. His super speed is definitely critical to success and he should definitely be able to take care of the alien invasion without breaking a sweat. His portrayal was essentially dead on and the only one that I can say was just about perfect aside from Batman.

Cyborg is in this film since this was during DC’s big push to make him a Justice Leaguer. I wish that they would just give up on that already since I’ll never accept him as anything other than a Teen Titan. His subplot is the only part of the film that you can maybe find a little dragged out. The process of turning into Cyborg definitely took a while and while it was easy to sympathize with him, I wouldn’t have minded if they had just fast blasted through his origin. I actually liked his teammates, but his father was very unlikable. Mocking the sport of Football is simply not done! He definitely should have attended the game and he wouldn’t have missed anything since the action didn’t happen until after the game. It was a decision that the father may regret! (Did I mention that Steve Trevor gets a pair of cameos along with Lois and Jimmy? Well, they look like decent characters, which is good!)

Unfortunately, to “prove” that he can be a member of the Justice League, the film makers hype him up a lot. He defeats Wonder Woman in one hit and while she is not completely passed out, it did enough damage to let the league know that he was serious. He also defeated her in the Doom film. They’re giving him wayyyyy too many props lately and he also gets to save Flash’s life. I definitely don’t mind the character, but they just shouldn’t add him into the films if it will make everyone else look worse. Aside from that, Cyborg is still a good addition to the roster.

Shazam was added instead of good ole Aquaman and it was definitely a mistake. He’s just not a good character and he looks really bad. He is completely missing his power and his attacks seem like they don’t really deal any damage. Instead of using his physical abilities to defeat his opponents, Shazam uses a lot of thunder abilities. As with the whole weapons issue, I don’t like this. If the thunder abilities actually looked good, then that would be okay. Unfortunately, the blasts look weak and it just makes his whole character look weak. Shazam is also mean to the other kids who are around and it’s hard to be sympathetic with him. He’s easily the worst hero in this film. He’s so much weaker than Superman that a Trinity War film will not make any sense if it comes out.

The Parademons get a significant power upgrade in this film and we see them match up against opponents like Green Lantern! They have a good amount of super strength and at first, Batman can barely make them budge with his punches. Later on, they seem to grow weaker and Batman is able to take several of them out. Perhaps their life points are directly linked to Darkseid’s…..or the first Parademon was the leader. That would make the most sense since he was easily the most impressive villain. It’s easy to root for the Parademons and they’re fun villains, but the origin story was a little unneeded.

Darkseid is the big boss of the film and he’s a decent villain. He feels more like a mindless monster than anything, but he does have a mechanical voice. It may help you question whether he is truly alive or merely a cyborg at this point. He is very large in this film and he completely towers over everyone in this film. Unfortunately, like with Cyborg, the producers try too hard to show off how powerful he is. This makes heavy hitters like Shazam and Green Lantern look terrible in the process and Wonder Woman/Superman don’t look as good as they should.

Darkseid constantly takes hits from Shazam and Green Lantern without actually taking any damage and he also proceeds to overwhelm Wonder Woman and Superman. The latter two do all right overall, but it’s because Darkseid is outnumbered and forced to deal with them all. They make sure to show that he could easily defeat them all if it were a one on one fight. He looked very strange when it was crawling on all fours when going after the Flash and it felt like a horror movie. Darkseid is still a cool villain like always, but this is easily his worst incarnation. He comes across like Galactus from the EMH show…less of a character and more of an object. Still, it’s always good to see him take on the League!

The Animation for this film is solid as expected from DC. It’s definitely a lot better than what Marvel is dishing out and I hope that DC continues to use this style for the rest of their films. One problem that I had was with the special effects. The characters all seemed pretty weak during the fight scenes and it was because they took out the shockwaves. Usually when a Strong character shows up, they’ll add a little shockwave effect next to the punch so that you can tell that the character is strong. If you don’t get a shockwave, then you’re not usually a fighter. That’s how the DC films have typically went. Unfortunately, in this film…nobody got that extra effect so most of the hits didn’t really feel like they connected.

I have to say that it is why I was not terribly impressed with the fight scenes. They are definitely a few hundred steps up from Marvel and just about any American superhero dvd that you can find, but at the same time, it’s still not quite as good as Crisis on Two Earths, Public Enemies, or Secret Origins’s fight scenes. They’re very flashy in this film, but you can’t really feel the blows for the most part. I would actually compare it to the new DBZ film. The fight scenes were definitely very high budget, but at the same time, you didn’t really feel the blows like the Broly, Bojack, or Cooler films. I’d say that the film uses speed over power, which is all right in theory, but I just missed the power element to an extent. The fight scenes are definitely still solid.

One area where the film suffers a little is with unnecessary violence. Superman actually destroys one of the villains in the same way that he took out Zod. He may have been mindcontrolled, but it was a very obvious way to recreate what happened in Man of Steel and try to make Superman a little more “hardcore” I also didn’t like the fact that they decided to take out Darkseid by aiming for the eyes. I’ve never liked that tactic since it means that the fight scenes will be a lot more violent than they need too. The heroes also act “edgy” since they throw in more than a few casual swear words. It’s nothing serious for the most part, but it can get a little grating on the ears. You wouldn’t catch that back in the DCAU days! One scene that was not needed either was the origin of the Parademons. It’s pretty gruesome and there were many other ways that we could have learned their origin instead. Superman’s scene didn’t seem to be as graphic as in the comic, which was definitely a plus, but the film definitely had more violence than was necessary.

One last part that could be a little worrisome is how weak the Justice League is. Batman is technically still a human, but it’s the others who don’t look so impressive. Green Lantern definitely can’t fight with the big guns. Wonder Woman and Superman are tough, but they were already outclassed by Darkseid. Cyborg is basically just a human with metal and a cannon and the Flash usually has to deal with plot hax to inhibit his abilities. Shazam is just downright weak. (Which seems to be the latest trend for him. Check out Young Justice) This will mainly just be a worry for Trinity War, but it’ll be interesting to see how they look in the next film. If Ocean Master takes them out…then things could get dicey!

Overall, this was a solid DC film. It’s a really big film (Not by runtime, but by content) so I tried to get in all of my thoughts, but I probably just got most of them in. This is one of those films where you’ll always have extra thoughts and that’s always a good thing. I would’t say that it was quite as good as the original Justice League (Secret Origins and Starcrossed) films or as good as Crisis on Two Earths, but it was definitely one of DC’s best films. I’m confident that it will easily defeat the Throne of Atlantis film as well since we got so much action in this one and we also got to see Batman fight with Superman. It was good to see how the new Justice League are portrayed and while some characters can definitely use some improvement, they got Batman’s character down correctly. That’s always the important part. I’m hoping that they do not continue the Superman and Wonder Woman subplot and that they improve the character portrayal for Green Lantern in particular. I definitely recommend this film for DC fans and you should enjoy it as long as you don’t mind changes to the personalities for the heroes. DC continues to hit us with epic films! (Time to wait for Son of Batman, which I’m guessing will get a 6-7)

Overall 8/10

The latest Pokemon movie was easily the greatest of all time so a prequel special would definitely be fun. Usually, when a film has a prequel episode it can be tricky since the main characters may be absent. I don’t think that Ichigo got to appear when the anime did an episode on the final movie. Luckily, Ash manages to appear in this film and it’s a pretty epic cameo. Let’s just say that Ash will be going places! Could this prequel episode manage to live up to the movie and prove to be better than the average Pokemon episode? Let’s find out!

The plot is pretty simple and I’ve been saying that a lot lately. It’s just the way that the cookie crumbles or how the mashed potatoes is serves I suppose. Mewtwo is fighting three powerful Pokemon when a mountain shatters from the power and hits all of them. Mewtwo is now gravely injured and someone is still hunting him. Meanwhile, a Pokemon Ranger crash lands when he forgets how to properly use a plane and didn’t notice that he flew off in one that was broken. This guy’s a natural expert on plane mechanics and goes to work. An old man his grandson own a cabin on the land and go to help the guy. They meet a very suspicious Pokemon Hunter who says that Mewtwo saved him, but his Pokemon are injured. The Ranger must now help the guy’s Pokemon and also find Mewtwo to recruit him for the cause!

Virgil is the main character of the special and he’s pretty intense. It may make you wince when he forgets that his plane is damaged and when he can’t bluff his way through a sandwich, but it can be worse. He’s an Eevee user and he owns all of the different types. He’s pretty impressive since he became the champion of the Pokemon League in his region. It’s too bad that he couldn’t face Ash since Ash got knocked out during the early phases of the tournament, but it’s how it goes I suppose. Ash always manages to lose the battles that really count. Virgil doesn’t usually take things in stride and he can get shocked very quickly, but he’s still a good guy deep down. He just doesn’t have the natural leadership qualities that Ash possesses and he doesn’t have quite as much experience. His team wasn’t able to put out a simple forest fire, but they gave it their all!

Dirk is the Pokemon Hunter and he should not be underestimated. He was nearly able to defeat Mewtwo in a fair fight and that’s nothing to sneeze at. I did have to question the accuracy of such a feat, but for now I’ll just take it in stride….nah. That was pretty inaccurate and I just didn’t buy it. Dirk isn’t really a great character since he’s a little bit of a one shot and he wasn’t very impressive. He managed to outsmart the main cast, but that’s nothing to brag about. At least he was taken to the proper authorities so that they could put him behind bars.

Anna and Oscar are also in the film, but there isn’t much to say about them. Anna tries to show Mewtwo that Friendship is Magic and Oscar tries to make sure that Virgil doesn’t have a great experience during his stay there. They team up to give Vergil a really spicy sandwich and Vergil doesn’t take it too well. One bite is enough to take him down and he just wasn’t able to stop it. That was one spicy sandwich!

Mewtwo is the main Pokemon of the film, but she isn’t portrayed too well. The problem is that she’s very depowered so that the villains can actually have a chance. I don’t mind that the villains can get some props since I’ve always liked Tyranitar, but that was a little too much. Mewtwo couldn’t use recover and her speed was very inconsistent. I would have liked to see Mewtwo just take out the planet and go from there. At least Mewtwo will be ready for the movie and she was definitely powerful in that film.

Ash also gets a cameo and it’s a pretty intense one. He doesn’t seem to have fully recovered from his humiliating loss in the Pokemon League and watching his rival Vergil win it all must have been devastating. Professor Oak tells them that they should go visit a town that’s not too far away. He’s likely telling Ash this so that Ash can take his mind off of his big losses. Ash continues to lose in the big championships, but at least he gives it his all! Ash came across as a winner in this special and I like to think that he would have won in a rematch.

The only problem with this episode is that it feels like they were trying to make everyone look bad. The voice acting was definitely over the top and they felt as if they were talking in slow motion for some scenes. I hope that this isn’t the case with all of the current episodes, although it could be a little funny I suppose. The only problem is that good scenes won’t sound as hardcore and bad scenes will sound even worse. It’s a risky gambit so I hope that they know what they’re doing!

Overall, this was a fun episode. It’s pretty nostalgic to see the gang once again and Ash will always be an inspiring hero to all! I wonder if he still plans to catch them all, but he probably just wants to become the Pokemon Champion. It’ll be fun to finally see him fulfill that objective in the Kalos region. It’s also good to see Mewtwo again and the mega transformations never get all. It’ll be awesome if Pikachu learns how to do that in the anime. The soundtrack and animation were great and it felt like they were aiming this at the movie crowd. They probably grabbed some movie animators as well, for better or for worse. I definitely recommend checking this special out, but if you are watching the anime then you’ll come across it in time. I also recommend checking out the film right after you watch this episode so that you can watch as Ash’s Pikachu takes on Genesect!

Overall 7/10

I watched the Trigun series not too long ago and it was pretty fun. It was probably the first anime that I’ve seen in a while that could make an old wild west fight actually be fun. (Granted that this isn’t the same “Wild West” that you see in the films. The film came out pretty recently so it would be interesting to see how the animation has changed over the years. It wouldn’t be as nostalgic for me as it would be for the original fans since the gap between the show and movie was relatively short in my case. That being said, I was ready for anything!

The plot involved Vash The Stampede…also known as the Humanoid Typhoon as he saves the life of a notorious villain called Gasback. Since Vash opposes death in all cases, he lets all of the villains get away. 20 years later, Gasback is back and he wants revenge on the three underlings who betrayed him. He enlists the help of Wormwood, who cannot refuse because he owes his life to Gasback. Vash happens to be in town and he must protect everyone while also making sure that nobody dies in this big adventure. Meryl and Milly are also around because they can’t afford to let Gasback win and break the statue in town. If he does, then the insurance company may be out of business for good! A bounty hunter by the name of Amelia is also in town and she has a personal vandetta against Gasback. Everyone heads to the same town with their own reasons and the fight starts!

Well, this film was a nice throwback to the old days of Trigun. Vash’s character is definitely like his older days, but I’m afraid that it’s not a really good thing. He can be a solid character in some scenes, but he’s very over the top when it comes to Amelia so it’s really hard/impossible to root for him. He’s just not the noble main character that you would expect to see in this film. He’s really powerful and he doesn’t have a challenge in the whole film since the villains are mere mortals, but he likes to give them a shot to fight back. He pretends to be weak while he beats the opponent “by accident”. At one point, he steals everyone’s bullets in the blink of an eye which is an impressive speed feat and shows just how much of his abilities he is holding back.

Gasback is the main villain of the film and he’s all right. He’s not very impressive as far as villains go, but he’s good with a gun. He just doesn’t strike fear into the hearts of the heroes because he isn’t a threat. He gets some character development and he’s one of the nicer villains since he doesn’t always destroy people for no reason. He just wants to commit the perfect crime.

Meryl and Milly are still around as per usual, but they don’t look incredibly good. Milly still has her gun at the ready and likes to insult people to their face, but she doesn’t get much of a role. She still looked a lot better than Meryl. Meryl ends up getting drunk and she tends to panic a lot more when it comes to Vash The Stampede. I definitely prefer Milly as a character and she tends to take things in stride while Meryl panics.

Amelia is the main heroine in this film and she has the tragic backstory that comes with most characters who are introduced in an anime film. She’s a decent shot and she has some decent combat skills, but I wouldn’t say that she was necessary to the story. She’s a decent bounty hunter and she has a grudge with Gasback, but she is usually just attacked by other bounty hunters or harassed by Vash The Stampede. At least she manages to keep him away for the most part, but getting drunk at the bar didn’t help her case either. She’s a decent character in the end, she certainly could have been worse. (Naruto movie 5 heroine)

Wolfwood was one of the cooler characters in the TV show, but he doesn’t look that good in this film. The main villain saves his life so he decides to work for him for a while, but this job involves dangerous operations which will prove deadly for a lot of people. Wolfwood doesn’t seem to mind since his “honor” is on the line. I didn’t find anything honorable in his actions and it made him seem like a pretty bad character. His portrayal was definitely bad in this film, but it happens to everyone at some point. (Vegeta in the Broly film)

The animation in this film was decent, but not really that great. It definitely didn’t help me gain any respect for Mad House. (Studio Pierrot is where it’s at) They may have been trying to give it a bit of a dated feel since it takes place in an “old” setting, but it just could have looked so much better. I would actually say that the TV show can hold its own to the movie in animation and that shouldn’t be possible. The film came out in 2010 so I was expecting something a little more polished. That being said, there wasn’t anything wrong with the animation. It was solid, but it looked more like an average episode than a big movie.

I still have to wonder why everyone fears Vash The Stampede! He got a huge rep, but I don’t really see why. The whole moon incident was intense, but nobody should believe that and everyone who does see Vash either thinks that he is faking or quickly becomes scared of him. Vash walks around in public all of the time and he’s always a nice fellow. I don’t really see why the reputation still persists, but I do like his “Humanoid Typhoon” nickname. It’s also cool to see everyone yell Vash The Stampede whenever he appears.

I do have to say that Gasback’s big invasion towards the end is very hard to believe. There are dozens and dozens of bounty hunters and Gasback just runs right up the middle. He was not in a tank and he had no real protection as he just blasted away at them all. There’s no way that all of the bullets and rockets would miss the guy and he should have been down for the count instantly. There is nothing superhuman about this guy and he’s just an average joe. He’s actually pretty old because he was already old before the 20 year timeskip. The plot hax was strong in those scenes, but most films have a few of those scenes I suppose.

Overall, this was a fun movie. It was nice to see Vash and the gang fight a new opponent. That being said, it was more like a homage to the old series than a full movie. It was movie length and technically, it was a big adventure. The thing is, since there was no threat and we didn’t really get any fight scenes until the end, it just felt more like a side story or a filler episode. This film just didn’t have a cinematic feeling to it and in that regard it’s like the OVA that DBZ came up with where they just had fun and had a brief fight at the end. It’s fun in its own right and you’ll likely still enjoy the film if you haven’t seen the show. That being said, I’d recommend the show a little more highly than the movie.

Overall 6/10

Naruto may not have always had the best movies in the past but things have been shaping up. The first Shippuden film was a lot better than I had expected and Bonds was decently good as well. It wasn’t until the third Shippuden film that I saw true greatness in what will probably stay as the best Naruto film of all time. With things looking up, could this film truly make it in the big leagues?

I should mention that I did not have very high hopes for this film. I figured that it would definitely be one of the worst Naruto films since it involved time travel and there wouldn’t be a really tough humanoid for Naruto to fight. Turns out that I underestimated this film and it ended up being one of the best Naruto films of all time…one of the best films of all time period! Avengers, Titanic, Man of Steel…and even Godzilla pale in comparison to this film. This film completely decimated my guesses of how good it would be on every level and should serve as a staple for how to do things right in several areas.

The plot involves Naruto and Squad 7 (Minus Kakashi while adding in Sai and Yamato.) (I’ll never count those two as members of Squad 7!) as they head off to stop Mukade. Right from the start you can tell that this villain means business and he does his best to destroy Naruto and friends. With the help of Sakura, Naruto makes quick work of the first enemy and they head into the shrine…but they’re too late! Mukade has already started to absorb the seal and now he can rule the entire universe! Naruto quickly chases after him along with Yamato. (Who’s basically copying Naruto) Sakura also attempts to go in with them, but Sai stops her and keeps on proving me right when I say that he’s an awful character. They won’t appear again until the very ending of the film.

Naruto lands in a place that is filled with giant towers and he’s attacked by a group of mecha robots. (Not all robots are mecha so it’s not redundant…I hope!) Naruto is quickly overwhelmed due to major plot hax and the fact that he was slightly unprepared for this battle. He’s saved by fellow Leaf Shinobi who quickly run away and leave him to fend for himself. Naruto ends up saving a queen by the name of Sara and fears for her safety. Can he protect her and save the world universe from Mukade?

This film doesn’t waste any time and there are fight scenes basically every 10 minutes or less. The film opens up with a great action scene involving Squad 7 fighting a puppet master. Afterwards, we get a very emotional and epic moment where the seal starts to unravel and Naruto quickly charges in. Then we’re lead into another fight with the puppet robots and fight after fight after fight. The final battle starts at around the halfway mark of the film and lasts until the end which is around 40+ minutes. That’s pretty impressive for any film that isn’t DBZ!

The soundtrack in this film is one of the highlights as it may be the best soundtrack that I’ve encountered in any film. Yugioh 3D Bonds Beyond Time may give it some competition in that regard, but this film may actually take the title. Every fight scene has a great theme to go along with it and the seal unraveling scene also had a great opera theme. There’s also a piece that is basically techno mixed with rock and it sounds awesome on all levels. I can’t think of any bad themes in the film and nearly all of them were battle themes anyway. This is one of the few films that you can almost watch purely for the soundtrack. It’s just that good!

The animation is pretty solid and it feels a lot higher budget than the other Naruto films. This one actually felt like it could have been a theater film and you could tell that they put a lot of effort into it this time. That explains why there aren’t any scenes where the film really drags on and why the fight scenes are so good. This film has enemies that can shoot lasers!!!!

Character wise this may have been one of Naruto’s best appearances ever. Even his canon moments would have a hard time competing with his scenes in this film. This film encompasses all of Naruto’s good traits while leaving out all of the annoying ones and I dare say that he’s essentially a perfect main character in this film. Naruto was definitely under powered in this film, but he never gave up and continued to try his best. I wish we could see more of that in some of the other current stuff out there. Sakura started out as a pretty good character and she was on pace to have her best appearance in a long time, but Sai wrecked her epic moment and then she spoiled the ending. If not for the ending, then she definitely had a solid role, but we can’t just forget the ending. Yamoto was pretty awful, but he’s never been a good character anyway so that’s hardly surprising.

Sara is the character added for this film and I wouldn’t say that she was a great character either. She refused to believe things even when they were perfectly obvious and not even hidden from her. That was pretty disappointing and the fact that she didn’t really put up a fight just made things worse. When you can’t tell that the people cheering for you are puppets, it’s time to put on the glasses and retire from being a Queen. Considering the suspicious circumstances, I don’t understand how she got to be so close to Mukade and I don’t know why she waited so long until she decided to close out the energy. That seemed like it should have been obvious to her from the beginning since she could see energy and all.

A lot of the hype for the film was because of the 4th Hokage appearing which is why I’m glad that I wasn’t exactly thrilled for this. The 4th Hokage looks pretty bad and very weak as well. His partners weren’t likable character either and Minato’s final scene is pretty awful. He spends the whole film hiding from the villains and he’s just not a cool character. He was completely out of character and it was a little disappointing but this film can’t be perfect in all areas I suppose.

This is a film that I highly recommend to everyone. Naruto finally looks like a true main character and aside from the fact that his abilities are toned down, he’s a very solid character. The battles are really good and while the enemies aren’t humanoid, the music makes up for that easily. The film isn’t very long, but you’ll love every minute of it. You haven’t watched a truly epic Naruto film with 5 Star music until you’ve watched this one!

Overall 8/10

Pokemon is one of the greatest franchises out there. It has spawned many different manga, books, games, movies, and also got an extremely popular TV series. This film got a lot of hype since it would be the return of Mewtwo! I can say that this fact attracted me to the film as well and I could not stop my expectations from rising drastically. I’m glad to say that the film succeeded where others have failed!

The Genesect are looking for their home and wander about a snowy mountain. There are five gray Genesect and the Master Genesect. His color scheme is red and he’s vastly stronger than the others, even being able to manipulate them through telepathy. Mewtwo comes to help them out of a pinch when an avalanche occurs, but a fight breaks out and the Genesect escape. Mewtwo heads after them and then we cut away to Ash and friends. I forgot why they are here, but they’re having fun at the Pokepark when they’re attacked by the Genesect. Pikachu puts up a brave fight, but he’s outnumbered and these guys do have some impressive abilities. Ash and friends ditch the guy who was giving them a tour (Technically he left first, but they’re the main characters so we get to reverse the roles) and get ready for the climax.

The rest of the movie is essentially a very long fight scene that features the Genesect taking on Mewtwo, Feraligatr, and some of the other pokemon who are out there. The film is barely over an hour, but it is still impressive to see a Pokemon film that has more action than talking. One would have thought that we were watching a DBZ film!

Before I go deeper into the fights, let’s talk about Ash Ketchum, who happens to be from Pallet Town. His first line is great and while I don’t remember it word for word, it was something like, “I feel Awesome!” That may not have been the exact quote, but it was something to that effect and it was the perfect entrance for a man of his caliber. His friends didn’t look as impressive with their opening lines of dialogue. Unfortunately, Ash goes downhill fast from that scene.

When Genesect attacks, Ash quickly retaliates with his heavy hitter, Pikachu. Pikachu is able to block two beams at the same time, but Ash doesn’t give him any backup and he ends up being seriously injured. Instead of turning his cap around and throwing out Charizard, Ash seems to freeze up. It’s a good thing that Mewtwo was around! Later on, Ash makes a nice promise with Genesect to get him back to his home, but he’s pretty cheesy about it.

Also, Ash doesn’t make the best decisions. After hearing Genesect’s proclamation that he will destroy them all, Ash tries to stop Mewtwo from taking him down. Mewtwo’s not going to destroy him, but he does need to teach Genesect a lesson. Unfortunately, Ash gets in the way, which could have jeopardized everything. In fact, Ash doesn’t help out at all during the climax and the situation may not have been as dire if he and Pikachu had attacked as well.

I should mention that Ash’s brainwashing/time travel seems to be getting more thorough. He doesn’t even recognize Mewtwo and acts like he’s never seen such a being before. The anime really needs to address this issue before it’s too late. Did Ash go back in time so that he’s 10 again? Did someone brainwash Ash? Was Ash abducted from time right after he started his journey and skipped all the way to this region? It would explain why he’s lost all of his experience, but most of the plot holes would still be around. I think that the writers have dug themselves into a hole in this issue.

There’s not much to say about Ash’s friends. They were essentially a non-factor and didn’t end up helping at all. Cilan seemed a little intimidated the whole time and Iris was too busy showing Ash up at every corner to actually fight. Yes, things were definitely up to Ash as far as the humans were concerned and he didn’t end up helping. Team Rocket appears and they get one of the highest budget scenes in the film, but it’s just a small cameo.

Let’s talk about Mewtwo. Mewtwo has the same origin, but she’s not a guy in this version and we don’t get to see her casually destroy an island by powering up. She’s a decent character, but she could have been a lot better. She gave Genesect way too many chances to launch a sneak attack by trying to reform him. Genesect is basically a machine at this point so why would he change? Ignoring the scene in space, Mewtwo just needed to take him down. Not for good, but at least knock some sense into him.

Mewtwo does give us a glimpse as to how Mega Evolutions may look in the anime. She can casually transform into her Mega form at will and it doesn’t seem to drain that much energy from her. Moreover, Mewtwo doesn’t need a long time to recharge before transforming once again. In her Mega form, we see Mewtwo casually crash the sound barrier and probably enter light speed. Mewtwo’s ability to slow time/use super speed is definitely useful. Mewtwo has a large array of attacks and we got to see several that had not been used by Mewtwo in the past.

Genesect is a pretty good Pokemon and the red one was my favorite. Finally, a Pokemon who is ready to rumble and also wants to destroy all who oppose him. Genesect made for a great antagonist and he’s one of the better pokemon out there. He’s easily Top 50 and probably a lot higher than that in the grand scheme of things. Genesect’s speed is very impressive and the only Pokemon who could possibly keep up with him would be Deoxys, Mewtwo, and Pikachu. I really can’t see any other Pokemon matching that level of ability.

Let’s get into the fights, this film definitely knocks the others out in this area. Mewtwo and Genesect actually fight in the middle of a city, which was really awesome. At one point, Genesect rams Mewtwo into a building and they chase each other across the entire city. It was great to see Pokemon moving at such high speeds and they can both take some solid hits. At one point, Mewtwo has to fend off the 5 of them and she actually does pretty well. Mewtwo is still the ultimate Pokemon (Except for Deoxys and that one is still arguable) and she proves it in this film.

Mewtwo vs Genesect is definitely the best fight of the film, but we also have the 4 regular Genesect against the Pokemon Army. Feraligatr was basically the leader of the resistance and it was nice to see him getting some respect. Feraligatr is one of my favorite Pokemon and I’m glad that he didn’t cower in fear like the others. After seeing his bravery, the other Pokemon step in to fight as well. A pair of Geodudes attack the Genesect and the other Pokemon all jump in the action. Persian actually lands a pretty decent Hyper Beam on one of the Genesect as well. At one point, the Pokemon army is actually winning, but then the red one came back and basically annihilated them all. Ash could have helped to prevent this, but he was still frozen. There is a pretty big opportunity that was missed with Charizard. He appears towards the beginning of the film, but then he doesn’t do anything until the very end. I would have liked to see him go up against Genesect. Since the film put an emphasis on the fact that Charizard was there, I figured that he would have done something. At the very least, I wanted some sort of fight, but Charizard didn’t get any action in the film.

Mewtwo realizes that Genesect is pure evil and that he’s not going to stop. Every second that Genesect stays on Earth is another Pokemon that may be eradicated. Mewtwo ends up making the Ultimate choice..which I won’t say due to spoilers. Let’s just say that Mewtwo was put in a very similar situation to what Superman went through in Man of Steel. Zod’s about to destroy some people so Superman did an evil act to stop him. Mewtwo has the same option available to her and I’m sure that many would have cut her some slack if she made the same move, but Mewtwo is a true hero. Superman is as well, but not in the Man of Steel movie. The decision that Mewtwo makes is one that I’d been saying that Superman should have done for ages. Ever since I saw Man of Steel, this is what I thought should happen. I’m glad that Mewtwo used this method so now I can show people an example of what I believe Superman should have done.

Aside from the awesome fights, there were some disappointing things in the film. Mostly, it’s the fact that the Pokemon had a lot of “Anti Feats” Fire was shown to be greatly lethal to the Genesect. In one scene, they seem to forget that they have super speed and energy blasts as they cower away from a little fire. A cannon almost falls on one of their heads so Ash quickly uses Pikachu to deflect it, but they act like Genesect would have been seriously hurt. At one point, Genesect launches a direct attack at the building and there isn’t even a notable crater. Is the film saying that a very powerful energy blast can’t even blow up a building, or at least make a nice explosion? I definitely don’t buy that! Mewtwo faints and loses power after entering space, but Mewtwo should be fine. Her energy and defense are more than enough to withstand the rigors of space.

There were many scenes that undermined the Pokemon and made them look like they were weaker than Bakugan, Yugioh, and Monsuno. I’m not saying that they’re stronger than those guys, but Pokemon do deserve a level of respect. This movie acted as if they were extremely powerful…compared to other Pokemon. I felt that it was like Bionicles. To the average person, their abilities seem tough…against someone who’s tiny. When you have powers, your size shouldn’t matter so much. In the film, Mewtwo’s blast should have blown up a country and likewise with Genesect. The force of their speed should be enough to blow up the buildings around them! To an extent, I can overlook this, but it shouldn’t need to be overlooked. Aside from Ash looking bad, that was my only other major complaint with this film.

This is easily one of my favorite Pokemon films and I don’t think that any of the other ones coming up will be able to pass this one. This film had the best fight scenes in a Pokemon film and things finally felt a little more high budget. The fight scenes looked like Dragon Ball Z’s new Battle of Gods film and that’s definitely a plus. I expect Ash to look better in the next one since that was something that should quickly be addressed. I highly recommend checking the film out, Pokemon isn’t kid stuff anymore!!

Overall 8/10

Pokemon Origins is a Pokemon special that got a lot of hype. Not only would Red finally take center stage as the main character, but Ash and friends are nowhere to be found. The first few seconds will confirm what you may have begun to suspect…this isn’t your classic Pokemon show! The animation is less colorful and Saturday morning style. Instead it plays out more like Summer Wars. The two animation styles are extremely different and Summer Wars type is considered to be far better than, the classic Tai Chi Chasers. (For example) This can be arguable and it’s all about preference, but it does help to set the tone for the movie. (Personally, I do prefer the TV show animation, but they’re both solid) The fight scenes are also pretty impressive in the special.

Pokemon Origins is significantly darker than the Pokemon show (Although, I don’t want to mislead you into thinking that this is Death Note. Just picture the Pokemon anime without all of the little kids and the colorful animations. Also, there is murder and the stakes are a lot higher. Like I said…this isn’t your classic Pokemon episode!) and the dangers have never been more real. The beginning starts out pretty similarly to the Pokemon show as Red and Blue head to Professor Oak’s lab. I could have done without the Red tripping (for no legitimate reason) scene, but it wasn’t awful. Just out of character, but we’ll get more into that later.

Professor Oak wants Red and Blue to complete the Pokedex because he is too old for such things. Red obliges while Blue decides to become the strongest in the world. He’ll fill out the Pokedex as well…in all due time! He quickly challenges Red to a battle, but made sure that he had the type advantage. Charmander doesn’t do so well against Squirtle and it’s a lopsided battle. The director really wanted to stress how much grimmer this special is, so we get to see Charmander yelling in pain for a very drawn out scene. It was definitely unneeded and may wreck the impression that Pokemon battles are all about having fun. That isn’t always the case, but I would have been satisfied with a simple victory. Also….Charmander should really be able to make the fight a little closer than that. This scene definitely should not have been in the special and makes you wish for a 4Kids edit. Well, just make sure to quickly turn up some music for this scene and you’ll be okay.

Red realizes the importance of becoming stronger on his way to completing the Pokedex. He slowly starts to learn the ropes and he even takes on Brock. The special covers the entire video game so they have to skip a lot of things. They only have 60 minutes to cover many hours of content. It’s definitely a tough job, but they do a pretty good job of it. We get some montage scenes and narration to keep us in the loop. We also get to gauge how much we’ve missed based on Red’s GBA screen. He has to save the game sometimes, so you can follow him along via the play time.

Eventually, Red meets up with Giovanni and they have their first fight. It was pretty epic, but I’m not sure that Charizard would go down so easily. Giovanni is tough and I’m not doubting that, but so is Charizard. That guy definitely won’t go down without a really tough fight! It was one of Pokemon’s few true night scenes and it was definitely epic.

Another one of the scenes that got a lot of screen time in the special was the…..GHOST TOWER!! Red and Blue go in, but the ghost scares the living daylights out of Blue. Blue quickly lets Red wrap things up, while he goes on to fight the Team Rocket members. The story is a little sad since Team Rocket ends up murdering one of the Pokemon. It’s pretty unbelievable and while they did it to show us how “Evil” Team Rocket is, it was pretty unnecessary and made Marowak look bad. How could a fully evolved Pokemon lose to a mere human and his whip? I don’t think I buy that and I think that any Pokemon should be able to beat a human. Humans lack the speed and attack power that Pokemon possess so it should be a quick victory for the magical creature. So, that scene was really uncalled for and definitely hurts the film, but it won’t traumatize you for life or anything. It’s just something that you wish you had not seen.

Well, that aside, things really heat up once Red clobbers the Elite Four. Blue is the final boss and he has some truly epic lines. He even says that he’s the strongest Pokemon Trainer on the planet! With that last line rocking you to the very core of your being, he throws his Pokeball. The battle starts so suddenly that you may be left in shock. Red does the only thing that makes sense in this situation and gives Blue a good fight. Professor Oak was a little cruel since he was late. If he had been on time, Blue could have gone into the legendary room of fame, since Red wouldn’t have made it yet. Ah well, you win some and you lose some right?

Unfortunately, Blue doesn’t regain his pride and he takes another loss to a mysterious Pokemon. Red goes off to avenge him…or just to see the Pokemon. He has a pretty climatic battle with this opponent and he even unlocks the power of the Mega Pokemon! It’s truly an epic moment and it means that Red has beaten Ash to the punch yet again.

Let’s talk about the main character, Red. The anime special had a lot of hype to live up to, since Red is known as one of the coolest main characters on the block. He’s a very no nonsense fighter and many have come to accept the fact that Red is the greatest Pokemon Trainer who ever lived. When the first trailer popped up, warning bells sounded in many heads. Could this rookie really be Red?

In the special, Red does mature as the series goes on, but is this the character that we all grew up with? He’s not quite as quiet and professional as he used to be, but Red is still a solid main character. He’s at his best towards the end of the special. He may not be the Pokemon Master that we’ve come to expect, but that’s all right. If we are being honest, there’s no way that Red could possibly top his reputation. He’s already known to be the perfect main character and we can’t ask for much more than that. The special still gave him a good role and that’s what counts.

Blue (They call him Green, but Blue is how I know him. We both know who I’m talking about anyway right?) gets a good role, although he looks pretty bad in the haunted part of the special. Not only is he afraid of ghosts, (Which is bad enough already) but he actually considered ditching Red and a helpless civilian. Definitely not hero material and while Blue may act stuck up, he’s a good guy deep down. He was really awesome when he made the speech in the final part of the special and had many good lines. He’s definitely a solid rival and gave Red a run for his money.

There aren’t really any other characters to talk about. Professor Oak gets a small role and appears very briefly. I’ve never been a big fan of the character and that didn’t change with this special. Giovanni had a cheesy scene at the end, but I’m glad that Red was able to get through to him. That took guys, courage, and epicness!

One thing that we can’t forget is the soundtrack! The special had an incredible array of themes that will blow you away. They really make every scene even more exciting as you are watching the special. They’re definitely nostalgic to hear and it shows that music is something that is timeless. I’ll still be enjoying these tunes 50 years from now. The music was definitely a solid positive that helped to improve the whole experience.

This is definitely a special that I recommend. You may miss Ash and pals, but you can always watch the new Mewtwo film to see those guys. This one is a nice change of pace and we get to see what Pokemon could have been. Imagine the whole anime series like this and it makes for a nice “What If?”. Hopefully we get a sequel to adapt the next games or a full series someday. Aside from the one scene with Charmander and the Marowak scene, I can completely recommend this film to all ages. You can rest assured that you will definitely enjoy this film. The music, animation, fights, and characters are all solid and that’s a very good thing for a special. With all of those positives, how can you not watch it!?

Overall 7/10

Long name eh? Well, Transformers Prime was such a success that they went ahead and added a movie. This would maybe clear up some of the loose ends that the show didn’t wrap up and give us a complete ending to the series. While that proved to be a little too much to ask for, the movie did give us some more robot action! So, how did it go?

Well, Unicron has woken up and he wants to destroy Cybertron. To accomplish this, he wakes up Megatron and decides to inhabit his body. Meanwhile, Optimus Prime and Wheeljack head to space to find the Allspark. It’s a noble endeavor, but they left the other Autobots on a hostile planet with Decepticons and Predaking. I definitely has to wonder if Optimus Prime’s decision was a good one. In another subplot, the other Autobots decide to look for the Decepticons who are still hiding somewhere.

If you’re wondering what the Decepticons are up to this time, they’re still cloning the Predacons. They’ve created two more of them and they manage to crush two of the Autobots. Because of this, Ultra Magnus doesn’t really get to do anything for the whole movie. PredaKing still rules the dead Predacons, but it’s a pretty lonely existence.

Well, I think the problem with this film was that it juggled too many subplots. The different story lines were all over the place and the film just wasn’t long enough to show them all. Many scenes were rushed while others were longer than they needed to be. Optimus Prime and Unicron has their climatic fight, but it was only 2-3 minutes. Maybe 5 at the most. The fight was over before it had even begun.

Starscream and Shockwave are really the last two Decepticons on the loose since Knockout is captured aboard the Autobot base for the most part. Towards the end, he looks even worse as he makes a critical decision. Starscream does pretty good for the most part and he even fends off two Predacon warriors. His ending is pretty ambiguous, but I’m confident about his chances. My key reasoning is that Shockwave is attacked by dozens of Predacons at one point, yet he appears almost unscathed towards the end. If he could defeat them while stuck in his alt mode and being crushed, Starscream can definitely take 3 of them on.

Bumblebee’s voice is still hard to get used to. Why does he always get a “hardcore” voice? First he sounded like Ichigo Kurosaki in War For Cybertron and now he sounds like Batman Beyond. I still don’t care for the character, but at least he sounds cool. The other Autobots weren’t especially cool either and they just lacked something. Not even Optimus Prime could stay epic as he had to rely on underhanded tactics and team assists to finish his fight. Some Autobots like Arcee and Ratchet get the shaft. Arcee doesn’t really get to fight at all and she acts pretty out of character for some of her lines. Megatron’s ending was definitely good, but it was definitely cheesy. Ah well, we can’t win them all!

Either way, we’re here for the fights, not the characters or the plot! The fight scenes are pretty good and the best one was probably Ultra Magnus and Smokescreen vs the two Predacons. Unicron against the majority of the Autobots in the base was also pretty fun. Unicron definitely had a lot of cool abilities and his fights were fun to watch. I just wish that he could have fought for a little longer.

Spoiler alert, Shockwave is still out there! I think that there is definitely room for a sequel. With Optimus Prime gone, Bumblebee can be the new leader until Rodimus steps in. Shockwave can hire some new recruits and then the series will have restarted. Maybe he could even bring in Soundwave. If anything, I think that this movie would lead in pretty well to Regeneration One if not for some major plot lines.

One pretty positive thing about the film was the soundtrack. They threw in a couple of good opera musics and there was even a retro G1 theme thrown in there. The music was fun to listen to and it made the film more enjoyable. Any scene is always made that much better when there is a good beat to listen to.

The Dinobots do not appear in the film which is pretty sad. I was definitely hoping that they would appear, but I guess we’ve got Transformers 4 to look forward to for that….maybe. The Predacon army was all right, but while they were a lot of them, they didn’t really stand out. Once again, the Autobots were heavily outmatched, but they made it to the end thanks to a lot of lucky breaks and bad aiming on the Decepticon side.

The review may have had a lot of faults with the film, but it was still good. It’s definitely best if you look at it as a few lost episodes instead of as a movie. I think that the series finale was a better end to this part of the franchise, but this one is still good. It does not feel like a film since they kept in the theme song and it didn’t look higher budget, but one could argue that it makes the film more nostalgic. If you want some good popcorn fun, then you should enjoy the film. Of course, if you want the perfect robot experience, you’ll need to check out the original Transformers movie!

Overall 7/10

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