Fish and Cherries Productions

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, contrary to popular expectation, did not have the characters powering up for 80% of the movie. However, that doesn’t prevent it from being more than a little flabby. The most particular grievance is in the middle where the movie dives into some self-indulgent fan service that really doesn’t add anything to the story and would have been cut were this not a 20th anniversary special. In fact, a lot of the comedic bits kind of dragged in the middle, which is a shame because I actually appreciated the comedic focus and how it wasn’t so obsessed with being serious like the Dragon Ball Z series was. While we’re on the subject of comedy, I absolutely loved Lord Beerus as the villain and how unlike any other series antagonist he is. He’s threatening and imposing, but also goofy and amicable, and while I think his motivations are a bit petty, I at least appreciate that he keeps his fights with the small-time heroes brief rather than drawing it out. I would honestly say that beginning and end of the movie were great, but the middle could have used some work. So while it was great to see my old heroes in all their beautifully animated glory (and the animation was beautiful, despite some awkward CGI during the final fight) and I did walk out of the theater feeling good, I think the movie is a pretty mixed bag. This is definitely a movie for DBZ fans and I think everyone else will just feel lost and bored. On the whole, I’d say this was just like a ninety minute episode of the TV series, but given how little happens in any given episode, I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. It’s more like someone condensed an entire arc into one movie… and forgot to take out the filler episodes.