Goku, Vegeta and the gang are back for the 18th movie in the Dragon Ball Saga. This is the first Dragon Ball epic in 17 years since the 2006 feature. I remember the ramped up excitement when this film was announced and people were pleased that this was going to revive the franchise and bring a new wave of Dragon Ball fans to the scene.
At the start of the film it contains lead in snippets of what has happened so far through the Dragonball epic – fights are quickly displayed from Piccolo, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell & Majin Boo Sagas, which I thought was a nice touch to any Dragon Ball newbies on the scene. We then go on to the first act where we have Kaioshin sensing that Beers the destroyer (a deity of destruction) is awakening and urgently contacts King Kai to let him know. Little did Kaioshin know that Goku was undergoing training with King Kai and eavesdrops in on the news – as you can imagine hot-headed Goku wants to test his skills against this all powerful adversary.
We then get introduced to Beers an Egyptian cat-looking fellow who has been asleep for 39 years with his assistant Whis. Beers usually awakens every 50 years to keep balance in the Universe by destroying a few planets – but in this case he awoke early due to a premonition about fighting a Super Saiyan God. Whis then gives Beers a catch up of what has happened over the past 30 years – he gets told that Frieza has been slain at the hand of a Super Saiyan named Goku. This sparks his interest in the Saiyans and they travel to Goku to see if they can gather more information on where they can find a Super Saiyan God. Goku and Beer cross paths on King Kai’s planet and after a brief sparring match Goku realizes that he’s no match for him and Beer and Whis decend to planet earth to seek further information.
Meanwhile on earth all our old favourites from Hercule to Vegeta are celebrating Burma’s 38th birthday. The party is extravagant to say the least with food, festivities and of course a bingo contest, which the Dragon balls are first prize. We even get to see our old friend Emperor Pilaf show up with his crew to try cause a bit of trouble, but it doesn’t seem to really phase anyone until Beers and Whis show up. While enjoying the many food delicacies earth has to offer Beers easily gets a short fuse and threatens to blow up earth if he doesn’t get his own way. Before Beers hits the heat of the moment – we are graced with Goku appearing at the right time to put a stop to things. Then the true battle begins.
I really enjoyed watching the Uncut version of the Battle of Gods, I found that it had enough Dragon Ball action to keep me satisfied, but still kept a good mix of humor to keep me nostalgic. There was quite a bit of filler in the mid-section of the movie which got a bit long in the tooth – but didn’t mind too much as it gave me some insight into some old loveable characters. The Animation by Toei, gave the franchise an updated clean feel, but in my opinion the use of CG was lacking and probably should have been left out, especially Goku’s godly flames – which just look like a flame video clip had been spliced with the animation. A great movie if you want a fun experience and want to put your brain in your pocket for an hour and 45 minutes – check it out!
A review copy was provided by Madman Entertainment to the author for the purpose of this review.
