|
|
|
|
 |
|
The
Movies:
Funimation continues their release of the Dragon Ball Z theatrical
movies on Blu-ray with another double feature:
Super Android 13 and Bojack Unbound.
The DBZ films aren't as exciting as fun as the series itself,
though
they make nice diversions, and these two are good examples of that. Since they're really short they don't have
any time to catch viewers up on what's going on, so if you're not
familiar with
the characters, stories, and background of the show you'll be totally
lost. For fans of the show however,
these are worth watching.
Super
Android 13:
This movie involves more of Dr. Gero's androids, powerful
human-like machines that nearly took over the world.
In this film, which lies outside regular DBZ
continuity, after Gero died the supercomputer in his lab thought that
it was
Gero and continued to design androids with only one purpose: to kill Son Goku.
Eventually the androids are ready to attack. Androids
14 and 15 track Goku down to a
shopping mall and attack. After saving the
people in danger, Goku, Krillian, Future Trunks, and Gohan fly up to
the arctic
to battle, where there are no bystanders.
While this is a good idea, it doesn't stop the androids from
kicking
some serious good-guy butt. Then,
without warning, Piccolo and Vegetta arrive and turn the tide of the
battle. But then Android 13 shows up and
the good guys take a beating again. Of
course the Z-Fighters (well, some of them) have one trick up their
sleeve: to turn into Super Saiyans. This they then do. But
when Android 13 absorbs parts of #'s 14
and 15, he becomes an unbeatable killing machine. With
no hope of stopping him, Goku has to
remember how he defeated a villain in an earlier movie to save the day.
While this film was mildly entertaining, there's no rhyme or
reason to anything that happens after the battle begins.
Is Gohan about to be killed? Have
Piccolo show up from out of no where to
save him. Are all the fighters near
death? Have them remember that they can
transform. (Why didn't they do that in
the first place once they realized how tough these guys were?) While they do manage to get all of the main
characters into the movie, it's a bit too contrived to be considered
really
good.
Bojack
Unbound:
Sometime after the Cell Games another World Martial Arts
Tournament rolls around, this time sponsored by the mega-rich Mr. X. S.
Cash
for his son. The younger cash wants to
see aliens, so the toughest fighters from around the galaxy have been
invited
to compete in this event. Before they
can meet the extraterrestrials however, Earth's best martial artists
have to
make it through the preliminary rounds.
If they do that, they'll get to battle the alien fighters, and
the last
one standing from that round gets to the final match against the
Earth's Greatest
Champion: Mr. Satan!
While Krillian, Piccolo, Gohan, Future Trunks, and Tien make
it through the opening round with easy, when it comes to fighting the
aliens
something goes horribly wrong. The
outsiders aren't the ones invited to the tournament, but a group of
ruthless
killers led by Bojack. This murderer
had once tried to rule the galaxy and only the combined might of the
four Kai's
were able to seal him in a star. The
seal was accidently broken by Son Goku during the Cell Games, and now
Bojack
and his gang have set their sights on Earth.
Taking out most of the Z-Fighters without much problem, the only
one
left standing is young Gohan. Could he
possibly defeat a creature that it took all four Kia's to best
previously?
This is one of the better Dragon
Ball Z movies, especially
the beginning. It has Mr. Satan, who
I've always enjoyed watching. He's a
comic relief, sure, but his antics are hilarious. The
reactions he gives as he watches the
Z-Fighters win the early rounds are priceless.
He gets caught by crowds of cheering fans every time he tries to
escape,
and when he's finally put into a capsule and sent to Battle Island
to help the Z-Fighters with Bojack's gang its terribly funny. This lighter tone for half of the film breaks
up the, let's admit it, monotony of the longer fight sequences and is a
lot of
fun to watch.
The big battle at the end is a lot like most of the DBZ
movie fights. As a matter of fact they
use a very similar ending in the following movie, Broly: Second Coming. Still, it was enjoyable for what it is, and
the climax is just as exciting as always.
The Blu-ray Disc:
Video:
Like the earlier Dragon Ball Z movies released on Blu-ray, both
of these films were presented with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, and come with
about
the same picture quality. Which means
that the AVC encoded image looks about average.
The lines are soft though the colors look nice, but the prints
to both
films are in less than pristine shape. There
are a myriad of spots, dirt and micro-scratches (including a reel
change mark) that
harm the presentation. Large patches of
color also seem to shimmer slightly, and there was a lot of mosquito
noise in
the picture. While it wasn't a horrible
transfer, this isn't an exciting Blu-ray release.
Audio:
This disc has
three sound
options: the original stereo Japanese track, and two English Dolby
TrueHD 5.1
dubs; one with the Japanese music and the other with the more familiar
(to
region one viewers) US music. I switched
between the Japanese and True HD 5.1 tracks as I watched, and though I
preferred the original track the dub was more exciting to listen
to. The
English 5.1 track was very enveloping, with music and sound effects
coming from
the rear channels that made the movies just more fun, though that was
tempered
by Android 13's voice in the first movie.
His fake southern accent was almost unbearable.
It was nice to hear the original music, which
works much better than the US
music. All three of the tracks were
clean and clear though they did sound a bit flat with both the high and
low end
clipped a little. There was no hiss,
distortion or other audio defects.
Extras:
Nothing, just a series of trailers.
Final Thoughts:
Both of these are good Dragon Ball Z
movies, though I
enjoyed the second one a bit more because of its lighter tone and more
logical
progression. If you've never seen DBZ
before, this probably isn't the place to begin though.
There's no background given and it will just
confuse novices. For fans of the series
however, these are worth checking out.
The Blu-ray disc looks okay though not outstanding and the
TrueHD
soundtrack is good. This disc comes Recommended.
Note: The
images in this review are not from the Blu-ray disc and do not
necessarily
represent the image quality on the disc. |
|
|
|
| Special Offers |
|
|
| DVD Blowouts |
|
|
| Special Offers |
|
|
|
Buy: