If you are a fan of Dragon Ball Super, there is no doubt that you will enjoy this movie. (Just wanted to get that obvious point out of the way first.) As we have seen with the first two Dragon Ball Super films, there is a significant shift in emphasis from the action to storytelling. Not to say that there is any lack of really great fights. Overall, this is a really well paced film with excellent storytelling.
New Origins
For the first forty or fifty minutes of the film, it explores life on planet Vegeta as Frieza takes over in King Cold’s place. Akira Toriyama clearly understands that there needed to be clarification on the Saiyans and their relationship with Frieza. Not just that, but the economy of planet Vegeta was another aspect that required a more defined view. The film works to show distinctions between the higher class Saiyans that live in the city, where castles and tall buildings sit and the lower class Saiyans that live on the surface in huts and small villages. The events that take place to set up Broly, Vegeta, Raditz, and Goku are all changed as well to fit more naturally into the canon. (Yes, they even remember to include Raditz as part of the story, if only briefly.)
New Motives
If you are a fan of the original Dragon Ball Z: Broly film, then you probably know that Broly was a rather one-note character who loses it whenever hearing the name Kakarot because he cried next to Broly as a baby. Things have been changed around a bit now so that everything makes a little more sense. I won’t go into spoilers, but I’ll just say that Broly doesn’t even know anything about Goku until he meets him on Earth. Paragus still maintains his hate for King Vegeta, and therefore his son after the king dies. Bardock also has some extreme changes to his story. It’s a bit more Superman than Dead Zone now (Stephen King, not the Dragon Ball Z movie). Plus, Bardock actually knows his sons names! And that he has two of them!
Brawly
Even with all of the story and lore packed into Dragon Ball Super: Broly, there is still the aspect of Dragon Ball that makes it Dragon Ball, the fighting! I have personally been very pleased with much of the fighting in Super, and this movie does not slow down with keeping the fights interesting. Assuming you have seen the trailers, you may have an idea for what some of the fights look like. But even amidst all the standard sort of attacks that you come to expect with Dragon Ball, Broly brings a good number of unique and interesting techniques to the table. To mix things up even more, there is a variety of artistic styles used throughout this movie, enough to draw my attention away from the action to focus on the differences in visuals between one scene and the next. Again, if you have seen the trailers, you already probably have an idea about this. The film even changes to a first-person perspective once or twice, a first for the franchise (as far as I can remember at least). It was nice too to see a mix of new and returning attacks from certain characters.
Final Thoughts
Again, if you are a fan of Dragon Ball Super already, you will no doubt enjoy Dragon Ball Super: Broly. The film succeeds at establishing a canon version of Broly for Super and a clear look at life on Planet Vegeta during Frieza’s rule. Lore and fights have pretty equal ground in this film without making any part of the movie feel rushed through. For me, it was a little bit visually overwhelming, but still a fun movie overall.
