RESURRECTION F IS A WASTE

TONY T. - Editor-In-Chief, 3rd Year, Economics and Data Science

"I've finally done it. I've finished writing about the modern-era Dragon Ball films."

For me, the Dragon Ball revival project starting from 2013’s Battle of Gods has been an assortment of highs and lows, though leaning more towards the latter. While certain aspects have been fun, such as a greater emphasis on character interactions by way of slice of life episodes, as well as certain interesting new cast additions like Goku Black and Zamasu. Even then, I find that those slice of life episodes pale in comparison to the well scripted episodes of the franchise’s original run from 1986 to 1997. Additionally, the new cast additions were almost entirely never properly integrated into a functional story, with the promising Zamasu story arc dissolving into a convoluted mess that actively tripped on both its own themes and those of the original Cell arc, particularly in how the character of Future Trunks was treated. Beyond all that, newer Dragon Ball media seems entirely content on reusing old material with a differently colored coat of paint. Even when it seems illogical, new Dragon Ball will bring back elements that worked for the original series in new contexts that generally ruin the impact that they once had. Perhaps there’s some irony in making these assertions in my eighth article on this franchise, but I’m probably not witty enough to actively capitalize on that with any sort of punchline. Well, other than the subject of this article.

Resurrection F kind of encapsulates everything wrong with Super-era Dragon Ball in its title itself. To be blunt, the resurrection of Frieza is an entirely idiotic concept that is quite transparently a cynical move to bring back the franchise’s most iconic antagonist. The issue comes with how Dragon Ball shifted as a story after Frieza’s arc, with the subsequent Cell arc focusing far more on longer term character arcs particularly with Son Gohan, and the following Buu arc having a plethora of random plot threads, some of which were followed up fulfillingly. Frieza simply has no proper role in post Buu arc Dragon Ball, given his prior place as a cunning genocidal maniac running throughout the galaxy, which the series generally stopped caring about once threats started following the characters back to Earth without the need to explore the cosmos. Dragon Ball GT explored that different setting, but that series generally was not as tonally serious so as to warrant a character like Frieza returning, especially because it had more unique antagonists like Baby and the Evil Dragons which played on themes pervasive to the entire franchise in clever ways. There is absolutely no justification for Frieza’s return that is not based on cynical capitalism.

But don’t get me wrong: I love capitalism. I’m literally an Economics major. The very franchise this film belongs to is a direct result of capitalism. Not only is it sustained by capitalism, but one could argue Dragon Ball as a whole is an example of a property utterly consumed by that economic system. I like Dragon Ball GT, itself a product derived likely from cynical capitalistic attempts to continue the franchise in attempts to sell more crap. This is obviously my personal perspective, seeing as many don’t enjoy GT, but the difference between a GT and a Resurrection F comes mostly from how much effort was placed into writing. GT is obviously flawed, but it still contains a wacky story unlike any other in the franchise, placing its characters in unique settings against novel antagonists, culminating in a truly grand finale.

In spite of its rather dull premise, Resurrection F could have perhaps done something interesting with Frieza’s return. After all, Dragon Ball Super managed to make the ages-old fanfiction concept of “Evil Goku'' actually work for a bit. For that matter, that same series did make yet another Frieza return rather engaging during its Universal Survival story arc. I don’t attempt to appear as if I know something that your average viewer doesn’t, but I cannot rationalize Resurrection F’s existence as anything other than the product of lazy corporate writing. As it follows Battle of Gods, Resurrection F admittedly has a dubious task of lining up a more modern Dragon Ball, with inconceivably strong characters and all, with the character of Frieza. However, this task only exists because of the bizarre need to bring back Frieza to begin with.

With that context aside, Resurrection F is also rather hard to judge as a film. Most of the first thirteen Dragon Ball Z films are generally derided as nothing more than action spectacles that exist to perpetuate merchandise with vaguely defined characters and storylines. They almost always follow the exact same structure wherein a never-before-seen character interrupts the main cast whilst they attend to some miscellaneous mundane task, thus necessitating roughly forty minutes of nonstop fighting before an arbitrary power increase in the main characters allows them to stop said antagonist. Resurrection F follows this structure, yet is somehow far more arduous. The main culprit is the film’s runtime, which goes for 94 minutes, almost double most of the franchise’s cinematic releases. What this entails, given how the film uses the same structure as the other films, is a ridiculous slog of fighting that takes up almost the entirety of its length which has little to no consequence for the actual plot. Frankly, the film’s narrative is something that I don’t even need to explain in great depth as it’s exactly as advertised - following Frieza’s revival at the hands of his army’s remnants (via the Dragon Balls), he invades Earth, prompting the main characters to fight him.

While Dragon Ball has never been a series I consider to have much (intentional) depth, Resurrection F kind of hits a new low in terms of literally being an hour and a half of fighting with no particularly good narrative justification or rationale. Action series, while obviously drawing audiences for segments featuring physical conflict, necessitate proper plots to actually feel impactful, which simply doesn’t exist for this film.

Hence, any further discussion of Resurrection F relies on surface level elements, which it fails at as well. Going by the low, low bar that this film’s premise inherently sets, it still fails to have interesting fights as the animation quality suffers with many scenes feeling extremely flat. Scenes do not feature particularly engaging movement, with much of the film’s production feeling like that of a television series, not a feature length picture. The CGI character models used in certain large scale battles do not mesh well at all with the film’s flatter digital art style resulting in even the fight scenes feeling clunky and uncompelling. For that matter, most of the film’s fights lack a certain level of weight given the ridiculously inhuman feats the characters are capable of, coupled with the fact that the characters are drawn with very little detail. In some of the series’ most important fights, like, say, the main fight in its Saiyan arc, an important aspect is how much damage the characters show physically, as it properly indicates the level of tension each segment is supposed to convey. With Resurrection F, I find this is lacking, with the particular character designs as the likely reason why. The designs give off a very plastic and shiny feel which simply does not mesh well with the way the battle scenes are directed. It also results in rather stilted character movement as the designs do not lend themselves well to fluid movement.

Comparing this film to, say, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, it’s apparent how that film’s reworked designs offer its animators far more freedom in how they choose to depict movement, resulting in far better action scenes. For that matter, I believe this comparison is apt in explaining the issues with Resurrection F. Neither Resurrection F nor Broly are particularly excellent narratively, but the latter film manages to at least inject some engaging character drama that makes the audience actually care about what is happening on screen. Beyond that, Broly is an actual spectacle. The animation cuts in that film are truly spectacular and give off the impression of a truly legendary fight between three beings of godly abilities. Goku and Vegeta’s Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan forms have a truly divine feel to them emphasized by the film’s use of colors and character auras. Similarly, Broly’s final form has a raw and ferocious feel. It’s extremely stupid, but under this low standard, Broly succeeds. On the other hand, Resurrection F lacks even the elements for a dumb popcorn film as its three main focuses in Goku, Vegeta, and Frieza are rather poorly drawn, animated, and colored. The protagonists’ Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan forms, beyond being an idiotic concept, are not portrayed in a manner that gives them any sort of weight. Even in this superficial level, then, Resurrection F is kind of a complete failure in every aspect possible.

By writing this article, I don’t necessarily mean to disparage Toei Animation’s intentions in making a dumb popcorn action film full of fights in order to wow their target demographic of children into buying toys. I can rant on and on regarding why I enjoy Dragon Ball GT and how it brilliantly concludes the entire Dragon Ball universe, but the reality of the situation is the Dragon Ball is a marketable intellectual property that, in a capitalistic society, should be used to generate profits. The fiscal success of Dragon Ball should have no impact on my assessment of the franchise’s actual films and television series, but it does give a solid explanation for why something like Resurrection F exists. Despite this, something like the later Broly film illustrates to me that, even if we take this more cynical perspective towards the impetus for media creation, Toei Animation has the capacity to do better with more engaging action scenes and direction. While it was a given that I would find it to be an artistic failure, Resurrection F equally fails at being cynical mass entertainment. It succeeds at next to nothing beyond perpetuating the Dragon Ball brand for later entries to actually properly follow up on and therefore I consider it to be one of the most off putting things I’ve ever watched.