{"id":54543,"date":"2022-08-22T05:39:06","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T09:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=54543"},"modified":"2022-08-22T05:39:12","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T09:39:12","slug":"dragon-ball-super-super-hero-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2022\/08\/dragon-ball-super-super-hero-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero \u2013 Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NOTE: This movie is available in both an English-dubbed version and a Japanese version with English subtitles. This review is based on The English-dubbed version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Here we are with another anime movie based on a property that is entirely unfamiliar to me. Actually, that\u2019s not true \u2013 I\u2019ve at least heard of \u201cDragon Ball\u201d (though this is the first time I haven\u2019t seen a \u201cZ\u201d attached) and I know its main character is named Goku. That\u2019s more than I can say for recent big-screen versions of \u201cDemon Slayer\u201d and \u201cJujutsu Kaisen,\u201d but I know it isn\u2019t much help. Just remember that everything that follows is from the perspective of someone who is very late to the \u201cDragon Ball\u201d party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The film largely follows characters that are descended from supposedly familiar players. Evil tycoon Magenta, the son of previous villain Commander Red, teams up with Dr. Hedo, the brilliant-but-arrogant grandson of evil scientist Dr. Gero, to reform the defunct Red Ribbon Army and create androids that can take over the world. Hedo creates formidable fighters Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 as a sort of warm-up. The two think they\u2019re superheroes working for the good guys, hence the film\u2019s title. But Hedo\u2019s real assignment is to perfect Cell Max, a massive being capable of unimaginable destruction. I hate it when villains seek to cause irreparable damage to the planet in the name of ruling it \u2013 do they really want to take over a massive crater? \u2013 but clearly Magenta is set on going in this direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Opposing the new evil alliance is Piccolo, a humanoid alien and former adversary of Goku, now an honorable fighter that previously trained Goku\u2019s son Gohan and is currently training Gohan\u2019s daughter Pan. Piccolo wants Gohan to join the fight against the new Red Ribbon Army, but Gohan may have gone soft since settling down with his family. Perhaps Piccolo can reach out to some old friends for help. Or maybe he can use wishes from a Dragon Ball to make himself more powerful. Wait, that\u2019s what the Dragon Balls do, grant wishes three at a time? Quick, somebody use a Dragon Ball to make the bad guys evaporate or something. Someone comments that Piccolo has too much pride to use a Dragon Ball wish like that, but what\u2019s everyone else\u2019s excuse? Actually, the wasting of two Dragon Ball wishes is probably the funniest scene in the movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            By the way, there\u2019s a subplot about Goku and friends Vegeta and Broly on a planet controlled by Beerus, the God of Destruction. All Goku and company do is spar with one another and all Beerus does is feast and nap. There\u2019s a tease that they\u2019ll get involved in the battle on Earth, but nothing ever comes of it. The sequence only serves as a poor excuse to get Goku in the movie and it\u2019s a huge waste of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Unnecessary cameos aside, a lot of character-driven scenes in this movie work. I found it easy to get wrapped up in Piccolo and his frustration in trying to find assistance, Dr. Hedo and his drive to continue his research by any means necessary, and Gohan and his reluctant return to heroism. Even the Gamma androids have more personality and a stricter moral code than it would seem at first glance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            As with many animes, \u201cDragon Ball Super: Super Hero\u201d can\u2019t stick the landing with the climactic battle. Cell Max is a big, dumb, hollow character, and Magenta before him was an unremarkable megalomaniac, save for how remarkably hard it was to take him seriously. Death blows are dealt about four times and usually turn out to be fake-outs, forcing the already-overlong battle to continue. Still, there\u2019s a lot to like about \u201cDragon Ball Super: Super Hero,\u201d even if you\u2019re new to the series, though I\u2019m sure fans will find even more of value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDragon Ball Super: Super Hero\u201d is rated PG-13 for some action\/violence and smoking. Its running time is 100 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver NOTE: This movie is available in both an English-dubbed version and a Japanese version with English subtitles. This review is based on The English-dubbed version.             Here… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":54544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[1564],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54545,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54543\/revisions\/54545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}