Dragon Ball Z Movie 7: Super 13 is by far the most mediocre Dragon Ball Z movie of all time.
It has all the average Dragon Ball Z movie cliches:
The selling point of the movie is that 3 Super Saiyan are featured for the first time and are simultaneously fighting 3 Androids of Dr. Gero. Androids 13, 14 and 15. That's it.
Apparently Gero's Super Computer makes pretty much all the decisions for him as Gero was killed at the start of the movie after setting 17 and 18 free.
This movie features some interesting things. While 14 and 15 aren't very memorable, we learn quiet a bit about their personality as they look for Goku in the shopping district. Goku and Trunks were pretty much handy capped forced to lure the enemy to a different location.
It's not the first time a battle in an icy area being featured, but it was a nice scenery change since in the previous movies that area wasn't fully taken advantage off. Not that this movie does much with it. But they do make some cool ways for character to enter the battle.
The visuals and overall action was good. I enjoyed Vegeta vs. 14 and Trunks vs 15. While their end in similar ways, it was still enjoyable to see. The music and animation is also very fluid.
Android 13 as a character started ok. But after his transformation he just grunted and said "Son Goku!" like he is Broli from Second Coming or something.
Besides the points mentioned earlier, the main antagonists transformation just isn't believable. He starts of as a slim guy with long white hair. But absorbing 2 cores and 2 chips of his fallen comrades allow him to become a blue Hulk with Vegeta's hairstyle, orange hair and yellow eyes. He also lost his eyebrows. There is no foundation in design that justifies why he looked like that nor why he changed that drastically.
And his power also seems pretty random like all Androids introduced so far, minus Cell. The reason Cell worked is because he was made of the components and knowledge of the strongest fights, capable of draining energy of other beings and transforms by absorbing other androids who stabilize himself. Also his transformation felt more organic. While Android 13 doesn't feel like he deserves to be strong enough to fight a Super Saiyan.
The fight against Android 13 also felt very boring. Every character that tried to fight him did the same thing. Much a few times before being blasted away. Sure, it wasn't all boring since there are some iconic scenes like the finale and the infamous punch in the balls, but these are very minimal and can't make up for the rest.
Btw, what happened to Android 17 and 18? They appeared at the start of the movie and where completely gone. I assume they joined a skater gang or something and enjoy life.
One thing that bothered me since I watched this movie is Android 13's technique. That weird red ball that can apparently destroy half the planet... Is that suppose to be impressive or terrifying after characters beat up several characters that can one shot a planet casually? It's just stupid.
I feel this movie would have better worked as a filler arc. Like instead of a movie, we could have a filler arc between the 3 year time before the Androids arrive in which the weaker group of Z fighters try to locate Gero with the Dragon Balls only to end up fighting weaker Androids that cause already lots of problem. This could be great simply because we didn't see Yamcha, Tien and Chaotzu put their training into work.
Overall the movie is decent. Bombastic finale, some good action, good soundtracks and animation. But the characters are pretty much forgettable like most of the fight against Android 13. And the cliches as well as most of the secondary cast being worthless like Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo.
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