Dragon Ball Z Movie 8 The legendary Super Saiyan is the best Dragon Ball movie so far and the first Dragon Ball film with an actual movie length of 80 minutes giving the writers enough runtime to craft a fantastic story.
The movie's premise is about Paragus, another Saiyan survivor, inviting Vegeta and his friends to Planet Neo Vegeta to rebuild what Saiyan's lost and with Vegeta finally becoming a king. Since Vegeta isn't interested, Paragus baits him with a warrior with immense power: The Legendary Super Saiyan who up to this point in the anime version was hyped as a warrior that appears once every 1000 years. Even at the beginning of the movie, the power of Broli was hyped up as even King Kai gets terrified enough to ask Goku for help.
Before the real review starts, there is a big misconception about the movie and its lead villain Broli as many think he has no depth and has a lame backstory, mostly stemming from a fan parody by Team4Stars who seem to have a personal grudge against the character. But there is a reason why Broli was and is still as popular as he is since if he hadn't a personality or was a bland villain, he would be forgotten like Super 13 or Bojack. But instead, Broli spawned 4 total Dragon Ball movies and was popular enough to get 3 new incarnations of his character: Broly (from Dragon Ball Super movie Broly), female Broli from Dragon Ball Super and Bio Broli (from the Dragon Ball Z movie Bio Broli).
These so called "facts" by the fans will be debunked in this review.
This movie does a great job in redeeming the Super Saiyan form as in the anime it was claimed to be a form that appears once every 1000 years, but over the course of the series there are multiple characters to take the form. Not to mention, this suppose unbeatable form gets rendered useless in the face of some robots build by an army Goku destroyed when he was a kid. Basically, Super Saiyan was downgraded into a mere power up instead of a mystical form that appears in the time of need that can't be stopped. Thus the REAL Super Saiyan brings it back to its near undefeatable glory.
Broli does what Broly (from DBS) does better backstory wise as his connection to Goku is build better since they were born the same day instead around the same time giving the concept of destiny being involved more believability. There are many symbolisms that can be drawn out by it and the movie plays with the idea of who and what the legendary Super Saiyan really is:
In other words, one rejected his Saiyan nature and the other fully embraced it. If anything, Broli is a perfect counterpart to Goku and possesses more than just looking like him what many "Evil Goku's" try yet fail.
Even their upbringings clash as both are exceptions to how Saiyans are treated after birth. As usually Saiyans with low power like Goku are sent to places with no real challenge as Saiyans with high power levels, the elites, are treated with respect. Goku was sent to a planet where he got the benefit to be trained by literal gods while Broli was meant to be executed because he was too strong hence being dangerous.
Broli is one of few characters who is muscular in Dragon Ball and can be taken serious as a threat. He takes full advantage of his body and the movie makes sure that the viewer can imagine the feeling by each impact delivered by his attacks.
Broli was portrayed as an unmovable force, like many villains prior, he took attacks head on without any damage. But unlike those prior villains, Broli actively walked into attacks giving the feeling that nobody can stop this monster and proving his self confidence.
Personality wise Broli shines in this movie. At the start, you won't see it because of a mind control device that actively prevents Broli from thinking. Once he transforms, Broli shows his true face in one of the best transformation sequences in the franchise which is terrifying in any language you view this movie in. Broli is a psychopath who enjoys torturing his opponents and breaking their battle spirit. Each action he does is done with that in mind as he would ask someone how much they care about a certain person hinting his next target basically showing Broli understanding others' feelings and wanting to destroy them. Broli's dialogue has hidden intentions giving him a lot of depth many modern fans don't give him credit for.
The most terrifying thing about Broli is however that one cannot escape his wrath as many characters believe they escaped him only for him to appear and crush their hopes the last minute.
Paragus is one of two characters that show how terrifying Broli is. During the movie his pride and love for Broli gets shown but also his ever lasting fear which proves King Vegeta's decision right forcing Paragus something he never intended to do at the beginning. His main goal is to take revenge against Vegeta which conflicts with his fear about losing control of Broli.
As a villain, Paragus is also very effective despite not having the power to oppose the good guys since he is far in power to many major character involved in this movie. So he has to find other means to defeat them.
The other character terrified of Broli is Vegeta as Broli represents everything Vegeta wanted to be. Vegeta as a character, since he is royalty considered himself to stand above all Saiyans which is why he has a massive grudge against Goku. However, Broli's entire existence challenged this idea even more by having a power that makes Vegeta look like a mere insect despite not having royal blood. And thus tackling the concept of class vs talent and status vs power.
Future Trunks serves as the voice of reason for Vegeta and since this movie is about the mightiest Saiyan, there is a necessity to have all Saiyans involved that can put a fight.
Goku in this movie represents everything Broli stands against. Despite all the torture Goku received, he still didn't back down from Broli. Even back when they were babies, Broli could sense something in Goku others couldn't and the movie showed it in various ways as both babies fought by crying which in many cultures symbolize guts and being in good health. And it can be reasoned with that Broli associates his execution attempt with Goku beating him back then. Goku also served as a motivation for Vegeta to step out of his shell and face his fears.
Visually the movie stands out too. Since the battle takes place at night, the characters wearing bright outfits stand out. Especially Broli who has a unique color pallet even by modern Dragon Ball standards making him stand out in every single panel shot with the dark blue sky in the background. There are also many Broli shots that let the character fill the entire screen seen from below making him look even more imposing.
Lastly there environment plays a massive role in this movie. Not just visually but also as a massive disaster is threatening everyone aside from Broli through it adding a time limit in addition to the fight where victory seems to be impossible to archive.
The environment also played a role moreso in combat itself as it lures the viewers and combatants in false security before Broli manages to catch up and torment them.
Even tho this movie is amazing, there are some criticism. That being Piccolo being in the movie who basically exist to safe Gohan. However, he still was one of few characters that directly talked to Vegeta trying to convince him to participate.
Another negative might be how Broli lost which is through a similar mean to other movies. However, in this fight it seems more reasonable to show what Goku has over Broli adding a fitting end to conclude the film and the use of fate in how and where the attack was delivered. The movie has a lot of comedic scenes. They are funny but not in a memorable way since some seem to be referential ones which many viewers won't get. But the jokes don't overstay their welcome nor do they ruin the atmosphere too much especially since some of the characters have a good reason why they act so goofy despite a monster being let lose. Lastly the popularity of this movie also ends up being its downfall since it lead to several sequels which ruined this legendary character like retconning his transformation to an upgrade of Super Saiyan instead of being what Broli becomes when he turns Super Saiyan and devaluing the theme of fate from this movie.
And this movie is not possible to fit to the main storyline as Goku and Gohan, who look like they are from the Cell Saga, use their base form in this movie instead staying Super Saiyan the whole time.
Overall, if you care about finding out more about Saiyan culture, see more quality character development for Vegeta and a movie that explores more than just the fight against a strong villain this movie delivers on all fronts. Not to mention of its great use of all characters involved. This movie is a must see.
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