Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler – Review

If you’ve ever seen a Dragon Ball Z movie, you know what they’re like. This one however, marks the first direct sequel to a previous film in the franchise. With that said, you’re either into these films, or you’re not so I’ll cut straight to it. New Namek is assaulted by a giant mechanical orb called the Big Gete Star. Goku and friends arrive to stop the destruction of the planet, and ultimately have to face Cooler (Meta-Cooler), who has been resurrected as the alter-ego of the Gete Star’s mainframe. Meta-Cooler is incredibly bad-ass, and I love how the animators added the glimmer effect to the metal plating. To add to it, he now has tremendous strength, surpassing that of a super saiyan as he demonstrates when he beats Goku into the ground.

This one also marks Vegeta’s first appearance in a movie. Granted it could have been better, but for a while there this one was shaping up to be one of the most action packed installments yet. Watching the two Super Saiyans duke it out with millions of Metal Coolers is worth the price of admission in itself. The rest of the movie is well paced and does well to create a satisfying climax. The music is a large improvement over the last two, and is also not as distracting. That’s basically the entire plot, but I think it’s awesome finally seeing these two rivals actually have to work together, even if it’s in a DBZ movie and not in the mainstream TV series. But like I said, seeing them fight side-by-side is awesome. Having seen both the English and Japanese versions, I prefer the Japanese due to the score. The English version has some rock music in it, but the music doesn’t fit the film at all.

The movie also gives us a bit more action from the other characters, giving even Kuririn, comic relief though he usually is, a few moments to kick some. Piccolo gets several cool moments, including one that really gives one an appreciation for why he’s still sometimes considered to be on the top level of power. Although, the best part of this film is still the fact that Goku and Vegeta actually have to put aside their differences and WORK TOGETHER, something which they pretty much haven’t done before.

Piccolo has already fused with Kami, making him a Super Namek and technically much stronger than Goku or Vegeta at the time. Also, as an inconsistency to season five, Dende already is the guardian of Earth. Which would in turn mean that Goku, Gohan and Vegeta (not to mention Trunks, who doesn’t appear in this flick though) would have already trained in the Hyberloic Time Chamber and already surpassed the basic super saiyan level? Surely Full-Power Super Saiyan Goku and Ascended Super saiyan Vegeta could easily crush Cooler without any real problems. A solid film and one you should add to your Dragon Ball Z blu-ray collection.