ABED wrote: ↑Fri Apr 23, 2021 6:51 pm
It doesn't deliver on any of those fronts. The opening wasn't the story. Bardock becoming Jor-El wasn't necessary to tell the story of Freeza using a simp as a proxy for his fight against Goku. Fatherhood is a motif, but it's not a theme. How is it about fathers? There are a lot of fathers but with the exception of Paragus, it's not really about them. What does it say about fatherhood? The story is not about fatherhood. It gives us that as texture but none of the actual substance. There is no relatable human drama. It's all cookie cutter drama. Freeza has been reduced to a caricature and a cartoon supervillain.
Well, since you asked...
I think
Super: Broly's entire central conflict is about fathers and sons and how differing upbringings can shape a person, and how it's important to learn when to let go of a parent to live your own life.
(Some credit to this reading may go to TKA's review-thing, though these were thoughts I also had in my viewings of the film, no thievery here no sir)
You have Vegetas III and IV. The royalty, the elite. King Vegeta is a typical stagemom who sees his son as nothing but an extension of his own ego. He shares his name, his royal blood, his lineage and most importantly, his potential for physical power. Prince Vegeta is raised in a test tube with all the other elite babies, separated from his father's touch by glass. King Vegeta exiles a slightly lower class baby to certain death because he can't stand the idea that his son (read: himself) is being upstaged. There's no real love in their relationship. This, of course, shapes our Vegeta into the person he was throughout most of Z: a horrible, classist, self-absorbed egomaniac, and it took years of development to overcome that. I like the short scene of Vegeta and Raditz as kids, yeah it may be a bit fanservice-y, but we get a glimpse at the petulant brat Vegeta was contrasted against the better man he is in the present. As a kid, hedoesn't care that his own planet and race just died, he only cares that now he won't get to be king, he'll always be second-best. As an adult, he still doesn't care, but more because he put his past behind him rather than any selfish need for validation.
Next, King Cold and Freeza. It's been well established since the Android arc (and hinted at in the Namek arc) that Freeza is a massive trustfund brat, spoiled rotten his entire life by King Cold and handed an empire on a silver platter. Like Vegeta III, Cold has immense pride in his son and sees him as a successor to his legacy. Except Cold continues to cast a shadow over Freeza and actively encourages his son's worst vices. Perhaps if King Vegeta had survived and continued to raise his son, Prince Vegeta would've turned out as completely irredeemable as Freeza.
Next, Paragus and Broly, perhaps the most complex one. The father who initially cares about his son as a person but quickly loses sight of that and begins to see him as nothing but a tool for revenge. Paragus is ironically more like King Cold in that he refuses to loosen his grip on Broly's life, and that results in Broly becoming a stunted manchild whose life is entirely dominated by what his father wants out of him. All their interactions reinforce this abusive dynamic. The way Broly defers to his father for every decision, the way Paragus speaks on Broly's behalf and treats him like a collared animal. Broly's story is about him learning to let go of his father, that's the whole arc of the film in my view. In many ways, that's quite a mature aesop to teach. There's no redemption, no reconciliation, no Vader unmasked moment. Paragus's last words aren't expressing regret that he treated Broly like trash his whole life, he only regrets that he didn't buy King Vegeta's lame excuse that Broly was too dangerous to be allowed to live. Broly is upset when his father dies but he doesn't mourn him after regaining his senses. Sometimes they don't deserve forgiveness.
Next, Bardock and Kakarrot. While the Minus segment may be controversial, it definitely gave me more emotional feels and helped me appreciate the comic a little more. Yeah, Bardock is a bit more of a Jor-El here, but whereas Jor-El was an elite big-shot scientist, Bardock really is just a nobody in this adaptation, which is in many ways more effective than that or him being a stone-cold 10,000 battle power badass like in the original TV special. Here, Bardock is the compassionate father who actually cares about his son, risking it all just to give him a chance. The tragic irony is that Goku loses all memory of this and disavows all Saiyans with the same brush, when in reality, Saiyans aren't so different to any civilisation -- there's bad ones, good ones, warriors, scientists (
brilliant scientists). Plus, the farewell scene gets me good, cliché as it is.
So there, I had some fun in writing that tonight, I mean you can take it or leave it, I'm not saying you have to like it or accept it, but that's my reading. Yeah, it's not high art or anything fancy, but I think that there's a fair amount going on under the hood of this one that keeps me coming back more often than the other two Toriyama movies. Plus the pretty pictures help a lot.
Even with movies based on anime or any kind of pre-existing story, I believe they should at least try to be somewhat accessible
It's not accessible as DB's not that complicated. I think people underestimate people's ability to get into a story in progress. Almost all of us do it.
Yes, BOG is almost all about nostalgia, and that's the point. That's why the setting is fitting. But 1) Given that DB ended, a reunion film where it's friends hanging out at a reunion is fitting and mostly all I asked for what was originally a one off. 2) It gave us Beerus and Whis which were not just new characters, but added a genuinely new layer to the DB world, and 3) It felt like a fitting conclusion to the story, and arguably better than the manga's ending.
Broly on the otherhand was centered on an overexposed mostly boring character with a cool design. He adds nothing new to the story beyond being another strong body. And here's my biggest beef, it keeps the story centered on the history of the Saiyans. We don't need it. Their beef with Freeza was not a corpse that needed to be exhumed.
That's fair, I greatly enjoy those contributions BOG made as well. But I feel that Broly had a different purpose as well, it wasn't necessarily trying to ambitiously expand the universe of Dragon Ball in any earthshattering way or act as a fitting conclusion to the franchise, it was just a fairly concise, action-packed story about a Tarzan-like wildchild with an abusive father. Again, whether or not that works for you, entirely your opinion and you're more than entitled to it.
