DainIronfoot wrote:Having been fortunate enough to have seen the movie as well let me share my own thoughts. For starters, let me just say that I did enjoy the film and I hope everyone watches it and enjoys it as well. For me, BoG still bests it by a bit overall and I actually do think some of the older movies also come close as well (personal opinion). The beginning half of the movie as mentioned here dives into the DB minus stuff. To me, it felt kind of rushed, which is odd. However, I truly believe a lot of what was cut from the film was in this section.
For example, Bardock is shown with battle damage right before he meets his end, but we don't know why that is. I personally prefer the old school Bardock personality as well, but scenes with him and Gine/Goku were touching. Young Frieza was delightful to see and we get a taste of his ruthless behaviour when he takes care of some "scouts"
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While I like that there was some actual story in this movie, certain points were never expanded upon. It's simply fast forward to present day and then we get ready for non stop action to the near end.
It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of the new designs. For the most part though, the movie looked just fine. However, due to diff styles there were definitely a few scenes that were jarring to transition to. For me, a balance of good art and animation is ideal. This is why Takahashi's/Shida (and the others who worked on Gogeta scenes) sections of the film are the best. Some people say that Shidas work here bests his Goku vs Jiren section, but i personally have to disagree there.Vegeta vs Broly was absolutely incredible and it's one of the things that was talked about most from what I heard after the movie. When Frieza is observing the fight (with the dragon balls levitated to his chest) he looks so amazing. When Frieza then switched styles to look like the design sheets, it was odd to look at (due to feature placements). For some people, turning Frieza into something "cute" was nice but for me it isn't.
I know many of the members of this board will praise Onishi's and Tate's work but for me they were the least appealing. Onishi's section was OUTSTANDING animation wise, but the art in this section took me out of it (not the entire section but several points). The scene with Goku bouncing up and down like in the teaser we got way back is in and I hate how Goku looks in it, once again the feature placement and toon look just doesn't appeal to me. Tate, well, once again...animation was smooth as butter but art sticks out. Luckily, overall this was not a dealbreaker problem. The CG of the film at some points was okay and others was pretty ugh as well. During these scenes the characters were also going so fast that it was hard to keep up. Don't get me wrong now, overall the film's visuals are one (if not the) biggest highlight of the film. The SB is exceptional and the colors truly are stunning. Effects work were also beautiful! From this standpoint is this the most beautiful looking film? Yes.
I do want to mention that the soundtrack for the film was also a highlight for me. The music is soothing when needed and powerful for those fight scenes. There is a scene where Broly is slowly getting agitated and ready to fight Goku and Vegeta and the music in this particular scene is so good leading up to the eventual charge attack from Broly. Suimitomo really did a great job.
I definitely need to watch it again to confirm my first impressions but overall I think it's still a solid film that for sure needs to be enjoyed on the big screen for the ideal experience. It definitely has its flaws but it also has some really humorous character interactions and (for the most part) is a visual spectacle. The ending of it also has me curious on where we will go from there.
If I were to rate it for a first viewing, I'd give it an 8 out of 10.
