While thinking about why I enjoy these movies as much as I do, I realized one of the reasons is that I am very entertained by their villains—Apocalypse, and Vuk (Jessica Chastain) respectively. But why??
Here’s the thing: neither of these villains are developed at all, and aren’t particularly compelling as characters; yet I enjoy watching them on-screen and get excited for their battles against the heroes. This is the point that I realized they are similar, in terms of literary function, to many of the old Z Movie Villains.
I know enjoyment of the z movies varies a lot from person to person, but I enjoy these a lot too. They’re not particularly complex, deep, well developed or even really “well written”. But I enjoy them because they provide great action spectacles and colorfully designed villains for Goku and Co. to battle against. Regarding the villains of these movies, there is a typical formula: a new “badass” villain character appears out of almost nowhere, with an extremely basic backstory quickly gone over, and are more powerful than any villain from that point in the DBZ canon timeline. Goku then has to push himself and reach new levels in order to defeat them (or, sometimes, just chuck a spirit bomb their way. Either does the trick
).Apocalypse and Vuk are written similarly in their respective movies. They have quickly explained, cookie-cutter backstories; then their only purpose is to look intimidating and provide an all-powerful wall for the mutants to overcome. A further Z-movie parallel is that it’s one character who defeats them both—Jean Grey. So, in their stories, they serve the almost-sole purpose to demonstrate to the viewer how incredibly powerful Jean is when she applies herself—just like Goku when he inevitably destroys almost every villain. I enjoy these movies and their villains because they provide basic excuses for cool-looking action sequences and bombastic displays of power from Jean Grey. It’s not complex, or even “good writing”, but it can be a lot of fun.
TL;DR I enjoy stories and villains like the Z Movies: straightforward, un relatable super bad powerhouse whose primary purpose is to allow the protagonist to flex their power. They’re not deep, but they’re fun!
. Some action films have a well developed antagonist but most are just a really tough and scary bad guy for the hero to defeat in the end after taking down his henchmen.
