Broken power levels in theatrical movies

[Alkiser]

I'm going to focus on 3 blockbusters here: Lord Slug, Cooler's Revenge, Fukkatsu no F
Lord Slug

Goku: He's the biggest problem of this kinship because he could have used his full power in the fight against Slug and he kept getting screwed over, he didn't even use Kaioken in the fight against Slug, and when he did show up at the end of the movie he was more effective than the fake ssj. The problem is Goku was shown to be a weakling who needed Piccolo's energy to use that kaioken, and then try to harvest the Genki lady's energy from the sun. He should have been flying at full power ever since he got the senzu from Yajirobe, but he was getting screwed over like a moron and not doing anything himself even though he could do it because he's done it before.

Cooler's Revenge
According to the movie, the movie takes place after Namek, but I don't believe it, because Piccolo, who was trained by Kaio and merged with Nail, had problems during the fight with Cooler's army. I just remind you that Piccolo at that stage of the story, was on level 2 form Frieza who had a power level of 1 million at that time, and he had a problem with Cooler's squad, which shouldn't be that different in power from Ginyu's squad.
Gohan has a similar problem, he's supposedly after a bunch of zenkai boosts from Namek, but he was beaten by 2-3 league of Cooler's army. Gohan, who was able to nail Frieza's 3rd form, couldn't deal with the 2nd water after Kisler's army. Only Goku's strength throughout the entire cinematic matched up, the rest were either effectively nerfed or nonexistent.

Fukkatsu no F
Piccolo, despite his subsequent merger with Kami, had a problem with Frieza's army, which according to the Emperor himself was not even on the level of Zarbon and Dodoria. Piccolo either didn't train for 10 years (which I doubt) or he got a nerf so as not to overshadow the Saiyan.
Gohan... It's better not to say anything about him, because his nerf, although huge, is understandable.
Of the old guard, I think Kamesennin gained the most, as his role also increased to a fighting one, which made him useful again.

[Seekeroftruth]

The only frieza soldiers he had problems with were Tagoma and Shisami, both of whom had undergone extensive training with frieza and gain massive power up as a result of it.

Piccolo was fighting cooler's squad who were stronger than the ginyu force at the time. In addition, he likely was holding back against them because he did not want to do too much damage to the planet.

[pepd]

Only Tagoma was compared to Zabon and Dodoria, and he died before fighting anyone. Shisami was the strongest of the mercenaries they got and was never compared to anyone.

Either Shisami was stronger than Piccolo (with all its problematic implications), or Piccolo was "having problems" with him because he was containing to avoid killing. The later may not be the obvious reading, but is viable and definitely the most satisfactory, imo.

[ZombieVito]

Only Tagoma was compared to Zabon and Dodoria, and he died before fighting anyone. Shisami was the strongest of the mercenaries they got and was never compared to anyone.

Either Shisami was stronger than Piccolo (with all its problematic implications), or Piccolo was "having problems" with him because he was containing to avoid killing. The later may not be the obvious reading, but is viable and definitely the most satisfactory, imo.

Why would Shisami being stronger than Piccolo be problematic?

[fleahop]

Only Tagoma was compared to Zabon and Dodoria, and he died before fighting anyone. Shisami was the strongest of the mercenaries they got and was never compared to anyone.

Either Shisami was stronger than Piccolo (with all its problematic implications), or Piccolo was "having problems" with him because he was containing to avoid killing. The later may not be the obvious reading, but is viable and definitely the most satisfactory, imo.

Why would Shisami being stronger than Piccolo be problematic?

I'll assume we're skipping adaptations of RoF and only talking about the movie due to the title.

Piccolo was having difficulty with Shisami and even missed a Makankosappo while losing trace of his opponent. Last time we saw Piccolo really fight in the series was against the Cell Jrs or #17 if you want to include main baddies. He handled himself well in both instances and later would go on to continue training, as that's just his way. So the implication is that Shisami is quite a bit more powerful than those characters.

Shisami is a Frieza Soldier. They are not known for training and Shisami was not stated or shown to be one for training. This implies he's a mutant with incredible power like most of the Frieza Force but this also raises a serious question. If he's so powerful, why didn't he start his own empire? He dwarfs Frieza in power pre-RoF. These power imbalances have an impact on the setting and story. This could be played to the series' strength to show different forms of power but no it's not even that well thought out.

To really drive the point home though, we see a Gohan that cannot access "Mystic" or even SS2 one-shot Shisami as a Super Saiyan. This Gohan, without a rage boost, and without training for two years, with obvious impacts to his power, one-shot's this character. So even if we're going to come up with a reason for Shisami to be so powerful, we're immediately ripped from this reality a moment later.

The (unfortunate) most logical conclusion is that Piccolo is much weaker than previously shown in relation to other characters. The person who trains consistently, and chastises Gohan for his lack of training, is barely able to hold his own against an opponent that's fodder for Super Saiyan Gohan (without training). This makes Piccolo look helpless, further degrades the self-improvement through training angle, and raises many strange questions about motivations of not just villains but our heroes as well. Why continue to strive for improvement the same way if it's not improvement?

So Shisami being stronger than Piccolo isn't necessarily an issue, but the way in which it's shown is.

[p-hyvo]

I don't really see any problem. Koyama tended to exaggerate on things in his old movies and that is what made them cool if you ask me.
Movies 4 and 5 from DBZ are among my favourites old db movies because how strong and cool characters are in comparison to the canon.

I think that your problem may just be you trying to fit canon into them. It doesn't work, just don't do that. You'll just end up doing what you're doing now, complaining over something you're misunderstanding and overthinking.
Enjoy the movies for what they are : an alternative timeline. Not everything has to tie up with the manga perfectly. Movie characters aren't as strong as their canon counterparts in like 90% of the times, and to understand how strong they really are you should look at where the manga and anime were at the time of the said movie's release (that at least works for tullace and slug's movies)

[FeatsofPower]

You are making an assumption about Cooler's Armored Squadron. You assume they are near the Ginyu Force, but feats wise, they are greatly superior.

Kuririn is supposed to be helpful against 1st Form Freeza.
Gohan is at least around 2 form Freeza.
Piccolo is a bit stronger.

Cooler's armored squadron seemed to keep up with this level, they should be around Freeza's level 2 form or so.

[GreatSaiyaman123]

Yeah Coola sent his squad to get a guy who killed Freeza. They’re supposed to be pretty strong.

A guy that is pretty inconsistent is Tullece. He almost kills Oozaru Gohan but gets pushed back by 30k Goku? And there’s movie 6 too. Is Piccolo supposed to be fused with Kami? What is going on with the ending? Coola is stronger than ever but Goku just… kills him.

[FeatsofPower]

Not sure if it was dub, but, "I wanna kill the guy who killed Freeza!"

[ZombieVito]

Yeah Coola sent his squad to get a guy who killed Freeza. They’re supposed to be pretty strong.

A guy that is pretty inconsistent is Tullece. He almost kills Oozaru Gohan but gets pushed back by 30k Goku? And there’s movie 6 too. Is Piccolo supposed to be fused with Kami? What is going on with the ending? Coola is stronger than ever but Goku just… kills him.

Cooler lacks a real body at the end of the film. He's just a head with wires that simulate a body. I can even see Krillin being able to kill him there.