DBZ Movie 4- unfairly hated?

[GS7X7]

DBZ Movie is considered to be one of the worst DBZ movies by fans. (sometimes DBZ 11 is more hated)

I think a large part of this is because most American fans never saw the Piccolo saga in Dragon Ball before viewing this movie. (as Funimation didn't air all of DB prior to DBZ) That makes a lot of what happens in DBZ Movie 4 (especially "Super Namek") make very little sense.

That said, I gotta know- for people in other countries who saw all of Dragon Ball prior to DBZ and DBZ Movie 4, or people who at least saw DB fansubbed prior to DBZ and DBZ Movie 4 on fansub, did you like the movie? Is hatred of it just an American thing because it makes a -lot- less sense if you've never seen the Piccolo saga? Or do others have a lot more love for it?

[jjgp1112]

I've never really understood the hate for Movie 4 either. Sure, it's derivative as all hell (but pretty much every Z movie is), but there's nothing particularly bad about it that I noticed. The only movie I thought was flat out bad was Movie 11. I remember this one unofficial guidebook that came out a couple of months before Movie 4's US release release reviewed all of the movies (only Movies 1, 2, and 3 were dubbed at this point) and gave Movie 4 a pretty scathing review. I always avoided it for that very reason but when I saw it for myself in the Double Feature in 2008, I didn't see what was so bad.

[Luke Groundwalker]

Lord Slug isn't that bad, it's better than the Broly trilogy at least.

[Maphisto86]

While most movies feature key ideas or a rehash of a specific saga, Movie 4 does it I find more than most of the others. Beat for beat, Slug follows the actions of Piccolo Daimao and "Ma Junior". Personally I think this is the main reason why it is not favoured among the many Dragonball films. At least the likes of Coola didn't go to Namek and . . . oh right. Actually the first Coola movie was a favourite of mine. The second one was less inspired but unlike the Freeza saga, Goku and Vegeta fight side by side. Anyway back to movie #4, I think it just copies it's main series derivative more so then all the others. Not to mention that the mighty villian was defeated by, well, whistling. Fortunately, a certain peice of fan fiction actually makes Slug a much more dynamic character. I don't particularly "hate" any of the films as even Movie #11 has it's good points despite being consistantly lumped with Movie #4 as the worst of the "Z" movies.

[Luke Groundwalker]

Oh yeah I forgot about the second Cooler movie

Also much worse than Lord Slug, as is the movie with Android 13

[mikezilla2]

Oh yeah I forgot about the second Cooler movie
Also much worse than Lord Slug, as is the movie with Android 13

WTF are you smoking ? 7 is probably one of the most action packed of the bunch , for me 11 is easily the worst of them but 10 follows in at a close 2nd , 4 had an interesting villain , hence the reason i like it , it did tend to copy a lot of the parts movie 1 but i don't think it matters all that much.

[MCDaveG]

I like the movie Don't know why everybody hates it. Really love the Goku's battle after he wakes up on frozen lake after struggling the meteor

[Adamant]

I did indeed watch all of Dragonball before Z, and read most of the manga too... and the fourth Z movie is one of my favorites. Just like jjgp1112, I never understood why this movie in particular got so much hate. It has some of the best fighting choreography in the series, people not named Goku get to do stuff (at least as long as they're named Piccolo), the henchdudes are actually creative and interesting instead of being "generic ki-blasty guy x, y and z" (Z movie 2 is the only other movie to share that honor), the ending is actually pretty clever and surprising, without being a complete ass-pull (yes, it comes out of nowhere, but at least it's lead up to by the first scene in the movie)... what's not to like?

I'll have to echo Luke Groundwalker, too - Z movie 7 is a stupidly boring "some guys punch each other for one hour straight" yawnfest. The final attack looks quite stylish (the music adds a lot), but that's the only positive I'll give it.
It fits that "ACTION! HARDCORE! PUNCHES TO THE HEAD!" description someone used about Funi's marketing scheme to a t, though.

(also, Z movie 10 is another of my favorites)

[Luke Groundwalker]

WTF are you smoking ? 7 is probably one of the most action packed of the bunch , for me 11 is easily the worst of them but 10 follows in at a close 2nd , 4 had an interesting villain , hence the reason i like it , it did tend to copy a lot of the parts movie 1 but i don't think it matters all that much.

If floating around and doing nothing but shooting ki blasts is the "most action packed of the bunch," well...whatever floats your boat. Personally I think the movie is just very boring and has a ridiculously slow start, plus the villains themselves are boring. The only real tense scenes in that entire movie is when Goku is brought down underwater, and when Goku infuses the Spirit Bomb into himself.

In comparison, at least the first Broly had a fantastic setup at the beginning. I always thought that Vegeta going to New Vegeta was very unsettling, especially on rewatches, to see this desolate world and this Broly character who you know is going to fuck shit up really brings in some pre-battle tension.

Then the actual backstory was introduced and everything falls apart.

[mikezilla2]

I

I'll have to echo Luke Groundwalker, too - Z movie 7 is a stupidly boring "some guys punch each other for one hour straight" yawnfest. The final attack looks quite stylish (the music adds a lot), but that's the only positive I'll give it.
It fits that "ACTION! HARDCORE! PUNCHES TO THE HEAD!" description someone used about Funi's marketing scheme to a t, though.

(also, Z movie 10 is another of my favorites)

http://www.projectbag.com/dbz/namek/web ... ovies.html

you may want to read the reviews for 7 and 4 ,,,,

[Adamant]

I

I'll have to echo Luke Groundwalker, too - Z movie 7 is a stupidly boring "some guys punch each other for one hour straight" yawnfest. The final attack looks quite stylish (the music adds a lot), but that's the only positive I'll give it.
It fits that "ACTION! HARDCORE! PUNCHES TO THE HEAD!" description someone used about Funi's marketing scheme to a t, though.

(also, Z movie 10 is another of my favorites)

http://www.projectbag.com/dbz/namek/web ... ovies.html

...what? I don't recall asking for a link to this site, and you're not really explaining why you're linking there.

[Luke Groundwalker]

There is a lot to dislike about this movie, though.

My main problem was how disappointed I was. I really liked how there is this supposed backstory about Lord Slug. Once it's mentioned in the movie...never again. That entire plot could've made a real interesting movie, like showing a history of the evil Nameks and whatnot, but instead the movie is just some old dude with an army of aliens trying to take over the world. That backstory being expanded upon would've made the movie SO much better.

Lord Slug and his minions are great, but his minions tend to be wasted and Lord Slug as a fighter doesn't hold up as well as he does as a boss or leader.

I also think the first three movies easily outclass it on every level possible, so it's always disappointing when you're marathoning the movies to come across Lord Slug, even though it isn't a terrible movie in of itself.

[Metalwario64]

My main problem was how disappointed I was. I really liked how there is this supposed backstory about Lord Slug. Once it's mentioned in the movie...never again. That entire plot could've made a real interesting movie, like showing a history of the evil Nameks and whatnot,

What evil Namekians? Wasn't Slugg just a random evil Namekian due to a mutation?

[Luke Groundwalker]

My main problem was how disappointed I was. I really liked how there is this supposed backstory about Lord Slug. Once it's mentioned in the movie...never again. That entire plot could've made a real interesting movie, like showing a history of the evil Nameks and whatnot,

What evil Namekians? Wasn't Slugg just a random evil Namekian due to a mutation?

For one his whole entire crew was implied to be his children similar to Daimou's demon kids, so it would be interesting where the "Demon Clansman" concept comes from in general since we know nothing of why or how they are related to Namekians.

Clearly Lord Slug has a link to Daimou in that they share common powers, which I believe is implied in the movie itself. I always thought that when it was brought up, it was real interesting even though we practically got no story behind it.

Maybe the writer(s) just didn't want to take any risks.

[Herms]

Count me as another person who has never understood the widespread dislike for the movie. I don't think the hate has to do with people not being familiar with the Piccolo story arc though; Mike at least has mentioned repeatedly he hated it specifically because he had already gone through that arc and so found the movie repetitive. But personally I don't find the movie's recycling of main storyline material any worse than that done for the other movies. And if anything the movie gets points for taking a much older story arc and combining it with elements from the current one, with Slug basically being Piccolo Daimao merged with Freeza, complete with a horde of minions who are simultaneously demons and space aliens (God I love DB). I mean, how much better would DBZ movie 7 have been if No.13 were based off Tao Pai Pai? Or maybe the three androids could be based on Pilaf, Shu, and Mai, and merge into an ultra-powerful Pilaf Machine.

I also love how Slug blocks the sunlight out to make things comfy for his demon minions, leading to the Earth getting colder and colder. It lends things a nice apocalyptic atmosphere that gives weight to the threat the Earth's in. And I love Kame-sennin sleeping through all the movie's various calamities only to wake up after everything's over, completely unaware of what's gone on. And ditto what others have said about the movie's nifty fight choreography and interesting powers for the henchmen.

My main problem was how disappointed I was. I really liked how there is this supposed backstory about Lord Slug. Once it's mentioned in the movie...never again.

Well, if you're thinking of the Funi dub's thing about there having been lots of evil Namekians who tapped into a "higher consciousness" and took over Namek in the distant past only for all but Slug to be defeated or whatever, then the reason it's never mentioned again is because the dub made all that up out of whole cloth. Originally Slug is just another Namekian who fled the big atmospheric disaster on Namek the same way Katatz's kid/God/Piccolo fled to Earth. Except Slug had a pure evil heart due to some mutation (making him a "Super Namekian") and landed on Planet Slug, which is where his demon henchmen come from.

[Puto]

I personally really liked movie 4 when I was a kid, and I still really like movie 4 now. But I guess I can kinda see why other people might not.

Still, the BGM that plays when Gokū does his final Kaiō-ken and Genki-dama alone makes it awesome in my book.

[Luke Groundwalker]

Well, if you're thinking of the Funi dub's thing about there having been lots of evil Namekians who tapped into a "higher consciousness" and took over Namek in the distant past only for all but Slug to be defeated or whatever, then the reason it's never mentioned again is because the dub made all that up out of whole cloth. Originally Slug is just another Namekian who fled the big atmospheric disaster on Namek the same way Katatz's kid/God/Piccolo fled to Earth. Except Slug had a pure evil heart due to some mutation (making him a "Super Namekian") and landed on Planet Slug, which is where his demon henchmen come from.

I admit that was sort of on my mind when I typed that, but I was talking about the reason why there seems to be another Namekian like Daimou. Mutation explains his power, but doesn't really explain his situation or why he's mutated.

Also where did it ever state that his demon henchmen come from Planet Slug?

[mikezilla2]

WTF are you smoking ? 7 is probably one of the most action packed of the bunch , for me 11 is easily the worst of them but 10 follows in at a close 2nd , 4 had an interesting villain , hence the reason i like it , it did tend to copy a lot of the parts movie 1 but i don't think it matters all that much.

If floating around and doing nothing but shooting ki blasts is the "most action packed of the bunch," well...whatever floats your boat. Personally I think the movie is just very boring and has a ridiculously slow start, plus the villains themselves are boring. The only real tense scenes in that entire movie is when Goku is brought down underwater, and when Goku infuses the Spirit Bomb into himself.

In comparison, at least the first Broly had a fantastic setup at the beginning. I always thought that Vegeta going to New Vegeta was very unsettling, especially on rewatches, to see this desolate world and this Broly character who you know is going to fuck shit up really brings in some pre-battle tension.

Then the actual backstory was introduced and everything falls apart.

i said "one" of the most action packed

,they do fist clash a lot and butt heads the pace was slower with introducing them but thats what i liked - after all it needs something to break the mold and stand out i think simply not being liked by you makes it stand out

[GS7X7]

Goku's "Fake Super Saiyan" is another reason cited for hating the movie.

[thedarkuniter]

I personally don't like Lord Slug that much. Its an alright storytelling of the Piccolo Daimao saga but not my cup of tea.