I get what you're saying now. I believe it does have a story, though far from one as complex, necessary, satisfying, or substantive as most of us were hoping for after Battle of Gods.Gaffer Tape wrote:I guess I should preface to say that, colloquially at least, I consider plot and story to be somewhat different things. A plot is simply a sequence of events: character A meets character B, character C fights evil, character D dies. But a story is what it's really ABOUT, what goals characters are trying to achieve, and how those events shape them.
We can look at the story as being about Freeza; in particular, a tragedy. By a stroke of luck, he is revived by his former subordinates in a desperate bid to maintain control. He immediately sets himself forth on a quest for vengeance. Learning of his overwhelming challenge, he swallows his pride and attempts to better himself. Unfortunately, out of an overwhelming eagerness to get to his revenge, as well as by the will of the gods themselves, he fails to get what he wants. By the end of it, he's dead, and back in his personal hell. It felt like something out of a Greek tragedy to me, in a way.
Of course, it's not exactly played that way, and such a story could have been executed so much better than what we were given. However, Freeza's own struggle, as well as what you mentioned about Goku's and Vegeta's new character flaws, do paint a story. A poorly executed and poorly inspired one, but a story nonetheless.
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Semi related, on the topic of Evolution vs F, I have to side with F being more fun to watch. Sure, it's flawed out the ass. However, it's filled with absolutely enjoyable moments and bits of fanservice: Jaco's banter with the characters, Jaco, Tenshinhan, and Kame Sennin getting in on the fighting action, Goku's one-inch punch, use of the Maximum the Hormone song that inspired the film (I do understand if one were to consider this a con, however), seeing Goku and Vegeta train together, and seeing more of Whis' personality. The fact that the film manages to have its share of humorous bits make it less of a dull and generic "epic DBZ battle". I've seen the film 3 or 4 times now, and I've enjoyed it every single time.
Evolution, on the other hand, was simply boring and cringe-inducing. I went into it wanting to get that "so bad it's good" vibe, but I ended up sorely disappointed. I can commend it on keeping things more martial-arts-y than I would have expected from a Live Action Hollywood Dragon Ball film, but that was ultimately more of a small consolation that all of what F does for me. I've only seen the film once, and it was a pain to get through.
That's obviously not to say that it's wrong to find one to be more fun to watch than the other, just explaining why I found F to be more fun.
