MKCSTEALTH wrote:The three movies are definitely the better Dragonball movies of the catalogue. However, better than the Nolan Batman films? No sir. Those are masterpieces. I will say that Broly as a third film is a far better third entry than Dark Knight Rises
You see, I can completely understand this opinion. I would suppose that it’s a thing of personal preference in my case, but here I am capable of saying that while there are folks who disagree with me it’s always from a good place of knowing what quality filmmaking looks like.
We can at least agree that the ultimate point I am making is that Dragon Ball has finally risen to being a filmmaking force, if I am even saying I prefer what I view as a trilogy on even a potentially biased level. It can’t be denied that many prior Dragon Ball films are not exactly classic, and yet that Dragon Ball Supet: Broly has become one of the highest grossing anime films of all times only solicits the possibility that bigger is possible.
To be sure, Nolan is in a very total and masterful echelon of filmmaking. But when I look at how these three films make me feel this invested in the franchise it represents and less the films in a vacuum, I feel like the Nolan trilogy did the very opposite of what the MCU did for example and kept itself selfishly glorious. Dragon Ball is not in an MCU-type scenario, but at least Broly invigorates the franchise in that hopefully we’ll look back on Super and not take the post-Resurrection ‘F’ crap that passed for anime initially.
On some level, I feel as though The Dark Knight Trilogy set a bar too high for DC in film. While Dragon Ball Super: Broly set a high bar, it had precedent in a very difficultly watchable anime that was supposed to follow two big films. Because Broly is the current height of Super as story or even simply product, it means we’ll want higher grade material from the franchise. It doesn’t have to be like Broly all the time, but at least we can steadily climb.
With Nolan, it doesn’t seem you can have that precedent evolve into anything but a constant critical acclaim. Those films are masterpieces, but they are very selfish films in that they don’t think of the implications or consequence on the franchise they inhabit. It’s like the Trilogy as an entity was made to exist emptily and overflowingly in DC and out of DC in that you could certainly have Bane, but there would be no room for a Superman in a world this realistically inclined. It’s almost too realistic for the genre it’s in, and it doesn’t seem like WB cares to try and build up to where a Superman in a Nolan-similar world could be possible.
Dragon Ball is not realistic, but in Communications there’s a concept called ‘relative realism.’ With that in mind, the relative realism of Dragon Ball still relates to martial arts at its’ base and the idea of life force, or chi. In no way am I saying that these films are objectively better than the DK Trilogy; I hope I’ve made clear I’ve only stated preference.
However, Dragon Ball in these films evolved from the cognitive (the idea Dragon Ball as a franchise could be revived by two simple films) to the sensual (the fact Dragon Ball had been back for a few years and now it was time for fans to receive payoff on a nearly physical level). That Broly was the payoff of the first two’ films goal means that if Toriyama died, Toei went bankrupt or vice versa and DB ended as a story for good, it would be one hell of a place to end. But luckily it doesn’t end there, and we have more Dragon Ball to come.
Still, it is the third film in a renaissance of Dragon Ball that has most commercially successfully occurred through film, or in the case of the Super a filmic Tournament of Power hying back to DBZ glory days. Therefore, Dragon Ball has entered into the age of the franchise’s most cinematic version.
Sorry if I’m boring; I’m just thinking out loud.
Seeing the world as neutral is a gift; then you see the most beauty.
