After a failed attempt at a double header resulting in a five month break, I’m looking to grind out the earlier movies so that I can get closer to the ones I am most excited for (Bojack, Wrath of the Dragon, Fusion Reborn). After a gentle reminder from my friend, I realized I had gotten lax in my mission. Forget getting plat in Apex, I got a job to do.
Thank you.
Alright, I’ll be honest. I expected this one to suck. Pretty much any time a DBZ movie villain comes back, it is bound to be bad. I am specifically nervous for Bio Broly, but other than the berserker saiyan himself, we see the most of Cooler, so I figured that they would just let things do as they do with a fresh new coat of paint on an old villain.
However, I was pleasantly surprised! Return of Cooler was much better than I expected, the anxieties were totally unfounded. For starters, the movie actually feels like the Frieza Saga, it begins with an incredible shot of the Big Gete Star enveloping New Namek. This is the first time the movies have really made it to space, and it just feels right.
After my side eye at the camping trips that plague the beginning of DBZ movies, I have to say that it seems like they took it as a challenge. Instead of going camping on Earth, the Z-Fighters appear onscreen in astronaut suits, ready to go camping on New Namek.
I have no words, honestly. They got the best of me and I admit defeat. Also, I was so happy to see Yajirobe, Roshi, and Oolong in this movie as well! It seems that the more Super Saiyan the series gets, the less of a role that minor non-combatant players will have, so it’s been really nice to see them in the movies even as the timeline veers further from the original Dragon Ball series.
Once the Z-Fighters touch down on New Namek, it is right into the business. The Namekians are being lined up and forced to follow their robot captors, barely having gotten settled in their new home before another galactic tyrant ruins their lives. While the Z-Fighters put up a noble fight against the robot guards, everyone except Piccolo is captured and sent to alien jail. While Piccolo absolutely mutilates the mob of robots (exponentially increasing his stats as the Mook annihilator), Goku and Meta-Cooler begin their own grudge match.
The match between Goku and Meta-Cooler goes about as one would expect, but the animation is pretty solid and the fight is engaging. The real moment it turns is when Goku blows off Meta-Cooler’s arm, to find that not only does it regenerate, but Meta-Cooler also becomes more powerful.
This is one of my favorite parallels that also comes back later in the movie. Meta-Cooler’s new form mimics the Saiyans in that every time one is almost killed, their power is raised exponentially. Once Meta-Cooler regrows his arm, he begins to wipe the floor with Goku and almost succeeds in killing him when none other than Vegeta appears!
This is a notable moment for a few reasons, namely that Vegeta has not appeared in a DBZ movie yet despite appearing in the Frieza Saga of the show. Not only that, but he also is shown to have obtained Super Saiyan, when chronologically this would’ve been a very new development.
However, this does not turn the tides of the battle. Meta-Cooler begins to fight both of the Super Saiyans at once, easily defeating them until they finally decide to team up in one last-ditch effort. This actually succeeds, and they manage to assault Meta-Cooler so rapidly that he is unable to regenerate. The two warriors collapse, but it becomes obvious that things will not go so easily.
An army of 1,000 Meta-Coolers appears on the clifftop, a product of the Big Gete Star’s adaptation mechanisms, realizing that if the problem was simply two Saiyans versus one Meta-Cooler, it was an easy issue to resolve. I really enjoyed when Goku and Vegeta hype themselves up and walk towards the incoming horde, then immediately cut to them suspended in the Big Gete Star being drained of power.
I liked that Meta-Cooler was essentially an unstoppable enemy, this is a rare treat for fans of DBZ who usually expect the heroes to simply one-up the bad guy after being kicked around a bit. The heroes are drained to the verge of death when Meta-Cooler finally speaks aloud the gambit that seals his fate: “I never imagined Saiyans could contain so much power, any more and you would have exceeded my capacities.”
The Saiyans, now benefitting from the previously mentioned near-death powerup, begin to give off more energy. The Big Gete Star cannot contain it all, and begins to self-destruct. This strategy would be employed much, much later in DBZ versus a Buu Saga minion, but this was a precursor and was an excellent way to beat a foe that was otherwise invincible.
I think Meta-Cooler was a much better villain than the standard Cooler and was honestly very impressed with this return. I had low expectations, but this was a really good fight with a surprise visit from new ally Vegeta. Meta-Cooler is still not quite as lovable as Frieza, but this feels special since we were never able to see the abilities of Mecha Frieza during his 20 seconds of screentime before being vaporized.
THE VERDICT:
The Return of Cooler was much better than I expected it to be. Maybe some of the later movies of villain returns aren’t done this well, but this one was honestly pretty good. I liked that it starts out strong, but also remains short and sweet. The beginning premise was pretty funny, and I also really enjoyed characters like Yajirobe briefly returning to the spotlight as well as the appearance of major characters like Vegeta. Not life-changing, but it does not deserve the vitriol that seems to follow the villain return movies.
☆☆☆☆½★★★ 4.5/7
