After defeating the inter-galactic tyrant Frieza on the planet Namek, Goku and his friends go out for camping. While enjoying their day, the group are attacked by an outfit who are lead by a warrior named Cooler, who happens to be Frieza's brother. Cooler attacks with a vengeance injuring Goku, and plans to destroy the entire planet after he sees Goku dies with his own eyes. -summary
Dragonball Z is truly an amazing anime series. It survived for an unreal amount of time recycling the same stories over and over. It can never be accused of innovation, that's for sure, which brings us to the fifth movie in the copy and paste thirteen movie line up & two movie special Cooler's Revenge, originally released in 1991. This is not a movie that I could recommend to someone new to the franchise at all. This is definitely either for fans, or those who are familiar with the main story. Before coming into this series, it would be a great idea to see the series up until the Frieza Saga for some type of clue. But the crazy thing is, this story doesn't exactly fall into continuity. I've noticed fans mention that this story could have taken place between the Trunks Saga and the Androids Saga, however, I don't exactly buy into that.
The production values deserves some credit. Visually, it's pretty good with some very nice backgrounds; the waterfalls look nice, and the night time setting has some gorgeous moments. There's also some decent moments here and there with the action, which consist of a decent amount of hand to hand and high energy attacks. However, it's Funimation's soundtrack that really stands out in the style department. The BGM consist of high tempo rock songs by Drowning Pool, Deftones, Breaking Point, and a few others. The music makes the movie a lot easier to get through, as it does cover up some of the bigger weaknesses.
Dragonball Z is something that is mainly action-driven, but I kind of found the action to be sort of lacking due to the weak writing. The best scenes took place during the middle portion, when Piccolo was battling Cooler's men. After that, the final battle scene took a dive, by becoming completely one-sided for way too long until Goku discovers his "hidden" power. The plot really isn't well paced, and it spins its wheels at times. In addition, you're not going to get much character development, and the villains are all cookie cutter to the extreme with no depth whatsoever.
Cooler's Revenge clocks in at 46 minutes that doesn't go by too quick. In all honesty, I was pretty bored with this one during the first and final acts. I do not recommend this to anyone besides diehard DBZ fans. To my experience, they're the only ones who truly love it.
Pros:
-Soundtrack and production values
Cons:
-Weak first and final acts, stock bad guys, doesn't fit into series
