Dragon Ball Super: Broly

It plays better than it reviews — the watch lands harder than the write-ups suggest.

• “Dragon Ball Super: Broly delivers in terms of awesome action, but more than that, it uses the fathers of Goku, Vegeta, and Broly to link back to the late-1980s and early-1990s heyday of the series to add a relatable and thoughtful subtext. It’s a humorous movie that bounds into the world of imagination and is gripping to the end.”

  Fuminobu Hata, IGN · 85

• “Overall, Dragon Ball Super: Broly punches triumphantly within its own weight class, aspiring not to any lofty heights of thematic heft or cinematic gravitats, but delivering a visually packed and unabashedly enjoyable experience that’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser among enduring fans, the modestly engaged and newcomers alike.”

  Toussaint Egan, Paste Magazine · 81

• ““Broly” delivers exactly what “Dragon Ball” fans want from a feature; newcomers may find themselves lost in places.”

  Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times · 70

• “If you’re among the heretofore uninitiated drawn to this new Dragon Ball extravaganza, which has been dubbed into English and booked into 1,440 North American theaters, you may often find yourself experiencing similar frustration as you struggle to make sense of a patchwork plot that seems derived from various strands of the ongoing mythos, and is filled with apparently major characters whose backstories are only fuzzily defined.”

  Joe Leydon, Variety · 50

• “The underlying narrative theme of sons who become greater – and better – men than their fathers is underdeveloped. Meanwhile, the animation feels oddly dated, as the decision to give visual continuity to three and a half decades of storytelling re-enforces this as fan service.”

  Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle · 40