Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler (2002)

"Cooler's Revenge" was going to be a hard movie to top, it had everything a great DBZ saga needed, all in a 45 minute runtime. "The Return of Cooler" is still great, but it doesn't have the same impact as the first one. The action's good, the comedy's good, and the animation's good. I also liked how Vegeta shows up and him and Goku fighting side by side was really cool. It does a good job of telling a sequel story without filler and without being too complicated. Definitely give this a watch if you're a DBZ fan.

This is a good DBZ film, Cooler comes to New Namek, and while I think the idea is neat and all, and I think this film is cool because it features the first film appearance of Vegeta, who refuses to work with Goku because he is the 'Prince of All Saiyans'. but anyways onward with Cooler, He now has a small army of 10 billion warriors with him! Can Goku and Vegeta save the planet? I give Return of Cooler a 7/10

I'm a big fan of Dragonball Z, it's my favorite anime. This is the 6th of 12 dbz films. This is the 1st direct sequel to a dbz movie, and the 1st dbz movie to reprise a dbz movie villain. I'm glad that out of all the dbz villains to be brought back for a sequel film, it was Cooler because he's the best villain. Fans will debate which dbz movie is their favorite but this is by all account the best made dbz movie ever! It has a really well constructed story, animation is top-notch and the action/fight scenes are excellent. In fact you don't have to be a dbz fan to enjoy this, if you like great action or sci-fi this movie's for you. The film is a follow-up to the 5th dbz film but this film is a whole new story and not a continuation of the last one. In the last film Cooler came to earth upon hearing his younger brother, Freiza(a major villain from the TV series)have been killed by a surviving Saiyan, Goku(the star/hero of dbz)and he wanted to avenge his family's honor and kill the last Saiyan, the rest were killed by Freiza decades earlier. However in this film there's no mention of Freiza or Cooler's relationship with him and this time it seems Cooler no longer wants revenge for his brother's death and is out to avenge his own defeat at the hands of Goku. The story, however, is beyond awesome, possibly the best plot of any dbz movie. Cooler attacks planet new Namek, first they were attack by Freiza and now his brother, but it's a little complicated and the movie's full of plot twist. Goku and the Z fighters go to Namek upon hearing a mysterious mechanical, machine like planet has attached it self on to Namek like a giant leech and dispatched robots drones called Cyclopean guards to enslave the Namekians. The Z fighters get there and to their surprise they find the guy who's running the show, Cooler, who came back from the dead and now has a machine body but same evil brain. This would be a great surprise if the title & advertisements didn't give it away. They give a great explanation to how Cooler came back, his dead body parts were floating in space when the mechanical planet called the Big Gete Star(cool name) rescued him and with his brain parts they were able to bring him back to life with a machine body. First of all Cooler looks awesome, he's in his 3rd body form from the last film but I love the animation on his new body which he calls "meta-cooler". The animators did a excellent job making his body look like real metal, it looks smooth, shiny and even has reflection. Cooler's English voice is also awesome here. Most of the movie are fight scenes but they're some of the best fight scenes I ever scenes. The fight between Cooler and Goku was epic. Cooler is much stronger here then in the last film, Meta-Cooler is one of the strongest and most powerful villains in all of dbz. Even in his super Saiyan form Goku struggled to even slow him down and fan favorite super Saiyan Vegta makes his first appearance in a dbz film to fight meta-cooler. It's never explained how Vegeta new what was going on and came and I never was a big fan of the Z fighter Vegeta, I like him better when he was a villain. But the main thing is even with two super Saiyans they couldn't stop meta-cooler but it does help that he can regenerate his body parts if damaged and the best part is when meta-cooler duplicates himself so there's 100 meta-cooler vs two Saiyans but unfortunately we never seem them fight the Coolers. In a great plot twist we find out Cooler is the big Gete star, that his brain parts merged with mechanical junk in space and created the machine planet, his brain acts as a main computer for the planet and he is a giant head and plans to devour each planet one at a time. I don't want tell you anything more but this is really great. Cooler comes off as really evil and threatening and this might be the darkest and most violent of all the dbz films. Meta-cooler is one of the greatest villains in all of dbz. I also love the theme music. This is Dragonball Z at it's best!

spoilersThis is one of my favorites, and you know why? Because it stars Goku and Vegeta(who's FINALLY made his debut in the movie series)! The two have to reluctantly team up to defeat Cooler again. That's basically the entire plot, but I think it's awesome finally seeing these two rivals actually have to work together, even if it's in a DBZ movie and not in the mainstream TV series. But like I said, seeing them fight side-by-side is awesome. I won't spoil it, but the battle between the two saiyajins and Cooler takes a few shocking turns. Well, a slight giveaway: in this, Cooler becomes a cyborg, just like Frieza did in the show, but the way it happens keeps him from becoming a complete ripoff of Cyborg Frieza. Plus, some reviewers said this film was really short. I have to disagree on that one. It's actually an hour long(movie seven is the shortest, then movie one). I will also say this: the English dub SUCKS. It ruins the entire film, but at least they took out those stupid songs they were playing for the last two English-dubbed films(this is DBZ, not Spawn!)BOTTOM LINE: One great hour-long fight scene, er, movie!