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Channing Tatum is one of those actors who came from out of the blue from the alternate career he once had. Originally using the skill of dance as his money maker, it would only be until he starred in He's the Man (2006) alongside Amanda Bynes did he start gaining traction in his movie roles. However, that same year he would star in this film too where Tatum would return to his original career path but in movie form. All the crazier is how he would return to a much more significant film under the name Magic Mike (2012) which would gain him critical success. If anything, this could be seen as his starting point to that of what he would later be best known for. The thing is for this movie, it's a little bit standard in the execution.

The story's setting takes place in the urban city where Tatum plays Tyler Gage, a foster child who grew up among others in the streets with no real role model. One day after being caught trespassing in an arts school, he is sentenced to community service cleaning up the school. Little did he know that he would not only find Nora Clark (Jenna Dewan) as a possible partner but also as a dance partner after her main partner injures himself. The narrative was written by Duane Adler and Melissa Rosenberg who would later write for the Twilight (2008) franchise. Directing the feature was Anne Fletcher in her directorial debut and as her first outing it is fine. There are various parts to the film that needed fine tuning but overall the handling of it was okay.

The weak points in the story are mainly just how the story plays out. For those who have seen a lot of films may see all the twists and turns to come because of how formulaic it is. For example, being that the genre this film is in is mainly drama and music, audiences will obviously know that there will be sexual tension between Tyler and Nora and the ups and downs that come from that. It's just bound to happen. Tyler also has two friends from the hood Mac (Damaine Radcliff) and Skinny Carter (De'Shawn Washington), whom of which he hung out with and got into trouble with. At the beginning of the film, they scuffle with a gang leader...well, at some point that'll come back to bite them. These kinds of setups are painfully transparent in how they're set up and how it'll finish.

There's even Nora's friend Lucy (Drew Sidora) and Miles (Mario) who Tyler befriends. At some point these two characters make a connection and it's apparent what'll happen between those two characters too. From an acting perspective, all thespians do their jobs correctly. While the playout of the story is very familiar the actors do what they can to make their characters convincing and it works. Channing Tatum easily plays Tyler as the thug bad boy with no direction despite having a skill he doesn't take advantage of. Jenna Dewan as Nora clearly can play an upper class person who has no understanding of what Tyler is going through. Coincidentally Jenna Dewan would get married to Channing Tatum shortly after and be with him until 2018. While that's just trivia, that's not all the good parts.

Visually, what's on screen is good too. Michael Seresin is credited as the cinematographer to this movie and he captures all the right things. All the dance scenes are well shot too. Started with movies like Rambo III (1988) and two years before ended up helping with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). The dancing itself is also well choreographed where it looks like no one had issues following how to perform in that respect. Lastly for music, the score to this feature is not that prevalent. Since it is a dance genre film, the majority of the music belongs to soundtrack artists. Even with that though Aaron Zigman supposedly scored the film. The same composer behind The Notebook (2004), which is surprising considering how popular that love story movie turned out to be. There's no score available that can be found for this movie though, which isn't surprising.

The story is very generic and music belongs mainly to the soundtrack, which makes sense for the genre. It's just not as entertaining as it could be, although it still holds up. The acting is good as are the dance sequences and the camerawork.

It seems like in most mainstream animes that gained large popularity among fans, feature films would come out after every season. The release schedule to these franchises are mostly consistent. The best example of this is Pokémon. The Sailor Moon series looked to be fairly on point with this as well, even though the first and final season were not bookended by any films. The original Dragon Ball show run followed this rule though. After every season, a film was released which made sense in terms of execution. However, the concepts for this films were quite different. For some reason, the creatives behind it felt it was better to retell various sections of the show in a different continuity. So far for the sequel series, Dragon Ball Z, the film release is sticking closer to the show.

Fans start off with Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny), Goku's (Sean Schemmel) son being kidnapped by a group of demonic warriors. The leader of this group is led by a character named Garlic Jr. (Chuck Huber), an individual who has a bone to pick with Kami and Piccolo (Chris Sabat). Garlic Jr.'s hope is to become immortal and destroy the world in the name of his father Garlic Sr. The original script behind Akira Toriyama's manga adaptation goes Takao Koyama. This is the same individual behind various episodes to Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. The same goes for director Daisuke Nishio and who also worked on the first two Dragon Ball films. For this feature, there are points that make it a much better start than the Dragon Ball films before it, but still not totally a bullseye.

What works for the story is that this narrative technically can work as story that comes right after the end of the last Dragon Ball season. Reason for this, it is before the arrival of Raditz, Goku's brother, and the reveal of his now iconic origins. Additionally, the rivalry between Piccolo and Goku is the only thing spoken of during this film. So the timing stands correct. This is where the alignment ends though. Garlic Jr. And Sr. Are one big missing story throughout the shows history. There is proper context given as to why Garlic Jr. Seeks revenge on Kami for wronging his father but that's the extent of it. Unfortunately, there was no actual episode depicting this character in the show, so it feels sort of just thrown in there. This last minute add feels very similar to that of how Dr. Gero would appear in the cell saga. Dr. Gero was apparently around but was never depicted.

The voice acting is great though from most performers. Sean Schemmel is the definitive English dub of Goku. The same goes for Sonny Strait as Krillin, Stephanie Nadolny as Gohan and Chris Sabat as Piccolo and Kami. Chuck Huber as the disgruntled Garlic Jr. Works fine. Sadly, Huber's voice is very recognizable and if anything, for those who can get easily confused may think Garlic Jr. Is Emperor Pilaf and that's because Huber also voices the character. There's just not much of a distinction between the two characters and how they sound. There's also brief voice appearances from Mike McFarland as Master Roshi, Tiffany Vollmer as Bulma, Cynthia Cranz as Chi and Dave 'Squatch' Ward as the Ox King. The animation to the film is done nicely. It is still a product of the 1990's anime style which gives it a very nostalgic look.

In part, the action that's animated on screen is awesome too. The hand to hand combat and Goku using his power pole are the fun parts. And there's always one Kamehameha on screen too. Still like many other anime films, Motoaki Ikegami is credited as the cinematographer to this production. Ikegami essentially had a hand in most of the Dragon Ball films too. Why though, will go unexplained. Finally, the music to this production is a little sad to hear. Instead of Shunsuke Kikuchi's memorable score cues being use throughout, the English dub went with a new score composed by a gentleman by the name of Mark Menza. Weirdly enough he's not credited on IMDb but is listed in the credits of the film. Perhaps this is because he didn't get credit for productions until the mid-90s. Either way, Menza music is okay, but just isn't for Dragon Ball Z. It sounds like an early version of Bruce Falconer's music to the series later on.

While the narrative starts off right with acceptable continuity compared to the first set of Dragon Ball films, it still falls short with the villain being rather random. The musical score is also recreated which isn't necessary. Thankfully, the voice acting and animation keep it mildly okay to watch.

For many franchises, when it comes to trilogies the third film can hit two spots. The more unusual route is the final film being a knockout end to fantastic story. Normally though, final films end in the lowest of the lowest rating compared to the ones before it. For the Sailor Moon series, despite it being delayed in sending out its set of films, they started out solid with Sailor Moon R: The Movie: The Promise of the Rose (1993). This was after the second season. Then after the third season finished, the franchise came out with Sailor Moon S: The Movie - Hearts in Ice (1994) as the second entry and it was a little weaker in storytelling. And finally, after the end of the fourth season this movie was released and it is better than the second film. Of course it still has its flaws to contend with.

The story follows the sailor guardians facing off an evil witch who employs henchman fairies with magic flutes to whisk children away into a realm where they will never grow up. They only discover this after Chibiusa (Sandy Fox) is almost kidnapped by the hypnotic sound of the pied piper-esque villains. Of them though, one fairy named Perle (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) disagrees with what's being done and joins Sailor Moon (Stephanie Sheh) and friends. Writing this feature is Yôji Enokido, who's also a writer to the show. Doing the English dub is Lisa Lumby-Richards who also worked on the English dub of the show. As for directing, Hiroki Shibata returns from the last film to head this project. From the story side of this film, the underlying message of understanding growing up is apart of life is a significant one. There's just no way around it.

Additionally, the lesson that a child's ambitions and beliefs change over time as they grow is also important. The main issue though outside of that is the witch Badiane (Tara Sands). The motive behind the villain and her backstory is largely absent and comes across weak in development. In a way Badiane is just another bland villain from the inventory of evil doers to come and go. The only thing that Badiane is after is the children's "sugar energy", which in all honesty sounds really corny. It's also interesting because practically all of the fourth season of the show was about dreams. And this feature focuses very much of that again on children and the dreams they have. It's actually quite surprising how often this is mentioned through that season and this film. The other thing that doesn't make sense is why Perle disagrees with Badiane. No explanation was provided.

The performances from the English dub voice cast are all welcome once again for their roles. Stephanie Sheh is and always will be Usagi Sailor Moon. Sandy Fox as Chibiusa Sailor Chibi Moon is as boisterous as ever. Perle the fairy by Colleen O'Shaughnessey is convincing in the role despite the character being a boy. O'Shaughnessey would also voice Jasmine Fenton and the Danny Phantom series as well as Tails in the animated and live-action Sonic the Hedgehog films. Tara Sands as Badiane despite not being a fleshed out villain also does well. Sands would later be known as the voice of Pokémon's Bulbasaur and even Yu-Gi-Oh's Mokuba. And as a surprise the other worldly sailor guardians Uranus (Erica Mendez), Neptune (Lauren Landa) and Pluto (Veronica Taylor) return as well for a little screen time.

Cinematography is again apart of this film which by no means is clear as to how. Credit goes to Motoi Takahashi for this even though, it doesn't seem necessary. Besides that though, the look of the animation is well done. There's a lot more noticeable frames to the movements in scenes that make things move much smooth. The design of Badiane is also quite unique to look at. Finally, the music which was once again composed by Takanori Arisawa is on point. Since children are the main focus, Arisawa composes a little march for them as the tune Badiane's henchman play to hypnotize them. The remaining parts of the score are performed by classic orchestral pieces that play right into the scene at hand. Without this component, the film will not have the same amount of appeal.

The villain to this feature is not well developed and one key character's motive goes unexplained. The themes behind it though play a larger part. The animation, voice acting and music bring the third original Sailor Moon film back to a better standing than the first sequel.