Quintessential DBZ movie tropes

[+ wolffanghameha]

Every DBZ movie seems to have certain tropes. Some which I can think of are:

1. Gohan nearly gets killed, but is saved when the enemy is attacked by some off-screen entity
2. Circus-sounding music plays, camera pans to a caped figure standing on some pillar
3. Gohan shouts "Piccolo!"
4. Piccolo smirks, happy to be appreciated
5. Piccolo gets wrecked five minutes later
6. Goku is struggling, but Vegeta turns up like a badass to save him, while also chastising him for being so weak and saying something about how he will defeat Goku
7. Vegeta gets wrecked five minutes later, in the most humiliating way possible, returning balance to the universe
8. Some sort of combined attack defeats the enemy

Can you think of any more?

[Darker]

The hulking, near unstoppable villain that can literally take on the whole gang at once?

[Greeny]

-Gohan being saved by Piccolo
-Goku getting a power up at the end and defeating the enemy
-Piccolo and/or Vegeta standing alone at the end of the movie
-Everyone gets beat up, Vegeta gets a stand alone with some lines but still loses, Goku finishes the rest

[+ Pyrus]

- The Saiyans try to fight in Base first despite knowing the enemy will require higher transformations, unless it's late into the movie where they transform immediately.
- Goku is always portrayed as the strongest OR necessary to win (i.e. saving Gohan against Bojack).
- Broly is maximum.
- The villain always has the heroes at his mercy, but decides to monologue long enough for them to recover and make a comeback.

[+ PocketGoggu]

The villain is almost always a rehash of what's going on in the main series?

[Topographic Oceans]

Movie opens with the characters engaged in mundane activities before the villain shows up to start the fighting. In movies 3 and 5 they're out camping, in movie 7 Goku and his family are out shopping while the others wait for a beauty pageant, in movie 8 they're having a picnic, etc.

[+ POOHEAD189]

In a lot of the early movies, Piccolo would get one or more mook kills at least.

[scouterSSJ]

From the 3rd DBZ movie onwards, they're practically a calc of each other.
Protagonists are living a happy life, ultra-powerful enemy appears that wrecks everyone, last minute power-up (usually a Genkidama) and boom, that unstopable enemy is suddenly defeated in a single blow (Turles, Slug, #13, Broly, Janemba, Hildregan, etc.).
Of course some movies vary a couple of things (fist of the dragon changes the way the story is told even if the fight itself is as uninspired as in the rest of the movies), but I think DB it's only tied with One Piece when it comes to make formulaic, uninspired movies.

Regards.

[Big Green Uncle 2]

I can't believe no one in this thread mentioned the absurd amount of tanking feats in the movies... LOL.

[DanielSan]

A common one is the villain basically messing around, or not using their full strength for most of the movie. Then they end up being serious/use full power, but still fool around when it comes to beating the heroes and end up being beaten eventually.

[Big Green Uncle 2]

A common one is the villain basically messing around, or not using their full strength for most of the movie. Then they end up being serious/use full power, but still fool around when it comes to beating the heroes and end up being beaten eventually.

The same applies to the heroes in that regard, at least when it comes to the first sentence.

[DanielSan]

The same applies to the heroes in that regard, at least when it comes to the first sentence.

Oh yeah that is pretty common as well. Although, at least the heroes eventually get serious, and typically use some sort of technique to beat the villain in the movies.