The Red Ribbon Army is back! Sort of. Goku trashed it pretty good when he was a kid, but there's still Red Pharmaceutical, the cover company that funded the Red Ribbon Army, plus Dr. Gero's later work on Androids. They're looking to get some more artificial beings to help take over the world, and they think Gero's grandson, Hedo, is just the super-genius to make it happen.
One problem: Hedo loves superheroes. World conquest isn't a selling point for him. But telling him there are mysterious aliens working with Bulma and Capsule Corp to rule the world from the shadows, and the Red Ribbon Army just wants to stop them? That's a selling point.
I point out here Hedo had been in prison because he dug up corpses to make androids to work in a convenience store to raise money for his experiments. He might want to be a hero, but he's a little confused about appropriate and inappropriate actions.
The movie does a 6-month time skip to Piccolo getting attacked by a powerful android with a cape and an outfit that reminds me of Cyborg 009. Piccolo survives and tracks the android, which is how the heroes find out what's going on.
A lot of the movie is Piccolo trying to hand this problem off to other people, but being forced to deal with it himself. Goku and Vegeta are off-world, training with Broly, and through a contrived circumstance, can't be reached. Which is fine; I could have done with the 10 minutes or so the movie spent on Beerus' world being cut in half. That would have been enough to explain why the usual suspects (plus Vegeta) weren't showing up to save the day this time. I guess they figured most people want to see those guys. I'm clearly not most people, but so it goes.
After that, and Piccolo using the Dragon Balls to get his potential unlocked (and Bulma using them for mystical cosmetic surgery), it's mostly Piccolo trying to get Gohan amped up enough to handle this problem. Because Gohan's not training. Again. Can't blame the guy, honestly. He's been fighting for his life since he was 5. Let the man study bugs! There are some funny bits there, as Piccolo spends much of the movie disguised as a Red Ribbon soldier, and helps abduct Gohan's daughter, Pan. Then Piccolo gets Pan to actively play along that she's in danger.
Him standing behind the Red Ribbon guys, signaling at her to cry or to not beat up the guy who wouldn't let her have cookies, because, 'those aren't for hostages,' or pretending to grab her by the shirt (when she's actually standing on his other hand), cracked me up.
Hedo and his creations, Gamma 1 and 2, have an 11th hour face turn when the Red Ribbon leader stops pretending this is anything other than a power grab and activates the best version of Cell they could create from incomplete notes (because Gero's computer actually completed Cell, decades into the future.) More powerful, but with none of the personality. Essentially a rampaging, instinctual berserker monster.
Which is fine; they already had Hedo, the Gammas and Magenta to act as antagonists with personality and motivations. There wasn't time to get into a whole thing with another villain and their desires and monologues. Sometimes you just need something big and dangerous that requires the heroes to go all-out to win, and "Cell Max" fits the bill. Everyone gets to have a moment to be cool or helpful, the day is saved. Gohan shows he has been doing some training on the side, so Piccolo's fears were unfounded. Pan gets to have a little arc when she figures out how to fly in a critical moment, after struggling with it at the beginning of the film. I wasn't so sure about Hedo, but he does offer to go back to prison at the end, so I think he's gained a better sense of what heroism is about, and Dragon Ball is nothing if not about giving people second chances (or third, fourth, seriously, why has nobody re-killed Frieza yet?)
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