Frieza's return, set to "F" by Maximum the Hormone. Gohan and Piccolo note how the sky going dark means that someone had just summoned the dragon. They don't know who, but Piccolo has a bad feeling. Once Frieza is fully regenerated, all of his soldiers' scouters explode due to his overwhelming power surge. And according to Frieza, he's become rusty.
How many years now have people been making fun of Frieza? "Oh, got iced by Trunks, he's a total joke now, Goku could just poke him and destroy him" and so on and so forth. Newsflash, Frieza was never actually trying. Now he has, for a rather brief if not intense bit of training at that, and his power skyrockets to the point where he's blown Buu out of the water and approaches the likes of Beerus himself. Too bad he does himself in by being too impatient to actually master his new transformation and still depending on raw power to get ahead.
The fact that, as far as we know, Frieza reached a god-level strength all by himself, while Goku needed other five Saiyans to do it. At least in that, Frieza surpassed him.
His shiny new body deserves mention as well. While it suffers similar drawback to his 100% power on Namek, it isn't quite the same. It's moreso like he's using his own ki as a battery for the Golden Freeza state which eventually runs out and cripples his output. But before that, he is so ridiculously durable that he's barely scuffed from his fight with Goku. If he mastered this state, he very well could have won or at the very least given Goku one hell of a fight that would've surpassed their battle on Namek.
How Frieza destroys the Earth. Instead of making an energy ball, he simply had to press his hands into the ground and release a bit of his energy to make the planet explode. It was so quick that Vegeta had absolutely no time to respond. In a larger sense, it also shows how powerful Goku, Vegeta, and Beerus are. They wield such might that they can nuke a planet without gathering any energy. Them just making physical contact can end the world.
And then Whis gives Goku a second chance, using his temporal do-over power to reverse time.
The fight everyone came to see, of course: Goku vs Frieza. Or rather, SSGSS Goku vs Golden Frieza. Goku has found a way to channel God Ki into a state he can actively control, and Frieza has pushed his body to a transformation that actually brings out more power rather than limit it. The best part about this battle is, at least until Frieza begins petering out, the two are perfect equals in active capability. Usually in climactic Dragon Ball battles, it's an uphill fight for someone, but here it's even footing.
It is also awesome since it gives so many callbacks to the final leg of the Frieza Saga where Goku and Frieza go all out and are almost evenly matched until Frieza's endurance tanks. It also gives a subtle nod that despite everything, Frieza never actually learns from his mistakes.
Goku being able to beat Frieza in his completely mastered true form without going Super Saiyan and barely trying. Frieza couldn't even land a punch on him and was nearly killed by Goku's Kamehameha. Goku even takes the time to mock him by asking, 'Seriously, that's all you got?' Keep in mind, Frieza in his weakest form stopped Gohan's heart with a single punch. Granted, Gohan is nowhere near as powerful as he should be, but it's still a feat. Frieza is so shocked that Goku didn't need to transform to beat him that he had a momentary Villainous Breakdown.
After years of suffering the Worf Barrage, the Kamehameha returns to its former glory, nearly killing Frieza twice and atomizing him at the end of the movie.
Adding to the spectacle is Frieza's ship falling into the ocean as the cliff it's sitting on shatters. An ideal metaphor for Frieza's empire finally collapsing.
The final battle, Vegeta VS Frieza. Oh sure, the movie had thoroughly hammered in that Frieza's insane power was rapidly dropping and he was already completely outclassed by Goku at the end, but seeing Vegeta just completely overwhelming Frieza in thirty seconds is still immensely satisfying.
It is also awesome for Vegeta because he seems to have finally gotten over Frieza. In the series, Vegeta was upset that it was Goku who defeated Frieza and not him. Frieza also humiliated him more than Goku: he forced Vegeta to be his slave since the day he was born and tortured him to death while mocking him for thinking he became a Super Saiyan. The Vegeta of the past would have repaid the humiliation he suffered a thousand times over, but now, he's merely indifferent. He knows he has nothing to prove to Frieza and only fights him for sport. That's how little Vegeta thinks of Frieza, he's no longer worth his hatred.
If you want to hear a theater full of '90s kids cheer, this is your scene: Vegeta becoming a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan.
Frieza is close to tears after losing to Vegeta, just like how Vegeta was reduced to tears after realizing he never stood a chance against Frieza. It is an awesome call back.
It took just eight hits to get Frieza on the ropes. Eight.
Beerus gets one without even doing anything. After Frieza becomes assured that he can beat Goku, he catches sight of Beerus. Instead of acting like his normal, cocky self, Frieza looks close to wetting himself. Beerus is so awesome that he humbles Frieza with his mere presence.
King Cold had warned Frieza that there were two beings he was to never seek out. Those were Buu and Beerus. Their status as The Dreaded was so well known that King Cold himself knew not to mess with them.
When Beerus appears and sneezes, his sneeze is actually so powerful, that it blows the nearby planet.
Whis showing who's Top God by handling Vegeta and Goku like children during their training. He even wrote on their uniforms without them noticing anything.
You have to give it to the Z Warriors and Jaco. They took on Frieza's entire army (who also trained with Frieza) with little effort. Only Shisami gives them any real trouble and he's taken down by Gohan with one punch.
Despite not being as strong as he should be, Gohan as a normal Super Saiyan could have ended the entire invasion by himself.
Just to add salt on Frieza's wound, Gohan fought and only turned Super Saiyan to rescue Piccolo from Shisami, and it's implied that Piccolo would've won anyway!
Piccolo employing his signature Bad Ass Arm Fold in the most awesome way possible, demolishing a barrage of Frieza's goons solely with kicks.
Krillin is kicking all sorts of ass during the fight with the army. It's already nice to see his badassery on display after decades of The Worf Effect, but when Jaco asks who he is, he gives a super casual Pre Ass Kicking One Liner. "I'm just an earthling who knows how to fight." Hell yeah.
Applies to Tien as well. He's able to keep up with Piccolo and Krillin without a problem and blasts large numbers of Frieza's men. Like the other Z Fighters and aside from his stance against Semi-Perfect Cell, Tien has received little attention since the earliest days of Z, but he more than shows here why he's still one of Earth's greatest heroes.
Of particular note is Tien's fighting style. Rather than simply relying on punches and kicks (though there are plenty of those as well,) he incorporates actual throws and joint-locks into his combat.
Piccolo owning one of Frieza's soldiers by tossing his weighted turban into his hand, then another trio by tossing his cape and cloak at them, and letting their weight and gravity do rest. Frieza's henchmen are beaten by Piccolo's clothes.
