Review of Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016) by Kevin D — 23 Apr 2016

Riding on the waves of the Superhero V Superhero bandwagon, comes one of the more boring entries in the DC animation universe. From the direction of this story's terrible plot, the voice characterization, to the lack luster pace of the movie, it really ruins the overall experience of this film.

The story is the least entertaining of the entire WB Animation adaptation of a DC comic to date. I never once felt excited or compelled by the events in the series. The plot revolves around Bruce Wayne's son Damien screwing up on a Justice League mission and being sent away for basically doing his job, to join the Teen Titans and learn how to work with a team. The original group has already bonded together and Robin plays the outsider, who looks doubtfully on the capabilities of the group. It's a meager 'coming of age' teen drama with some superhero kids. More like an animated version of Twilight, but replace the vampires with superheroes and demons and you pretty much have a similar film.

The storytelling is weak throughout, and it truly lacks any depth of character. Nor does it bring anything new or interesting in terms of story to the DC animated universe. One of the more important scenes in the film, the bonding sequence at a carnival, is an awful montage of hackneyed moments straight out of a teen drama, complete with a pop-drama soundtrack and Dance-Dance Revolution. The main drawback of this film is it's slow pace. It doesn't build up at any point. The events just happen one after another and most of them don't feel very connected. The characters simply go through the motions, and by the end of the film the climax feels anything but climatic.

You may be a fan of Teen Titans and the success of their Saturday Morning cartoon adventures, but this is by no means a story related to that series. The characters have been altered to adapt the DC animated universe and their previous incarnations. Cyborg himself is already part of the Justice League, but crosses over due to circumstance and necessity. Starfire, the group leader is... shall we say more mature (*ahem*) than the original incarnation as she's pretty much an adult in charge of this group of kids. She plays an alien babysitter, while the other members of the group are significantly younger. Raven is right out of a Twilight fan's wet dream, an over-sexualized 14 year old witch, who forms the centre of this film's major story-line with Damien/ Robin love story. Beastboy and Blue Beetle are ancillary characters designed as necessary support for the primary group, and there are several hints at their interest in each other (kudos for including homosexual characters though). Especially the delivery of their lines in this film seemed lack luster for the most part, which was surprising considering how experienced some of the actors are. Jon Bernthal was a the one that stood out the most as Trigon, the main villain of the story, and I felt he really brought out a new characterization in his voice.

Technically speaking, this animation is sound. The visual style and look are clean and it keeps in line with previous franchise entries. Personally, this film is only slightly better 'Gods and Monsters' (2015), which was also directed by Sam Liu. I hope he brings better skill in 'Batman: The Killing Joke' (2016) due out later this year.

Unimpressive overall.

2/5.