Teen Titans Go to the Movies (2018) review

In 1964, Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani created the latest addition to DC’s long line of superhero teams, the Teen Titans. While the roster of characters has changed numerous times over the years, many members of the Titans have been known for being sidekicks of other DC heroes and are usually led by Batman’s most famous sidekick, Dick Grayson AKA Robin. And while the Titans have been a part of the comic landscape for years, folks of my generation primarily recognize them via the anime-inspired animated series Teen Titans, which ran for five seasons on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2006. The show, which followed a Titans group consisting of Robin, alien princess Starfire, half-human/half-robot hybrid Cyborg, gothic psychic Raven, and animal shape-shifter Beast Boy, was lauded for its mature storytelling, layered characters, and vibrant animation. In 2013, nearly a decade after the original show’s arguably premature cancellation, a new ‘spin-off’ of the series debuted on Cartoon Network titled Teen Titans Go. While the show did feature the same cast of characters (along with the original voice cast) as its predecessor, Go took the concept in a more comedic direction. And while the show has been a hit with its target audience, fans of the original Teen Titans series have been highly critical of it due to its radically different take on the characters, which they feel is vastly inferior to that of the original series. Nevertheless, the show continues to be one of Cartoon Network’s most popular shows to the point where it has even outlived the original series with an episode count of over 200. Thus, this iteration of the Teen Titans has now been given the opportunity to grace the franchise’s first feature film (not counting the original series’ 2006 TV film Trouble in Tokyo), Teen Titans Go to the Movies. And to those who are still fiercely vehement about Teen Titans Go… well, you may be surprised to learn that this film is quite an entertaining flick.

Despite all their various crime-fighting adventures, the five members of the Teen Titans (Robin (voiced by Scott Menville), Beast Boy (voiced by Greg Cipes), Raven (voiced by Tara Strong), Cyborg (voiced by Khary Payton), and Starfire (voiced by Hynden Walch)) are constantly told by other superheroes that they aren’t taken that seriously due to their childish behavior. To prove that they’re worthy of being superheroes, Robin realizes that their best chances of accomplishing this are to get the one thing that every great superhero has, a film adaptation. Thus, the team heads directly to Hollywood to try and make it big in the film industry, where basically every major superhero has gotten their own film. Once there, though, they learn from famous superhero film director Jade Wilson (voiced by Kristen Bell) that it’s unlikely that anyone would watch a film about them. In response, the Titans try and find the other big thing that every great superhero has, an iconic arch-nemesis. And as luck would have it, they soon find a potential candidate for that position in the form of Slade (voiced by Will Arnett), a gun-wielding, sword-wielding mercenary who seems to be a lot like Deadpool despite his insistence that he came first. Regardless, the Titans vow to stop his dastardly plan to take over the world via mind control, hoping that it’ll prove to the rest of the world that they’re truly worthy of a feature film.     

The biggest selling point of the Teen Titans Go film is that it ultimately serves as a huge satire of the superhero genre. Obviously, this puts it in line with the Deadpool films in terms of its overall execution, with the primary difference being that this superhero satire is geared towards younger audiences. But even with this in mind, Teen Titans Go to the Movies isn’t that far off from Deadpool when it comes to the overall quality of its sharp satire. Plus, this isn’t just a spoof of DC films, including everything from their apparent necessity to be dark to the infamous ‘Martha’ moment from Batman v Superman. There are also quite a few jabs at Marvel (e.g. a familiar cameo) as well as some self-aware shots at Teen Titans Go itself, specifically the fact that most people view the Titans as, to quote Superman (voiced by Nicolas Cage, who finally gets to play the character after previously being set to play him in the canceled Superman Lives), ‘goofsters’. And with that said, while there are a few instances where the film delves into some of the same sophomoric toilet humor from the TV series that its critics intensely despise, these moments are generally downplayed in favor of all the great satirical bits of humor. To top it all off, the animation is quite solid. While I’m aware that the ‘cartoony’ redesigns of the main characters compared to the original Titans series has been a contentious topic amongst its critics, it ends up working quite well on the big screen, resulting in a lot of bright, fast-paced action sequences.

Arguably one of the nicest things to come from the newer series was that the five voice actors who portrayed the Teen Titans in the original series (Scott Menville, Greg Cipes, Tara Strong, Khary Payton, and Hynden Walch) returned to reprise their respective roles, which isn’t always the case when an animated series like this gets rebooted. However, that doesn’t mean that this was entirely a good thing for many fans, because from what I’ve read, quite arguably the biggest complaint about Teen Titans Go from fans of the original show was its drastically different portrayals of the main characters. Specifically, many people feel that the newer renditions of the Titans are a lot more immature to the point where they can even be a bit unlikeable at times. Thankfully, though, as someone who hasn’t had a lot of experience with the TV show, it didn’t seem like this was as big of an issue in the film. Despite a few instances here and there where the characters tend to mock each other, you do get a nice sense of unity between them, allowing for some decent heartfelt moments. Meanwhile, this film also sees the return of a classic villain from the original Teen Titans series, Slade. In the original series, he was voiced by Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman, but in this new film, he’s voiced by LEGO Batman AKA Will Arnett (Jimmy Kimmel, meanwhile, portrays this franchise’s rendition of the Caped Crusader). And while I think it’s safe to say that quite a few people will ultimately prefer Perlman’s serious take on the character, Arnett (who’s also one of the film’s producers) does get quite a few great laughs as the self-aware mercenary, making this the second great animated superhero film role of his career.      

In conclusion, I want to make it clear that I do not have any major connection to the ongoing conflict surrounding the continued success of Teen Titans Go. For the record, I did watch the original Teen Titans show growing up; in fact, you could say that it was one of my first major introductions to the superhero genre in a time before the MCU was ever a thing. But at the same time, it’s been quite a few years since I’ve seen any of its episodes in full. As such, I also haven’t watched any full episodes of Teen Titans Go; at the time that I’m writing this, I’ve only watched a few clips of it online, and from what I’ve seen, the show honestly doesn’t look ‘that’ bad. And because of this, I found Teen Titans Go to the Movies to be a very entertaining animated flick. No, I’m not saying that it’s the best animated film or the best superhero film ever made, but it more than does its job of being a delightfully wacky satire of the superhero genre that isn’t afraid to pull a few punches at its own source material. Thus, for fans of the show, this will basically give them everything that they love about it. And dare I say it, this may even entertain some of its biggest haters because it does tone down some of the more ‘obnoxious’ aspects of the series. I mean, to be perfectly frank, it’s truly saying something when this film has fared far better with critics than 80% of the currently-released installments of the DC Extended Universe save for Wonder Woman. And if this film’s mid-credits scene means anything, the haters might want to see this film just to ensure that the one thing that it’s teasing ends up happening.

Rating: 4/5

Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) review

(Disclaimer: Due to the necessity to address certain moments from the plot in order to explain the controversies surrounding them, there will be some minor spoilers in this review. Fear not though, folks, for I will not be directly spoiling anything from the ending for those who haven’t read the graphic novel.)

There have been many iconic Batman storylines over the years and one of the most famous was the 1988 one-shot graphic novel The Killing Joke. Written by legendary comic writer Alan Moore, the man behind other classic stories like V for Vendetta and Watchmen, The Killing Joke focused on the Dark Knight’s most infamous adversary, the Joker. Moore explored the backstory of the Clown Prince of Crime in order to uncover just what it was that led to him becoming a criminal psychopath. The end result was a storyline that many considered to be not only one of the absolute best Batman stories of all-time but also the definitive Joker story. It’s so iconic that both of the modern-era Batman films that featured the Joker, Tim Burton’s Batman and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, were directly influenced by it. Nearly three decades later, fans rejoiced when it was announced that DC would finally be doing an adaptation of Moore’s story in animated form as part of their line of ‘DC Universe Animated Original Movies’. Even better, Batman and Joker were to be voiced by arguably the most iconic duo to ever play the parts; Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Mark Hamill (Joker), who had done the roles for years on Batman: The Animated Series as well as other various forms of DC media like Rocksteady’s Arkham games. Seems like a home-run, right? Well, unfortunately that’s not really the case here. Because while this adaptation does deserve some credit for its effort to stay as faithful as possible to the source material, it ultimately suffers from what the filmmakers had to add to it in order to meet a much more suitable run-time. Said additions were done as an attempt to ‘make amends’ for the most controversial aspect of the comic; how it portrayed the character of Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl. And yet these additions only end up making the whole situation worse, resulting in an incredibly disappointing affair for fans of the storyline.

The primary addition to this story comes in the form of a 30-minute prologue that is intended to further develop the character of Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl (voiced by Tara Strong). Having spent much time fighting crime with Bruce Wayne AKA Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy), she starts to realize that she is close to being taken ‘to the edge’, as Batman calls it, and decides to retire from crime-fighting. Sometime later, Batman comes across a crime scene that could have only been perpetrated by his long-time enemy, the Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill). Unbeknownst to him, the Joker has broken out of Arkham Asylum and has purchased a run-down amusement park as part of a doozy of a plot in order to ‘prove a point’ in that ‘all it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy’. This plan ends up affecting not only Barbara (in a very disturbing way) but also her father, Commissioner Jim Gordon (voiced by Ray Wise). It is during this time where we also begin to learn more about old Joker. As it turns out, a long time ago he was once a struggling comedian who desperately tried to support his pregnant wife Jeannie. Hoping to earn enough money to move them into a nicer neighborhood, the comedian meets with a pair of criminals and agrees to lead them through the chemical plant that he used to work at, before he quit in order to become a comedian, so that they can rob the business right next to it. Unfortunately for the comedian, things only proceed to get worse from there as a string of unfortunate accidents come together to become the ‘one bad day’ that ends up driving him insane.

So yeah… this film’s 30-minute prologue was not part of the original comic… and it shows. This film’s first half hour literally has nothing to do with The Killing Joke whatsoever. Seriously, Mark Hamill’s Joker doesn’t even appear in this part of the film. But the absolute worst part of this sequence is how they portray the character of Batgirl. For those who haven’t read The Killing Joke, the comic was rather controversial in regards to how it portrayed Batgirl. The story saw her brutally shot in the spine by the Joker, paralyzing her from the waist down which subsequently led to her adopting a new persona, Oracle. Part of the story also saw her being stripped naked by the Joker, who then proceeded to take pictures of her in order to torture Commissioner Gordon. So it’s understandable why some people weren’t too happy with how Barbara Gordon was both depowered, and in some cases very much objectified, in the story. Even Alan Moore himself admitted that he went a bit too far with the story in general. But when it comes to the film adaptation, it only gets worse from here. Basically all that this 30-minute prologue does is portray Batgirl as a hopeless romantic who frequently loses focus whenever someone tries to put the moves on her. And yes, as many of you have no doubt heard by now, there is a scene where she has sex with Batman. No comment. I mean in hindsight this 30-minute prologue ‘could’ve’ been effective in regards to actually further developing Batgirl’s character in order to make the tragedy that happens to her in the story even more impactful. But that doesn’t happen.

So how about when the film does get into the actual story of The Killing Joke? Well I hate to say it but even that part feels a little lackluster in terms of how its handled. Now to the film’s credit, the filmmakers clearly spent a lot of effort in regards to staying as faithful to the source material as possible. Save for a few changes in dialogue and how certain scenes are set up, many scenes in the second half of the film legitimately feel like they came straight out of the comic. However, I can’t really explain why but some of these scenes feel off in terms of the emotional impact. One specific scene in which pre-accident Joker learns of his wife’s death due to a household accident is executed differently from how it was handled in the comic and as a result it really doesn’t get across how emotionally devastating this is for him. After all, she and their unborn child were the reason why he decided to work with the two criminals in the first place so when he tries to back out of their agreement, the two force him to still do it and of course it ends up with him becoming the Joker. This is another example of how the longer runtime could’ve been used more effectively. Maybe the filmmakers could’ve bulked up the original story a bit more. Perhaps they could’ve put in a few more scenes between the Joker and his wife, who literally appears in only one scene before she’s killed off. But again, that’s not what happened and instead the filmmakers more or less played it safe. Sure it’s faithful to its source but ultimately it doesn’t really live up to the quality of either that or its legendary voice cast. Heck, the animation ain’t really that great either.

Ignoring the, to be perfectly blunt, rather terribly handled prologue, perhaps the biggest issue with The Killing Joke is that it’s ‘too’ faithful to the source material. The original comic was a pretty short story so obviously it wouldn’t cut it for a feature-length film. And while I’m sure that they could’ve potentially gotten away with just doing a 45-minute short film, instead they decided to add more to the story in order to reach a more suitable run-time. But ultimately they didn’t make any changes to the actual Killing Joke story, which actually sort of ends up being a problem. And yeah… that prologue. Obviously the point of it was an attempt to ‘do justice’ (seeing how this is a DC film, no pun intended) to the character of Batgirl after her arguably questionable portrayal in the original story… and it ends up being a major epic fail on every level. Not only is this arguably the worst portrayal of the character to date, it’s one of the worst portrayals of any superhero character period (DISCLAIMER: None of this, I repeat, NONE of this is the fault of Tara Strong. She’s still one of the greatest voice actresses in the industry. It’s the writers who failed both her and the character.). And as a result, the opening leaves a bad taste in your mouth that unfortunately stays throughout the film, even when it gets to The Killing Joke. I’m actually surprised that this was released in theaters given its rather low quality. I mean I know DC’s animated films don’t have as big of a budget compared to the live-action films but given the prestige of the original story, I don’t see why they couldn’t have given more money to the filmmakers to do the best adaptation possible. In short, this is not that adaptation. But despite all that I’ve said in this review, if you are a fan of the original story, this is still worth checking out if only to see the legendary duo of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill performing this legendary Batman/Joker story… just skip the first 30 minutes.    

Rating: 2/5