Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox", here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we continue the 2nd month of this themed marathon by taking a look at an animated movie from 2017. That movie is "Teen Titans: The Judas Contract".
Normally, guys, whenever I go into these sorts of movies put out by DC, I usually have some level of optimism. Because I generally do like a majority of these direct-to-video animated films that DC puts out. There are a few exceptions to this, but for the most part, I do enjoy most of these movies. But this one I'm having a little bit of doubts on, and there's a couple reasons behind it.
The first one is that I'm not a huge fan of the Teen Titans. I tried to watch the TV show from the early to mid-2000's, and I just could not get into it. I never found the Titans, themselves, to be interesting, with the one lone exception being Cyborg. Everyone else I just thought were a bit shallow and lifeless. Now, mind you, I'm basing my thoughts on the cartoon. I'm pretty sure they were much different in the comics, so who knows? I also watched a little bit of "Teen Titans: Go!" on Cartoon Network. And the few episodes I watched were OK, but again, it wasn't really my thing. I have noticed, however, most people seem to bitch about that show because it wasn't what they wanted. It wasn't like the show that they grew up with from back then and still don't seem to grasp the concept that the show is aimed for younger children. But then again, those are just man-children bitching about a cartoon show. So, I don't have to deal with their bullshit here. And, on the off chance anybody asks me, no, I'm not gonna be covering the two "Teen Titans: Go!" movies. Because, as I just said, I'm not gonna be wasting time with fanboys who continue their bullshit crusade against a cartoon show that wasn't meant to be taken seriously.
The second reason I'm not looking forward to this movie as much as I should is because this movie is, technically, a sequel to another DC animated film known as "Justice League vs. Teen Titans". A movie that I thought was OK, but it certainly was a huge downgrade in quality from the other DC animated films that I've watched. Now, I wouldn't call it the worst DC animated film. That honor, at least to me, goes to "Justice League Dark". But still, it's definitely not as good as it should've been.
Anyway, I'm hoping that this movie will be a step-up from the previous film. And considering that the Titans are not saddled with the Justice League this time around, maybe having their own movie will benefit them. But the only way I'm gonna know the answer to that, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Teen Titans: The Judas Contract".
12 minutes later
You know, guys, I totally get that they're trying to make Beast Boy's jokes about posting stuff online funny, but it really isn't working. And I kinda wish this movie would knock that shit off, because it's getting a little old at this point.
12 minutes later
So, wait a minute here. So this machine that Brother Blood created was able to make this guy supposedly immortal. Yet, just a few seconds later, he gets shot in the head by this woman and ends up being killed. So...why was he killed? Were the other captured people that were used to be absorbed into him not worthy enough to stop him from being shot in the head by a bullet? I'm gonna be honest, guys, I'm a little bit lost here.
14 minutes later
You know, guys, it's really weird to see Terra having some sort of a love interest for Deathstroke like this. And what makes it more weird is that Terra looks to be, what, 15? 16 years old? Whatever the case, Terra potentially being under-aged for someone who's about 3 decades older than her just comes off as really creepy to me.
18 minutes later
You know, guys, I was just thinking about something. So, we're seeing members of the Titans being kidnapped as part of Deathstroke's plan to get them together for Brother Blood. So what I want to know is, where is Cyborg in all of this? Didn't he join the Titans at the end of "Justice League vs. Teen Titans"? If so, then where the hell has he been during all this? I'm really curious, guys, and I don't think this movie is going to attempt to explain that, at this point.
15 minutes later
So...Brother Blood, after absorbing the powers of the Titans, also gains some of the physical attributes of each of them? It looks...kinda stupid. But...wait a minute, Damian Wayne has no powers, so how is Brother Blood able to absorb anything from him? Guys, the more I'm looking at this stupid transformation of Brother Blood's, the less sense it makes.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Teen Titans: The Judas Contract". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Well...I guess I should say that, going into this movie, I was really hoping for this movie to be better than "Justice League vs. Teen Titans", but it really isn't. In fact, I would dare say that this movie actually makes "Justice League vs. Teen Titans" even better. While "Justice League vs. Teen Titans" had it's fair share of problems, this movie makes those problems look incredibly minor, compared to what I just watched. So, let's start by talking about this movie, shall we?
As I mentioned before, I'm not a huge fan of the Teen Titans. And part of the reason is that their personalities were all shallow and kinda lifeless. And I was hoping that, because the Justice League were not in this movie, the Titans would be more properly focused. Well, unfortunately, that doesn't really happen. In fact, this movie carries on the same dull and lifeless personalities that were in the previous movie. The only small differences here is that Beast Boy is obsessed with the internet, because he makes constant references to shit like Twitter and YouTube, because he posts stuff there regularly. The only other character that kinda does something is the Blue Beetle, because we see him volunteering to be a cook for the homeless shelter, while also dealing with not being able to see his family because of his time with the Titans. I kinda wish the movie would've gone a little more into that, but it kinda just ends up being forgotten about, because we focus a lot on Terra. I'll talk about her in a moment. Then we have Raven, who doesn't have any kind of character development in this movie. But considering that she had her development in "Justice League vs. Teen Titans", I'm gonna give her a bit of a pass. Then there's Damian Wayne, who had barely changed since his time with the Titans, and is still the same pompous, annoying character he was in the previous film. Which again, makes his character development in "Batman: Bad Blood" almost non-existent, but I'm not gonna dwell on that here. And finally, we have Dick Grayson, AKA Nightwing, and Starfire. Now I know she was called something else in this movie, but since her name was completely forgettable, I'm just gonna stick with Starfire. And those two are living together. And that's about it. It's the same kind of characters, with the same dull and lifeless personalities as before. And I know that this may be seen as me being kinda biased against the Titans, since I'm not a fan of them, but I was still hoping for this movie to give me a reason to care about them. But unfortunately, this movie couldn't accomplish that.
Speaking of characters, let's talk about the only character that has any kind of development. Which would be Terra. Now, aside from Deathstroke, she's really the only character who does anything of substance, because she's brought in as a member of the Titans. But she's also working as a double agent for Deathstroke. I want to touch upon that for a moment, because I still can't get this out of my mind. So, we see her coming on to Deathstroke, while wearing a rather revealing dress. And it's so weird seeing her do this, because it looks as though she's about 16 or so, and she's coming on to Deathstroke, who's about 3 or 4 decades older than her. It's just knowing the age gap between the two is so incredibly off-putting. And what it makes it even creepier is that we get to a flashback to where Deathstroke saves her as a little girl. Now, mind you, we get to see about several flashbacks with Terra, as she's being branded a witch because she has all these strange powers, and that's fine. But in this flashback, after Deathstroke saves her from being shot at, he takes off his mask, and it looks as though he hasn't aged a fucking day since the time he rescued Terra as a little girl. And to see Terra having some sort of love interest for someone who is clearly much older than her is just fucking creepy, and it could take someone out of the movie, because of this creepy relationship. Seeing this, it actually reminds of a scene in "Batman: The Killing Joke", where Batman has sex with Barbara Gordon on a rooftop. And no, I'm not kidding about that. It was pointless then, and it's unnecessary here. Now, to this movie's credit, at least they didn't go down the route that "Batman: The Killing Joke" took. But that still doesn't stop this scene from being creepy and unnecessary as hell.
Now, aside from the characters, this movie doesn't attempt to explain shit. For example, we get a prologue at the beginning of the movie where it takes place 5 years before the events of this movie. And during this prologue, we get to see Dick Grayson, who was the Teen Titans leader at the time, Beast Boy, Kid Flash, and two other Teen Titans characters who I've never seen or heard of, rescue Starfire from monsters that attempt to take her back to her home world. Of course, after they save her, she eventually joins the Titans. I should mention that, after this prologue, we never see Kid Flash, or the other two nameless Titans characters again in this movie. Why? I don't know. Why would they introduce a batch of characters who are, probably, making their first appearances in this line-up of DC animated films, and not have them mentioned, or make another appearance for the rest of the movie? I certainly would've like to have seen more of Kid Flash, but no, we only have them to serve a purpose in the prologue and never have them mentioned or seen again, afterwards. And I probably would not have minded them not showing up again in this movie, if Dick Grayson or Beast Boy explained what happened to them after they saved Starfire. But no, they show up, and they're gone after the prologue because fuck you, that's why.
Another character that is missing from this movie is Cyborg. Now, I will admit that it has been well over a year since I last watched "Justice League vs. Teen Titans", but I could've sworn that Cyborg joined the Titans after the ending of that movie. Where the fuck has he been during all this? Because, I know he is a very prominent member of the Titans. Did he just suddenly go back to being a member of the Justice League without any explanation? You would think that maybe this movie would come up with some sort of explanation as to why Cyborg is absent from this movie, but no, there is absolutely NO mention of Cyborg at all in this movie. Guys, that would be like if you had a Justice League movie without Superman, and he was not mentioned, or brought up, at all during that time. If I were trying to come up with an explanation as to why Cyborg was not in this movie, I would say the Justice League called him up on a mission of sorts and requested his help on something. Granted, it's not much of an explanation, but I at least tried to give some sort of an idea as to Cyborg's disappearance from this movie. Now, I totally understand that I might keep banging on a trivial point, but I still think it's worth mentioning, because Cyborg's sudden disappearance just bothered the shit out of me.
One more thing I want to mention, in terms of writing, is when Brother Blood has the Titans captured. He has this machine that is able to absorb their powers and transfer them over to him, so he can become some sort of god, or some shit like that. And I mentioned it very late during the reaction portion that one of the members that he captured was Damian Wayne, AKA Robin. And as I recall, Robin does not have any kind of powers. So...what exactly did Brother Blood get out of him? If he got his martial arts skills, then that is stupid as hell, because he barely, if at all, uses them. And I was just thinking about this, as well. So, when Brother Blood had Deathstroke hunting down the Titans to kidnap them, one of them that was left out was Nightwing, because Deathstroke shot him in the water and left Dick Grayson for dead. So, and this is going to be a slight spoiler, they end up using Terra as a replacement. But what I was wondering was what would happen if Nightwing had been captured, along with the other Titans? Does that mean that Brother Blood would end up getting more martial arts skills, or something, from Nightwing? Guys, the more I think about it, the more that this plan of Brother Blood's sounds fucking stupid, and it kinda makes Brother Blood seem incompetent, especially when you consider that he's had this plan for centuries.
So, overall, guys, the writing in this movie is a fucking mess. And, mind you, some of the stuff I mentioned, such as Cyborg's disappearance, or the disappearance of the Titan members at the beginning of the movie, could be seen as overly trivial in the long run. So I will say that if you can turn your brain off, and watch the movie as is, then you might end up liking it. But seeing as how these details bothered me, I just couldn't find any enjoyment out of the movie's writing. Now, even though the writing here is incredibly flawed, the acting is great. Every actor was able to turn in some really awesome showings, especially when you consider the script that they were given was mostly shit. So, I have to give praise to all of the actors that were able to make this bad script work.
The animation here is stellar. In terms of the hand drawn animation, this is one of the better looking animated films from DC that I've seen in quite a while. And it really is one of the biggest highlights of this movie. That being said, there is another problem that I noticed when I covered "Superman: Red Son" last month. And that is the usage of CG. Now, when I mention the CG, I'm referring to anything involving cars. The cars in this movie look fucking awful when rendered in CG. And as I mentioned before when I covered "Superman: Red Son", it really stands out, especially when you consider the fact that the rest of the 2D animation looks amazing. And I really wish DC would actually render these vehicles better, because every time I see them in CG, it just shows laziness on DC's part. Now, beyond the problems involving the CG cars, the rest of the animation looks great. And I also really like the art style, too. But then again, most of it is what was carried over from "Justice League vs. Teen Titans", so it's to be expected.
The sound-mix is mixed well. The music is passable. There's one song that I remembered listening to during a small montage where the Titans were throwing a surprise party for Terra's 1 year anniversary of being with the Titans, and it kinda sucked, but seeing as how it was really short, I'm not going to knock on the movie's music too much.
So, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Teen Titans: The Judas Contract"? Personally no, seeing as how I'm not a fan of the Teen Titans. But, like I said earlier, if you're able to turn your brain off and just watch this movie for what it is, then you might find some enjoyment out of it. However, if you're not a fan of the Teen Titans, then I would just avoid this thing all together. This movie was just bad. In fact, I mentioned at the start of this that the worst movie out of DC's direct-to-video animated films that I watched was "Justice League Dark". Well, behold the movie that was able to surpass that. This movie, at least to me, is the worst animated film from DC that I've ever watched. And I know that it could be because I'm not a fan of the Teen Titans, but like I said earlier, I wanted to give this thing a fair shot. And unfortunately, due to all of the problems that I had with it, it was just too much for me to not overlook it, and it wound up just being a pretty bad movie in the end. Now...I'm gonna go watch a better DC animated movie. And you know what? I see my copy of "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm". I'm gonna go watch that, because I want to forget that this terrible movie ever existed.
Anyway, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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