Justice League vs. Teen Titans

• USA • 2016 • 78m •

• Directed by: Sam Liu. • Starring: Rosario Dawson, Christopher Gorham, Shemar Moore, Jerry O'Connell, Jason O'Mara, Stuart Allan, Jake T. Austin, Taissa Farmiga, Sean Maher, Brandon Soo Hoo, Kari Wahlgren, Laura Bailey, Jon Bernthal. • Music by: Frederik Wiedmann.

The demonic forces of Trigon infiltrate the minds and bodies of the Justice League, turning the veteran super heroes against their youthful counterparts.

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Teaser

0:27

Trailer

1:19

Review:

Image from: Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016)

This movie is below average and as a dedicated Dc fan, i'm insulted. I'm honestly worried that the one thing that Dc has over Marvel, which is their animated movies, is getting more and more uninteresting as it goes. There are little good things in this movie that makes it worth watching, if you can ignore all the flaws that it has. I just feel like this movie had potential but ultimately failed due its many mistakes.

The story tries its best to mix the Justice League and Teen Titans together but it just ends up failing in the end. The Teen Titans are there but they're pushed to the side with Raven and Damien being heavily focused on. Trigon is suppose to be the main villain in the story but they don't really make him seem that unique since all he does is attack the city (which every villain has done before in the Justice League movies) and kills an entire race of people, with that being one of the only truly bad thing that he's done. The Justice League feels like they're crammed in there and their appearances seem somewhat forced. It seems that DC doesn't have enough courage in a Teen Titans solo movie, so they need to put in the Justice League in order to feel safe. That wouldn't have been a problem if they had rebooted the Teen Titans franchise properly instead of making the awful Teen Titans Go.

Just like Teen Titans Go, there's also a lot of scenes in the movie that doesn't make any sense or are just plain dumb. There's a scene where Beast Boy uncontrollably transforms into new forms of animals because...he's in hell? It was so stupid and so unnecessary and just seemed like it was there to make beast boy look cool. Also, why didn't Raven take the Justice League into hell? They could've gotten everything done way more faster than the Titans and fix the problem before Trigon could even reach the city. Speaking of Trigon attacking the city, there was only Superman, Wonderwoman, and the Flash there to help. It makes you think "hmmm hey, wheres Green Lantern, Shazam, and Aquaman?". You would think that they would come out and help defend the city but no, they don't make an appearance whatsoever. They don't even give a reasonable explanation why they aren't there, they're just like "ha slackers" and that's it. I don't care if it's because of budget cuts, if they aren't there to protect the city then don't write in Trigon attacking the city!

Now that i got that out of my system, onto the characters themselves. I don't like that Damien is the "go to" main protagonist when the movie isn't focusing on the League. This version is very close to the comics so he has to be brat but i just can't see myself rooting for someone like that. He is making more of a change though so i do like that. Raven is used more like a plot device rather than a actual character and she's extremely weak in the movie but they do a good job setting up her back story though so i'll give them that. Starfire is just there so dudes can stare at her body, and Beast Boy and Blue Beetle are just there for fan service, offering nothing but the "Power of Friendship" to the story. I also find it extremely insulting that DC has the nerve to feature Nightwing as part of the team when he wasn't even in the movie for more than 1 minute!

The animation in the movie is the only good thing about it but I saw a few scenes that shows the animators taking the easy way out of making the scenes rather than putting in time and making it feel more organic and dynamic. The voice acting is good here and there but it's overall pretty lacking. I do wish that they could have gotten the original cast to voice their respective characters but i can respect that if was due to budget cuts or just them wanting to distance themselves from that universe.

The title is also very misleading. I was expecting an epic battle where the possessed Justice League fight the underdog Teen Titans in a last ditch effort to save the world. That would've been cool but you know what we get? We get Wonderwoman, Cyborg, and Flash beating the tar out of the Titans for like 3 minutes. It was so anti- climatic that i was dying with laughter because that was suppose be the one moment that everyone was waiting for and DC just wasted it. Something that they should have done was, take the Justice League out of this movie, make this simply a Teen Titans movie, and make the epic final battle be between the Titans and Trigon.

I was just looking forward for this movie and after seeing it, i was a bit disappointed. This is an example of DC just making animated movies for a quick cash grab instead of adding quality and depth to their stories. Dc, please get better writers to make your animated movies and give the crew more time to work on things, i'd rather wait for a movie with a good story rather than immediately getting a movie that ends up very disappointing, i'm looking at you Throne of Atlantis. The movie has great animation but it's overshadowed with terrible voice acting, forced characters, cliché lines and acting, and a messy story that could've been great. If you are a casual comic fan who likes animated movies then this is the movie for you. If you're a die-hard DC comics fan who likes a good story then i can't recommend this for you. Overall, very disappointing and really hope that they do better the next time.

Review by Marshall Kimura from the Internet Movie Database.