"Justice League vs. Teen Titans" Feature Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

Two teams! One epic battle!

​

Justice League vs. Teen Titans
Studio: Warner Bros. Animation
Release Date: March 29, 2016 - Digital; April 12th, 2016 - Blu-ray/DVD

Synopsis: When Damian’s over-aggressive tendencies almost destroy a Justice League mission, he is sent to learn teamwork by training alongside the Teen Titans. However, adjusting Damian’s attitude turns out to be the least of the Teen Titans’ troubles as Raven’s satanic, world-conquering father Trigon begins an escape from his inter-dimensional prison. To complete his return, Trigon must have Raven’s assistance – and to accomplish his goal, he spreads his demonic forces across the globe, infiltrating the minds and bodies of the Justice League to do his bidding. To save the universe and prevent a literal hell on Earth, the Teen Titans must rescue – or defeat – the Justice League, and intern Trigon for all eternity.

The voice cast for Justice League vs. Teen Titans includes several actors reprising their recent Justice League roles – Jason O’Mara (Complications, Terra Nova) as Batman, Jerry O’Connell (Crossing Jordan, Stand By Me) as Superman, Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Rent) as Wonder Woman, Shemar Moore (Criminal Minds) as Cyborg and Christopher Gorham (Covert Affairs, Ugly Betty) as Flash. Sean Maher (Firefly/Serenity, Batman: Bad Blood) also returns as Nightwing, as does Stuart Allan (Batman vs. Robin) as Robin/Damian. Making their Teen Titans voiceover debuts are Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story, Wicked City) as Raven, Jake T. Austin (Wizards of Waverly Place, The Fosters) as Blue Beetle, Brandon Soo Hoo (Tropic Thunder, From Dusk Til Dawn: The Series) as Beast Boy and Kari Wahlgren (Phineas and Ferb, Legion of Superheroes) as Starfire. Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead, Daredevil) takes the villainous center stage as Trigon.

Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment, Justice League vs. Teen Titans is directed by Sam Liu from a screenplay by Bryan Q. Miller and Alan Burnett based on a story by Miller. James Tucker is Supervising Producer. Burnett is also co-Producer. Sam Register is Executive Producer.

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[Troy Troodon]

Okay, after finally having seen the film, I can now express my honest opinion as usual.

Justice League vs Teen Titans, is yet another movie that absolutely frustrates me -- If only because I actually like the film even though part of me still thinks I shouldn't!

See unlike Justice League War or Batman vs Robin, this movie legitimately feels more like an actual superhero movie. Mind you the title feels more like a lie, since the two teams don't really fight each other very long; and the former team was possessed by Trigon so technically the Titans weren't fighting the JL... and it's probably best it was left at that.

The characters are set up rather decently, even though it didn't exactly explore the backgrounds of all the characters (Beast Boy and Blue Beetle) or how the group was assembled, and it doesn't try to glorify any form of violence or language (Though that Sailor Moon transformation scene with Starfire still turned me off) and much of the characters do feel more like actual characters.

If I did have to nit pick on a couple things, it's that Superman/Wonder Woman relationship, and it still makes me wanna gag, and their resolution with coming out of Trigon's spell is rather face stroking. That and how Damian was acting in the beginning! I get the film build his character up as it progresses, but it feels like the kid never learned any lesson from the previous animated movies... which brings me to another critique I have with this story and the other recent movies in general, their approach to drama and characterization.

See the people who worked on this wanted to create more pathos for their characters, and as we've seen here and in movies before or even since the New52 based films, they are really good at writing and storyboarding that pathos... except sometimes they play very fast and loose with the continuity in order to add said pathos; hence why it feels Damian never learns anything with every successive movie he's been in. So with the case of Damian's character in this movie, it's much better written role that helps to shed legitimate complexity and redemption... except it's still a blatant retcon that spits in the face of what we already knew about the character!

And that's my only, major problem with this movie, it is very well written, and it's very well directed and produced; and it makes you feel for Damian like never before in these films; and the same goes for the other heroes as it demonstrates why they're such awesome characters and deserve more respect-- but in order to do that, it needs the audience to forget everything we already saw in the other New52 inspired movies, to make them all act in a way that is completely contradictory to their former interpretations in JLWar, Son of Batman, Throne of Atlantis, Batman vs Robin, and Bad Blood.

And yet as a result of having to see Damian once again go through that same process, only to enact it with a new cast of characters that help shed much more depth and development, and seeing their struggles and emotions, and a more profound and even enlightening direction for the backgrounds of these characters... it's like your looking at a story about the original Titans! It's just so damn good... i-it's so frustrating!

So yeah, over all, I did actually like this movie! It still had it's problems both in story and from a meta perspective, but minor flaws aside it's still a good story with more likable characters, and even redeeming Damian (Yet it took him three movies to do so, four if counting this one... I do hope they're not gonna retcon it again!) and you wanna know another good thing about this film...?

NOBODY DIES!!

Yeah, no major or supporting characters, heroes or villains, are graphically killed on screen! This film does not glorify nor exploit death! There may have been civilian casualties but I like to think they evacuated before Trigon goes Kaiju on everyone. (Certainly a better villain than this universe's Darkseid and Ocean Master) I mean yeah there was a flashback to the devastation of the people of Azarath, including Raven's mother, but in context it was a well handled example of exploring the origin and tragedy of the character; and besides presently as this film takes place there are nor horrendous character or civilian deaths that would offend the interests of taste for the audience.

The animation of course was decent, as was the voice acting, though I though Taissa Farmiga could have used a bit more work, but as is she was a fine Raven; and there were even bits where Brandon Shoo Hoo's Beast Boy emulated Greg Cipe's performance from the Teen Titans animated series.

I don't understand though why Fred Tatasciore or Dee Bradley Baker wouldn't credited, since I was certain they were in the film as well, respectively as the demons, Solomon Grundy, and Atomic Skull. But hey, it's good to know Rick D. Wasserman, Laura Bailey, and Terrance C. Carson are still getting work in animation.

All in all, this is a good movie, not as good as the Pre-New52 films, but it still holds up.

8/10.

 

[RoyThomasConan]

Justice League vs Teen Titans. Well the title of this little flick is misleading: Part of the League are demon possessed and fight the Titans for what probably amounts to less than a minute; and backwords, as this is really a Teen Titans film guest starring the League to sell more units, but by gosh this was a breath of fresh air. This felt like a real superhero film again, and is better that every film in this continuity so far (War, Atlantis, Vs Robin, Bad Blood). It doesn't rely on cheap violence or titilation, and actually takes the time to develop a character. Scratch that, two characters. (Wow!) Raven and Damien have distinct and believable character arcs, and for that I'm grateful. It takes time to slow down and be let you get to know them while they struggle with their place in the world, and as consequence for the first time a Tucker led vehicle left me enjoying it the whole way through and I didn't notice any cheap lapses in logic that threw me out of the movie. I'm sure of course, that the proof is in the pudding and the credit is really due to his atypical (for him) writing and directing team Sam, Bryan, and Alan. This film was just a breezy good time, and really helped wash the bad taste of Batman v Superman out of my mouth.

And I hope that Terra tease means more (solo) Titans movies in the future! Love to get four a year instead of three, however unlikely that is.

 

[Mistik26]

Hey ! I'm new here and I was just wondering if you could tell me who the character at the end of Justice League vs Teen Titans is ?

(I don't know why it doesn't appear but you can follow the link with right clic )

 

[ssj4jw]

Spoiler

That is Terra in her original comic outfit.

 

[Mistik26]

Thanks a lot for the intel mate

 

[BigFatHairyDeal]

Saw the movie last night. Here are some general thoughts on things I liked, and things I didn't like so much.

Didn't like...
... that it's not really a Justice League movie, and more a Titans movie. Sorry Titans fans, but I have a lot of interest in the JL, and only a little in the Titans. If there were no JL at all, would I have purchased the movie on iTunes? I don't think so.
... that because it's not really a JL movie, we get a repeat of Throne of Atlantis in that the JL are there for the climactic battle only to get battered around by the big bad. At least in War, the JL got to beat Darkseid after taking a beating from him. The climactic battle was actually a bit of a drag and wasn't all that exciting to watch.
... that once again, Damian Wayne is just far too competent at superheroing. I don't care if he's, as he describes himself, a weapon. He's 10. He's human.
... that Damian Wayne can be a pretty grating character, and he's the main hero of the movie.

I did like...
... that this movie somehow blended a lot of corniness associated with the Titans cartoons, and yet still managed to do the metaphorical equivalent of pulling it off with a straight face. I mean, thematically, it's presented similarly to the previous action/adventure animated films, but somewhere in the middle of this movie is something like an 80's/90's teenage rom-com, and somehow the movie doesn't skip a beat. We get a trip to a carnival like you figure you'd see in a John Hughes flick, and the first ever lyrical songs as part of the movie score that would make think you're watching an early Julia Stiles film. And it unbelievably works!
... that Damian gets what's coming to him... twice...
... Superman's fight against possessed Flash and WW. I don't want to say these movies have necessarily sold Superman short in the action department. He certainly got his moments as the League's powerhouse. However, he often feels a bit like a blunt instrument. In this movie, though, he shows enough cunning in his fights. Now, I can imagine some fans feel like Flash and WW got short-changed, but to me it seemed clear that the possessed JL members didn't fight to their max capacity, that they were tactically limited compared to how capable they truly are.
... Raven's overall back story presentation. Raven's delivery was a little too Amidala-ish for my liking, but she's likable enough. There's enough to make you sympathize with her, and Trigon is one creepy fellow in this movie.
... that the movie wasn't about how Batman is always right. They did a nice job of showing how resourceful he was while also taking him out of the movie. Pretty clever.

I felt mixed about...
... how they found a way to transition Victor to the Titans if that is indeed what they want to do moving forward. There's the line where Cyborg said the Titans needed his help, but it would've been neat if he could've interacted with them a little more before tagging along with them.
... that there was no Shazam and GL. You can say that the more is generally the merrier, but seeing one or two heroes MIA for whatever story is kind of part and parcel with JL stories. Plus, with the Titans taking up most of the screen time, it's probably better that they subtracted the JL by two.

I could say more, but this is good for now.

In summary, this was a pretty good movie, and better than the two preceding JL movies, despite the fact that it's not really a JL movie and I'm not really a Titans fan, nor do I particularly like animated Damian Wayne.

 

[#1 defender]

I felt mixed about...
... how they found a way to transition Victor to the Titans if that is indeed what they want to do moving forward. There's the line where Cyborg said the Titans needed his help, but it would've been neat if he could've interacted with them a little more before tagging along with them.

Cyborg didn't join the Titans, if that's what you mean. He declined their invitation by saying "When you've been in the majors... you know what i'm saying". He might stop by there once in a while though and have a guest spot in a follow-up feature.

Regarding the title and it not really being a Justice League film, i say good! As far as i'm concerned, they can market their films as whatever they want, if it helps them bring new characters to the screen and shine a light on underexposed ones. They've been sitting on a Teen Titans script since the very beginning of this line, about two dozen features ago (!), and it never came to pass due to the risk aversion of the people who finance these. Instead we're getting Batman and Justice League features year after year. I mean, i really like those too, but we've had so many! I've been so hopeful for this line after we got Wonder Woman and Green Lantern solo features back to back early on, and after that it's been right back to the same old. If it takes piggybacking on the League's or Batman's name to bring us something relatively fresh, then i'm all for it and applaud the makers for their creativity. With that said, they also shouldn't cram more characters into a feature than the story and run time can reasonably support. I thought they have struck a good balance in this one, whereas Batman: Bad Blood would have been better served by only introducing Batwoman, instead of her and Batwing, but i digress.

 

[superspidey2257]

Im just happy we don't have to put up with [jerk] green lantern anymore

 

[Hero Supreme]

Best of the in-continuity series. I actually WANT the teased sequel

 

[Mostezli]

Pretty good.
Get the negatives out of the way:
I'm quite appalled by how stiff the acting is for the female VA's.
Tarissa has the excuse of being a newcomer, but the other two women, not so much. She played such an integral role, so her deliverance was particularly irksome. She is still who I would peg for the live-action Raven. Hopefully she grows as a VA.
Could just be the direction. It definitely still is for the current take on Wonder Woman At least Dawson had a bit more fun with her voice augmented as possessed Wonder Woman.
Still on the topic of voice acting, Shemar Moore Cyborg cracking jokes does not work His conflict of being the youngest JL'er trying to relate to others closer to his age was underutilized.
This iteration of the Justice League making puns during battle reminding me of Spider-man or, more obviously, Whedon's Avengers does not work.
The Legion of Doom are a joke whereas every non-grunt threat in this canon have been mostly dire with a couple minor outliers.
The introduction of the current Teen Titans was generic and exposition-heavy.
The slang/colloquialisms felt off, especially coming from Raven.

Pros:
-the action was phenomenal
-the Trigon conflict as a demonic presence that progressively got worse was great
-the Titans are well characterized if not a bit too nostalgic for Murakami's take on the team (the jokes between them felt familiar). Blue Beetle definitely added something fresh.
-Superman was quite the stand-out character (surprised there was so little mention of his other stellar moments in this film)
-the situational comedy more than made up for misfire one-liners
(Damian's role during that Doom battle royale and Beastboy's "gnarly" expressions stick out to me the most)
-I could not resist smiling as I watched that carnival scene

All in all, better than the last JL installment, given the featuring characters got just the right amount of screentime relative to the League.

 

[Prettywitchiusaka]

I certainly hope we get more stand alone films for the Teen Titans, I'm still peeved we didn't get that Judas Contract film they announced WAY back when the line was first coming out.

That being said, I enjoyed the film, myself. I agree the title is misleading, it really should've been called "Teen Titans; The Rise of Trigon", or something like that.

 

[Harlequinn]

Two things hurt this film. The first being the Justice League getting shoe-horned in. The only reason the film includes them is because DC thinks that's how they'll sell it. Not realizing that a stand-alone Titans film would probably sell even better than the recent lackluster Batman DTVs.

The other annoyance was Damian. His character has been way too pivotal to this continuity with little actual development for his character. He's Peridot from Steven Universe with all the enjoyable parts depleted. His presence was a complete annoyance and I hope that in the aforementioned sequel his part is smaller.

I also hope that the ages are fixed a bit in the sequel. I'm not a big fan of the dynamic between all of the Titans. It didn't really feel like the Titans. If there was one older along with Starfire, I think it would work better. It needs to feel like Teen Titans, not Starfire & The Baby Titans. Taissa's Raven wasn't very enjoyable. Very flatline, I get that Raven doesn't exume a lot of "emotion" but Tara showed much more of a range. Taissa sounded like that was her first reading of the script.

 

[RoyalRubble]

I thought it was a pretty great movie, a more enjoyable story than the previous two in-continuity Justice League movies. I liked how it introduced the Teen Titans and didn't really mind the rather forced addition of the Justice Leaguers since it helped the story move along nicely and did lead to some pretty awesome fight scenes. The Titans were fine, hope to see more of them in the future. It would have been nice to get some more background information on some of its members but what we did get was decent. Their characterizations worked for the most part and their interactions were pretty fun. Making Starfire their leader was a neat approach, one I never really thought about before.

I agree Damian seemed to revert to his older personality traits for this movie but that didn't bother me that much. His story-arc seems to have reached some sort of conclusion and I thought that was pretty nice. His relationship with the other Titans but mostly with Raven were handled fine as far as I'm concerned. That montage at the amusement park was a surprising and pretty silly twist but it didn't really distract from the story.

I liked this version of Raven. Her voice actress didn't impress me that much but she did a fine job I guess. Raven's character arc was good and she turned out to be one of the best parts of the movie. Her backstory and origin were explained well enough and were needed to get to the main conflict of the story. Plus, like I mentioned above her and Damian's growing friendship which was pretty nice.

Trigon was a great villain, creepy and all-powerful leading to some good action scenes. Plus all those scenes foreshadowing his return, with the possessed heroes and villains throughout the movie. His backstory was also pretty creepy, with him destroying the entire population of the Azarath dimension. The climax of the movie with him attacking the city was great, and it showed just how powerful he is. Pretty impressive stuff there.

I'll probably post more later on, but here are some more random comments, in no particular order:

- The opening fight scene between the Justice League and the Legion of Doom was cool. Though it feels weird having Lex Luthor already attack them out in the open like this. Wonder how much time has passed since his recruitment of Ocean Master (who didn't even show up here).
- It was a little strange that some of the Leaguers were missing but considering how much screen-time the ones that did show up had, I think the movie would have been too crowded if they tried squeezing in all the heroes. Still, an explanation about where the missing heroes actually were would have been nice.
- Nightwing taking Damian to the Titans and his limited interactions with Starfire. I was hoping he would also take part in some of the fight scenes.
- Starfire mentions that Damian reminds her of her sister. I can see some similarities between the two.
- Those Sailor Moon-like transformations for the Titans (and especially Starfire) were pretty funny. I remember Green Lantern had a similar one back in the First Flight movie.
- The Clark Kent and Diana Prince date was neat. The commentary on the movie they just watched was pretty funny.
- Superman versus Atomic Skull was a nice surprise. I liked the villain's design.
- Superman taking out the possessed Flash was surprisingly violent.
- Damian stabbing Superman with Kryptonite was pretty cool. I liked their reactions afterwards.
- Batman using a version of the Bane venom to incapacitate himself before being possessed by Trigon was a surprising move.
- Terra's cameo at the end hinting at a future story-line with these characters.
- There are probably more in the movie, but the only re-used character designs I noticed were Cat Grant for Angela Chen, and Jack Haly working at the amusement park, both from Young Justice.

All in all, a good movie and I think I enjoyed it more than I expected.

 

[Dudley]

Two things hurt this film. The first being the Justice League getting shoe-horned in. The only reason the film includes them is because DC thinks that's how they'll sell it. Not realizing that a stand-alone Titans film would probably sell even better than the recent lackluster Batman DTVs.

The other annoyance was Damian. His character has been way too pivotal to this continuity with little actual development for his character. He's Peridot from Steven Universe with all the enjoyable parts depleted. His presence was a complete annoyance and I hope that in the aforementioned sequel his part is smaller.

I also hope that the ages are fixed a bit in the sequel. I'm not a big fan of the dynamic between all of the Titans. It didn't really feel like the Titans. If there was one older along with Starfire, I think it would work better. It needs to feel like Teen Titans, not Starfire & The Baby Titans. Taissa's Raven wasn't very enjoyable. Very flatline, I get that Raven doesn't exume a lot of "emotion" but Tara showed much more of a range. Taissa sounded like that was her first reading of the script.

I think that's what bothered me about this movie too. I think I would've preferred if this was like a team origin story and just leave the League out of it. I didn't really feel any of the characters, as I recognize them from past incarnations, but as a whole they weren't too entertaining. I guess I've been spoiled by both animated versions of Teen Titans, but even Young Justice members were more fun to watch. Maybe it was the writing too. I dunno.
I do hope we get a standalone movie to flesh them out more. I also miss Starfire's naivete. She's super bland in this. All of them are, except perhaps Beast Boy.
Also, I hope Damien becomes less of a tool, because he isn't likeable at all, and in the end I still didn't like him.

To reiterate, I love Teen Titans Go! for what it is, but I was hoping this movie would take the good qualities from either Teen Titans or Young Justice, and I felt it failed to do so. But hopefully they will next time, if there is a next time.

 

[Yojimbo]

Also, I hope Damien becomes less of a tool, because he isn't likeable at all, and in the end I still didn't like him.

I don't think Damian is supposed to ever be likeable...

 

[Troy Troodon]

I don't think Damian is supposed to ever be likeable...

Then what is Damian, as a character, to the audience then?

 

[Yojimbo]

Then what is Damian, as a character, to the audience then?

The polar opposite of Nightwing.

 

[Harlequinn]

I don't think Damian is supposed to ever be likeable...

While this is true, you can still be an unlikable character and have the audience wanting more. The difference between the two is good writing. Damian wasn't written to be very cliche and annoying in this. It wasn't anything we haven't seen in the previous films he's starred in. Or maybe I just miss Tim

 

[BigFatHairyDeal]

Going to chime in quickly about Damian. I'd say he's not just unlikable, he's also a bit of a regrettable character, too. I was reading another forum, and someone asked who's Damian, and the response was that he is what people accuse Rey from The Force Awakens of being, and I would agree. To be fair, though, it's not as though Damian never loses, and twice in this movie he gets humbled, but too often in this continuity I see Damian and end up shaking my head. I think if you're going to feature a character so prominently, he has to have more positive attributes and bring more value to the table. It's not a total loss, and the fact that the character is growing (somewhat) from movie to movie is something unique since the line started in 2007, but by and large the character leaves something to be desired.

One nitpick I thought about this weekend: I think the movie did well to foreshadow how to beat a possessed JL member (Batman mentioned bodily harm, WW used her lasso early), but I think, though, it was a goof to let Superman whack Weather Wizard with a sedan a few times without breaking the possession.

Someone else was telling me last week that the line about movies and damsels in distress and the timing of the Batman v. Superman release was pretty funny.

EDIT: Further expanding on Damian's likability, I'd point out that a character such as House is a highly unlikable guy, but he's still entertaining and his unlikability was part of the show's appeal. I don't feel anything like that about Damian. The moments with him I enjoy are when he get's one-upped. I end up rooting against him like I do a villain from a 90's Sandler movie. If he gets burned, either physically or metaphorically speaking when someone mocks him, I want to cheer. This is not a particularly good comparison, but if I had to make an odd comparison between Damian and a hero whom the audience ends up openly rooting against even though you're not supposed to, it would be something like Cyclops from the Singer X-Men movies. It's totally apples and oranges, but the end result seems similar.