It's best to get my main rant off my chest before discussing the film. The Teen Titan movie came out after the final premiere of the Animated Series. The show that left on a massive cliffhanger involving the reintroduction of the character Terra. It was quite the little Revelation, the mystery character came back to life she had no memory of any of her prior dealings with the Teen Titans. it opened up a whole new sub story. What happens if she regains her memories? Does this mean Deathstroke the Terminator is back? How will the other Teen Titans react because they don't believe?
Well none of that matters. This film has absolutely nothing to do with that cliffhanger This is it's own self-contained story involving a menace from Japan.
Our story starts with the Titans chasing down this mysterious individual. He's bouncing about the city and causing quite a mess. And he finally ends up a Teen Titans Tower or he inevitably destroys half the building. Robin is able to find out at this particular foe is working for some guy in Japan. Which prompts the team to get ready and send off.
The team lands in Japan and Beast Boy wants to go sightseeing. But Robin informs him that they're only here on business there is to be no vacationing. We then see that the villain is aware of the team's arrival via a bunch of secret cameras.
There an amusing scene where the team has to figure out where they're going. Beast boy tries to ask for directions only to realise that he doesn't know Japanese. So Starfire walks up to some random guy and starts making out with him. Much to the surprise of the Teen Titans and the horror of Robin. It turns out Starfire's people can learn languages buy lip contact. Doesn't make any sense? Doesn't matter? Of course it doesn't. There's no time to debate it. A cheap looking Godzilla cartoon has invading the town.
The Titans try to fight the thing off only to be outdone by a local police force who seems to be specially designed to take down Godzillas. There then informed by the local police chief of this police force that the man they're looking for is no more than a myth. That they've wasted their time. Robin's quite upset by this but the rest of the team decides to make the best of a bad situation. They head off to enjoy the local scenery of Tokyo. This results in a fun little Montage of ''all you can eat buffets'' , arcade stores, those little portable libraries you see in Market sometimes. And the characters Robin and Starfire becoming just a little bit more intimate.
Or at least they try to, but robin keeps getting distracted by the task at hand. Signing the mysterious man.Robert even go so far as to distance himself from Starfire stating that a hero can live no other life. This makes Starfire sad and she flies off. It's the closest this film will get to anything emotional.
Otherwise we have a scene of Cyborg eating octopus which is supposed to be a gross out moment.
Personally I love the octopus I think it's a delicious food.
We have a scene where Robin has to fight this pink looking ninja guy. Robin goes a bit too far smashing his head in and presumably killing him. He gets arrested by the super Japanese police force or whatever the heck they called themselves. It looks like there's blood on his hands, pink blood but that's still blood none-the-less. At least if you're a Klingon (or was that purple blood?)
Every member of the team gets attacked by a different monster and Robin is mysteriously freed from his captivity by the very man he's trying to seek. He along with the rest of the Teen Titans will eventually discover that this mystical criminal they're looking for is actually under the control of the police commissioner who's running the crime fighting Syndicate to begin with. They'll have a big old fight with him and will eventually win. The film ends with the Teen Titans being awarded by the city and Starfire and Robin to finally hook up.
There's a crap ton of Japanese stereotypes in this movie. None of its racist but it certainly gets a little strange. I wonder if there trying to pay some sort of homage to Japanese culture as the Teen Titans show borrows heavily from Japanese cartoons.
There's something cheap about this film. Which admittedly the show was always on the simpler side to begin with. But something here doesn't add up. Everything feels so empty and devoid of life. Perhaps it has to do with the alien setting, Tokyo is supposed to be one of the most cramped (if not the most cramped city in the world) The sound design is also very minimalistic. Everything from crowds talking to certain foot movements are just absent. I wouldn't expect this to be a problem in the TV show but a film has a longer running time and i expect a different form of quality when watching a movie. At least for the first half. For some reason the quality gets better about an hour in and the last 20 minutes are actually pretty good with their major fight against the ink monster.
It's an okay little film, nothing to write home about. I'd recommend it to anybody that was a fan of the animated cartoon show or if you're a fan of Robin and Starfire as a couple. Really that's the only reason I like to watch this anymore.
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