Titans |
USA • 2018 • 45m. • Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Teagan Croft, Anna Diop, Lindsey Gort, Minka Kelly, Alan Ritchson..
   When Dick Grayson (Robin) and Rachel Roth (Raven) require assistance to deal with a plot that threatens the entire planet, they join with Koriand'r (Starfire) and Gar Logan (Beast Boy) to form the Titans.
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Review:
Most of the arguments I've seen on these reviews are about how goodbad Starfire is; I find it hard to contribute to this argument, since we see her actually doing stuff for a whopping five minutes, and half of that is just her beating the crap out of some dude in her apartment (again, ala Jason Bourne).
No, I would like to focus on the aspects that many people aren't hitting on.
Let's start with the absolutely terrible dialogue. Teagan Croft's lines are delivered as if she's reading them straight from a script page; there's little to no inflection, the lines themselves are stilted ("My mom doesn't like me to drink coffee" rather than "my mom doesn't want medoesn't let medoesn't like it when I drink coffee) is just one example from the top of my head. Her apology for her little mishap in the apartment is easily one of the most wooden lines I've heard delivered in a long time, as if she's a robot. Dove, Hawk, and Dick's partner are a bit better, but only in relation to Raven. Meaning in a room of even semi-competent actors, they'd be the worst, but with her around, they come off as passable. Hawk's 'Jesus' line after Raven's mishap is mind-jarringly wooden, throwing you out of any sort of 'realism' this movie was going for.
This doesn't mean Brenton Thwaites gets a free pass; his acting is passable, but only just, and only in the second episode. In the first, he was as bad as Croft, but there were slight improvements in episode two. He was still either over the top, or underplayed, but at least there was some emotion there this time around.
Then we have the awful camera work; legit, they chose the weirdest angles, with the darkest filter to shoot this show. Half of it is too dark to see anything -to the point where, during the second episode, I wondered for a moment if they got a different actor for Dick Grayson, because it was so weird seeing him in the light. As well, they try for these 'dramatic affect' silences, that actually just come across as awkward, and badly timed, to the point where it's jarring to watch; so even if you are actively trying to get into the show, moments like that yank you back out, making you painfully aware of how awful this is.
For the fight scenes, the awful lighting, and bad angles are even worse, making it nearly impossible to follow; the little bit you can see is just gratuitous for the sake of 'edginess'.
Which brings me to my last point: this is a show designed for teenage-edge-lords. The first scene with Hawk in it, and the threatened castration are just so over the top, its ridiculous -they want to torture him for information, so their immediate, go-to response is castration? And the 'villain'... "this will be the most painful thing you've ever felt, and the last pain you'll ever feel"? It was seriously so 'edgy' I was expecting Reaper from Overwatch to show up.
Now, for the part that will really get panties in a twist... The comic differences. Okay, I get it: it's an interpretation of the comics, and that's fine. I'm down with different perspectives, and changes. But they've gotta have a purpose, or at least tie in to the story -you can't just change them and expect people to run with it.
Take Starfire for instance; she's always been relatively happy-go-lucky girl, who goes full-on Desctructoid when you make her angry. While she was definitely attractive, and very sensual in the comics, she was never seductive, or a full on sociopath who just burned for the sake of burning.
Similarly, while Dick Grayson was known for his maudlin moments, and the fact that he, out of all the Robins, left because he didn't want to become Bruce, he's so out of character in this, it's ridiculous, and honestly, an insult to fans. They literally tried mushing the three older Robins into one person under the Dick Grayson name. Caring demeanor, wanting to help everyone he could? Dick Grayson check. Edginess, violent, and willing to permanently maim, disfigure, and potentially kill? Jason Todd check. Wiz with computers, fights with a bo staff? Tim Drake check. Because the way to truly make your fans love something is to take three very different characters, and mush them all together into one character who has bits of them all, but isn't actually any of them.
Raven, who was always the confident, somewhat aloof girl, struggling to keep her true nature under control has turned into a scared, whining, heavily-religious child who's literally afraid of her own reflection, and bounces around from 'typical teenager' who ignores Dick when he tries talking to her while she's watching a show, to angsty, moody girl who either cries, or hides away, to busybody who sticks her nose in, and feels the need to throw her two cents into everything.
TL;DR: Bad acting, bad dialogue, bad film work, bad characterizations abound; no hope in sight. Fans looking for a good DC show will have to keep waiting.
Review by xletxmexgox from the Internet Movie Database.
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