Movie Review: Teen Titans - The Judas Contract

Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017)

I know I should've been excited for this, but the end result is honestly a bit underwhelming. I've watched two adaptations of the Judas Contract now, the epic storyline that pushed the New Teen Titans title in the 80's into prominence. It was the plot that the second season of Teen Titans (relatively recently I reviewed every single episode of it) was loosely adapted on, and it was also one of the first graphic novels that I read. As part of an ongoing, and as part of a storyline that really sold Deathstroke as this master manipulator, it was an amazing experience.

Yet this DC animated movie adaptation felt... I don't know. Lackluster, I guess? It acts as a sequel to Justice League vs. Teen Titans, and is therefore also in the same New-52-based animated movie continuity spearheaded by Justice League: War, and its cast of Titans follows the format of that continuity. Starfire and Nightwing as the trainers, and Damian Wayne/Robin, Blue Beetle, Raven and Beast Boy to round up the Teen Titans. Oh, and, of course, Terra. Who, in this movie, is just quickly introduced as this weird new addition to the team that almost as quickly shows that she's a rather unpleasant girl. Even when bonding with Beast Boy, she's more brusque than friendly, and I never really bought just why the Titans really felt at ease with Terra so much that they'd let their guard down that much. Though I guess Damian Wayne is such a Grade A douchebag that they're obliged to do so?

I realize comparing it to both the source material and a different adaptation isn't exactly fair, but in the New Teen Titans comic, Terra was a recurring character even before the Judas Contract storyline, and she's obfuscating niceness to Beast Boy (or, well, Changeling as he's known in the comics at that time) so even though the audience knows that she's a sleeper agent for Deathstroke, the reactions of the Titans to her betrayal is something I'm invested in. Ditto for the cartoon, which took a different approach and have Terra actually be an innocent that the Titans befriend, and later corrupted by Deathstroke with promises of acceptance and power, and then sent back in. 

Here? Here is where an adaptation tries to adapt all the big moments and the broad strokes of the Judas Contract storyline, but loses sight of what makes it so appealing. If anything else, it treats the Brother Blood storyline of draining the powers of the Titans and becoming a god as more of the 'main' storyline, and not just a peripheral subplot that happens to intersect. The voice acting is pretty amazing (with Deathstroke and Terrra being particularly well-acted ones) and I love seeing some classic comic book panels and action sequences reproduced on-screen, but at the same time it just lacks... I dunno, it lacks oomph, I guess?

Part of it is that the movie tries to tack on a lot of things. The Terra/Raven rivalry and Terra/Beast Boy romance was always part of the original source material, as is the creepy Terra/Deathstroke romance (which they thankfully changed to Deathstroke declining Terra's underage advances), but at the same time not really enough is spent to dwell on any of the relationships that when Terra turns on Beast Boy and later on Deathstroke it just seems like an 'eh, makes sense' plot twist that doesn't really push the emotional buttons that it did a decade ago when I first discovered and read the comic for the first time. Add that to things that they didn't really do enough of but tacked on anyway -- like Blue Beetle's father issues, or Nightwing/Starfire moving on to the next step in their relationship, or the (admittedly very enjoyable) Nightwing/Robin dynamic where they've developed from their antagonistic headbutting in 'Son of Batman' into something brotherly.

A good chunk of the characterization screentime is, thankfully, delivered to Terra herself, so while the scripting and pacing isn't as well done as I would've wished, the voice acting and the script does put a fair amount of focus on Terra as a dark, tortured and confused character. At the end it kind of reduces her into a screaming angry girl instead of the more complex incarnations that the 00's cartoon or the original comic book versions, but she's at least somewhat enjoyable.

Deathstroke in particular, despite the excellent voice work, a point of contention for me. I don't mind, really, having a reduced role for the likes of Raven or Nightwing, and even Beast Boy getting reduced roles as a satellite love interest definitely works if the timeframe is relatively constricted. But Deathstroke suffers from the burden of the strange decision to change him from an independent mercenary with an obsession for control into a disgraced League of Assassins member. And unfortunately, thanks to his motivations here being set to just having revenge on Damian, it makes the character look way too petty and one-dimensional. And while removing Deathstroke's backstory or the admittance of his son Jericho into the Teen Titans would bloat up the movie even further, at least one of these two would've worked in nicely with some of the surplus filler material for the lesser Titans being cut out. 

Of course, it's still a superhero action movie at the end of the day, and it still has enough appeal on terms of that. Terra's powers, as well as those of Raven and Brother Blood, look relatively fantastic. But other than Terra, Robin and Deathstroke, it might be a little mean to say that the rest of the voice work are... merely perfunctory. None of them stand out as being annoying, but here I am, two hours after watching the movie, and I can barely remember what Blue Beetle or Raven sounded like -- something I have no problem remembering with a stronger voice cast. I'm severely underwhelmed by what really should have been a great triumph, but cutting out too much things from the original source material, adding unnecessary plotlines and the lack of buildup all hurt the movie from being good to being merely watchable. It's worth a decent look, but don't expect the same level of greatness that these 'greatest hits adapted into movies' things should be.

(No DC Easter Eggs Corner for these movies, I think -- they are more or less huge love letters to the original comic book arcs that the movies are based upon, and there's no point in listing every single thing there.)