Teen Titans Review

Teen Titans was one of my favorite shows growing up as a kid. I remember the day when I first started watching it: While flipping through channels on Cartoon Network, my siblings and I stumbled upon an episode of Teen Titans. We immediately recognized Robin from the Batman comics/series/films but were unfamiliar with the rest. From thereon, though, we became avid fans of the series.

I still enjoy Teen Titans today. Admittedly it is cheesy at times, and some of the episodes just feel silly to me, but overall I think it was a pretty well-done show. The last episode wasn't my favorite, but most of them were, on average, decent (some better/worse than others, of course).

The show is mainly cool because of its characters. You've got Robin, the first-in-command who can sometimes let his stubbornness get in the way but is overall a good leader; Cyborg, the goofy, sometimes immature yet lovable second-in-command; Raven, the dark, mysterious, but well-meaning person who's somewhat reserved; Starfire, the happy-go-lucky, bright, optimistic alien who's still adjusting to Earth; and finally, Beast Boy, a green jokester who's always trying to impress girls. Each and every character has his/her own personality, which makes them stand out. They're not one-dimensional, and I'm not even sure if they'e two-dimensional. The characters occasionally do things that will surprise you (namely Robin and Raven, whose story arcs are somewhat dark). Fleshed-out characters always make a good show.

Some of the villains were as equally as interesting as the heroes. Slade (or Deathstroke, deepening on if you're familiar with the comics or not) is the most interesting villain in the series; his mystique and manipulation always intrigued me. Brotherblood has to be the next most interesting villain, with the way he also manipulated Cyborg into giving him what he wants--to become fully human. Jinx wasn't as clever as these characters, but she's always been a fun villain (along with the rest of the Hive Five members). Other notable characters include Overdrive, Dr. Light, Trigon, Control Freak,

Teen Titans also wouldn't be the show it was if it didn't have those occasional dramatic, shocking, and deep episodes. Not all of them were like this, but some were. The characters' motives in these episodes sometimes change, and it's hard to tell where they really stand. Robin had a lot of this during his time of being the apprentice of Slade, as well as becoming Red-X; Raven fought against her dark destiny in the epic The End trilogy; and Terra is the most notable character to suffer through this. Even if it's not the characters having shades of grey, it deals with them struggling against something (such as Cyborg wanting to become the leader of his own team, for example). These wonderful episodes I'm referring to include the following: The End (three-parter), The Apprentice (Part 1 and 2), Brotherblood, The Beast Within, Aftershock (and most episodes dealing with Terra, for that matter), and Titans East (another two-parter).

In spite of how much I liked it, however, it did have its faults (just like every other television series, of course). Some episodes were just plain silly or weird. These were mostly Beast Boy episodes, unfortunately, and I think that's why he became my least favorite titan. From "Every Dog Has Its Day" to that completely bizarre episode revolving around an evil tofu who mind-controlled cows (at least I think that was what it was about), the writers gave Beast Boy some of the worst story arcs. Luckily he had some good ones ("The Beast Within" was awesome, as were the Terra-centric episodes), but overall his episodes were either mediocre or just not enjoyable to me. These episodes weren't just limited to Beast Boy, however; Robin had his fair share in the episode with Larry (*cringes*). Starfire had that really weird episode when she started mutating into a weird creature ("Transformation"). Although I believe this was a Beast Boy episode, Cyborg was acting really strange in the episode when BB accidentally installed a virus inside of him. Raven had an episode dealing with little kids that I didn't love, but none of her episodes annoyed me. And all of the titans had the episode with Mon Moth, which was okay I guess but kind of weird.

The show also had some weird animation gags at times, most notable with the characters' heads got big or whatever. I think it's something common in Anime shows, but I guess I just don't have the same kind of humor the Japanese do. But of course we have hearts and fires in people's eyes whenever they're in love or angry, so I suppose the Japanese may find that weird :P So that's really just a cultural difference thing, but whatever…

But overall Teen Titans was a good series. I'd watch many episodes again, as most of them were average. I mean, I'd rather have them all be superb, but when you have to choose between one extreme and another, I'd choose average. I must admit that, while I do find the  Teen Titans Go! series occasionally funny, it's just not the same as the Teen Titans I grew up with. I guess it's because I would rather have more of an action/adventure series as opposed to a comedic one. But anyway, let's not get off-topic. Teen Titans is a pretty good series that I will occasionally watch for reruns, laughs, and an interesting storyline.

Thor Review

I was not very familiar with "Thor" until 2011; before then, I just knew he was some god from some mythology. But after I watched the film and "The Avengers", I became more familiar and interested with the character. While "Thor" wasn't my favorite film, it was surprisingly good. I must admit that I was disappointed in the second film, but overall I love the Thor universe, which is probably my favorite solo MCU universe :)

The thing that Marvel did right with the story was modernizing the Norse mythology. For instance, the characters are not gods, but aliens who were worshiped due to their enormous powers. They also live in  somewhat old-fashioned way and talk like people used to in Old English, but the setting is also modern. It's like an urban mixed with Middle Ages.

And then there's the mythology itself. After Greek and Egyptian mythology, I am interested in the Norse myths. I'm always fascinated with the idea of these extremely flawed "gods", who really just seem like powerful beings, and their conflicts. Too be honest, though, I only got interested in Norse mythology because of this film. That's how good it was.

One of the biggest reasons I like this film is because of the character of Loki. There's a reason he's so popular on Tumblr, why he has so many fangirls: he's the most interesting character of the series. He's not the hero, he can play the villain, but he's not just purely evil. There's a reason behind his malevolence  Loki doesn't feel loved by his father, Odin, and is jealous of his brother Thor and thinks that Odin favors him. He is attention-seeking, but only because he's truly insecure, feels unloved by the one and only man who raised him, who feels as if he's being overshadowed by his brother.

Of course, I don't know if Loki's awesomeness could have been established without the genius acting of Tom Hiddleson. He plays Loki so well, with his touch of evilness yet vulnerability. Tom is just awesome in so many different forms. Seriously, he's one of my favorite actors. The dude has swag written over his face.

Okay, now that I'm done fangirling over Loki and Thor itself, I'll talk about my dislikes of the film, and just places where I felt like there could have been improvement:

The biggest problem with Thor was the shortness of the film. Thor appears to be a jerk at the beginning of the film, but after a little while he turns nice all of a sudden. There's no character development; it happens way too fast. The whole film is supposed to be about Thor learning to be a good leader, but I never feel it happen. It doesn't feel believable how he becomes selfless all of a sudden.

Besides Loki, none of the other characters felt as fleshed-out to me Odin is fine, I suppose, but Thor's friends, The Warriors Three, barely get any screen-time. I know it's about Thor, but they seemed really cool and fun. I wished I had gotten to know them better, even if it was only a little more screen-time.

And then there was Jane. I think Natalie Portman is a good actress, but her character doesn't have much development at all. Jane seems so interested in Thor, but I can't understand why. She seems like a very capable woman and smart scientist, but she somehow crumbles at the sight of Thor. Thor is jerk to her at the very beginning, but she seems very unfazed by this. And when he suddenly turns nice, she doesn't really make any comments on his previous behavior.

Jane is also Thor's love interest, but we barely see them together. I don't believe that they are so in love near the end of the film because they don't get time to know each other. They don't seem to have a lot of chemistry, which could just be the actors, but it's hard to tell.

I did like the first film better than the second one, though. The love story between Jane and Thor feels more forced in this one than the other one. It's two years since the first movie and Jane appears to be moping over Thor since he left in the first film. Considering the time they spent together (which I reckon wasn't very long), I don't see how him leaving would make her that depressed (of course he's Chris Hemsworth, but that's another story ;). When Jane does reunite with Thor, too, they don't spend much time together, at least on-screen (this is probably due to the little time run the film has), so I'm not feeling the emotion as much.

Speaking of Jane, I really didn't like how they portrayed her in this film. She gets possessed by the Eether, which is magical energy that Malekith wants to get his hands on, and from thereon the film is about saving Jane/stopping Malekith from getting to her. Jane gets sidestepped to the damsel-in-distress role—perhaps it's the feminist in me, but I'm getting tired of the damsel-in-distress trope. Jane basically is used as a plot device, and this causes her not to have much character development

Also, the villain, Malekith, is no Loki. Not that I expected him to be, but I really think they could have focused on him more. He barely did anything in the film. I don't mind if the villain is hiding behind the shadows (The Emperor was notorious for doing this in the "Star Wars" saga, not to mention the main antagonist of "Iron Man 3" did this as well). However, if they are, I want to see them pulling the strings on the people they put on the front line, becoming a "puppeteer", so to speak. Malekith didn't do this, and the fore I didn't find him interesting nor very threatening. His idea on making the world dark, too, I found flimsy. It's not really explained why he wants this and puts him into the Standard-Villain-Wants-To-Cause-Destruction-Just-Because category. I just wished they had spent more time developing his character.

This is more of a minor issue, but the attempt at a love triangle involving Jane-Thor-Sif suddenly gets dropped, which, I think, was again the fault of the film's short time run. We first see Odin implying to Thor that he should be with Sif, then Sif showing signs of liking Thor, and later on, Sif gives Jane a look while passing by. But that's it. Nothing else happens. I can't say I'm one for love triangles, but I don't see the point of making one if it's going to be dropped. Like I said earlier, though, this probably has to do with the fact that the film is too short for all of the story lines it's trying to fit in.

I don't like how they changed Odin in the film, too. In the first one he was pretty harsh, but I could see that he genuinely cared for his sons, wanted the best for both of them, and wanted to teach Thor to become a better king than the arrogant prince he was. But in The Dark World, Odin turns into a jerk himself, frustrated with Thor's fascination of Earth, feeling as if he belongs only on Asgard, refusing to help Jane once she's possessed by the Eether, and I think he actually uses her as bait to capture Malekith (of course, he was mad by them--I won't say why because that would involve spoilers--but it was still pretty rude). He just felt out of place, different than the Odin I saw in the first film, and I didn't like it.

I really did enjoy the "Thor" film, don't get me wrong, but it defiantly had its flaws. I think the writers/directors were afraid how the public would react to "Thor", given that he wasn't very known before, so they made it shorter. But I wish it had been longer. It had so much potential, and, while it wasn't bad, it really could have been better. It left something to be desired, you know? But I still enjoy the film series. I already want to go visit Asgard, and you can betcha I'm watching the third film :) And even if it's not my favorite film series ever, it's entertaining, and let''s face it: we all want to shut off our brain every now and then and kick back and watch a classic tale of heroes vs. the advisory :)