Teen Titans – Review: Snowblind

While battling a mysterious creature in the wilds of Siberia, Starfire is lost
in a blinding snowstorm. A reclusive young soldier named Red Star comes to her
aid and the two become fast friends. When Robin and the rest of the Titans
arrive, they discover Red Star hides not only a tragic past, but a destructive
secret.

Reviews by Bird Boy
Media by Bird Boy

Titans Voices
Greg Cipes as Beast Boy
Scott Menville as Robin
Khary Payton as Cyborg
Tara Strong as Raven
Hynden Walch as Starfire
Jason Marsden as Red Star
Ed O’Ross as Raskov

Teen Titans fifth season continues to be boring and dull, using characters that are “new” and yet seem familiar or plots that seem to be mixed with other cartoons we’ve seen throughout the years.
Perhaps the writers are getting tired…or I’m merely getting tired.

As much as I love these characters and how much they seemed to progress through the seasons, it doesn’t seem to be happening lately. Starfire acts the same in this episode as she did in her first appearance; she seems to be the only character that hasn’t changed. She’s still the same cute, naïve Starfire…and I think I’m getting bored with it. I can handle the different interpretations of characters, but with every other Titan acting the same way as they do in the comics in the past and currently, Starfire just comes off as a blockhead lately. She doesn’t seem to retain any facts about the world around her and just wanders through aimlessly until it’s time for a fight where she kicks some bad-guy ass.

On the topic of characters, we get a new one in this episode: Red
Star. It was rather interesting seeing Dr. Chang as being one of the head scientists on the project that created Red Star, but that was really the only “cool” moment long-time fans of the series have gotten. The plot was simple and really wasn’t all that interesting; scenes were mundane, boring and took a lot longer than it should have. Lately it seems they’ve been stretching these plots for time and it’s just become a lot of filler and no heart.

I will admit seeing Starfire and Red Star bond was probably the highlight of the episode, especially when she took him into outer space to explode (that doesn’t sound right, but how else am I supposed to word it?). It was a touching scene to be sure, but it certainly wasn’t worth the whole episode for.

Even the Teen Titans episodes that were nothing more than life lessons for kiddies watching were more entertaining than this. There was no real lesson to put into our heads (except maybe don’t become a test subject for the local army) and the story was easily forgettable.

The animation and fight choreography were pretty lackluster in here as well. I didn’t notice a single note of music (that’s either bad or good, I can never remember) and it was all just felt like recycled stories from past seasons or other shows. Red Star reminded me too much of Captain Atom, even if he is a real DC Comics character. Overlapping characters isn’t bad, but when their first appearances both end in them shooting off into outer space and exploding I’m going to have to draw some comparisons.

If you missed “Snowblind,” don’t kick yourself. Although maybe you’ll want to, as a swift kick may be more entertaining and memorable than this was.