Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Review

May 29

Preview

PG13: Sci-Fi Action Violence

Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, Alibaba Pictures, Movie Media Group

1 hour and 52 Minutes

Cast: Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Megan Fox, Stephen Amell, Will Arnett, Gary Anthony Williams, Stephen "Sheamus" Farrelly, Brian Tee, Tyler Perry, Brad Garrett, with the motion capture of Danny Woodburn and the voice of Tony Shalhoub

The Turtles comes into conflict with T.C.R.I. scientist Dr. Baxter Stockman and the return of their enemy, The Shredder, who has hired Stockman to create mutants of his own in the form of Bebop and Rocksteady to even the score, during which the Turtles discover a Retro-Mutagen in hopes they can become humans. Following an extraterrestrial invasion above New York City led by the Dimension X inhabitant known as Krang. Upon Krang's Invasion, the Turtles are joined in the fight with their Master Splinter, their human friends April O'Neil, Vern Fenwick and new friend, vigilante Casey Jones.

REVIEW: Remember back in 2014 when people were meh with the Micheal Bay produced reboot of Ninja Turtles? Personally I liked it despite the fact I have to go through 20 minutes of Megan Fox attempting to act every time I watch it. There are a lot of flaws in it, but hey it has a little bit of re-watch value to it. Now we have the second entry into the Bay Ninja Turtle franchise and though it is an improvement of the last film, it’s also a major setback from the last one.

THE GOOD: A great thing about the Ninja Turtle films are the turtles themselves. Their personalities are so true to the source that every time they are onscreen from beginning to end, they are the shining stars. They are given much more screen time and give off the best humor. The opening sequence is unpredictable and very true to the characters' nature. There is a moment where Raphael is scared of jumping out of a plane to a point of motivating himself, he asks himself “what would Vin Diesel do?” That is something Raphael would say due to his brawn and short tempered personality and moments like that gives the film breath of life. It's even how they interact with people, they shell out comedy like no tomorrow especially with Casey Jones to a point of a sequence of the turtles screwing around with him. Even when they have drama within each other, it’s hard to not care for them.

A major improvement of this film is Megan Fox. Yeah she is a much better actress this time around, but her character is still not much of a well written character. She isn't as annoying as she was in the previous film and is acting circles around Stephen Amell.

The action sequences in here are outstanding. They are shot very well and are very fun to watch. There are sequences on highways, airplanes, rivers, the sky and pretty much every form you can think ever (except Space). Most of the action are edge of your seat entertaining.

With all of the inclusions of the nostalgic characters, the two that are by far stand out the most is Bebop and Rocksteady. It doesn't matter how they are before or after they're mutated, every moment we spend with them is as entertaining as the turtles. Their bond and the humor is as true as the show that dates back to the 80s. Its funny all of the mutated characters in this movie are the highest points of the entire film.

THE BAD: With all the good things about this film there are a lot of awful things about it. Not even just bad, but just plain out awful. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Out of the Shadows suffers from Age of Ultron syndrome. The reason I say this is because with Age of Ultron, the movie tried so much to cram in so many characters that the narrative as a whole becomes a jumbled mess. At least with Age of Ultron there is a sense of fun to it because WE'RE WITH THE AVENGERS! With this we get ultra dimensional portals, a NEW SHREDDER, A NEW KARAI THAT THEY DON'T ACKNOWLEDGE AS KARAI, THEN BAXTER STOCKMAN, AND KRAANG 20 MINUTES INTO THE FILM, and the list goes on and on and it just gives you a headache.

It's as if after the success of the first film, Michael Bay came in and said "oh shit look at this money time to bring in all those old characters. BRING THEM IN BRING THEM BRING THEM ALL IN!!" and the film is shameless about it.

The human actors are all terrible. The best is Megan Fox and when she's next to Stephen Amell, she's acting circles around him. And that's saying something. Stephen Amell as Casey Jones at first was a bad idea when casted and after seeing the film, it was a terrible idea. It's just sad to see a badass character similar to the character of Raphael throughout the years be watered down to a whiny and pathetic character who happens to be good with a hockey puck/stick. Tyler Perry is just a nerd who just geekingly laughs in nearly every shot we see him in. The continuity of the first film is just gone with recasted Shredder and Karai who I could've sworn died in the last film.

The biggest flaw is not only that the film is very jumbled, but it is LONG! The film is nearly 2 hours and it feels like it takes an eternity to end. There are nearly 20 subplots from the Turtles wanting to be human to fit in, Casey getting kicked off the force, Kraang being crowbared into the film (poorly voiced by Brad Garrett), Shredder opening a portal, blah blah blah. By the time the film is over you're just exhausted

LAST STATEMENT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is entertaining for kids and die hard fans of the turtles, but is too jumbled of a story hampered with a long running time and terrible performances to please other audiences.

Rating: 2/5 | 44%