'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows' Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is the sequel to 2014's reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles picking up relatively soon after the first. We find that the turtles are still working in secret to protect New York City and wish to be accepted by human society followed into the fray by lots of crazy hijinks. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows has new direction as Dave Green takes the reigns from Jonathan Liebesman and I can say that was a change for the better as the film keeps a consistent tone of fun, fun, fun. Green strays away from many of the Michael Bay-isms that plagued the first, but they're still present. 

Producer Michael Bay knows how to slip in some slow motion, big explosions, and one scene that focuses on Megan Fox's midriff. However, Green does maintains some honor to his work. I'll outright say that I feel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows improves on many of the flaws that befell it's predecessor.

For one, the focus is consistent and clear emphasizing the turtles and their zany personalities, one of the few highlights from the first in my opinion. The human characters are relegated to supporting players, a much more appropriate place for the characters as they better support the film in that capacity.  Secondly, the visual effects are even better as the turtles look slimmed down to be somewhat more believable, aside from Raphael since he's the muscle who's meant to be the largest, and a less grotesque Splinter. Thirdly, character depth is actually distributed to characters this time around as we see some strong character arcs and a valuable message about teamwork for the turtles.

And lastly, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows doesn't feel too derivative of other films although I'm sure comparisons will be made to Transformers: Dark of the Moon and The Avengers' respective third acts. With that being said, the sequel does actually make some of the same mistakes.

The screenwriting team composed of Josh Applebaum and André Nemec did the best they could to balance all the ongoing storylines introducing a few new characters while continuing the stories of the characters from the preceding chapter. The story's not awful, but it just comes off as the plot to a serialized cartoon, not too surprising since the turtles have had quite a few popular cartoon series in their history. Many of the jokes come off as a bit too kid friendly, but considering that's the market in which the turtles thrive, it's not too big of a deal. 

The action once again is run-of-the-mill action, but there are unique moments hidden amongst it all. In particular, there's a sequence featuring the Turtle garbage truck and the inevitable third act conflict with the best sequence being the airplane brawl leading to a chase down the river. 

Another improvement was the cast, which brings back the major actors from the reboot along with introducing some fresh faces. Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Pete Ploszek, and Jeremy Howard provide the motion capture work and the voices for the four turtles, ensuring each turtle's personality is distinct. The four motion capture actors did quite well carrying the film as the turtles are once again the heart and soul of the franchise thanks to the electric charisma radiating from Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Donatello allowing for a number of entertaining moments. 

Other fun motion capture characters include the dynamic duo of dunces, Bebop and Rocksteady, brought to the big screen by Gary Anthony Williams and Stephen Farrelly in both human and mutant forms that seems incredibly faithful to the source material. Splinter is once again voiced by Tony Shalhoub and is brought to life by a new motion capture actor, Peter Donald Badalamenti II, and I feel both did a fine job. Splinter has a much smaller role as he basically meditates in the turtles lair and lends his infinite wisdom to the turtles when needed. 

As for the human supporting cast, Megan Fox's role as April O'Neil is scaled down and she does fine in the capacity used, none of her scenes are horrendous, but they aren't amazing either. Stephen Amell gets a chance to bring another vigilante of sorts to life as Casy Jones. Now, I'm not all too familiar with the mythos of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I hear this isn't quite the Casey Jones turtles fans are familiar with. 

Those who keep up with Arrow know that Amell dons a bow and quiver weekly as the Green Arrow, and as a fan of the show myself, I can comment on how this performance compares to his weekly turn as Oliver Queen. Amell, like Fox, is decent in the capacity used and only gets to truly shine in his action scenes and great stunt work, which Amell does himself here as well as Arrow. His performance is about what you would expect from him and very similar to what he does as Oliver Queen, but brighter, I do wish he had more to do in the film though because I liked the energy Amell brought to the human side of things. 

Will Arnett's Vernon Fenwick is much more tolerable this time around as his role is also scaled down, but I liked the spin they put on his character. Arnett's material is much better written this time around as well as he had a few moments that made me laugh. Tyler Perry plays the wacky scientist, Baxter Stockman, and certainly nails it. Brian Tee takes over the role of Shredder and unfortunately had nothing to really do than be a villainous presence with no action sequences or proper motivation. 

Brad Garrett voices the alien Krang, with emphasis on his appearance rather than character, I wasn't too bothered by this and have no idea how fans will receive it. I do think hardcore turtles fans will enjoy though thanks to plenty of fan service and loads of fun.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is undeniably and unapologetically a 90's style faithful adaptation of the Teenage Mutant Turtles that can best be described as a mindless, entertaining popcorn flick reminiscent to a Saturday morning cartoon. I guarantee children will love it and the film definitely can be fun for the whole family, but for those looking for a more intelligent summer blockbuster either go see Captain America: Civil War again or wait around a little longer for smarter films to hit the market.

Film Assessment: C