Review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) by Sarah E — 07 Jun 2010

If only the filmmakers had stuck to what they were good at and made this movie with the same dark undertones they made the first one with. Alas, someone got it in their head that these movies were to be kid friendly, and, like so many other films before and after it, TMNT 2 suffers from the stupidity and incoherence all children's movies are made with.

I can't help but think that kids are smarter than this. Call me idealistic or optimistic or deluded. You can't honestly make me think that a child doesn't understand when they're being spoken down to, and this movie is patronizing to its very core: gaudy and overacted, two words that, while characteristic of movies about mutant turtles, should not be identified so readily and obviously. Willful suspension of disbelief has got to at least omit those. Sheer enjoyment should omit those from my mind. TMNT 2 is a poor follow-up to a decent first installment in the franchise though. Skip to the fourth movie; that's saying a lot.