Review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016) by Ray S — 11 Jun 2016

Oh the turtles, a beloved franchise that has been around for decades. Not only on film, but where it all began, in the pages of comics. We return to the sewers of NYC, again with the TMNT trying to stop Shredder, this time from escaping prison. But, essentially a stronger and more dangerous foe will arrive, Krang. Not to make the franchise that has been rebooted better by any means, but to bring some more nostalgia to the feels.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" is close to the original reboot as it comes to how good it is, but maybe slightly better? If so it would be solely of the facts that Shredder doesn't look like a Transformer anymore, or that Rocksteady & Bebop are in it, or Baxter Stockman, or Krang. I don't know, take your pick. It does feel better in a sense, and it took me nearly a week to write this review, and it benefits the film because now that I've had time to think about it, I feel better about the movie.

It's funny (childish funny), it has some decent action, the CGI has gotten better, but it still just lacks that love you felt for the old films. I get it, you'll never be able to duplicate those, and that's fine, but these two films have both felt "meh." I love them bringing in classic villains, henchman, that type of thing. But, your main villain the story is notorious for was basically exempt from the film. I think Shredder may have had 10 minutes of screen time? Divided up throughout the film, then, *spoiler alert* freezing him when it was just about to get action packed. Questionable writing there. The story was more or less the turtles fighting amongst themselves and learning about teamwork than them battling the bad guys and preparing for Krang's arrival. I don't know, kind of hit me a bit, in the wrong places.

Casting, here I have some issues as well. Don't get me wrong, I love Stephen Amell in "Arrow," especially when he uses he deep voice to cover his identity. But, he was an awful choice for Casey Jones, especially since he didn't use the deep voice. He in a sense "pussified" the character. When I think of Jones, I think dark, rugged, grimy, badass, rough around the edges kind of guy. Not clean cut, soft voice, whiny little bitch guy. Maybe it is writing, maybe it was just bad casting. Whatever the case, it failed. What didn't fail was the casting of Stephen Farrelly (Sheamus), and Gary Anthony Williams in he roles of Rocksteady & Bebop. These two knuckleheads embraced that persona of idiots with muscle. Shredder's dumbass henchman was probably the best part of the film, well done boys. Lastly, Tyler Perry as Baxter Stockman. Ugh, no one really likes Tyler Perry, and if you do, your taste in film sucks. He was about as annoying as I could take it in this film, and he didn't remind me at all of Baxter. I'm just going to say that when they turn him into a fly next film, he better figure some stuff out or it'll fail miserably.

I won't get into the plot much, there wasn't really one to begin with other than the fact Krang hires Shredder to get objects to complete a device to open the portal to Dimension X so Krang and his army can take over Earth. While that goes on, the boys argue amongst themselves and skirmish with the two idiots to prepare for the reckoning. It's predictable, yes, but you knew going into it that it would be. But, like I said, the action was decent, the CGI was better, and the nostalgia level was off the charts. That being said, it wasn't enough to save the film and send you home with butterflies in your belly. I'll give you one more shot Michael Bay, so the third film better be awesome. 3/5 JD.