Review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016) by Lonewolfsones — 04 Jun 2016

The Turtles are back in this sequel and they have brought some familiar faces. Beebop and Rocksteady finally get their chance on the big screen. The movie features other notable characters like Splinter, April, Casey Jones, Krang and Shredder.

However...the film doesn't quite manage to juggle all of them effectively. Die-hard turtle fans may love the fanservice but some of the characters feel incredibly under-developed or completely off the mark entirely.

Splinter, Casey Jones and even Shredder himself feel like they are afterthoughts. The brief moments they have on screen are alright; but they don't really add much either. Casey Jones and April feel as though they are there solely to advance the plot. Megan Fox's performance of April is one that feels phoned in. In fact the portrayal of April feels like its trying to leverage her sex appeal especially in one of the opening scenes.

Shredder spends a decent portion of the movie with his helmet off and never even has a confrontation with the turtles which is a let down. Krang is perhaps one of the standouts in the film. Reading other reviews I thought Krang wouldn't even have as much screentime as he has even if it is still rather limited.

The plot itself is fairly simple and nothing spectacular. The main focus is on the Turtles themselves and their relationship with one another. I think this is the thing I enjoyed the most about the movie. I liked that they explored the human elements that tie the turtles together. Their bond as brothers. The big theme in the film is "People are afraid of what they don't understand." Its a theme that has been done before and in fact has been used in other recent films like BvS. Its disappointing that we don't see the turtles doing more ninja stuff than what we get.

In the end the movie is an enjoyable popcorn flick if you aren't expecting a deep narrative plot. Like Michael Bay's Transformers, TMNT Out of the Shadows is a big dumb fun action flick. Mileage will vary depending on personal taste, however I can say that I had fun with it despite its flaws.