Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows – Film Review
Director: Dave Green
Starring: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Stephen Amell, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Brian Tee, Laura Linney and Tyler Perry
Release Date: Out Now
This is a film that nobody was crying out for.
The 2014 turtles reboot was such a joyless turd that it completely sucked the wind out of the sails of any potential sequels. Who cares if Shredder is back? Who cares about Dimension X?
Who cares about pizza, if it’s not us eating it?
Considering the direction Out of the Shadows goes in however, you would swear that terrible origin story was actually planned. While this still isn’t a great film, it positively shines when it is inevitably compared to its predecessor. It adopts a much lighter tone, which is fitting, considering the title. And rather than focus on the turtles as brooding saviours, it depicts them appropriately as bumbling misfits. It recognises that they are teenagers, just as prone to joking around as they are to angst.
In short, Out of the Shadows treats its source material with some actual respect.
A major contributor to this is the addition of the new players, Bebop and Rocksteady, who are brought into being by Tyler Perry, pretending to be a scientist. Played by Gary Anthony Williams and WWE’s Sheamus respectively, Bebop and Rocksteady are the dim stars of the show, in every sense of the word.
True to their 1987 cartoon roots, they inject far-out whimsy into every scene they are in and take absolutely nothing seriously. The fact that they genuinely don’t know what’s going on most of the time makes them fun and unpredictable.
It’s the lowest form of humour and some of it is funny purely because it makes you cringe (yes, there is a fart joke, but at least it’s only one). Still, as crude as their humour can be, the actors fit into their roles particularly well and are leaps and bounds ahead of the painfully bland Shredder.
Making a return as the Swiss Army Ninja, Brian Lee looks bored to death as the infamous nemesis reduced to a faceless asshole. He changes into his suit of armour only once, which means he has more costume changes than facial expressions. Luckily, though the plot might suggest otherwise, his presence is not that important and he is knowingly and hurriedly shoved into the background in almost every scene.
For you see, the big baddie this time around is the infamous Krang, a vicious pink alien blob thing that lives in a giant robot’s belly…..that’s right, we lied at the start of this article. This isn’t really a film. It’s just a Saturday morning cartoon, pretending to be a film. Commander Krang might be out to take over the world but the stakes have never been lower.
This is something that the turtles are aware of as well, as they seem to be having a lot more fun with the apocalypse this time around. We’re introduced to each turtle the same way as in the cartoon series (Raphael is cool but rude, etc), showing that a little more care has gone into their characterisation. Donatello is still a little problematic as the geek, but Raphael, being the party dude, will almost certainly be an objective favourite. His only major flaw is his (still) creepy infatuation with April O’ Neill, which is topped only by the director in an agonising schoolgirl’s uniform scene.
The fact that you can’t take the film seriously is both a blessing and a curse. It’s rarely a slog. In fact, the scene on the airplane/South American river is a rock solid action sequence, far better than the original’s snowy mountain set piece. But when it slows down for even a second, you’re immediately reminded that there’s nothing to invest in here. It’s all just too ridiculous, and that’s saying a lot in an age where comic book movies are king.
This is most notable in the third act where we see a laughable attempt to give the film some heart. Green has honourable intentions with this, and we saw a similar attempt play out beautifully in the 1990 film. It doesn’t gel here though, because we are gently reminded that a giant death tank with an evil snot at the controls is flying in from Dimension X to destroy the world.
So, you know, get your skates on.
As such, Out of the Shadows is best enjoyed as a ridiculous cartoon. In fact, if you’re still a big fan of ridiculous cartoons, you can add another point to this film’s final score, because it’s perfectly functional as that.
It’s still flawed in many ways. The human characters are all exceedingly dull, with only Steve Amell showing any enthusiasm as vigilante cop Casey Jones. His character is plagued with bad writing however, as his motivation is murky at best in the final act. And every aspect of this world has been dumbed down to ensure kids can enjoy it, with the most hilarious depiction of ‘science’ you’ll see this year.
It’s dumb fun that manages to keep a decent pace and it bodes well for the franchise if it can keep up this momentum.
But at its very best, Out of the Shadows will never be more than enjoyable and forgettable in equal measure.
Score: 2/5
Written by Stephen Hill
