Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Starring: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Laura Linney, Stephen Amell, Tyler Perry, Brian Tee, Tony Shalhoub (voice), Johnny Knoxville (voice), Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Dean Winters, Brad Garrett (voice)
Directed by: Dave Green
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An interdimensional being threatens the Earth and only the turtles can stop him.

Review:

Tim: I just cannot get into this rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. I adored the cartoon as kids, but the last two movies just seem stupid, pointless, and ineffective. The reboot didn't do it for me and this sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is even worse. I actually like some of the attempts made here, but the movie just isn't very good.

As sometimes occurs, this film's strengths also become weaknesses. The most interesting aspect of this film is that it represents a fairly big shift into the science fiction. Obviously, that was always part of the story (you have giant, talking turtles), but here, you have interdimensional beings, portals, and more. It's all a lot to take in. On the positive side, this movie definitely attempts to differentiate itself from the others (keep in mind, this is the 5th live action film, with 1 animated film as well). The villain, Krang, is definitely cool to see on the big screen. It was nice not having Shredder as the main villain (although, unfortunately, he does show up here). I appreciated the attempt to do something different. The problem is that the whole story just felt so far out there, it was a little hard to stay engaged. "What is happening now?" I continually asked myself. There's this giant warship, coming through piece by piece? That's convenient. The whole thing felt like a big stretch and the movie didn't do a good enough job of convincing me to suspend my disbelief. I had a hard time buying into anything I saw on screen. That undercut everything that was going on.

I also have to comment on the special effects. The whole movie relies far too much on CGI. It's obvious and it detracts from everything on screen- it's too clean, too surreal. The final battle against Krang appeared to be 95% CGI. I wasn't invested in what was on screen because none of it was real. We will come to a point where you honestly can't tell what is real and what is computer generated on screen, but we are not at that point yet. This aspect of the film was disrupting and frustrating. It pulled me out of the story and reminded me that nothing I was seeing was remotely real.

I like that the film tried to introduce new characters. We get fan-favorite Casey Jones, although I wasn't very impressed with Stephen Amell in that role. He's no Elias Koteas. It was fun to see Bebop and Rocksteady, although the actors playing them were far too over-the-top. It severely limited the coolness of seeing these characters on screen. That's a common complaint I had with this film- you introduce these nostalgic characters, but they weren't portrayed nearly effectively enough. It was incredibly cool to see Baxter Stockman and Tyler Perry was actually a decent choice to play him. The problem is that Perry ventures into the over-the-top territory, too. Director Dave Green really lost control of the cast and had no ability to create any subtlety or restraint in the performances. Perry was actually decent besides the random forced bits that didn't work.

Like last time, Megan Fox didn't add as much as desired. She just doesn't portray intelligence and so she'll always make an average April. Will Arnett had even less to do this time around, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I liked seeing Laura Linney (like always), but man, she got caught in a role she should have declined. As a whole, the cast is average.

The humor here was pretty stupid. It was geared towards a younger audience, yes, but you can do that and still be funny. The writing was bad, the jokes were lame, and so one of the best parts of the source material was squandered.

I wasn't a big fan of the remake two years ago, and I liked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows even less. I would go so far as to say that this is the worst film in the franchise, animated movie included. The desire to keep churning these out ($) is likely still there, but this movie made over $100 million less than the last one. That tells you something major right there. I'm hoping the relative box office failure of this film puts the franchise back on the shelf for another 7-8 years. Maybe the next remake will reverse the downward spiral of this franchise.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Transformers