Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Can you believe that since 1990, there have been six theatrical Ninja Turtle movies?  As a childhood fan, I have to hold firm to my belief that no movie will ever top the first live action movie.  But, I have to say, Out of the Shadows is not a bad effort, and is pretty good as far as Ninja Turtles goes.  Sure, the plot makes no sense (as if these movies ever did), and most of the human characters are pushed aside for the sake of special effects.  But this is a marked improvement over the 2014 film we got, and it even has a few moments that made me smile, mostly out of nostalgia.

Here once more are the four hard-shelled reptilian brothers of Ninjitsu, Leonardo (Pete Plozek), Raphael (Alan Ritchson), Donatello (Jeremy Howard) and Michelangelo (Noel Fisher), as well as their human friend, reporter April O'Neil (Megan Fox, given little to do here).  Also back for more is the Turtles' arch nemesis, Shredder (Brian Tee), who manages an elaborate prison van escape with the aid of a mad scientist ally named Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry, looking kind of like a goofier Neil deGrasse Tyson here).  This escape involves warping the Shredder to an alternate dimension, where the evil ninja makes a pact to take over the Earth with the help of an alien brain-like being named Krang (voice by Brad Garrett).  The Shredder's evil plan?  Track down three pieces of alien technology that got left behind on Earth, so that he can create a portal between Earth and this other dimension, allowing Krang to cross over and conquer Earth with the aid of his massive Death Star-like fortress, the Technodrome.  Not only that, but the Shredder also gets his hands on a substance that can create mutants like the Turtles themselves, so he turns two of his dim-witted henchmen, Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams) and Rocksteady (Stephen Farrelly), into a mutant warthog and rhino respectively, and sets them out into the city to do his dirty work.

I understand if none of this makes any sense to anyone who is not familiar with the Turtles in their numerous previous forms of media, such as the original independent comic book, the various cartoon series, countless video games and endless merchandise.  But at the same time, there's just something a little bit more knowing and sillier about Out of the Shadows than the 2014 movie.  It's almost as if now that returning screenwriters Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec got the origin story and introductions out of the way in the last film, they really decided to cut loose and have fun with this sequel, giving us the movie we probably should have gotten the last time around.  There are a lot of references and callbacks to earlier takes on the Turtles, especially the first 1980s cartoon series.  Given that's the show I grew up on, I found myself smiling more than a few times.  It's odd, however, that they would make so many references to a cartoon only remembered now by adults.  After all, this is a production of Nickelodeon's film division, and they currently have a CG Ninja Turtle cartoon running on their channel.  You would think that's the cartoon the filmmakers would want to tie their product into in order to appeal to the kids who are watching it. 

Whenever the Turtles, mutants and other aliens are up on the screen, the movie can be fun.  I'm still not a fan of the CG design of the Turtles that these new movies are using, but at least they act and behave the way I remember them.  Leonardo's still the leader and all around straight man, Michelangelo is the big kid and comic relief, Donatello's the brains, and Raphael is the short-tempered and sarcastic one.  Not the deepest of personalities, but it works well enough for turtles who eat pizza.  There is an attempt at some conflict within the group when Raphael finds out the substance that made the Shredder's henchmen into mutants could also make them into humans, and Leonardo decides they shouldn't use the substance for their own means.  This is kind of introduced, then largely forgotten after an elaborate action sequence set in a police station.  Speaking of the action sequences, there are a couple good ones here, such as a high speed chase concerning a prison van early in the film, and especially one involving a pair of airplanes.  Sure these sequences are loud and dumb (this is a Michael Bay production, after all), but as far as loud and dumb action sequences go, they're not the worst I've seen.

This approach of CG mutants and over the top action does short change the human stars, however.  Megan Fox returns as the Turtles' closest human friend, but you can hardly tell, as she matters so little to the plot.  The Turtles are also joined up with a rogue cop named Casey Jones (Stephen Amell from TV's Arrow), who likes to don a hockey mask and dish out street vigilante justice, but again, he is largely kept to the sidelines for most of the film.  The always reliable Laura Linney plays a gruff police chief who isn't sure if the Turtles can be trusted, and while she puts on a game face for all the silliness the movie forces upon her, she is again given little to nothing to do.  Will Arnett is back from the last movie too, but (you guessed it) his participation is minimized.  I guess it is to be expected that the human characters get lost amidst the chaos of the Ninja Turtles.  But I always remember Casey Jones being a memorable part of the Turtle Universe, especially in the first 1990 movie.  Seeing him reduced to a minor role (and only wearing the hockey mask once) was a bit of a disappointment to my inner fanboy child.

I guess what I'm trying to say with this review is Out of the Shadows made me smile with its goofiness from time to time, and I also enjoyed the throwbacks to the original cartoon.  But, on the whole, it's not that memorable unless you're between the ages of 7 to 12.  If you're an adult with hardcore nostalgia for the characters, you'll probably like this.  Any adult with faded memories or no personal attachment whatsoever, don't bother.

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