Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Movie Review

High on action but low-brow for everything else

by Simon Crust
Movies & TV Shows Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Movie Review

It's like a chewed-up piece of gum, with a face!

If a film makes money, it will get a sequel, even if said film is devoid of merit. Sad but true. And such is the case with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, sequel to 2014’s Michael Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was high on nostalgia but low on everything else. And it’s sad to say this second instalment follows the exact tried and tested path: fan service, action and low brow scripting. The fact that the Turtles themselves have changed out of all recognition from their original envisages seems not to matter – action, spectacle, (terrible) humour and over the top visuals sell this feature; it plays like a kid's film, it looks like a kid's film and there is nothing to raise the stakes from a kid's film. It is an ADHD-fast-cutting-nonsense script that relies on convenience to get from one over-the-top action sequence to the next with no regard for character or motivation. And yet...
The story is a near carbon copy of the first film, save that Shredder has to escape before he can wreak havoc on New York; only this time he does it with Krang, an alien from another dimension who wishes to take Earth for himself, cue violent confrontations, backstabbing, mayhem and outrageous action sequences as the Turtles have to ‘come out of the shadows’, i.e. make themselves known to the world, well the New York Police Department, so they can save the day. There are a number of ‘new’ characters introduced in this film, taken from the comics, or course, such as Krang, Casey Jones, Bebop and Rocksteady (desperately annoying those last two) with the return of everyone from the original. The film is rubbish, but, and this is the odd thing, I didn’t hate it, there was some charm to the piece, real characterisation between Leo and Raph, and the visuals were quite spectacular. I don’t think I’ll go back for more though.

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5

5
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