Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Out Of The Shadows

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is a 2016 American 3D science fiction action comedy film directed by Dave Green and written by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters. A sequel to 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the film stars Megan Fox, Stephen Amell, Will Arnett, Brian Tee, Tyler Perry, Brittany Ishibashi, Laura Linney, while featuring the voices of Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Tony Shalhoub, Gary Anthony Williams, Stephen “Sheamus” Farrelly and Brad Garrett.

The focus of the movie is really on the Turtles and the fact that they will now be literally “out of the shadows” as in the world or atleast the NYC public is getting to know of their existence. After the end of the previous movie, the Turtles have a deal with Vern, who takes the credit for getting Shredder locked up and in prison. When Shredder escapes with the help of two dimwit goons named Bebop and Rocksteady and the Foot Clan, operating under the direction of scientist Baxter Stockman, it’s up to the Turtles to get him back. Assisting them is a reluctant Vern, April O’Neill (who is doing a lot of independent investigation by herself) and corrections officer Casey Jones who ends up using a hockey stick and a mask to get the bad guys. While Shredded escapes, he is transported to another dimenson by alien warlord Krang whogives him a mutagenic compound in exchange for his promise to find three components of a machine Krang sent to Earth in ages past, which when united will open a portal to his dimension. This sees Bebop & Rocksteady get their familiar Warthog and Rhino forms.

So it’s up to the Turtles with help from their three friends and the police who, under chief Rebecca Vincent, go from their initial fear and mistrust of the Turtles to joining forces after proof if shown to them of big trouble ahead, to stop the bad guys and avoid Krang’s modular war machine, the Technodrome, to be completely assembled here on this dimension. An all out battle rages on to stop this from happening and the Turtles must also get by their infighting and distention in the ranks and unite as one to win it for the good guys. There follows some funny scenes, some good fight scenes and CGI and all out action before the movie ends. The humans in the movie are pushed more or less to the background and are less utilized here as the focus is completely on the four brothers. And that is sad as Megan Fox’s April looks to have come into her own and Stephen Ammell does well in the beginning and starts off with a bang. But by not showing Casey Jones as the masked vigilante who does his own crime fighting in the streets and rebooting him as a young cop who wants to be a detective some day, earnest and eager to make a difference and all yes, the character loses that edge that was there in the original 1990 film.

Krang’s effects are awesome but the voice work really makes it look quite cartoonish and a hark back to 80s bad scifi movies. The CGI is too dominant and the explosions and car chases and crashes (it is Michael Bay’s production anyway) non-withstanding, this movie is better than the first reboot. Dare I say it, I actually did enjoy this one a lot more. It still pales compared to the fun of the original 2 movies especially. I will give this one a….7.5 outta 10!