Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows

This review may contain spoilers!

This film is such a joke. I would give Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows a 1.5/10.

This film had a generally funny tone, like there was some good comedy and I enjoyed the fact that it tried not to take itself too seriously. What really worked for the film was the first fifteen minutes before Shredder met Krang, in those first fifteen minutes I had a bit of hope that we were finally going to get a semi-decent TMNT movie. The strength of the film was the cinematography; there were some incredible blockbuster shots in this movie and I felt like that was probably the stand out aspect.

Will Arnett, who played Vernon Fenwick, was one of the strongest comedic presences in this film; Arnett's inflated ego and bumbling role created some enjoyable scenes. Stephen Amell, who played Casey Jones, may not have been the best casting choice for Casey Jones but worked hard to make the role his own; Amell plays an immediately likeable and earnest character. Pete Ploszek, who played Leonardo, may not have been the most likeable throughout the course of the film but he portrayed a character with a heavy burden well; you felt like he was still trying to find himself as the team's leader and that made Ploszek's performance stand out. Tyler Perry, who played Baxter Stockman, played this very funny awkward scientist in the film; Perry had a really strong presence and stood out in the film.

However the best performance came from Alan Ritchson, who played Raphael. This isn't a particular surprise for me because when I reviewed the first TMNT movie Ritchson stood out as the strongest performer as well; he just is Raphael. The headstrong, confrontational manner of this character is brought to life in this film and the scenes where he has conflict with Ploszek are some of the best. Despite his very abrasive nature you can't help but appreciate the very heroic role Raphael plays in this movie.

The plot for this film....the word 'trainwreck' comes to mind. The entire story is one very long stretched out three act plot about the Turtles trying to stop Shredder from getting alien stuff. Because Shredder works for an alien now...an alien who gave Shredder some Purple Ooze so he turn people into animal henchmen. Confused? So was I. It's just so poorly written and executed, characters don't progress and develop so much as they just move from one state to another. The special effects still look terrible, Splinter looks awful, Bebop and Rocksteady are an eyesore and Krang looks like he was ripped right out of a Spy Kids film. The score for this movie was lazy and generic, while the soundtrack was a weak collaboration of songs that never really fit the scenes they were used in.

Megan Fox, who played April O'Neil, continues her wooden acting career in this film; I just want a world without Megan Fox attempting to act in movies. Laura Linney, who played Chief Vincent, gives a truly bland performance in this film; you feel like Linney doesn't really know what she's doing in this film. Noel Fisher, who played Michelangelo, was a performer I found funny last film but they made the mistake of layering him on a bit too thick this time round; Fisher just becomes annoying and you just want him to shut up and fade to the background by the end of the film. Jeremy Howard, who played Donatello, has always been the weakest performer when it comes to the Turtles; he doesn't display a lot of emotion which makes him very hard to connect to. Brian Tee, who played Shredder, is even worse than the last guy who played the role; they do the exact same thing as last time and make Shredder a B grade villain overshadowed by weak plot choices. Stephen Farrelly and Gary Anthony Williams, who played Rocksteady and Bebop respectively, were just these crude awful characters that brought the film down; I don't think I've ever seen such a big waste of screen time. Tony Shalhoub, who voiced Splinter, didn't have much of a role at all in this film; they attempted to use him as a form of comedic relief but it had very little impact. Brad Garrett, who voiced Krang, presented the most cringeworthy villain that I've watched this year; this felt like a weak cartoon level bad guy. Brittany Ishibashi, who played Karai, was once again a side character that didn't need to be in the film; frankly there were already too many characters so having her in it was a waste of time.