Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Director: Dave Green
Actors: Stephen Farrelly, Alessandra Ambrosio
Release Date: Monday 30th May 2016
Genre(s): Adventure
Running time: 111 minutes
A sequel to a surprise hit from a few years ago, what was also somewhat surprising is that TMNT was actually good fun. Alas, what was missing for fans of the series and comics was the inclusion of villains Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady.
New helmer Dave Green includes that trio as well as fan-favourite Casey Jones and does a decent job handling the effects and allowing the action to flow amidst the kiddie friendly carnage. As silly and disposable as you'd expect, there are still some fun moments here to keep the 11-year-old in your life happy - you might start to fatigue after 90 minutes, mind.
Megan Fox, Will Arnett return, this time with the thespian density of Laura Linney, TV star Stephen Amell and the imposing Stephen Farrelly (aka WWE Superstar Sheamus). Everyone is pretty much on the same page here; embrace the silly and make it as like the cartoon as you can. For the most part, that absolutely works; Green follows the same aesthetic as the first film and doesn't mess with the formula too much. The problem is, strangely, that it cares too much about its human characters but struggles to get the audience to.
Will Arnett is a fantastic comedic actor, but there's zero point having him in your film to just pull googly faces; he has comedic timing, use it - don't over edit him. Fox has even less to do than the first film other than look amazing while Amell hints at a far more frantic Casey Jones than he was allowed to play.
The movie is the turtles, and they're a lot of fun - the interplay is relatively effortless for an effects-heavy flick and they look great. It seems that the majority of the time was spent nailing that, with the human characters an after-thought that are given way too much screentime.
Naturally the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense despite being derivative of every disaster movie you've seen based in Manhattan, but Green stages his action in a fun, non-intrusive way.
If a third one happens, we'd suggest more turtles, fewer humans and shaving off about 15 minutes.
