Eric Snider started his review out by saying, “Well,
it took 26 years and six attempts, but they finally made a “Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles” movie that I enjoyed! Which is magnanimous of them, since I
wasn’t the target audience and never expressed any interest in being part of
it. But “Out of the Shadows,” the sequel to 2014’s loud, dumb reboot, at last
achieves the goal the franchise has been reaching for all along: It’s made for
12-year-olds without “made for 12-year-olds” being meant as an insult.”
Snider goes on to say, “Often, that designation means
a movie is shallow and lazy, or that it panders to a juvenile sense of humor,
or that it’s full of plot holes and incoherence that the filmmakers assume kids
won’t notice or care about. In truth, “12-year-olds” is often shorthand for
“idiots.”” This film, on the other hand, is lighthearted, easy-going, and occasionally
funny. Everyone has clear reasons and goals, and the fights (and energetic
action scenes) make logical sense, arising out of character and not out of machine.
The Turtles are shallow, but not annoyingly or mindlessly so, and they’re skillful
of serious conversations about important things. Like a good comic-book sequel,
the story brings back old villains, introduces new ones, and continues the
established mythology. Snider credited, “It’s a better, more lucid superhero
movie than “Batman v Superman” was, not that that’s saying much.”
Snider mentioned, “You notice almost immediately that
the film wants to be straightforward and un-confusing, like the Saturday
morning cartoon it should have been.” Right away, the four Turtles are
reintroduced by name, along with their essential character traits – Leonardo (Pete
Ploszek) the leader, Raphael (Alan Ritchson) the muscles, Donatello (Jeremy
Howard) the brains, and Michelangelo (Noel Fisher) the comic relief. Later in
the film, they introduce themselves to a new friend, corrections officer Casey
Jones, played by Oliver Queen/Green Arrow from the DC show on CW, “Arrow,”
Stephen Amell, successfully retelling the cast for audience members who might
otherwise have difficulty telling the almost-identical Turtles apart.
Main dialogue and plot points are repeated a lot. When
the Turtles find out that associates of Shredder, played by Brian Tee, the main
antagonist they arrested in the last movie, are planning to help him escape
from prison (among the associates is his daughter, Karai, played by Brittany
Ishibashi), Donatello says, “They’re gonna break him out! He’ll be free again!”
In the next scene, Donatello says the same line almost verbatim to his Master
Splinter, voiced by Tony Shalhoub and motion-capture done by Peter D
Badalamenti, who then says it again
in a different way, with the addition of along the lines of how Shredder will
be back to his old job of reigning terror. Snider said, “Most of the dialogue
is declarative like that, a quality that makes me roll my eyes or sigh with
boredom when it’s in an adult movie, but which is perfectly suitable for one
intended for kids. (An even better movie would do this without being obvious
about it, but we’re taking baby steps here.)”
The villains, as well, keep repeating their mission in
laymen’s terms. (Snider said, “Like 37% of all films, this one is about an
effort to collect the mystical artifacts required to open a portal to
somewhere.”) Besides Shredder, there’s Krang, voiced by Robert Barone from “Everybody
Loves Raymond,” Brad Garrett, an intelligent, creepy alien who, described by
Snider, “looks like a cross between an octopus and a brain and who resides
in the chest cavity of a powerful robot that does not always obey his
instructions. Krang seems like something out of “Futurama,” which is fine with
me.” When he assigns Shredder to get the artifacts so Krang can conquer Earth,
Krang also gives Shredder purple ooze that can turn people into mutated
animals. Shredder uses it on two unenthusiastic fellow convicts, Bebop
(comedian Gary Anthony Williams from “Whose Line is it Anyway?”) and Rocksteady
(WWE Wrestler Stephen “Sheamus” Farrelly), who become giant warthog and rhino,
respectively – and they love it. Bebop and Rocksteady (the movie makes sure to
keep saying their names together like that, “Bebop and Rocksteady”) “love”
being powerful mutants who destroy things. Their passion is enjoyable.
Donatello actually hypothesizes, after a small
experiment, that the purple ooze could also make the Turtles look human. As a
result, they wouldn’t have to hide in the sewers and let useless cameraman Vern
Fenwick, reprised by Will Arnett, take all the credit for their heroics (which
does sound radical, if you think about it). The Turtles disagree among
themselves based on this idea, leading to a split – a huge issue for a group
that is dependent on unity and teamwork. Snider said, “When Splinter tells Leo
that “it’s the different points of view that make the team strong,” I realized
with astonishment that his statement makes sense because the Turtles are
actually four distinct individuals this time, rather than being
interchangeable.” Leonardo’s on a bit of a control freak as the team’s leader,
Raphael is short-fused and narrow-minded sometimes, Donatello has a crush on
April O’Neil, reprised by Megan Fox, who is overtime getting better at acting,
and Michelangelo is somewhat of the sweet, carefree turtle.
All of this is at odds with the film’s messy,
brainless prequel (which I thought was tubular). Dave Green is the new
director, but two of the three screenwriters, Josh Appelbaun and Andre Nemec,
are the same. Snider said, “Maybe we should blame the 2014 film’s badness on
its third writer, Evan Daugherty, who wasn’t involved this time? Let’s see,
Daugherty’s credits also include “Snow White and the Huntsman” and “Divergent.”
So yeah, I’m comfortable with that.”
Snider goes on to say, “I don’t mean to suggest that
“Out of the Shadows” is excellent.” The human characters are not completely
interesting (although actor, producer, director, screenwriter, playwright,
author, and songwriter Tyler Perry’s Baxter Stockman, clearly inspired by Neil
DeGrasse Tyson, is close) and everything to do with Casey Jones and police
chief Laura Linney is clichéd. (She doesn’t believe his story about the Turtles
trying to stop Shredder’s escape, even though it happened during a high-speed
freeway chase that must have had quite a handful of witnesses). Although Jane
Wu as Jade is quite the eye-candy. It’s also another film where the climax has
parts of New York City being destroyed by the Technodrome being assembled in
the sky. However, it treats its silly heroes and story just seriously enough
for us to get into it without getting “too” serious, which makes a huge amount
of difference.
Here’s what I say: maybe the rest of you dudes learned
how to tell the Ninja Turtles apart years ago, which is really righteous. Snider
admitted, “Maybe the cheerful, slightly off-beat tone of the movie is how the
comics or TV cartoon always were. Or maybe it’s a betrayal of those things!
Maybe true TMNT fans will hate this. Don’t know, don’t care. I had fun with it.”
I agree with him on this because I thought I had a cowabunga time with this.
In the end, I think this movie is an improvement over
the first one, but I don’t think a lot of people will like it, although I think
this is an enjoyable popcorn flick, like the first one. It's not as good as the live-action trilogy from the 90s, but I like them still, in their own way. All of the characters
are enjoyable, each turtle gets used equally, the action is great, and it was
nice to finally see Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady in a movie together.
The good news is that the four actors who play the turtles and Megan Fox have
signed on for a third film. Tyler Perry will also be back in the third film, so
we’ll see what kind of Turtle Power they are going to give us in that one.
Well, thank you for joining in on all my reviews in
June. There’s one other film I want to see in theaters, which I might see this
weekend, although I’m not sure. If I don’t see it before the month is over,
then stay tuned next month of another great month of reviews.
No comments:
Post a Comment