Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is a step in the right direction for the franchise. The sequel to the 2014 box office hit sees director Dave Green (Earth to Echo) take over the reigns to bring back some of the good old nostalgia from the late 80’s early 90’s cartoon series.
The turtles once again team up with April O’Neil (Megan Fox) and Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett), also joining them is newcomer to the franchise Casey Jones (Stephen Amell) as the try to save the city of New York from their arch-nemisis Shredder (Brian Tee).
The film is a live action cartoon made for the big screen, it embraces the crazy world of the sewer surfing brothers. From the get-go we are with the turtles, who steal every scene they’re in. Dave Green gives each brother time to show off their individual personaliteis, something that was missing from the previous film. Leonardo is serious about being a leader, Raph is always angry throwing his turtle-trums when no one sees his way, Donnie is the genuis and along with the baby faced triple threat that is Mikey they bring some hilarous moments.
It’s action packed, and you can feel it all the way through the films runtime. Your eyes will need time to readjust to the real world.
The humans are ok, Megan Fox is a little wooden as April O’Neil and has better chemistry with Will Arnett’s Vern Fenwick than she did with Casey Jones (Stephen Amell). Fenwick who has less screen time than he did in the previous film still shines. Amell’s Casey Jones is no Elias Koteas, but he handled it well with a fresh spin on the New York vigilante.
The bad guys are a hit and a miss, Bebop and Rocksteady are great, they have some funny moments, Baxter Stockman is interesting enough that you want to see more of his character, but Shredder is missused. Probably due to the overstuffing towards the end with the introduction of Krang, which lays the foundation for future turtle films.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is far from perfect, with some plot holes and as I mentioned before the overstuffing. But it has heart, is lots of wacky fun, brotherly love and plenty of nostalgia. If your a turtles fan you won’t want to miss it.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows rating: 3/5 stars.