As I often do before I write a review of any sequel, I went back and reminded myself what my reaction was to the previous film. Wow, I really didn’t like the 2014 incarnation of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES. I know I wasn’t the only one, but director Jonathan Liebesman (DARKNESS FALLS, BATTLE LOS ANGELES, WRATH OF THE TITANS) somehow managed to combine boring versions of these creatures, alongside even more wooden human characters. I was especially tough on Megan Fox as well as the overall washed-out, nondescript look of the turtles. What a difference a couple of years and a new director can make.
Around the same time the first TMNT film was out in theaters, director Dave Green had a film out called EARTH TO ECHO, a work that leaned heavily on his knowledge of family-oriented ’80s films like E.T. and STAND BY ME as well as more recent kids-oriented sci-fi like WALL-E, THE LAST MIMZY, and SUPER 8. In a way, it makes sense that a younger director like Green might have been heavily inspired by the 1990, men-in-suits version of the Turtles and remember what made that film work in terms of story, energy and overall comic book vibe. The upshot is that his TMNT: OUT OF THE SHADOWS is a far more engaging, vibrant, exciting and humorous romp through a end-of-the-world dilemma that does exactly what the title implies—it brings the sewer-living ninjas into the light to fight both their old enemy Shredder (Brian Tee) and a new extraterrestrial bit of nastiness in the form of Krang (a part robot, part tentacled brain monster voiced by Brad Garrett).
More than any previous version of the Turtles I can think of, OUT OF THE SHADOWS makes a genuine effort to make each of the four main characters unique entities, to the point where an enemy could exploit their differences in an effort to tear them apart and make them trust each other less. As silly as it might sound in a NINJA TURTLES film, the effort put into any level of character development make a massive difference. At one point, the Turtles’ sensei, Master Splinter (a giant rat, voiced by Tony Shalhoub), tells them that they are no longer boys, that they are becoming men. And much like the Turtles, the overall feeling of the film feels more grown up, which is not to say there isn’t mile after mile of silliness and broad-stroke comedy, but there’s something stronger about the entire effort.
One of my biggest gripes about Megan Fox in the previous film was that her portrayal of a broadcast journalist was so awful and wooden that it stank up the joint and tainted everything around it. That problem has more or less been neutralized in OUT OF THE SHADOWS by only showing her on camera for a brief moment at the end of the film. Rest assured, it’s still terrible, but for the majority of the film April is more of an agent, working with the Turtles to expose a new threat in the form of scientist Baxter Stockman (a grotesquely over-the-top Tyler Perry), who is plotting to break Shredder out of prison and help assemble a device that will open up an intergalactic portal, allowing Krang into our world and to take it over.
Something had happened to Fox in the last couple of years, and she seems to take herself a lot less seriously and just roll with the jokes made at her expense by simply taking the lead and making a lot of them herself. Her April O’Neil seems more at ease, funnier, and, dare I say, more likable this go-round. It probably isn’t a coincidence that Out of the Shadows introduces us to a partner in missions for April with Casey Jones (Stephen Amell of TV’s “Arrow”), a cop who has a personal stake in seeing Shredder recaptured, along with his two henchmen Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams) and Rocksteady (pro wrestler Sheamus), both of whom are transformed into walking-talking animals as well, much like the Turtles. While the film wisely doesn’t reduce April and Casey’s relationship to a budding romance, the two do have a great action chemistry that elevates the proceedings. Casey works so well, in fact, that when Will Arnett’s Vernon Fenwick re-enters the storyline, it’s a big anticlimactic.
The film’s climax reminds us who its producers are—Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes cohorts Andrew Form and Bradley Fuller—and when you see how big the scale is, you’ll think you’re watching a TRANSFORMERS movie. And not unlike Bay’s franchise films, OUT OF THE SHADOWS pulls in quality actors for supporting roles as if that somehow validates the film’s existence the tiniest bit. Enter Laura Linney as New York Police Chief Vincent, who also happens to be Casey Jones’s boss, who doesn’t believe a word of his story about how Shredder got away or that there are animal-like monsters roaming the streets of the city. Doubting despite evidence to the contrary seems to be a main ingredient of Bay’s sci-fi movies.
But it’s the film’s underlying message of this team of outsiders named after artists—Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael—who want to be accepted as something more than just freaks of nature that got to me. Sure, it’s a mostly predictable superhero movie on the surface, but underneath there’s a message, not about wanting fame and glory, but about wanting those that you protect to actually know someone is looking out for them. TMNT: OUT OF THE SHADOWS is not a great movie, but it’s still pretty good and ranks a whole lot higher than the previous entry in the series. More importantly, I’m genuinely curious where the Turtles’ adventures take them next.
