Ninja Turtles: Fuera de las sombras

2014's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gave us a new look and feel for the beloved franchise, and it disappointed greatly. Now two years later, a second chance to win over the hearts of die hard Turtle fans has arrived in the form of Out of the Shadows, a sequel while better than the first, still falls short of becoming a special TMNT film.

While the Turtles were far and away the highlight of the first film, their grittier design and lack of proper development was no doubt a downside. Now, I must admit, where in the first film I honestly could not stand the look and feel of the Turtles, I have begun to come around to, not necessarily enjoying, but tolerating their massive Hulk-like looks, and this is because Leo, Raph, Donny and Mikey are all super fun to watch, with more chemistry developed throughout the cast members and a much more classic Ninja Turtle vibe to the Turtles in this film. Eating pizza, cracking jokes, awesome ninja action and just generally acting like teenagers are all major points in the development of these characters, and with Out of the Shadows, there is some more of that old school TMNT feel between the four brothers. Even if there is an alarming lack of literal action scenes involving our favorite mutants, the Turtles are once again the best part of the movie, as they should be.

There are more positives to be excited about, including the additions of villains Bebop and Rocksteady and occasionally, the Turtle's sidekick Casey Jones. Bebop and Rocksteady are fun villains, humorous, energetic and bring more setting-appropriate antagonists into the fold. I had mixed feelings throughout the film about Stephen Amell's portrayal of Casey Jones. He was funny, bad ass, and even if it was brief, sported his iconic hockey mask and stick, much to my delight. However, Amell occasionally is too bland and lacks that cocky personality you'd expect from the character, and never develops a meaningful connection to the Turtles, something that the classic 1990 film was able to do extremely well in comparison.

The movie's plot is much goofier than the first film, which holds many positives, but also brings unwanted ridiculousness. TMNT is supposed to be silly and wacky, a point I complained about in the first movie, and to that aspect, Out of the Shadows does succeed. Anyone expecting an Oscar winning story from TMNT would be kidding themselves, and the more lighthearted story is welcomed to this franchise which often suffers from being far too serious. On the other hand, the dimension- crossing, world ending concept that the film presents is just too much to handle in a movie about turtles that are ninjas, it just doesn't seem to fit. For once in the duration of this franchise, I would love to watch the Turtles fight some crime on the streets, a simpler tale that doesn't have to include the end of days.

What I will never be able to wrap my head around is what goes through the mind of Michael Bay whether he's in the director's chair or producing, but his presence is once again felt greatly in this film, and that is easily its greatest downfall. The pace of the film feels like it's on speed, giving no time to care about or really dive into what's happening on screen, and the major use of Bay's trademark slow motion and explosions don't fit whatsoever in this film. Heck, the logo at the end even assembles exactly like the logo for Bay's Transformers franchise. Director Dave Green is able to make small changes to improve the quirky tone of the film, but Bay is felt right from the start and it doesn't do the film any good.

The cast is decent for the most part, led by Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Pete Ploszek, and Alan Ritchson as Mikey, Donny, Leo and Raph respectfully, with Fisher stealing pretty much every scene he's in as Mikey. Bepop and Rocksteady are in good hands with Gary Anthony Williams and Stephen Farrelly and even the overlord Krang is done quite well by 3-time Emmy winner Brad Garrett. Tyler Perry is surprisingly great as mad scientist Baxter Stockman, charming to watch in his science quests and his hilarious evil laugh.

On the other side of the coin, we have some poorly cast actors and poorly written characters. Megan Fox, thankfully, is in less of the film this time around, but when she is, she's the worst April O'Niel we could have possibly gotten. Her character is horribly developed, and her portrayal is even worse. Will Arnett isn't much better as Vern, he's largely unfunny and put in action scenes with Fox that should've been used on the Turtles and Casey Jones. It's terribly unfortunate that TMNT mainstays like the big bad Shredder and the Turtle's master Splinter are extremely underused as well.

To say that Out of the Shadows was a total flop wouldn't be fair. Even if by a small margin, Out of the Shadows is an improvement over the first film. There are still some major fixes I wish could be made to help improve this franchise which got off to a very rocky start two years ago and is crawling its way to improvement. I can only hope that the inevitable third installment propels the series upwards into a love I and so many others have for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles name.

6.5/10

So I just saw the second instalment of TMNT and thought I'd give you a bit of how I felt after the movie. It was very much a Michael Bay movie. And before anyone jumps at me to say David Green directed it not Bay, I know, but he's an executive producer on it and it has Bay written all over it. He's known to recycle his movie styles/ effects and I swear it has the exact same score as in the Transformers!? Anyway, I thought it was a fun movie, much like the first one. Me and my friend both left the cinema saying pretty much the same thing. A fun movie, but a pretty forgettable fun movie. I don't know what Bay's interest in Megan Fox is, but for some reason he keeps using her and she is pretty bad in this, though more tolerable than in the first movie. Imo nothing more than eye candy for the viewers, which is visible from one of the very first scenes of her in a school girl outfit. The story line was very Avengers like, we've seen it a million times already, so like I said before, fun to watch, but almost instantly forgettable. Bebop and Rocksteady looked cool, though I would've maybe liked a bigger fight between them and the Turtles. Krang looked awesome and even sounded cool, it's typical Krang really, so was happy with that. Stephen Amell as Casey Jones I guess did the best he could with what he was given, though I couldn't help thinking he was going to pull out his bow and arrow every time he was on. At one point he says "my only goal is to" and I almost blurt out 'to save this city'!! OK, so now to what I enjoyed the most about the movie, the Turtles themselves. I enjoyed all of their portrayals. They all did a very good job in bringing out their personalities in this movie. From Michelangelo's humour to Raphael's bad- assery to Donatello's smarts and Leonardo's command. They were very identifiable characters and I like seeing their chemistry on screen. Overall I give the movie a 6.5 for keeping me entertained, yet I think it's one for the kids more so than the adults.

Mindless, superhero, brain candy, zoom. Bad jokes, great effects, explosions go boom.

My neck muscles are tighter than piano wires and I've sweated enough this week to fill a swimming pool. At the end of a long week of mad work, sometimes you just want to sit down and switch off your brain.

So, thank you, turtles. I like it when you hit stuff.

Is this a dumb movie? The obvious answer is yes, of course it's dumb, it's more superhero schlock: kiddie-fare enjoyed by 30-somethings.

But I don't know. Any fight scene with martial arts is a bit like a magician's sleight of hand. It's too fast to follow completely, but if done well we can see sophistication in the movement, and a fight is a bit of a story in itself. There's the setup, escalation of conflict, then boom, resolution. The best parts of this movie are not of the turtles talking but when things go all smashy-smash-smash. Smash.

Smash.

Where the film drags is with its human characters, who have way too much screen time. Casey Jones is a 30-something who talks like a 12-year-old ("Someday, I'm going to be a detective!") and Shredder, regrettably, is mostly without his mask and doesn't throw a single pie. Megan Fox is wearing less makeup this time around, but in "acting," less is more. Baxter Stockman is likable, but doesn't turn into a giant fly.

But it's inoffensive, fun to look at, and a nice thing to shut your brain off to while recovering from a long week of sweaty haste.

I don't usually watch kids movies, but I had a ticket for an advanced screening of this movie and found it very enjoyable to watch. The actions are fast paced. And, unlike some other 3d movies, the 3d effects are well utilized. Keep in mind that this is a kids movie, the acting is a bit goofy. The plot is simple and well explained. The problems the characters face are easily resolved.

On to the criticism, I don't find Tyler Perry's acting convincing. And, even though it is an Alibaba film, the Asian characters in this movie are very light weight, including the villain Shredder. I'm not familiar with the TMNT franchise, but his role is quite weak.

The moral of the story is accept yourself and don't change who you are, which is drowned by all the action sequences. But, who cares. This movie is fun.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began as comic book characters in 1984, later spinning off to have its own cartoon series, toys, video games, and of course, films. There was a cartoonish film trilogy in the 1990s. Recently, Michael Bay produced a franchise-reboot as a live action-computer-generated motion capture film. I did not particularly like this very dark 2014 film, rating it only a 5/10. When trailers came out for this sequel though, I already saw that it looked like it was going to be a way better movie than the first one.

The turtle heroes, along with old pals April O'Neil and Vern Fenwick, and new friend Casey Jones, spring back into action as Shredder was busted from incarceration. The arch-villain had inter- galactically nefarious plans as he conspired with mad scientist Dr. Baxter Stockman to bring into Earth an evil Dimension X being called Krang and his Technodrome in his wild dream of world domination.

The way the turtles looked in this new film was way better executed. In the first one, they all looked too big, ugly and unwieldy. Their appearance now is more accessible, more in tune with their personalities. Even if the storyline will have their team tested, this was a truly excellent ensemble work among the four actors behind them, imbuing each one with individual charm. They are: Pete Ploszek (as conflicted leader Leonardo), Alan Ritchson (as muscle- bound rebel Raphael), Jeremy Howard (as brainy scientist Donatello) and Noel Fisher (as childlike spirit Michelangelo).

Also similarly excellent were the CG artwork, performance and the on screen chemistry between the two comical evil side characters, warthog Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams) and the rhino Rocksteady (Stephen Farrelly). They definitely stole their scenes from right under the main bad guy Shredder (Brian Tee), who felt rather lackluster among the other colorful characters of the film. The pinkish brain-like maniacal alien super-villain Krang was portrayed with gruesome glee by Brad Garrett.

The unconvincing and hammy acting of Megan Fox (as April) and Will Arnett (as Vern) were fortunately buoyed up the excellence of the CGI and story around them. Tyler Perry was an over-the-top nerd as Dr. Stockman, uncomfortably funny. Veteran acting nominee Laura Linney was uncharacteristically stiff as police chief Rebecca Vincent. The best live performer of the film was TV's "Arrow" Stephen Amell as Casey Jones. His graceful physicality (with a hockey stick and skates) and smart-alecky sense of humor made him stand out.

The look of this new film is so much better than the first one, literally "out of the shadows" where the first one wallowed. There were brighter colors, a lighter mood, a more fun throwback general feel about it. The previous one was too dark and intense, and took itself too seriously, to its own detriment. With this one, we had our beloved Turtles back to the unpretentious way we knew them in our youth. Serious critics may be hard on this one, but I really enjoyed 112 minutes with it, right up to the classic TV cartoon theme song over the closing credits.