REVIEW -- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is a 2016 American 3D science fiction action comedy film directed by Dave Green and written by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters. A sequel to 2014's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the film stars Megan Fox, Stephen Amell, Will Arnett, Brian Tee, Tyler Perry, Brittany Ishibashi and Laura Linney, while featuring the voices of Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Tony Shalhoub, Gary Anthony Williams, Stephen "Sheamus" Farrelly and Brad Garrett.

Cast:

Live-action

Megan Fox as April O'Neil
Stephen Amell as Casey Jones
Will Arnett as Vern Fenwick
Brian Tee as Oroku Saki / The Shredder
Tyler Perry as Dr. Baxter Stockman
Brittany Ishibashi as Karai
Laura Linney as Police Chief Rebecca Vincent

Supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio has a cameo appearance. NBA players Carmelo Anthony, DeAndre Jordan, J. J. Redick, Austin Rivers, Matt Barnes, and Spencer Hawes also made cameos in the film. Series co-creator Kevin Eastman makes a cameo appearance as a Pizza Delivery man named after himself in the film's opening.

Live-action, voice actors and motion-capture

Gary Anthony Williams as Bebop
Stephen "Sheamus" Farrelly as Rocksteady

Voices actors and motion-capture

Pete Ploszek as Leonardo
Alan Ritchson as Raphael
Noel Fisher as Michelangelo
Jeremy Howard as Donatello
Tony Shalhoub (voice) and Peter D. Badalamenti (motion-capture) as Splinter
Brad Garrett as Krang (voice only)

The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

One year after their battle with the Shredder and Eric Sacks, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles still live in secret, having allowed Vern Fenwick to take the credit for Shredder's defeat. As Shredder is transferred between prisons by corrections officer Casey Jones, his Foot Clan–operating under the direction of scientist Baxter Stockman–attack the convoy transporting him. The Turtles, tipped off to the attack by April O'Neil, intervene. Stockman is still able to affect Shredder's escape using a teleportation device, but Shredder is hijacked mid-teleport and winds up in another dimension. There, the alien warlord Krang gives him a mutagenic compound in exchange for his promise to find three components of a machine Krang sent to Earth in ages past, which will open a portal to his dimension when united.

Shredder recruits two criminals that were being transported alongside him, Bebop and Rocksteady, and has Stockman use Krang's mutagen on them to transform them into powerful animal mutants. April witnesses their transformation, and is able to steal the vial of mutagen. Pursued by the Foot, she is rescued by Casey, using ice hockey gear. In the scuffle, the vial is taken into police custody. Donatello deduces that the mutagen could be used to turn the Turtles into humans, enabling them to live normal lives above ground, but Leonardo refuses and insists on keeping it a secret from the others. Michelangelo overhears their conversation and tells Raphael, leading to a fierce argument between the brothers. Furious, Raphael recruits Michelangelo, April, Casey, and Vern to break into the NYPD police headquarters and recover the mutagen. The Foot arrive ahead of them and in the ensuing battle, the Turtles' existence is revealed to the police, who react with fear and hatred. The brothers escape, but April and Casey are arrested.

With Shredder's forces having already recovered two of the pieces of the portal device, the Turtles track Bebop and Rocksteady as they recover the final piece from the Brazilian rainforest. The Turtles intercept their jet on its return journey via skydive, and although the battle crashes the jet, Bebop and Rocksteady manage to escape with the final component. The Turtles return to New York to watch as Stockman and Shredder complete the portal device and open the gateway to Krang's dimension, through which his modular war machine, the Technodrome, begins to emerge. Shredder betrays Stockman and has his men take him away, but upon entering the Technodrome, Krang betrays Shredder, freezing him and locking him away with his collection of other defeated foes.

Seeing no way to combat the Technodrome discreetly, the Turtles debate over taking the mutagen and becoming humans in order to fight openly. Though Leonardo agrees to do it, Raphael shatters the vial, realizing that they must accept themselves. Vern recovers security footage that proves Stockman and Shredder's crimes and secures April and Casey's release, allowing them to set up a meeting between the Turtles and police chief Rebecca Vincent, where they convince her that they aren't enemies. The Turtles then go into action, confronting Krang aboard the still-assembling Technodrome. Meanwhile, Casey battles Bebop and Rocksteady busy, while April and Vern defeat Shredder's lieutenant Karai and take control of the portal device. The Turtles locate the beacon around which the Technodrome is assembling and hurl it back through the portal, taking Krang and the rest of the Technodrome with it. April, Casey, and Vern then shut the portal down. As he disappears, Krang swears he will return for revenge.

The Turtles are honored by Vincent and the NYPD, along with April, Casey, and Vern, but elect to keep their existence a secret from the public at large.

The Verdict:

I'm not going to pull any punches here but the unanimous opinion here is that this film sucks, much like it's predecessor. To the film's credit, it's not that much of a chore to watch like the original. Maybe I'm not as judgmental about this film as I was about the original because I'm a little more used to how the Turtles look in this continuity. At least it doesn't look as bad as the original. It looked like Bay cleaned up the character models more than in the original film.

Casting

I honestly don't have a problem with Megan Fox as April O'Neil as the film isn't centered entirely around her this time around. I don't mind Will Arnett as Vern Fenwick either as he's one of the most entertaining things about these movies. I let it slide that Brittany Ishibashi is just THERE as Karai for the second film without any backstory or character development. But you want to know who I really hated in terms of casting? Stephen Amell as Casey Jones. I know the Olicity/Arrow fangirls will jump in to defend him but he was fucking awful in this movie from start to finish. From his surfer accent to his portrayal of the character, it was all-round bad. 

At least Sheamus and Gary Anthony Williams brought a few well-needed laughs in this film as Bebop and Rocksteady. For what it was worth, I didn't mind Brad Garrett voicing Krang in this either. At first glance, the thought of Tyler Perry as Baxter Stockman is hilarious, but he totally won me over in the role by the time the credits rolled. I wouldn't mind seeing him come back to reprise the role. Brian Tee as Shredder wasn't bad either, but they didn't give him enough of a presence in this film to be seen as a threat. Shredder was reduced to what he was in the 1989 animated series - Kraang's bitch. 

Narrative

This film picks up roughly a year after the original, but right off the bat, I found it a bit silly that Shredder's confinement and transportation to a prison with heavier security was delayed this long. It was even more odd that the Foot Clan took this long to devise a strategy to break him out. That being said, I enjoyed the highway scene sequence a lot. We got to see the "Party Wagon" in action, along with Raphael's motorcycle skills in action. I knew that the film would dwell into eye candy as long as Megan Fox is involved, so April O'Neil had two solo adventures of her own. One in disguise and another watching Shredder mutate Bebop and Rocksteady into his new henchmen to take out the Turtles. I could only facepalm at the ooze being able to "supposedly" unlock every human's genetic potential as an animal after exposure to it. How does that explain that it's able to turn the Turtles into humans? Ugh, Michael Bay keep it simple, man. You don't have to make this complicated like Transformers... To be fair though, Transformers' continuity was a clusterfuck LONG before he got his hands involved with making the live-action movies, so we don't have him to blame entirely for that. 

My biggest complaint about action sequences in this film this time around was that the TV spots and commercials spoiled a lot of quality sequences that would have been more special if they weren't exposed prior to the screening. I loved the plot twist with Krang (or rather Kraang) betraying Shredder by freezing him and storing him into his "collection". I felt that left the door open for a full-fledged invasion from the beings from Dimension X, consisting of Krang, Shredder, and whoever else is locked up in the vault of the Technodrome. Speaking of Krang, I absolutely loved the final battle against him. I wasn't too crazy about Krang's Utrom body hanging outside of his cyborg body at times without any protection, but Bay made sure to make this battle work everyone involved.

While the subplot of the Turtles not functioning will as a team, despite being brothers, because of the discovery that the mutagen could offer them all a sense of normalcy left a lot to be desired, I felt that it still portrayed what both this film and the original TMNT did well - demostrate the Turtles' bond of family. You can say that Michael Bay ruined everything else here, but you can't deny that the bond of brotherly love is on full display here. Each of the Turtles may have their own faults individually, but together they are unstoppable. This point was proven flawless in the film's climax as the brothers put their differences aside to battle Krang himself on top of the Technodrome.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

This is the only part of the movie that I highly recommend watching was this. I won't lie... I marked out during the fight with Krang.

Outside of this, I highly suggest that most don't bother. This will be out on DVD or on television for free in no time at all. That being said, I'm not opposed to taking my younger nieces and nephew to see this. The kids would eat this up and would be begging for the toys afterwards. When they get older, they will be just like most adolescents like myself watching this going, "Why did I even bother?"