ONE PARAGRAPH REVIEW: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Howdy people, it is review time again and today I’m reviewing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. Now I’m one of the few people that liked the 2014 Ninja Turtles, while it wasn’t perfect, but it laid the groundwork for a better sequel. And after seeing it I’m ready to pass judgement.

Here’s the thing about TMNT: Out of the Shadows, I’m indifferent to it, but also quite disappointed. I don’t know. There’s stuff that I liked about this film, but after I left the cinema yesterday I was thinking to myself “I think I lied the 2014 film better.” And that just felt weird to me. Out of the Shadows corrects a lot of the key problems with the last film, but at the same time retains some of the those same issues and creates new ones as well. What works in the film was the Turtles, like the last film the Turtles had the right kind of personalities and chemistry, and I also really liked the Michelangelo as he was quite funny and light-hearted. I also liked some of the references to the old cartoon, some of the action sequences, Brian Tee as Shredder (in the small capacity he was used) and Megan Fox and Stephen Amell were decent as April O’Neil and Casey Jones. However the story was just a little nonsensical with a good few plot holes, several moments of humour felt stupid, juvenile, awkward and insufferable, and while I know this film was clearly aimed at children, I did miss the slightly more serious tone of the previous film whereas this film was more kid friendly but in the worst possible way. And while this film featured a lot of fan service which was fun from a nostalgic point of view, in the grand scheme of things it didn’t add much to the overall film. Also Bebop and Rocksteady, those two, there fluctuated between being stupidly fun to being absurdly strange and annoying. Shredder was wasted, Casey Jones’ integration in this film was horrible, oh and it has to be said, Krang, what the hell man? They ruined him and his inclusion in this film was completely pointless. So to conclude Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows was decent, however it wasn’t as good as I would have hoped. While some of the action and Turtle moments were good, there were massive issues story, characters, tonal inconsistencies and a lack of good ninja-based action and hand-to-hand combat fights. Fans and children may enjoy this film, but for everyone else I can’t recommend this.

So have you seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and if so what did you think of it? And did you prefer this one or the previous one? Please leave your comments below and I’ll see ya on the next review, laters! 😀

 

Check Out My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Video Review!

Howdy people of the internet, just doing a quick blog post. So the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film has been out here in the UK for just a little bit and while I did a written review for it, I also made a video one prior to that. It has been a long-ass time since I’ve done a new video on my YouTube channel and I would ask you to view it and spread it like wildfire. Check it below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeV_ATUICV8%5D

So if you don’t like reading or don’t mind hearing my opinion on a film twice, then check out this video, thanks. This is a pretty much a raw video with no edits or cuts and I tried to do it all in one take so I apologize for any mistakes made, but it was all ad-libbed so you have to give me some credit for that. 😀

So have you seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and if so what do you think of it? Also what did you think of my review (be honest! :P) Whatever your thoughts are, drop them in the comments below and I’ll see ya on the next review yo. Laters! 😀

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review

Hello there ladies and gentlemen, I now return to the internet to give you my review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now I’ve been skeptical about this film since the dawn of its announcement, however as time went on and the trailers came out, I actually started to find myself intrigued and curious about how the end product would turn out. So is this a good or bad adaptation of the Ninja Turtles? Well, read on and find out!

So for those who are not aware, the story can be described as the following:

“Darkness has settled over New York City as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan have an iron grip on everything from the police to the politicians. The future is grim until four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must work with fearless reporter April O’Neil and her cameraman Vern Fenwick to save the city and unravel Shredder’s diabolical plan.”

What I really liked about this film is that they got the turtles right and when they were on-screen the film felt just like the standard Ninja Turtles that we’ve come to know and love. In addition to that when the film isn’t being overly serious it can be funny at times, besides a lot of moments that fell flat or jokes that were ruined by trailers and TV spots, there are some great pop culture references and a good few nods to the old Ninja Turtles TV show too. It is a shame that the whole story for the film isn’t as fun, turtles mainly play second fiddle to the human characters, especially April O’Neil, who has far more screen time than she requires and seeing her and Vern’s adventures aren’t nearly as interesting as the film’s writers would have us believe. Also the origin story of the turtles, which was fine with some of the modifications, I still understand while April had to factor in some much in on it, I just didn’t see the point, that could have been changed.

When it comes to the cast, besides the turtles there is nothing remarkable about the performances from the other people involved. Megan Fox as April O’Neil, besides looking slightly hotter than usual, wasn’t all that interesting in this film. Her acting was better than some of the other stuff I’ve seen her in but she just isn’t that compelling of an actress for me to engage with as the lead character. And there’s Will Arnett as Vern Fenwick, poor Arnett, such a waste of his talent. I love this guy as an actor, but here he was just a plum, an uninteresting, silly and quite pervy plum which didn’t sit well with me at all. William Fichtner as Eric Sacks was alright, but didn’t really have any cool qualities that made him memorable. Tohoru Masamune played a predictable “bad guy in the shadows” as Shredder, he did his job was he was that compelling, while Whoopi Goldberg as Bernadette Thompson was just wasted in this film.

I have to give props to Alan Ritchson as Raphael, Noel Fisher as Michelangelo, Pete Ploszek as Leonardo (who did the motion-capture while Johnny Knoxville did the voice) and Jeremy Howard as Donatello who did great as the turtles. These turtles felt like brothers and had some great banter together and their relationship was very believable. And finally Danny Woodburn did a good job as Splinter’s motion-capture performer, while Tony Shalhoub’s voice, while not what I was expecting, was decent.

As for the presentation it is pretty good for the most part. Visually, it is a very stylish film with a very vibrant colour palette for New York especially at night, the cinematography is pretty slick and dynamic which is great for the action sequences (thought I wasn’t too keen on the overuse of slow motion). One thing the visual effects artists did get right was the combat and fight sequences which were some of the best the turtles have ever been in, this was real martial arts with super strength in the mix too which resulted in very satisfying fights with the turtles, Shredder and even Splinter too! When it came to the look of the turtles themselves, they were a mixed bag, while at some angles they look pretty cool, other times their faces were horrible and their bodies looked so beefed up on steroids. Leonardo was the best-looking turtle by far. As for Shredder and Splinter, as I said before in my TMNT (2014) Trailer #2 Review, Shredder is more machine than man now and looks like a miniature Transformer which was completely unnecessary for his character and as for Splinter, from a distance he doesn’t look too bad, but up close at a front-view angle, yuck! So ugly.

In conclusion the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film was pretty entertaining and much better than I expected it to be, while it definitely isn’t the best film in the series and there was a lot of wasted time dedicated to April O’Neil’s character, when it comes down to the turtles running around, beating people up and having banter, the film works. If only there had been more. Hopefully the sequel will rectify this and make them front and center because there is something good to be found beneath the heaps lame jokes, boring story and unnecessary modern updates to the core TMNT formula.

Rating: 7/10 (Had more fun with this than I should have)

So have you seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and if so what do you think of it? Do you feel like it was a solid update on the old formula or are you disguised that your childhood memories were ruined? Whatever your thoughts are, drop them in the comments below and I’ll see ya on the next review yo. Laters! 😀

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trailer #2 Review

Good day to you ladies and gentlemen, after a lot of trailers recently I’m finally here to review a new one and this one is fairly interesting as we’re gonna be talking about the second official trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now I’m still looking forward to nuff films over the summer like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Expendables 3 and Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, but this film is the one I keep forgetting about. The first trailer looked alright, but it wasn’t anything that blew me away and so far all the promotional material for this film has yet to get me pumped for this new version of the Ninja Turtles. But now we have a new trailer and I feel like I need to talk about it.

Have a look at the trailer below:

So my first thoughts after seeing the trailer? Looks better than it did before.

This is definitely the most turtle-centric trailer we’ve gotten so far as the focus on the human characters was really pushed into the backgrounds and there was more of the turtles shown than ever before. We got to see and hear the turtles as the fought soldiers, interacted with each other and April and overall it just felt more in line with the type of TMNT characters that we’ve gotten in the past. Beyond the turtles we got to see glimpses of Splinter and got to see Shredder in action as well.

So what do I like about the trailer? Well here are some things I observed:

• These Turtles Feel Like Brothers: Straight from the beginning of the trailer the for turtles are communicating talking about hostages, taking out the bad guys and saying interesting one-liners like “This is our city.”, “Like shadows in the night.” They sound cool as hell and definitely have personality.
• The Film is Self-Aware: The point when Raphael says “Give me the camera.” And Someone (probably Michelangelo) says “Look he’s doing his Batman voice.” That shows that this film actually takes place in a world similar ours where pop culture references are in the know, so stuff like the gruff Batman voice from the Christopher Nolan films is common knowledge to people. I hope that this is just a piece of more references to come throughout the film.
• The Film’s Gonna Be Funny: So far the trailers have been fairly serious, but in this one we hear a lot of funny one-liners (especially with Michelangelo talking to April, that was some funny stuff) and there’s one part in the trailer that will be sure to please and humour certain fans, but more on that later.
• William Fichtner May Not Be Shredder: For the longest time we have all been told in press stories that William Fichtner would be Shredder and that pissed off a lot of TMNT fans and I too thought it was a bit odd considering the origin of the character. However now there’s a small screen in the trailer where Fichtner’s talking to a shadowy figure saying that he’s taking his armour to the next level. So one can possibly assume that this the actual owner of the Shredder armour, which in turn could mean we may this be getting the an asian actor to play Oroku Saki, however this is just speculation at this point, but hey one can hope right?
• Shredder’s More Metal Than Man Now: That first shot when Shredder comes along and bust out to swords from both of his arm area and then releases another two on each side I was like “Damn, the Shredder’s turned into a machine!” The dude can throw and retract swords from his arms, he’s HUGE and he’s super strong as he can just throw Raphael like he’s nothing.
• The Scope of The Film Is Pretty Big: It seems like the story and action won’t just be taking place in the city of New York but also in some snowy mountains (probably outside of America) and I like film’s that can stretch beyond one location.
• They’re Not Aliens, They’re Turtles: Probably one of the most notable points of the trailer is when Will Arnett says “So they’re aliens?” And Megan Fox replies “No that’s stupid. They’re turtles.” Bam! And just like that all the backlash about the turtles being aliens that made so many fans pissed off is shut down in one sentence. This film is definite self-aware and it is sassy about it. That was a good line and pretty much made me smile.

All these things being said, I do have some nitpicks and concerns. Now I’m no massive TMNT nerd so I don’t have anything major to moan about, but the look of the turtles is still a bit iffy to me, at some angles they look really cool but other times they just look really odd and ugly. I am also not keen on how much of a robot Shredder has become, its like Silver Samurai from The Wolverine again, why must this keep happening to Japanese-armoured villains? While I’m not too frustrated with the change, I am kind of annoyed that they have to go so hardcore with the upgrades to the suit to the point where he looks like a mini Transformer. Oh and that dub step music, that’s just awful. Why is it a main source of music for trailers? Its horrible and it sucks!

So in conclusion the second trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looks pretty intriguing and honestly it has my attention now. This is the first piece of material that feels like it has the spirit of the original TMNT in there, the voice acting seems solid, the turtle action sequences look frantic, kinetic and well-choreographed and it seems like there will be humour in the film as oppose to being totally serious all of the time. While I’m still not completely sold on the film, I feel like after watching this trailer that I have more reason to watch it now.

So what do you think of the second trailer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Are you down with this film now or are you still unimpressed with the way this film is looking in trailer form? Whatever your thoughts are drop them in the comments below and I’ll see ya on the next review yo. 😀

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trailer 1# Review

Good day to you ladies and gentlemen, time for a trailer review and this is one I have been wanting to see for the longest time, I am of course talking about the teaser for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Out of all the summer films that are coming out this year this is the last big one to show any footage off, so now we finally have at least a teaser to work so let’s talk about it!

Have a look at the trailer below:

So my first thoughts after seeing the trailer? Looks decent and interesting.

Now while I’m not jumping over the moon about this trailer, it does look pretty interesting and has some potential to be pretty good. That being said I’m questioning the origins of the turtles, the tone of the film and still questioning to this day the inclusion of Megan Fox.

So can I say about the trailer? Erm, well it looks like a modern, kind of darker interpretation of what has come before. It seems like there is not only a bigger level of crime in New York then ever before (especially if buildings are being destroyed and shit), but also a larger sense of scope than previous films. I mean you’re in New York at one point and then you see the turtles sliding down a snowy mountain slope, there’s definitely gonna be some travelling involved.

It also looks like April and he man who will become the Shredder play a big part in the origin of the turtles. Seems this film is changing up the origin a bit and I’m kind of in two minds about it. But in the end I don’t know how the origin is done, but it is weird to hear  William Fichtner talk about creating heroes and how he and April’s father were trying to make heroes. So clearly he’s implying something about the turtle origins but I guess we don’t know until we get a longer trailer so see the film which is still months away.

Now let’s talk about the Turtles themselves, they look pretty cool if a bit too detailed. Those models that were leaked on the internet a little while ago were a pretty good representation of the characters in the film as they look pretty spot on to how the characters are in the film. The turtles look rough as hell, dark in their shades of green, they’ve got gear and armour on and overall they look pretty nice. While we don’t hear that much of them talking, we hear Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo speak and they sound decent enough. I think their CGI could use a little touching up, but since it was motion captured it could have looked a lot worse and obviously since the film isn’t out until August the SFX guys have a plenty of time to beef things up.

The best part of the trailer is at the end when Leonardo drops and April backs away only to bump into Michelangelo behind her. And then he tells her not freak out about his mask, he takes it off and then April faints. I liked that moment just because that seems just like something Michelangelo would do, it felt funny and reminiscent of the character.

So how this looks compared previous Ninja Turtles adaptations? Well let’s take the animated adaptations out of the equation and look back at the previous films. Now to this day I’ve only seen the first and last Ninja Turtles films, the 90’s one still holds up pretty well and I still like it a lot, where as the full-on CGI film was okay but seriously dull and lacking in any form of charm. This film looks like it’ll once again be a dark affair with sprinkles of humour and while I’m tired of everything being dark and edgy, if it the tone and atmosphere is done right then it can work so I’m gonna give this new film a chance.

So in conclusion the first teaser trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looks interesting and definitely could be decent if there is the right balance between seriousness and humour. I don’t care for Megan Fox, I just want to see the turtles and so far they look good, as long as Michael Bay’s involvement doesn’t turn the film into Ninja Turtles meets Transformers in terms of the destruction of cities and explosions then I’m all good.

So what do you think of the first trailer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Does it excite you or make you cringe with fear? Whatever your thoughts are drop them in the comments below and I’ll see ya on the next review yo. 😀