Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Review

IMDb

Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Distributor: Nickelodeon Movies (Paramount Pictures
Director: Dave Green
Writer(s): Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec
Starring: Pete Ploszek, Jeremy Howard, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Megan Fox, Stephen Amell, Will Arnett, Brian Tee, Gary Anthony Williams, Stephen Farrelly
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence 
Running Time: 112 min
Synopsis: As Shredder joins forces with mad scientist Baxter Stockman and henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady to take over the world, the Turtles must confront an even greater nemesis: the notorious Krang.

What Others Are Saying? 

Rotten Tomatoes: 34% "Fresh", Top Critics: 27% "Fresh", Audience: 60% "Liked It"
Metacritic: Critics: 40 out of 100, Users: 5.6 out of 10
MRQE: 46 out of 100

My Review

Preface: I want to make one thing clear, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are dumb, dorky, and stupid, on a concept level. TMNT target audience is young boys. If I'm being truthful, I was a fan of the Ninja Turtles as much as any boy in his adolescence years. I was more of a Power Ranger fan, but TMNT was right there in the same wheelhouse of interest. Even though I'm not that old, I can't take the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seriously at my age. I watched this film to take a trip down nostalgia lane, nothing more.

Source Material: Orginal TMNT characters created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Other characters inspired by the cartoon series from the 80's and 90's titled, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Entertaining Value: 6.5

• Action Elements: The action in this film was fairly fast paced, and kind of no stop for a family film. Very engaging for its targeting market.

• Comedy Elements: A lot of humor that appeals to a younger audience, which included visual gags. There was a good amount of "90's teenage" humor to be had.

• Dramatic Elements: None.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: This film expands on the "Mutant" aspect of the lore.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 6:Overall the acting in this movie was average at best. I wasn't a fan of the casting of Megan Fox as April O'Neal in the first movie. This holds true in this one, as well. Let's face it, the only thing Megan Fox is good at is sex appeal, which, in my opinion, isn't one of April O'Neal's characteristics. Will Arnett wasn't bringing his A-game. I did enjoy Stephen Amell as Casey Jones, but most of that stems from my enjoyment of the Arrow television show. I thought the best performance out of the turtles was Pete Ploszek as Leonardo. Tyler Perry played this scientist dude that helps Shredder. His performance had hints of Eddie Murphy as The Nutty Professor. Every time his character would geek out on the "science" going on in the film, I got Nutty Professor vibes.

• Cinematography: 7: I thought the camera work was decent. There were a few moments I thought myself, "That was a 3-D shot." I won't get into a long diatribe on 3-D movies. I personally don't like them, therefore, I didn't see this film in 3-D, but I did notice the filmmaker made an effort to produce scenes the 3-D audience would enjoy. Overall the action scenes were well done.

• Direction: 5: I don't want to harp on Dave Green for being a bad director just yet. To be fair, this is basically his first movie, especially on this scale. I thought overall it was a bit fast pace, but this was due to the fact that this film had to entertain the youth of today, who wants action scene after action scene. Editing: 6: It was decent. Nothing really stood out.

• Editing: 6: It was decent. Nothing really stood out.

• Screenplay: 5: This may be a bit nitpicky, but I didn't need two or three introductions to the turtles, and their character profiles. As far as, the story goes, it was pretty thin, but I wasn't expecting much. Character development was weak as well, but again, I had low expectations. It's the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles we are talking about here were two of the main villains are named Bebop and Rocksteady.

• Sound and Music: 7: I enjoyed the soundtrack. It was fun to hear some catchy 80's and 90's tunes.

• VFX: 7: It was good. The villain character design was very reminiscent of the 90's cartoon, which I liked.

Overall: 6: Not that good from a film standpoint. I thought it was fairly entertaining overall. I think it would make for a decent family fun day type of movie. I probably would have had more fun if I would have taken my nephew to this film. In general, I suggest waiting to watch this at home on DVD or Blu-Ray.