Film Review: Sometimes Fun, “Out of the Shadows” is Mostly Obnoxious & Formulaic

By Editor June 4, 2016 06:40

By Anthony Hernandez

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows has very little going for it, besides the fact that it can be a lot of fun – except when it isn’t. And most of the time, it isn’t. It is, however, better than its predecessor in that it puts the turtle brothers front and center. Their totally radical screen presence is solid, and they carry enough weight of this bloated film on their shells to make it wholly passable, rather than completely abhorrent.

The story follows the turtle brothers as they face old foes, and a new one from another dimension – the maniacal, bubblegum-pink, disembodied-alien-tentacle-brain monster named Krang. After the recently captured Shredder escapes from custody, he joins forces with Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry), a mad scientist who plans to synthesize alien ooze to take over the world. Along for the ride are his two dimwitted henchmen, Bebop and Rocksteady. Luckily, the turtles have their own allies in April O’Neil (Megan Fox), Vernon Fenwick (Will Arnett) and the hockey-masked, former cop-turned vigilante Casey Jones (Stephen Amell).

Out of the Shadows is just a bad movie. In fact, you know it’s a bad movie when the best thing about it is Will Arnett and Megan Fox. These two each have funny and engaging scenes that are the only truly memorable thing about the movie. The action sequences aren’t memorable because half the time, it’s impossible to actually see what the heck is even going on. Everything moves at such a breakneck pace that it didn’t matter that the CGI was overblown and overused with lackluster 3D elements – because there just wasn’t enough time to focus on any one thing. There are too many villains, too much painfully dumbed-down exposition, and just too much cynicism and snark – giving us a story that’s more depressing than “righteous”, which is not what we expect from our half-shell heroes.

A glaring issue with this movie – and with many of the big-budget sequels of late – is that this film plays as nothing more than painfully obvious set up to the next film in the series. There is no real resolution, other than the weak “reveal to the world” that the turtle brothers do exist and “the true protectors of the city”. The final “epic” conflict leads to nothing but an “I’ll be back” kind of ending – raising far more questions than the answers it provides. In other words, this movie just doesn’t make any sense. WARNING: Some Spoilers Ahead.

It makes no sense why Shredder’s minions, who are supposed to be well-trained ninjas, are sometimes tough, resourceful, and successful at beating up the heroes; while at other times, an act as simple as April haphazardly throwing herself onto one of them somehow knocks the guy out completely. It’s like Shredder hired the best and worst ninjas available and mixed them up at random before sending them out to do his bidding.

It also makes no sense that Krang, a super-powered entity with hyper-advanced technology would 1) build only one machine to open a rift in space and subsequently lose it on earth, thereby requiring someone else to retrieve it; 2) build a weapon that is too immense to fit through the portal that he has opened in the past, so that the weapon must be sent through in pieces (allowing for a ticking-clock climax, giving our heroes just enough time to fight a protracted battle against Krang and his mecha-suit); and 3) that this inter-dimensional technology would even be compatible with earth technology, which conveniently allows Dr. Stockman to rebuild the machine, somehow power it, and open the portal. Not to mention the hilariously convenient ability to synthesize an alien ooze to create monsters out of supposedly “dormant animal genes” (randomly picked by nature, apparently) hidden “deep” within human DNA.

And speaking of those monsters created out of the dormant animal genes… Every time Beebop and Rocksteady are on screen it feels like being locked in a room with a group of drunken frat boys… for days and days and days. The only thing they added to the movie was more bloat. It just makes no sense, in the context of this film, why a super-villain like Shredder would chose two morons of this caliber to do his bidding. It makes no sense that they are competent enough to successfully run errands on Shredder’s behalf, while subsequently bumbling through every other task. END: Spoilers.

None of it makes any sense. The film doesn’t stay true to its own reality. It refuses to allow the audience in on any pertinent information. It spends no time with real character development, rather relies on the convenience of each scene set-up to propel the movie forward. And it is disappointing that the filmmakers care so little about our heroes.

The best thing about Out of the Shadows, however– it has a run time of less than two hours.

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