Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows Review – 2 Ups And 3 Downs
1. Bay Wins Out
What would Vin Diesel do? asks Raph (sic) when hes psyching himself up to jump out of a plane. And, in my screening at least, the audience erupted. Whatever, Diesel's a big star, right, it's not that big a deal? On it's own, no, but that line comes after a run of moments where the film has shown contempt for anyone outside of the Fast & Furious target demographic.
Early on theres a Halloween parade where Mikey (sic) comes across a guy in a transforming Bumblebee costume which he decrees unashamedly cool, a middle-finger to anyone who despises Transformers. And Baxter Stockman, a typical mad scientist, is played by Tyler Perry (seriously) as a straight-up socially awkward geek, snorting his way through conversations with Megan Fox and pathetically geeking out. It almost feels like an attack on Turtles fans, attempting to make nerd-dom seem pathetic. The Turtles are even introduced via on screen text with modern updates of their renaissance names to avoid confusing youngsters. Even a 90s cartoon wouldn't be that crass. I don't even like this franchise and it felt offensive.
Green can make the movie fun in parts, but he can't stop it ultimately feeling disingenuous or forced into another mould thanks to the sheer amount of Bay-inflected choices made to play to the broadest possible audience. For everything the film improves over the original, it ultimately winds up mired in the exact same problems.
Have you seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows? What did you think? Share your thoughts down in the comments.