Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Out Of The Shadows

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES : 

OUT OF THE SHADOWS

Director : Dave Green

Year : 2016

Genre : Action

Rating : **1/2

 

While he may not be at the helm, Michael Bay's fingerprints are all over this not at all anticipated sequel to 2014's multi-Razzie nominated reboot 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'. Despite only serving as executive producer, Bay still manages to instill the same headache inducing explosions, vomitous objectification and shameless product placement he has become infamous for into this CGI-laden sci-fi adventure featuring everyone's favourite pizza-loving heroes in a half-shell and while not as soul-destroyingly painful as when used in his own odious 'Transformers' series, 'Out Of The Shadows' certainly fails to benefit from it either - an opening pyrotechnics heavy car chase seemingly serving as a dreary preview of what was to follow. However, as the film got into it's stride and the plot began to form, I found myself, against my better judgement, becoming more invested in the picture than I initially thought I would; even if the constant references to Nike, Apple and endless shots of returning star Megan Fox appearing on screen in increasingly revealing costumes are all but impossible to overlook.

Lifting ideas and themes from several of the previous entries in the 'TMNT' series, most notably 1991's 'Secret Of The Ooze', 'Out Of The Shadows' once again sees Michelangelo (Noel Fisher), Donatello (Jeremy Howard), Raphael (Alan Ritchson) and Leonardo (Pete Ploszek)  doing all in their considerable power to take out the fearsome Shredder (Brian Tee) who, with the help of Tyler Perry's instantly annoying Dr. Baxter Stockman, discovers a mysterious purple serum which can create an inter-dimensional portal through which his many planet-destroying minions could pass through. As well as dealing with their old enemy and his two newly mutated henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady (Gary Anthony Williams and Stephen Farrelly respectively), the turtles also have to remedy their waning public image which has been severely undermined by Laura Linney's police Chief Rebecca Vincent who sees the nunchuck-wielding reptiles as untrustworthy monsters. 

This time around, screenwriters Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec put more effort into making the bandana-toting quartet likable personalities and thanks to the better-than-expected vocal work from the actors playing them the film actually succeeds in giving the turtles individual personas and identifiable values. The CGI used to bring them to life is also vastly improved this time too - transforming them from the Shrek-like green abominations they were in Jonathan Liebesman's original 2014 film into creatures that do actually resemble giant chelonians. Unfortunately however, an over-insistence of otherwise ropey visual effects, unanimously terrible performances from it's human cast including returning stars Fox, Will Arnett and 3 time Golden Globe Winner Linney as well as the aforementioned input from Bay still makes 'Out Of The Shadows' nothing more than a mildly diverting, more than irritating romp that certainly improves on it's predecessor but will still only entertain the most die hard of TMNT fans.