TMNT Out of the Shadows

TMNT Out of the Shadows : Maybe they should've stayed there

by Colleen Guzman

             I know, I know I am supposed to be the one who goes into these films with an open mind. I am always preaching how people should look at these films as their own works of art created by a person with their own views of how the characters should be and their own unique ideas about what should be going on with said characters. I try really hard to go into each film and look at them that way but sometimes when a film is about characters that you love, that you have invested your time and imagination into, and that you feel

you have seen portrayed in better ways it is very difficult to be objective about the film. I can say that I did not hate the film, it was definitely no Fantastic Four but it had some moments where it was pretty close. I think I am going to rate films based on how many times I go to the restroom, because I drink a lot of soda during the movie and I really have to go to the bathroom very badly several times but in a good film I will suffer, sitting at the edge of my seat, unbuttoning my pants, rocking back and forth until the credits roll and I jump up and run to the restroom. During films I could care less about I get up and go to the bathroom 2 or 3 times depending on the length of the film. During Now You See 2 I went to the bathroom 0 times, during TMNT Out of the Shadows I went to the bathroom 3 times. So I am beginning to think my restroom pattern is a good way for me to score these movies that we attend. The more toilets a movie gets the worse it is. I'll keep working on this concept.

            So for TMNT 2 I was optimistic, I didn't hate the first one it was pretty okay and had some fun moments. Consistently, between the two movies I must say that I am really disappointed that Donatello (my favorite character by the way) has to be portrayed wearing glasses, because of course since he is extremely intelligent he must wear glasses like any good nerd would. I dislike the stereotyping and where else has Donatello every been portrayed as having glasses? The character also seems to be more bumbling than he normally would be. I think getting the characters right is one of the problems these movies had and continue to have and in fact in the second movie Splinter seems like he is just thrown in there because they had too and there was no thought of his character, his leadership and no thought to how we might react to the very obvious change in the voice actor they used for him. I also wasn't very impressed with Casey Jones, I felt like he wasn't edgy enough, the chip on his shoulder wasn't blatant enough and he just didn't have that hit first ask questions later attitude that you are looking for when you see Casey Jones. I think the best characters were Bebop and Rocksteady which is why I used their picture to begin this article. Overall, characterization was lacking in this movie.

               One thing I will say for this movie is that there were a few moments when the movie took me back to my younger years to the animated series that I truly loved to watch on Saturday mornings. I really felt like the scenes involving Krang had a very cartoon feel to them and they seemed like they were pretty true to the

direction that the animated series had taken. I would say that I really enjoyed the scenes that Krang had, he has some interactions with Shredder, an interaction with himself and his robot body and of course a battle scene interaction with the turtles. In all of these scenes I got the animated series feel that I was hoping for, so for that alone I didn't hate this movie.

         I don't think that I could truly hate this movie because after all "I love being a turtle" and I love seeing shows and movies about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I an pretty sure I am not going to be purchasing this movie and I didn't purchase the first one but it did strike a spark in me to want to go watch my copies of the three previous TMNT movies and to see if I can find the animated series on YouTube or Netflix. I am also going to re-read my comic books. Overall the film was okay, if you aren't a fan of the turtles then you probably enjoyed it more than I did and if you are a fan, go watch your old stuff and keep reading those comics.