TMNT: Out of the Shadows (Trailer Review)
Ok, so here we go. Once again Michael Bay has somehow gotten his hands on another one of our favorite 80’s cartoons. Chalk o’block full of the usual “Bayism’s”; You got your massive exploding vehicles that look like fireworks for some reason, hulking CGI characters, and of course the scantily clad ladies. I saw the first Turtles movie that came out a couple years ago and I gotta say, aside from it being a little Megan Fox heavy, I really liked it! As a life long Turtles fan I was thrilled to see these characters back to goof around with each other.
There seems to be a new trend occurring in action movies that I recently noticed. It first came to my attention when I saw Jurassic World. I’ll try not to spoil anything, but let’s just say that the last action sequence could have easily been designed by a 6 year old! Don’t get me wrong, that is by no means an insult. It seems that filmmakers have tapped into a new style that I can only describe as “Toy Action” where they actually recreate how a child would play with their dinosaurs or action figures and put it on the big screen! Now, imagining this concept seems pretty ridiculous. But when it’s executed JUST right, it can be truly magical.
There is a scene in this trailer where a group of ninja criminals called The Foot-Clan attack an armored bank truck on the highway. They manage to flip the truck on it’s side only to have a pair of flood lights flash on them and witness as an actual TURTLE VAN approaches from behind! It’s clear that the Turtles are still working out the kinks of the van when they accidentally hit a button that causes the front grill to open and actually SHOOT SEWER LIDS! Now, when I was a kid I had a Turtle Van that shot pizzas out of the front. But this makes so much more sense and goes back to my “Toy Action” theory. The Transformers movies have been a series of growing disappointments. So needless to say I haven’t had much motivation to see another Michael Bay movie. But that scene truly filled me with a sense of excitement and joy that gives me hope that this next installment will take a step up in quality and actually focus on the Turtles themselves.
If this is your first introduction to these happenin’ dudes, then let me give you a little back story. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started as a comic book from the 80’s. At the time it was a pretty violent story and didn’t exactly lend itself to being fun filled entertainment for kids. That didn’t occur until the cartoon came around. The Turtles became a huge hit not only through the cartoon, but also with the countless varieties of Turtle merchandise. Just imagine the frenzy that was Power Ranger mania, but with Turtles. 1990 arrived and we received our very first live action film. It combined some of the intensity and grittiness of the comics plus the goofy playfulness of the cartoons that everybody loved.
Then came the sequel, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze”. There were complaints from parents that said the first movie was too violent so this time, and this is something that I only recently discovered, the Turtles didn’t use their weapons when fighting. Like, AT ALL! Instead you’ll see them using random nearby objects or resorting to gymnastic tumbles to defeat their foes. But despite that, it was still a lot of fun to watch them take on the monstrous wolf and snapping turtle mutants Tokka and Rahzar. These two characters were never in any of the comics or cartoons. They took the place of Bebop and Rocksteady who they couldn’t use due to film rights issues.
The third film was almost a complete departure from that last two. The design of the Turtles themselves changed to the point where they almost seemed like caricatures of the originals. They also traveled back in time to feudal Japan only to end up fighting some random English guy who NO ONE had ever heard of! It had a bunch of ideas that on paper might have seemed like would’ve been great, but seeing them played out on the screen just didn’t make any sense. I think I can go the rest of my life without ever seeing a Ninja Turtle ride a HORSE!
The third installment sort of put a halt to the momentum of the film franchise. But all the while the cartoons never seemed to loose any steam. They’ve had far too many different cartoon series for me to list them all here. But suffice it to say, they’ve gone through many different design, story, and character changes over the many years they’ve been on the air. So the idea of making some drastic changes to the look and size of the characters that we have in the movies today, didn’t really shock me. The only thing that I had a hard time wrapping my head around was all of the accessories that the “Michael Bay Turtles” seem to be sporting. From a combat perspective, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to wear a pukka shell necklace with sunglasses on your head.
But I’ll tell you what, I am SUPER excited for this upcoming sequel. Hopefully they’re redirecting their focus away from the humans in these movies and back to the Turtles themselves. The last movie spent WAY too much time with April O’Neil. You could almost say that it was more of an origin story for her than the Turtles. But as long as we get plenty of Bebop, Rocksteady, and these mystery characters then I honestly think we could be in for one of the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes movies since the first one back in 1990! Cowabunga!!
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” comes out June 3rd 2016!
But you can catch up on the excitement by grabbing your copy of the first movie!
Great write up!
I’m hoping this one is as fun and as shell shocking as its predecessor!
Looking forward to see this space traveler you are referring to 🙂
Thanks man!
Yeah, it seems like they might be digging deeper into the world of the Turtles. The other movies have focused more on the idea of people reacting to talking Turtles and kinda left out all of the characters from the cartoons and comics. I’m hopeful! 😀