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If this weekend you’re craving for going to the movies, and you are part of the generation that grew up watching Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello, I’m sure you will love to see the Ninja Turtles 2, Out of the Shadows now in theaters. It’s much, much better than the last flick by Michael Bay. I will give my opinion without spoilers in this blog:
The producers of this movie reviewed carefully all the negative critics and positive feedback that hard-shell fans on social networks made during the previous delivery. And what we see now has a great deal of improvements compared to the first one.
This time the four amphibian brothers with the help of his sensei Splinter, the news-reporter April O’Neil, his colleague Vernon and Casey Jones, an unknown vigilante who likes hockey and in this film aspires to become a detective; have to face a new threat of extradimensional proportions when Shredder using a stolen technology that was adapted by his scientist Baxter Stockman to made him escape from prison along with two other helpless street thugs (Rocksteady and Beboop), accidentally comes into contact with a transdimensional alien that looks like a brain or a chewing gum called Krang. Krang gets interested to make contact with our dimension and conquer the Earth.
For those who were fans of the 90’s cartoons, this premise is nothing new but just here lies part of its charm: To see the same story we already know from a more modern perspective. This is a film for the inner child within us inside this adult shell. There is another generation of younger children who grew up with the Ninja Turtles version by Nickelodeon. They will also enjoy this film and maybe the new aesthetics of turtles suits more their tastes than ours, used to Jim Henson‘s animatronics.
Now, I will write about the good and the bad stuff of this movie:
The good things:
1.- In constrast with the previous movie, now we watch the turtles more time in screen and we see less April O’Neil (Megan Fox). It’s not that we don’t like to see her, but we really payed a ticket to the see the turtles. Well at least me.
2.- In constrast with the previous movie, now we really go deeper into the personality of each one of the turtles and their interaction as brothers and as an action team. All these quick camera movements and lots of explosions that Michael Bay loves are settle aside as well as all the unidimensional characters. (Watch Transformers by Michael Bay, any of them)
3.- Rocksteady and Beboop are really the fun henchmen we were waiting for. There are about an inch of turtle tail to steal the movie.
4.- Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry) is the despised scientist that we all know. He is very good in this role. For the kids that watched later Ninja Turtles cartoons, you will see Karai, daughter of Oroku Saki (The Shredder). She is also very cool in her role as a badass, silent ninja woman.
5.- Krang, the chewed gum that is inside the belly of a robot is cool and feels authentic. (It’s hard to have a character like this feeling authentic). Not him, or Rocksteady nor Beboop feel weird in the movie. I loved that Krang is still despising all the time Shredder and minimizing him.
6.- The party wagon now has a sign that says Tartaruga (Turtle in portuguese) and it is really cool. I can’t wait for the moment when all kids want to have a recycled trash truck when they grow up, he he!
Now the bad things:
1.- April O’ Neil and Casey Jones don’t totally seem to fit inside their roles. I don’t know if it is a problem of the script or the acting. It might be the acting. April should have this cuteness that makes the turtles have a crush on her and at the same time she should be sharmed by her 4 amphibian friends. I can’t really see that chemistry.
2.- Shredder fans might be disappointed at the end of the movie. I won’t say why. The only good thing is that what happened can lead to a third movie.
3.- There are lots of action scenes but we watch very little the turtles doing what they do the best, using his martial arts skills in combat.
4.- And talking about Ninjas, I still don’t really like their new image. Ninjas are supposed to be quick and light, not bulky and heavy. Well I know, normal turtles are slow and bulky. But I think they are just carrying too much stuff on them. How can they be fast as ninjas if they are carrying necklaces, keychains, googles, skateboards, cameras, tool boxes, etc? They are just missing to carry a blender to make sauce for the pizzas. Though I have the impression that their sizes were reduced with respect to the previous movie.
With all my score will be the following. As a movie goer, I will give the movie a 8/10. As a huge 90’s fan of the Ninja Turtles I will give then a solid 9.8/Cowabunga!
Israel Andalón 