Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows - Trailer Review

So this came outta nowhere, the new trailer for the sequel to 2014's Ninja Turtles movie; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. Personally I thought the 2014 movie was just okay. I had fun watching it but as a movie it sucked, as a Turtles movie it sucked with potential. But the action was decent, the jokes were decent and they did a decent job of portraying the Turtles. But nothing so far has topped the 1990 movie as the best Turtle movie. So the first thing that stood out to me about this trailer is the tone it establishes. The first 30 seconds or so are played up like your stereotypical blockbuster movie, dramatic end of the world, variation on the Inception horn, evil, destruction, bla bla. Then we see the Turtle Van and this trailer instantly becomes nothing but action and jokes, which is so refreshing! The first film while still self-referential still tried to be serious and mature, well now we have a Warthog mutant with a Mohawk, mature is thrown out the window. Because that's the secret to the turtles, you can be insanely stupid and insanely serious at the same time, but never mature, that's not what the turtles are. It's as if the first film had the vibe of "Yeah we know this is stupid but we'll try and make it work" while this one is all "Yeah we know this is stupid but it's also awesome!!!".

Then there are the Turtles themselves, my instant reaction to them was "...They look different...They look better" and doing a comparsion to the prior film, they've clearly done some redesigns, their skin is brighter, they're not as bulky and their outfits aren't as cluttered and they've given them the slightest resemblance to a snout. They also didn't come across nearly as obnoxious or annoying as they did at parts of the prior film, hell, the prior film's trailer, especially Mikey, god he could be annoying in the other film what with his perverted attitude to Megan Fox, hopefully they've toned that down in this one. Speaking of Megan-because i still don't acknowledge that this is April O'Neil-she...barely did anything in this trailer, admittedly she got a pretty funny line in when she was about to be attacked in an alleyway and she just responds "You know this never ends well for you guys right?" also there was that one shot of her in a school girl's outfit because of course that's there, we gotta appeal to the 13 year old horny boy demographic somehow. And Will Arnett was only in one scene in this trailer, hopefully that is reflective of the movie. Don't get me wrong I like Will Arnett, but damn he was pointless in the last movie.

Next is Casey Jones, played by Stephen Amell. I'll be honest, i don't really care for Casey, no matter what movie or cartoon, i just don't care for him and i didn't care when he was announced for this movie...but then they announced Stephen Amell would be the one playing him and I was instantly hooked, because I like Stephen Amell, so at the very least that got me excited to see Casey Jones in the movie. There wasn't nearly enough of him in the trailer to be able to tell if he's going to be any good, but you know, ever the optimist.

Now for the villains of this movie, also known as fan service central. So Tyler Perry is Baxter Stockman...I honestly do not give a crap. As long as he's not forced into the movie as stupid villain comic relief then sure, why not have him in the movie, i just have that feeling he's going to be overused. Then there is Bebop and Rocksteady, putting some truly awful CGI aside, they're kinda perfect. They sound right, the designs are excellent, seriously i'm surprised they kept the Mohawk and glasses. But there was one character i was confused by, i was thinking "Who's the asian dude?...Wait that's the Shredder!? No it's not, they had their version of the Shredder in the last movie!" But no, turns out that is the Shredder again. So I guess they decided to reboot Shredder and pretend the last one didn't happen and go for one more accurate to the comic book. Also people are saying the giant portal in the sky is supposed to be the Kraang...okay good for them. I don't really care for the Kraang myself, but sure why not.

Finally, there is the money shot...no i don't mean Megan Fox, i mean the last shot of the trailer, Mikey and Donnie riding down a river when a tank jumps out of the water (No idea how) being driven by Rocksteady as he fires at them and misses by mere inches. Between this and Doctor Who I think we can say definitively that tanks make everything better!

So overall, I liked this trailer and it already looks like they're improving on the last one. I don't know if i'd say i'm that excited for it but at the very least it looks like a fun time.

-Danny