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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Review

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It’s time for the latest big TMNT project. This film works as a new segment of the franchise so you can jump in without any prior knowledge on the series. Long time fans will get some extra fun out of it with all of the characters around but it is very accessible. Technically I would put this one below a number of the other TMNT films but as a whole it’s still a good title. I’m ready to see what the sequel has in store.

The movie starts by introducing us to the origin of the Ninja Turtles. They get blasted by some ooze and are raised by the rat known as Splinter. He believes that they should stay hidden away from the outside world because people wouldn’t understand and I get that. They would almost certainly be hunted to their demise like the X-Men. Unfortunately the Turtles are now old enough where they want to get into the human world and have a lot of fun. They meet a girl named April which leads to a partnership. She will let them into School and help them try out various human activities while she gets the exclusive scoop. These happy days cannot last forever though as other creatures are preparing to take control of the human race.

There is always a lot going on with this film so I give the movie props for the fast pacing. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s quite as fast paced as the Spider-Verse films and there is definitely down time here but it does aim for a rapid style. That means the action scenes can go pretty hard as well and fight past the limitations of the art style which isn’t the best. In general the film can be pretty fun and I liked the main villain a lot. Before diving into the characters though I’ll just touch on some of the reasons why the film didn’t stack quite as high for me as some of the others.

The first part is the animation like I referenced earlier. I feel like it’s a bit of an uglier style with or without the characters. The characters you could blame on the art style but even that can hurt a bit. Like Leonardo is obsessed with April but the art style means that it’s a bit hard to connect with him because nobody looks even remotely attractive in the film. When April first appears you half think it’s a parody for a second and the real April will show up behind her and this might not have been so noticeable except that her beauty gets referenced quite a lot as Leonardo’s crush continues. The film could have tried a little harder here.

Then throw in the crude humor that this film shoves in for a few characters like April and one of the mutants and you’re really in trouble. I’ve seen way worse crude humor before of course but it’s been a minute since I’ve seen this much in a movie. Probably since I saw the Garbage Pail Kids about a year or two ago. It’s not overwhelming but it’s the little things that add up and these comedic moments definitely do not land. In general this isn’t a laugh out loud kind of film. The jokes are mainly okay with some that fall flat and others that are reasonably good.

Finally the Turtles themselves are one of the worst incarnations of the characters that I’ve seen. They beat the Bay Turtles but beyond that they’re just really not likable. The film tries too hard to make them act like actual teenagers. Teens are generally not as likable as adults unless we’re talking about anime or comics where the teens tend to be cool. These are more like real life teenagers so the film wins points on realism but loses points on the basis of their just being annoying the whole time.

Also, Splinter suffers from this as well. I prefer him to actually be an expert fighter who knows what he is doing. In this film he’s one of the main comic relief characters. All he knows about fighting is from movies so he’s not very good but he does bumble his way into a few victories. It’s a very different direction for the series so it’s a bold take but one that I don’t think worked very well. I want Master Splinter back, not this guy. You do feel bad for him in one scene when the heroes all ditch his pizza party without giving any good reason for that. That was definitely emotional.

So these are the areas that hold it back from being higher but now lets talk about the good aspects. First up we have the main villain Superfly. This guy has a cool design and he’s a really good fighter. He actually manages to take on the whole team with ease. The film can’t resist the “Giant enemy” climax but this guy still does good the whole time. Definitely not an enemy to take lightly at all. He was the only villain who was really ready to see the whole thing through to the end.

He got a good origin story so you can understand his actions from the start. That’s something that goes a long way to making him more of a memorable villain than the others. The rest of his allies are mainly other animal hybrids who have had a tough time of things. They tend to range from annoying to bad though. You have the crude humor one who is the worst but will unfortunately probably be in the sequel. There’s the “cool” skateboarder who isn’t bad. He has some skills and potential.

Rocksteady and Bebop are reasonable. This is the one case where I actually preferred the Bayverse ones but that’s more so because those were way better than expected. So there were a lot of mutants to show up here but it felt like a bit of a cop out not to have a proper fight with the Turtles. I worry that the problem is that the Turtles are a bit too weak in this verse. They seem super young and don’t really know how to fight at a high level. I’m hoping the sequel has a time skip where they are now expert fighters or something. Maybe they hired a proper fighting coach or something like that.

The school setting has potential for the sequel. So long as the film avoids the romance traps and mostly focuses on the Turtles getting used to human customs, it could be fun. There’s a lot of material there to have fun with. As with this one, there should be a lot of jokes running around so as long as most of them land then we’re good. Of course I won’t complain if we switch to a more action focused approach like the 2007 TMNT film. Either way though if we’re not comparing this to other TMNT films then it is still a good movie. For sure there is still more action and stakes than your average animated theater film over in the US. I still enjoyed a good amount of the jokes and some of the action segments could look pretty good. The world building is on point and there are already a lot of things set up for the sequels.

Overall, This is a good TMNT film. There are other directions I would have preferred that it went but at the end of the day the important thing is that the franchise is continuing. I’d say this one’s sort of like a modern take on the 80s part of the franchise. With some of the intro stuff out of the way the sequel might be able to jump into the action a little quicker. Naturally I will be waiting for the Shredder to show up and take some names. Since Splinter won’t be able to do anything this time, maybe this could be when Casey is introduced as the rival to the Shredder. Either way there are a lot of possibilities here and I would recommend checking this film out.

Overall 6/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge Review

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It’s been a while since I’ve played a TMNT game so this was fun to check out. It’s definitely a very retro title really putting the beat em up genre back on the map. It’s got a good amount of levels to it too. As a whole the beat em up genre tends to be fairly short but I would say this game was definitely longer than the average one I’ve played like this. The collectibles also help to give it some replay value although I couldn’t figure out how the score matters. I know that helping side characters get their mementos increased it but there was nothing to spend the score on. I did get a trophy out of that though.

The basic plot is that the Shredder is back in action and he’s getting ready to take over New York. The Ninja Turtles have to unite and fight but Shredder has a ton of powerful lackeys at his beck and call. If the main characters are not extremely careful then they are about to get absolutely destroyed here. Do they have what it takes to win or are they completely doomed here? Only time will tell.

There are illustrations at the beginning of each level with a little narration so that’s how you get the plot moving. I would have liked a little more animation in these cutscenes since the game is fairly new even though it’s going for the retro vibe. Still, it works out well enough and I had a good time playing through this one. The gameplay is fast paced and really rewards your creativity in how you approach your opponents. You have a lot of options for how you attack and move around and have to have quick reaction times because most of the enemies really try to rush you right out of the gate.

One thing I highly recommend is grabbing a bunch of your enemies. You grab automatically by going close to them so the trick is to toss them at the screen. It’s an automatic one hit KO for any minion that you are able to throw. So please note that this will not work on enemies in the latter levels as they start to resist everything you throw at them but the early ones? Yeah they don’t stand a chance against this attack. It also helps you not be in a position where you will get hit a lot.

If it’s not possible though, throw a few attacks and then quickly dash. When you dash it cancels out your lag so you can attack right away again. It really works and is a tremendous way to take the advantage in every fight. Trust me when I say that the enemies won’t see it coming. As much as possible you should save your super attacks for the bosses because of how much damage it does. You will be wiping significant amounts of their health with a single hit and your can store up more and more super attacks as you level up. Try not to waste it for when they are in an invincible state though. Just be patient and attack when the enemy is attacking you or something like that.

The graphics are definitely really solid here. Everything is super clear and there is a lot of detail on the screen at all times. There is no real lag at all and so the stage transitions are really smooth. The soundtrack is pretty catchy as well so the game definitely put in a good effort on both of these fields. As mentioned there is a decent length here and also a good amount of replay value. Getting the Platinum Trophy will not be easy by any stretch because some of those trophies are really hard. So just keep that in mind but it’s still a good way to get a lot more content out of this one.

I’d definitely be down with more beat em up style games like this in the future. There’s just a lot of potential here and I feel like they should be easy to develop. You don’t want to rush too hard and make the games feel like cash-ins though so you have to tread very carefully. Still, imagine this with DBZ characters, the Justice League, etc. They don’t make too many beat em up style games like this anymore so it was a fun blast down memory lane. Fans of the TMNT franchise will definitely appreciate all of the nostalgia here as well.

Overall, This was a pretty fun game. You really got to see the Ninja Turtles crushing everyone in their way and the gameplay is just a lot of fun. Who doesn’t like just shredding into all of your opponents right? I would also say that 2D beat em ups like this can actually be fairly difficult. You can’t just run in and attack like in the 3D games or you will end up being defeated. Here you want to do a lot of jumping, weaving in and out, etc. Only after you’ve done all of that can you beat a level safely. I didn’t get any game overs but I did lose a life or two on occasion to be sure. Just fight in a smart way and you’ll be okay.

Overall 7/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Review

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It’s certainly been a while since this film came out but it was finally time to give it a whirl. The first film definitely left quite a bit to be desired. I still believe that the designs for the Turtles were a big mistake and it’s a big part of why the films did not do so well. They just don’t look like the Ninja Turtles and that doesn’t change here. What does though is that we get better characters here. The inclusion of Casey was huge and definitely an excellent move if you ask me.

The movie starts with the Turtles sneaking in to watch a Knicks game. I can only assume that they were watching another team beat the brakes off of them the way every team seems to. It’s hard to remember the last time the Knicks were very good. Well, after blowing their cover they head home. The Turtles find out that Shredder has been busted out of jail and has some kind of big plan involving mutating people into powerful soldiers. You can also reverse the formula to turn the Turtles back into humans which has Donatello’s interest piqued. If such a thing is possible then the team may need to consider it. Meanwhile Casey needs to prove that he isn’t making the story about Shredder being broken out of jail up so he has to catch Bebop and Rocksteady. It won’t be easy though because those two are now a lot more powerful than they once were.

So I would say this film does enough where I would call it a pretty entertaining action film. I wouldn’t say it does anything amazing or stands out in particular but I just have to give it a certain amount of kudos. For example, as I mentioned Casey is an excellent character. The guy keeps everyone on notice all the time which is exactly what I want to see. He’s quite earnest even if he doesn’t realize when other characters are being sarcastic to him. He’s also surprisingly good at fighting. I think one of his standout scenes was when he took down a bunch of Foot Clan members. Not just anyone can do that or at least in theory people can’t just do that. So that was pretty neat. In fact, he was my favorite character in the film.

Falcon shows up as well and he’s quite famous now after the events of the first film. Thing is, I have to say that he earned it. By taking credit for what happened last time he is putting himself as a target for all the villains out there so you can’t say that the task came without risk. That’s pretty big and when the going gets tough he still does do his best and helps out the group despite it putting him at risk. I just don’t see how you can root against this guy. He’s dependable and has a lot of confidence but you absolutely need that confidence if you’re going to succeed in the dangerous world of TMNT.

The Turtles are still not great characters although I would say they’re a little better than in the first film aside from Leonardo. So in this film Leonardo is turning into one of those leaders who doesn’t care much for differing opinions. When he shuts down the idea of turning back into being a human he doesn’t give the other Turtles a chance to weigh in and even lies about it. He acts like he’s above the rest of the Turtles and this definitely isn’t earned. He gets them into a whole lot of trouble and I would say that everything after that scene was his fault in at least some way. If he had just been square with the others then none of this would have happened at all. It was an odd direction for his character to go.

At least he did something though. Splinter did nothing in the film and really had no point being here. I suppose the writer couldn’t think of anything for him to do? It’s just odd that he would only watch as the Turtles went out to fight each time and never tried to help. Maybe he’s just too old at this point or something like that. Not sure if I totally buy into that though. Then we’ve got April who’s the main heroine here. Her first scene definitely seems like it’s here for no reason other than fanservice but other than that she looks good and is a dependable ally. She digs up a lot of the initial information on the villains to keep things rolling and as a human she’s the only person who can handle some of the more direct missions. The Turtles can’t exactly go aboveground and be seen after all.

Rebecca is the Police Chief but she definitely didn’t look great. She’s just not a very reasonable character the whole time and is always getting in the way of the heroes. You’d think that she would at least have listened to the main characters a bit before just dismissing them all. It took Casey 5 seconds after reading the report on Bebop and Rocksteady to figure out where they were but she didn’t think to check it? Definitely a rookie mistake there that’s for sure.

As for the villains, fans of the Shredder will not be happy with his portrayal. He’s ultimately no more than a minion here and he never even gets a real fight scene. He’s just the side show here who follows orders. He also gets overwhelmed pretty quickly. Krang gets the true mastermind position here although he doesn’t appear a whole lot. He can definitely fight though which automatically helps make him seem pretty legit. Bebop and Rocksteady are mainly doing all the real work here. They have some crude humor moments that aren’t very good but also some solid humor scenes that actually can be effective. I think their best joke here was when one of them commented that he thought he was starting to put on weight so the other one started off pretty emotionally by saying it wasn’t true only to turn the tables and say that he was super fat.

The two of them have a really solid bond there which is always nice to see. It can be a bit rare among villains to have a pal after all. Another solid moment was when they said they were done being errand boys only for Shredder to show up and say that he specifically needed those. They were ready to graduate up to a different minion title but they were just too slow at the end which really cost them. I suppose at the end of the day it just wasn’t meant to be. One final villain is Baxter Stockman. He’s not nearly as fun as he was in the 2003 show but he does keep his intelligence here. He can be very excitable the whole time but also easily tricked as a result. The ending definitely doesn’t go the way he thought it would.

The effects are pretty solid aside from the Turtle designs. I still don’t know what they were thinking with those. The action scenes can be good as well although surprisingly there aren’t a whole lot of them. It feels like large chunks of the film go by without any. When we do get the action scenes though then the film does deliver. It’s definitely got that proper comedy/action blend going.

Overall, Out of the Shadows feels like a step up from the first film but it’s not quite at the level where it could be yet. For example there are many other films I would sooner check out over this one. This one definitely will have its time of course but after the initial watch there wouldn’t be much reason to check it out. If you’re a big TMNT fan then you should though. The scenes with Falcon and Casey would be the big reason to watch this film since they carry a lot of the scenes. Any scene with those two in it is bound to be a winner. I can’t exactly say the same for the Turtles though who don’t even come close to matching those two. Maybe they should rename it to Casey and the Turtles for next time. The humor can be hit or miss at times but at the end of the day this is a pretty lighthearted action film with quick pacing. At least you will not be bored while watching and I expect you will be reasonably entertained.

Overall 6/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review

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We’ve seen that Transformers was a success so can the ninja turtles really keep up? It’s certainly not quite as exciting as the Transformers comic, but we get to see a lot of the villains who currently plague the heroes. Things have never been more dire for them and the heroes may need a power up of sorts if they are to stay in the game.

The comic takes place after Donatello’s close encounter with death. The turtle now inhabits a machine while his body is still taken out of action. Getting him restored to full health will take a while and the villains are not waiting. The Shredder is still out there and various other groups of villains are also making their move. Right now, the turtles can barely take on the Hun, let alone the mutants. This is truly their darkest hour and they know it!

Power levels is something that has always given the TMNT a tough time and the comics are really showing us this. For all of their martial arts, they are still relatively weak compared to some of the outlandish threats that they face. Donatello has some new abilities thanks to his robot body, but what about the rest of the turtles? I really don’t think they have a chance without some kind of new ability so hopefully they will get new weapons. Maybe a thunder staff for Donatello and some kind of extendable sword for Leonardo. These are just ideas, but the writer will need to think of something unless he wants to run the risk of plot hax.

The turtles have an interesting origin in this series. This time, they were the songs of Splinter and they were all humans, but they got reincarnated after the Shredder destroyed them. A rather dark change to their original origin and I wouldn’t call it a positive one, but either way it leads up to the same place. Splinter is indisposed as he is watching over Donatello, but I’m sure that he’ll be able to fight when the time comes. Let’s hope that he does not wait too long.

As for the Shredder taking out Donatello through his two minions, he likely would have done it no matter what. Still, you have to wonder about the turtles making the first move over there. They are the ones who effectively tried to betray him by tricking him into a war with another villain. They should have expected the Shredder to retaliate so I don’t see how they could have left Donatello on his own. With no friends to help and outnumbered 2-1, there was really no way that Donatello could win. Even 1 on 1 it likely would have been a very difficult right.

TMNT’s art is good here. It is a little subdued and not quite as bright as most of the other titles, but the fight scenes still look solid. I think a more colorful style would suit the series even more, but as long as the art is good, that’s what matters. The author is clearly going for a more serious style for this series so we’ll see how it plays out. If the Turtles don’t get new abilities, they’ll likely just need to rely on their allies, which should prove interesting. Apparently, they have friends who are rock giants and April has some kind of super ability. I still want the Turtles to be able to fight as well though so maybe it’s time to awaken the dragon!

Overall, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is certainly building up to some kind of big climax. The heroes are going to have to be ready to end everything once and for all. The cliffhanger ending shows that a new army of villains is about to approach the streets and that could actually help the Turtles chances of winning or hurt them even further. Only time will tell and they’ll need to plan this one out carefully. This story felt like a complete one and it was long considering that it was free. There’s definitely a lot of ways that the comic can continue and it’ll be interesting to see how it ultimately ends.

Overall 7/10