“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2” Trailer Reaction
Ugh. What can I say about the Ninja Turtles? Well first of all, I was never a huge TMNT fan growing up, but I liked them just fine. I saw one or two episodes of the animated series as a kid, and I pretty much destroyed my friend’s VHS copies of the live action movies because I watched and re-watched them so much. My only other experience with the turtles is the Michael bay film that came out sometime last year (I know he wasn’t the one who directed it, but, come on, he might as well have). And what did I think about that installment? Meh. Not horrible. Definitely not great. Just meh.
So you can probably imagine that I wasn’t too thrilled when the trailer dropped late Wednesday night for Ninja Turtles 2: Out of the Shadows. In all honesty, I didn’t care. But upon watching it a few times, I found myself intrigued.
This film seems to have a more playful and light-hearted tone than its predecessor. It’s not to say that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wasn’t light-hearted, but I thought that it took itself way to seriously. It followed the footsteps of other mainstream superhero flicks such as Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Its attempts at being a dark, gritty origin story was shrouded in muggy and grungy aesthetics. And I definitely like the look of the sequel. Everything looks brighter and a tad more colorful, but not to the point where it’s burning your eyes. I think the look and the tone are balanced out better.
Another major aspect that I liked is how the turtles seem to be the main focus. It makes perfect sense seeing how their names are in the title. And I honestly enjoy this modern portrayal of the turtles. They’re funny, they have great personalities, and they have a great chemistry with each other. And to have them as secondary characters while April O’Neal took center stage in the first film was a waste. But this time around, it looks like the director (Dave Green) and writers (Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec) have made the right decision to focus on the most interesting characters: the turtles themselves.
We see the actor from the Arrow television show, Stephen Amell, kick some Footclan butt as Casey Jones, which looks pretty cool. I guess now we have a new guy playing Shredder, and Tyler Perry cheesing it up as a mad scientist. The mutants Bebop and Rocksteady also make their debut appearance, and while they look kind of cool, the CGI could use some touchups. Also, I’m not really impressed with how the trailer opened. I don’t know, by the look of it I think this is going to be a job for the Avengers. It looks very alien-ish and I’m not sure how that is going to work within the world of the ninja turtles.
Overall, this is a pretty fun trailer. It looks to me that enough changes have been made to make a more entertaining, turtle-centric film rather than another needlessly shadowed tale. And hopefully, that’s the way the film will turn out. For all we know the movie could be ten times worse than the first. It isn’t something I’m necessarily looking forward to, but it is a property that I might be interested in checking out upon its release.
Cosmic Night Owl 