SHELLRAISERS
‘Mutant Ninja Turtles’ provide welcome escape from superhero seriousness
Who could have guessed that the best superhero movie of the summer so far would be the one with “heroes in a half shell”? “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” is everything “Batman v. Superman” and all the caped crusader movies that have followed every week since is not.
It’s light, fun, clever, nimble on its feet, features a villain who can really slime you and doesn’t recreate the imagery of 9/11 for the sake of a hyper-commercial corporate enterprise. Directed by Dave Green of the charming, if also derivative 2014 coming of age film “Earth to Echo,” and once again produced by vulgarian spectacle maker Michael Bay of “Transformers” fame, “Out of the Shadows” pits New York City sewer dwelling TMNTs Mikey (Noel Fisher), Donnie (Jeremy Howard), Leo (Pete Ploszek) and Raph (Alan Ritchson), all named after Renaissance Italian painters, once again against Shredder (Brian Tee this time), whose escape from a prison convoy is an early action highlight.
Shredder teams with MIT-trained Dr. Baxter Stockman (a very funny Tyler Perry) to open a door to another dimension and let in Krang (a priceless Brad Garrett), a slime-covered, tentacled, apoplectic alien from another dimension, who wants to, of course, conquer Earth, starting with New York City. Krang, who lives inside the body of a giant metal robot, is a blast. A lovely, more confident Megan Fox is back as the Turtles’ original human playmate, April O’Neil. Also in the villain category are two brutish humans transformed by a Stockman elixir into — Holy Doctor Moreau — a humanoid rhinoceros and warthog, respectively. Will Arnett reappears as the Turtles’ frenemy Vernon Fenwick.
Say sayonara to the angstridden, dark, bickering vision of Christopher Nolan, whose “Dark Knight” series has had a dreadful influence on the superhero movies of less-talented directors. This film is not going to bum you out, nor does it bury you in 3A hours of CGI excess.
Some of the fight scenes might be too frenetically edited. But the film is one of the best 3D productions I have seen (undoubtedly because, while it is mostly liveaction, the “boys” are digital creations). OK, the incessant mix of awful current pop music and catchy classics (yes, I mean you “Spirit in the Sky”) got a bit on my nerves and made me relate to “grumpy old rat” and Turtles’ sensei Splinter (voice of Tony Shalhoub). Laura Linney is slumming as NYPD Chief Vincent. Stephen Amell (“Arrow”) is amiable as hockey stickwielding New York City vigilante Casey Jones.
A subplot about the possibility of transforming the mutant turtles into humans has a genuine poignancy since the “boys” are hurt by the way humans react to them. Yes, the big finale is derivative of the original “Ghostbusters” and “The Avengers,” but this is New York City. Action sequences reference Bay’s “Transformers” films. But Krang, who is described by someone as “a chewed up piece of gum with a face,” makes this 2016’s most entertaining superhero movie.
What can I say except, “Turtle Power.”
(“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” contains superhero movie violence and rude humor.)