Fishing in the Discount Bin - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Rockin' and rollin' again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I blog about one of the movies I've recently re-watched in a desperate attempt to give my life purpose.  Today, we roll out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.  This is in my notes at October 10, 2016.

With the last live-action TMNT, the general consensus was, "Well, at least they got the Turtles right."  With the second film, Out of the Shadows, they got a lot more right.

Maybe it's because the finally introduced in live-action things I'd been wanting to see since the original live-action film in 1990.  We've got a live-action Bebop and Rocksteady.  We've got Krang and the Technodrome.  We've got Baxter Stockman.  So much more of the Turtle lore is introduced and explored. 

This time out:  Baxter Stockman has rigged up a teleportation device to spring Shredder from prison, but in doing so, Shredder takes a side-trip to Dimension X and meets Krang.  Turns out the central component in Stockman's teleporter is Krang technology to bring the Technodrome to Earth, so Krang enlists Shredder and the Foot Clan to find the remaining two components lost on Earth and build the teleporter.  And soon, the Turtles are called into action to stop Shredder once again. 

But there are new allies on both sides.  Krang gives Shredder some new mutagen so Shredder can build a new army.  Shredder promptly uses the ooze on two thugs that helped him escape:  Bebop and Rocksteady, and they mutate into the brainless warthog and rhino we all know and love.  I must say, Bebop and Rocksteady are spectacular.  They're played pre-mutation and voice by comic Gary Anthony Williams (you may remember him from Malcolm in the Middle as the father of Malcolm's best friend Stevie) and WWE superstar Sheamus. They are just as hilarious and as crude as you remember.

Anyway, Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady all escaped while under the guard of corrections officer Casey Jones.  Jones, feeling rather humiliated by this, and seeking to prove himself as a real police officer, goes rogue to track down Bebop and Rocksteady, and his investigation soon brings him into alliance with the Turtles.  Jones is played by Stephen Amell, best known as Green Arrow on Arrow, and finally, he gets to play a vigilante who cracks a smile and has a little fun. 

I don't know if it's because there are a lot more ninja turtles elements in the film, but this really feels more like a Ninja Turtles film than the first one.  Too bad, though, that it's still a relatively average superhero affair.  But it's fun, and satisfied this Turtles fan.