So we’re halfway through this year’s comic book movies. And it seems the only folks coming out on top is Marvel. That is, if you listen to the critics. Lets take a role call:
- Deadpool: thumbs up
- Batman v Superman: thumbs down
- Captain America: Civil War: thumbs up
- X-Men: Apocalypse: thumbs down
Yes, X-Men is Marvel; but it’s Fox Marvel. But so is Deadpool.
Hey critics, Deadpool is Fox Marvel!
Oh, they can’t hear me. But seriously, it seems that if a comic book movie isn’t Marvel – Disney Marvel – then, it doesn’t stand a chance.
The latest non-Marvel comic book movie that doesn’t stand a chance is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, the sequel to the 2014 reboot. Sure, I wasn’t a huge fan of that 2014 flick. But I’m a huge Ninja Turtle fan. And I was hoping, with the addition of Casey Jones, Beebop and Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, and motherf****n’ Krang, there was going to be some improvement.
I don’t know. But evidently these lucky-ducks, who got the chance to watch it early, know:
“There are also a few story problems. Let me be clear; the issues with story in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows are nowhere near as severe as those in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). However, perhaps owing to the number of characters that needed to be set up, there’s a charging, chaotic feel to the first half an hour, as we zip from event to event. Even after this, it just doesn’t quite hang together. It’s a bit stop-start, moving from one sequence to the next without building any momentum until the last half an hour or so. It feels a bit odd giving this film the same star rating that I gave the first (a rating I stand by), as it is miles better. I do think it’s a three star film, but it’s a three star film that I kind of love. This is why star ratings are rubbish. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows is a big, fun summer blockbuster, and one that Turtles fans are likely to get a massive kick out of. [***]” –Den of Geek
“Within the first ten minutes of TMNT: Out of the Shadows, as you’re watching Megan Fox’s dead-eyed April O’Neil don a disguise that just happens to be a skintight Japanese schoolgirl outfit, it’s obvious that this is something much more cynical than a family movie. Even setting aside the camera’s leery male gaze, everything about the film feels half-hearted, from its paint-by-numbers plot to its disengaged cast to its occasional stabs at emotional stakes. A heightened sense of humour probably makes Out of the Shadows a slight improvement on its po-faced predecessor, but it’s a loud, bright, brainless mess whose greatest asset is its snappy 112-minute running time.”-Digital Spy
“The movie might be more enjoyable if it took more pleasure in its core silliness. This, though, because it’s the era of introspective superheroes, has to have some grit under its shell. The ’80s wide-eyed cartoons and the squishy ’90s animatronics are succeeded by slick, beefy mo-cap. The turtles are now swollen, mouldy-looking things, like the result of leaving the cast of The Expendables somewhere damp. They scowl and growl more than they joke. They have daddy issues. They have maybe two good gags.”-Empire
“OOTS is assembled with consummate slickness, nominal director Dave Green – following up 2014’s semi-heartfelt Earth to Echo – approving many of the right effects shots. Yet only Bay could conceive of blowing this much time and cash on identifying the exact spot at which zesty, subversive trash (as the Turtles might once have been) sours into ugly, empty junk, assembled solely to school our young in brute market forces and indiscriminate consumption. Our former heroes in a halfshell have become hulking, cold-bloodied bullies, demanding our pocket money and offering nothing in return – save a joyless, two-hour noogie such as this.”-The Guardian
Really though, I wouldn’t listen to a thing critics say. Batman v Superman was great. X-Men: Apocalypse wasn’t as good as Days of Future Past, but there were still things about it I loved.
Make your own opinion when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows kicks some box-office shell this weekend.
Are you planning on seeing the film? Let us know below!