Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem – Review
99 Minutes, Rated PG
Written by Seth Rogan, Evan Goldberg, and Jeff Rowe
Directed by Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears
**NOTE: Read Mark’s review below, read Ryan’s review HERE, then listen or watch as he and Ryan discuss the movie in more depth. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
The Turtle brothers as they work to earn the love of New York City while facing down an army of mutants.
Shockingly, I’m about to say something that I’ve been saying a lot lately: When this film was announced, it generated a lot of controversy on the internet.
Yep: one of THOSE movies.
Up front, I’m not a die-hard Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. I’m aware of them; I certainly enjoyed the live-action films of the 1990s, but I didn’t watch the animated series or buy the comic books (although I do appreciate the early stylings of the Eastman and Laird moreso than the later comic versions).
That said, this version is a marked departure, stylistically, than what has come before. The animation style is clearly informed by the recent successes of such films as Sony’s Spiderverse films, as well as The Good Guys from a couple years back. It also has the feel of Sony’s Tom Holland-led live-action Spider-Man films, as well.
Some folks might have a problem with it, but I found it very intertwined with the style of storytelling and easy to adapt to.
The story in Mutant Mayhem brings us the very teenaged turtle brothers longing to break free from the dictates of their dad, Splinter, and find a way to enter and be accepted by the human world. Along the way they encounter a teenage April O’Neil (whose re-imagining is the source of the internet’s collective ire), trying to become a journalist and plants the idea that heroic turtles would almost certainly be lauded by humanity.
To do so, they decide to take down a criminal mastermind called Super-Fly, who has been stealing a lot of scientific equipment to do… something we’ll get to in a minute.
We’re also treated to an origin telling that plays well in regards to the rest of the film. The soundtrack is really good, as well, moving the story along nicely.
There are some easter eggs for long-time fans, including the Turtle Pizza van, and even an audio cameo appearance on the soundtrack that made me laugh out loud, having joked about it with Ryan just before the movie started.
I’ll let you hear it for yourself.
All in all, I enjoyed the film, and the end of the film sets up the sequel everyone will be expecting.
Check it out.
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem leaps into theaters on August 2 and features the voices of Shamon Brown Jr., Micah Abbey, Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Ayo Edebiri, Jackie Chan, John Cena, Seth Rogan, Ice Cube, Rose Byrne, and introducing Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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