Teenage Mutat Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem: Cowabunga or stay in the shadows

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem review

Over the year many different franchises have had their share of attempts in all forms to some success or failures and varying styles from Movies, Shows, Games and even Comic books and stage plays and this is especially said about the heroes in a half shell of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Since their introduction in the mid 80s, these four brothers of Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo and Raphael have been keeping the streets of New York safe from all forms of evil like Shredder and the Foot Clan, the other mutants like Bebop and Rocksteady, Krang and many more while hiding in the shadows under the mentorship of their father figure of Master Splinter and friends with human reporter of April O'Neil and Casey Jones and have done so from a multitude of different Cartoon series, animated films, early 90s Live action films, somewhat over the top mid 2010's Live action films that creeped out many people and of course some very popular comic books series and video games as well too with varying degrees of popularity or mixed reception. But now we are here with an all new attempt at the newest film adaptation of the turtles with Mutant Mayhem that's mainly been developed from forever teenager Seth Rogen, but the question to ask is, is this film good. Well there is some issues but I think this is one of the best Ninja Turtles films out there and I will explain it over the different sections.

A story of acceptance

Now with a lot of the plot for those uninitiated with their Backstory, The origin of the turtles was that they were small pet turtles that were infused with a chemical dubbed "ooze" that gave them an anthropomorphic form as well to their master Splinter who teaches them the art of Martial arts and soon they will use them to protect their home of New York from those that want to destroy it or take over the world. Now there is that element of it being a somewhat origin of the Turtles in this but there is more to it with the plot as follows:

"After years from being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers  and be accepted as normal teenagers. Their new friend, April O'Neil, helps them to take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them"

Now while their is some of the element of the original concept in there, adding more of the case that they are not the only mutants in this world and them feeling like they found people who they belong with and feel that sense of acceptance that they want to have and when it seems like it is more then just finding one another but rather take over the world then they will find what it means to be heroes and importance of family. Sure some aspects of the the Mutant aspect does feel a little pushed near to the last act kind of thing and goes by quick that it can affect it a little but I am sure they'll establish it more with the sequel and the series planned but for what they have in this film, its a straightforward and understandable film.

Story: 7.5

A film Oozing with characters

Now this film is boasting quite an array of characters for this time around as with it being Mutant Mayhem, they have a lot of characters and mutants to go through and since their is a lot, some of them e will be grouped into one group as some have a varying amount of focus in the film but will give a focus to a few

The Turtles (Leo, Raph, Mikey, Don)

so I was initially going to have them as a separate piece but I felt I may as well put them together as I feel it will be more structured to put them as one cause I feel that the four brothers of Leo, Don, Raph and Mikey are the highlight of the film as they feel the most fleshed out of the film as we follow them the most in this film and of their journey of coming out of the shadows and becoming heroes to the people of New York and for once they actually feel like teenagers (and voiced by teenagers too). Each of them still have their quirks like Leo is the Leader that wants to do right by orders, Raphael is the hothead that will use his fighting to do the talking, Donatello is the somewhat shy one but the more tech savvy one and Mikey is the wildcard who would want to just vibe and eat pizza while being their for his brothers and the chemistry between them feels authentic and natural and they would for sure be the standout.

Splinter

Like many students of the martial arts they need a mentor and that is with their father figure of Master Splinter. Now splinter in this is more of a nervous recluse that has been rejected by many in society and other creatures and tried to do so when the boys were older but then made it a case not to do it again. Now he is trying to protect them from the humans from not seeing them as equals and he does try his best to do and care for his boys. Now he does have some form of use near the end and he does appear sporadically through this film, but again Splinter does make some form of a smaller roles in most other media of TMNT so I do get that and when they do give him some moments it is done well, its funny and it is cool too so I will give him the pass on this as he is a good character in this

April O'Neil

Now for a character that has probably the most screentime after the Turtles is their human friend of April O'Neil. Now she does have some well established role of wanting to become a journalist and reporter, but some aspect of it is an incident she is mocked for but wants to give it another try and she does help the turtles to try and take down the large organization who has been causing a major crime wave in the city and learning to improve her credibility as a journalist. Now I do like her form of a character that has some form of flaws that she wants to be a reporter but has anxiety of being on camera and I like it is keeping her persona from the original comics and show in check and it works and I think that they did April much better then the ones from the Bay movies where all she was made in that was to be sexualized by all the male characters and even the turtles (well more of the first film, they tone it down in the better follow up).

Super Fly & Mondo Gecko

So I want to give this focus to the 2 characters of the Mutants cause I feel out of all of them they have the most of a presence and a bit of a personality. So our essentially main Villain and mutant villain is without a doubt the character of Superfly. Now he is essentially the very first mutant character that we meet in this film as we are introduced to his creator of Baxter Strucmann who had created the secret formula for making mutants before he was taken out by the task force by Cynthia Ultrom. Now he methods are reasonable and wants to get back against those that wronged him and turn the world into mutants to be accepted and rule them but there is always flaws in a plan like that but how it is done is fine enough. I know the one instance is that his origin is changed as in the canon of the TMNT universe, Superfly was supposed to be the cross species transformation of Strucmann but they seemed to have changed that concept cause I guess they didn't want to freak out the younger audiences and explains why his creator has about less then 3 minutes of screen time, but besides the change I think superfly is a decent villain and voiced well by Ice Cube.

And as for the other mutant that has a bit of a personality focus is with Mondo Gecko who would be this dimwit that seems to be cool and sees everyone as his bro and just cool vibes all around. Now I like his characterization and he does have some funny moments and I think it is just the charisma of the voice of Paul Rudd that helps it a little more but he seems to be the one besides Superfly that gets some form of personality, even if it is only a smaller increase over the others but a good addition all the same

Cynthia Utrom

as for who I would see as the human villain of this film it would be the character of Cynthia Ultrom. She is the one that kicks off the whole craze of the Mutant Mayhem when she hunts down Baxter Strucmann, which causes the ooze to be leaked into the sewers and create the turtles and all the others and she is looking to harness that power for her own powerful gain. Now she is not much of a focal presence of a villain in this right now but she does have her moments dotted throughout as she is trying to locate the mutants to harness their energy as well as learn the one responsible for their tech being stolen. There is a sense that she will have more of a focal presence more in the followups but I think she is fine here, could be better but fine.

The other Mutants

Now when it comes to the name of Mutant Mayhem, it means about a large collection of other mutants of Superfly's gang. Besides Mondo, we also have Bebop, Rocksteady, Genghis Frog, Ray Fillet, Wingnut and Leatherhead. Now while it is cool to see these cool designed mutants and characters all in one film and keeping it close to the ones from the comics, movies, shows and games, I am going to be honest we do not get much of a development with these characters. We get some lines or use of them in certain scenes once we are introduced to the group around the halfway mark of the film but they don't really add much to the film besides the likes of Superfly and a bit with Mondo. Now you will get that when you want to focus on other characters more (and similar to the recent spider-verse where that focused on a specific group when there was over 240 spider-people in that one film) that it can be hard to give a focus to everyone. I am sure in follow ups and a series may give them more of a focus but will have to see what direction that goes in.

Overall I think that the selection of characters is a decent roster that they have for the film and I think they did well with the turtles and some of their allies and enemies. Sure they have their issues and a good bit of the mutants have been not given much of a screen presence or development in this first film but I am sure with it planned to continue forward that they will get a bit more of a focus but I don't think it is to a level that it drags down the whole film so its not too bad of an issue.

Characters: 7

Out of the shadows with visual presentation

Now if there is one thing I can give some near unanimous praise for it is done with the presentation, set pieces, character designs and faithfulness to sources (with some small differences). So I will start with its praise that the Animation looks so so good and stylized and following in the way of Spider-verse, Puss in Boots, Mitchells vs the Machines and probably many more that will follow in giving things its own unique style of animation where this one is heavily inspired by the doodles of someones notebook with their designs, world building and flair that to me also has a feel of a water colour painting with some things like the lighting and shadows and I think its just me but some of the characters, mainly the turtles have a few points that make it look like Stop motion claymation but I think that it is that aesthetic of the animation that makes it look like so many at once and I think it helps to bring the turtles and the mutants to life. It also helps with some cool action scenes feel more appealing to watch like the flash cut gang takedown scene in the middle when the turtles are looking for the location of Superfly and the way they show this off is very well done and its flashy, quick, full of energy, fun and has some great use of the animation to its full potential and I hope with the tv series and Sequel to keep this style and up the ante a little too.

Same can be said on the character designs as they have the distinct look and feel that everyone is different that is easy to know who is who. The turtles all have different body proportions to help differentiate and show their style like Raph would be the more bulkier one as he is the one that wants to go in just straight battle force while Donnie would be the slimmer one as he would use his tech and weapons in a situation like that, Mikey would be the smaller one but the more hyperactive and Leo would be the all around one to balance out as the leader of the brothers. Its the same said for the mutants of showing their designs with their affects of the ooze has on them from missized limbs to defects and even to a level of a strange mass that has a form of sentience but it helps to keep it close to how they are in the canonicity.

Speaking of, the respect to its material is very well established from its backstory and to most of its characters, Sure one or 2 of the backstories are changed and characters are altered to being separate entities but it is just small nitpicks and probably had to do it to not scare some younger audiences (though some animation has said, show them fear and went with it). Besides some changes to the backstories of certain characters, the rest of the source respect is there and the animation helps it along with it and I think they have done it a justice with this.

Score: 9.5-10

Writing, humour, music and other forms of mayhem

Now on the case of the writing and humour of this film, I would say it is a little mixed in one aspect to me. Now while their is a genuine sense of established writing and story of the characters in this film from the somber moments, action scenes and down moments, it does get affected a little by the use of the constant references as they tend to drop the names of actual products, films and other things throughout and it is a frequent thing near the first half of the film that it gets very noticeable and can feel a little odd the mentioning of certain things in a world established with talking Mutant Turtles. Thankfully it does reduce down slightly in the 2nd half and is not as frequent but I feel that reducing the amount of references may make it feel more balanced.

Some of that comes with the humour as some references are presented for the use of a gag or laugh and some do work well. There is some other good jokes and visual gags that land a laugh or 2 and a running jokes that would get a chuckle once or twice but may push to nearly milking it for overusing it in the film. I think their is a good amount of it here and its not the level of a lot of it being forced type jokes but it works.

And as for the music, the score and soundtrack does have a good balance use of its score in this film with a lot of the recognized tracks fitting certain aesthetics of the scenes presented from set pieces and actions scenes (although one of them feels a little weird hearing a meme version of the song in this film does feel odd but its a one off and I was not going to cause much of an issue with it. As for the likes of the Score, it does provide the mood for certain aspects like the somber moments, the peaceful scenes, the set up to something that looks like an action scene and moments of a dilemma being presented to the audience is done well and I think the composer of Trent Reznor (yes the lead vocalist of Nine Inch Nails) does work well for this film and has a good track record and I would listen to a fair few songs from the soundtrack now and again in the future

Writing, Humour and Music: 7.5-8

Issues to leave in the shadows

Now of course it is not always going to be perfect as their is going to be some issues that come with the media piece and this does have some of the issues like I mentioned at the top of this review. Some are only really small nitpicks that could be fixed in a sequel or series but I will go through the issues now

Story and Characters: This one is going to be combined as I felt they underused most of the other mutants that were introduced in this film and didn't flesh them out much besides some small focus now and again in the second half. I am sure they were working with what they had given I believe some reworks (but I think it was mainly more with the script) but I am sure with the series and Sequel coming along they'll hopefully improve that.

Presentation: Not much to change, I know some aspects of the lore were altered but that is a very minor thing that I can look over for the better flow of the film.

Writing and Humour and Music: Mainly on the writing side that I feel they have overdone it a little too much with the references to other pop culture that it feels weird to see that. I know there is such thing as product placement but I feel it was more of a reference then a product placement (for the most part, some things did appear), one or two jokes don't land but you get that with most things and the music I do not have much to complain on with it).

These are all of the aspects that I would complain about but this is just some more minor things here and there, if it was way overdone it would be a more major concerning problem but here their is some small nitpicks that are bound to happen and I am sure they will improve in followups.

Is it turtle Power?

But overall, what I feel they have done here is a great showing of making something that has had a long history of adaptations in film and tv with varying success and failure, I think that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem has done a fantastic job of bringing something fresh and new to the franchise while also feeling familiar to the fans since the beginning. Sure their is some issue with it like with some characters and could add more to the story to make slightly longer but what they have here is something fun, fast, visually appealing to witness and overall a fun time at the movies. Now we do not know when we'll see the Heroes in a half shell again with the planned project but I know is I may give a look into it when the time comes to see more Turtle Power.

Final scores:

Story: 7.5

Characters: 7

Presentation: 10

Writing:7.5

Total Score: 32/40 or 80%

If you liked this review, let me know your thoughts down below and if you have seen the film yourself let me know your opinions of the film and if you like or dislike it and leave your own thought on it down below too and lets have a conversation about it. As always I appreciate your support on the video and as always stay being wonderful people and have a great day everyday

signing off

Sam H