Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

<<

Now Playing

>>

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been through incarnation after incarnation over the decades. They've all been pretty hit-or-miss, and people will disagree on what's quality "Turtle Power" and what should have stayed sealed in the sewers. Like many people in my age group (40+), I grew up with the 80s cartoon and the first few movies... okay, the first couple of movies. While the cartoon and 2nd film remain guilty pleasures, that first movie struck this perfect balance that has since never been touched and still hasn't.

But while I can't give 'Mutant Mayhem' the same credit for how much I enjoyed things, I have to hand it to them for being original, sticking to their ideas, and making it their own. But that's also probably the first thing I'll warn the fans of. I like to say this is familiar territory, but not quite what you already know. The perfect parallel would be how 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' gave Spidey a new take. This is the same idea, but with our favourite Renaissance-named brothers in shells, Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Michaelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Donatello (Micah Abbey) and Raphael (Brady Noon).

In this take, scientist Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito) has created the "mutagen ooze" with hopes of creating his own mutant animal family due to his overwhelming loneliness. TCRI (Techno Cosmic Research Institute) exec Cynthia Utrom (Maya Rudolph) sends a strike force to retrieve the mutagen, hoping to use it to form a mutant army. A struggle ensues and drops the ooze down the sewers, where, as any fan will guess, it comes into contact with the four turtles and their "Dad", Splinter (Jackie Chan), only to mutate them into more anthropomorphic versions of themselves.

Fifteen years pass as Splinter raises the four brothers in martial arts, and I really have to give the film credit for giving them a solid reason to study it (in this world, Splinter thinks humans are terrible and can't be trusted, so it's basically for self-defence). Furthermore, I liked how they showed that all their learning was from martial arts movies. It's a fun idea that, while it may not be able to be taken seriously, I'd ask one to bear in mind that we are talking 'Ninja Turtles' here. The turtles use their skills to do things like "shopping" (stealing) while staying in the shadows. I'm not mad at this either, because how did they get all their stuff in other versions of the Turtles?

To Splinter's dismay, however, the Turtles are teenagers who have a certain longing to live a human life. They want to try attending school, maybe taking a girl to prom, etc. Through some pretty heartfelt stuff, you can see how much they long to belong to the outside world, but the universe has dealt them a pretty rough hand as mutant creatures who humankind would never be able to accept. However, eventually, they find their first contact with humanity to go better than expected. High school geek April O'Neil (Ayo Edebiri) gets her scooter stolen, and the Turtles help her with it, thus meeting her face to face.

Trying to overcome an embarrassing bout of anxiety she becomes known for at school, April is after a story involving TCRI, stolen goods, and a mastermind known only as "Superfly" (Ice Cube). The turtles help her but find themselves intertwined by the band of fully grown mutants Baxter was initially working on. Aside from Superfly, the film introduces the likes of Bebop (Seth Rogen), Rocksteady (John Cena) Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd), Wingnut (Natasia Demetriou), Leatherhead (Rose Byrne), Ray Fillet (Post Malone), Genghis Frog (Hannibal Buress). Thrilled at first, the turtles soon learn what Superfly and his gang are really up to, and soon enough, their first real hero mission is at hand.

While they change up quite a bit here, I still enjoy it. Aside from its original take, I liked that they made these turtles teenagers who felt like teenagers (they never really have before) and gave them a little more individuality than they've had in the past. The animation and the soundtrack (composed by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross) are probably the show's biggest stars, however, adding another level of uniqueness to it all. While I'm sure there will be a share of nitpicky old-school fans for this out there, I have to admire that they delivered something here that brought me back to the sheer fun I used to have with these characters and a childhood full of those other mutants who never got any screentime in the past.

4/5

---