The Flickering Myth writing team react to the first trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows…
In the early hours of the morning, the first trailer arrived online for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, the follow-up to last year’s Michael Bay-produced reboot. Here’s what our writing team made of the first look…
Villordsutch: TMNT Trailer! Wow I know what I’m watching in June… and it’s not sodding that.
Chris Cooper: I’ve watched it through a few times now. It already looks better than the first film. You’ll counter with ‘it’s not saying much’ and you’d be right. But…
Shredder looks the part. Bebop and Rocksteady look great. Mikey is less of a creep. The turtle van is clearly based on the old toys. Tyler Perry is playing up the mad scientist aspect of Baxter Stockman. It’s tricky. I guess I’m also hoping Stephen Amell gets a decent role since I like the guy. Fox is still a problem.
Thing is, this film isn’t made for us. 12 year old me loved Turtles, but also enjoyed Batman & Robin. So I think I’d have loved this. However serious the approach, ultimately a TMNT film needs to have a sense of fun. This has a chance of doing that.
Villordsutch: I’ll not counter it with that Chris as I often complain that trailers today tell me to bloody much, “Terminator: Genisys I’m looking at you”. However it looks like somebody has said, “Fill it with EVERYTHING!”.
Jake Wilson: Not enough Sheamus, not enough Arnett, much too much Fox. I’ll wait until Netflix.
Chris Cooper: Too much Fox I can agree with. Real shame she’s in such an important role. But judging the other two on the trailer seems a bit harsh. Anyway, Arnett is only meant to be a sidekick at most and Sheamus’s whole point is to become Rocksteady.
Gav Logan: Trailer is insane…but it looks like it will be a fun film.
Jake Wilson: I wanted more of them. Arnett was an awkward shining light in the first and to only have half a line in the trailer was sad for me. You also don’t even seen Sheamus’ face which is a bit rude. Wasn’t blown away by Bebop or Rocksteady either. But hey, they didn’t make them for me. Looks more fun than the first at least.
Chris Cooper: We’ve got 6 months until it’s out. I’m sure we’ll see more of Sheamus. He’ll be a great marketing tool that they’d be silly to pass up.
Tom Beasley: I can’t even muster up the enthusiasm to hate it. The first film was a mess of noisy incompetence and this one doesn’t look like it has learned a single lesson from that.
Luke Owen: It may just be me, but I really didn’t hate the trailer. It showed the Turtles working as a unit, it introduced Casey Jones (who looks great), we got to see Bebop and Rocksteady and it showed off some the action. What’s there to hate? Didn’t we want to see a Turtles movie that was like the 80s cartoon? Isn’t that what this is? Keep in mind, this movie is made for kids and not grown men and women in their 30s. Do we hate it because Michael Bay produced it? And therefore it can never be good?
Chris Cooper: Spot on Luke. I didn’t like the first one, but I’m not letting that discourage me from giving this a chance. I’ll say again that Fox is av problem for me, but overall it looks like it could be good fun.
Scott Davis: Looks horrid. The first one wasn’t awful, but this looks like a stinker. And what the HELL is Laura Linney doing in this?!?!
Chris Cooper: I have no idea how you could think this is worse than the first. There’s clearly more reverence to the source material here for a start.
Scott Davis: I’m clearly not as versed as I should be, granted, but it just looks horrible as a film. I hope it’s fun and that, but preparing for the worst is all.
Tai Freligh: It was meh for me. I grew up loving the comic books and actually still have them in a comic rack at my house. I’m in my forties and it feels like this movie is aimed at my kids, but even they are not that interested. It looks fun, but I’ll wait until it comes out on home video. I do like that they have Casey Jones and Bebop and Rocksteady in this one, but it’s still not enough to get me interested to “shell” out $20 for a movie in the theatre.
Anghus Houvouras: Not a terrible trailer. It does feel a lot more ludicrous and a lot less gritty. The first film’s marketing was trying too hard to sell the franchise as a serious action film. This one feels much more kid friendly and much more frivolous. I would call the whole thing ‘inoffensive’, but Megan Fox and the words ‘From Michael Bay’ make that impossible.
Kris Wall: I haven’t seen the first one but this definitely has my interest by including Casey Jones, Bebop & Rocksteady, Shredder and the Turtles van, which all remind me of the cartoons and toys of my youth as I seem to be endlessly trapped in a nostalgia trip. I wonder if they’re planning to introduce Krang at some point too. Could do with a 100% less Megan Fox though.
Gary Collinson: I didn’t hate the first movie, and this one looks like it has the potential to be an improvement. So I’m firmly in the, ‘I’ll wait for the Blu-ray’ camp, and if word of mouth is horrid, I’ll hold off until it goes cheap.
What did you make of the trailer? Let us know in the comments below…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is once again produced by Michael Bay, with David Green (Earth to Echo). directing. Megan Fox (April O’Neill), Will Arnett (Vernon Fenwick), William Fichtner (Eric Sacks), Alan Ritchson (Raphael), Jeremy Howard (Donatello), Pete Ploszek (Leonardo) and Noel Fisher (Michelangelo) all return to the cast, while new additions include Stephen Amell (Arrow) as Casey Jones, Tyler Perry (Gone Girl) as Baxter Stockman, Brian Tee (The Wolverine) as The Shredder, Gary Anthony Williams (Boston Legal) as Bebop and WWE’s Sheamus as Rocksteady with Alessandra Ambrosio (Casino Royale) and Laura Linney (The Fifth Estate) in unconfirmed roles. The film is set for release on June 3rd 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=CZqbaYLPf4A
Originally published December 10, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
