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Review by 385
Added: May 21, 2007
Less than a year after the first one hit theatres, New Line was still cashing in off of Turtle-Mania with a sequel. However, gone was the dark realism of the first movie, replaced with a much lighter theme, one much more reminiscent of the classic cartoon.
Having survived the final battle at the end of the first film, Shredder returns and gathers what remains of his Foot Clan. He's now hellbent on revenge, so he has April O'Neil tracked, knowing she can lead him to the turtles. Ironically, the turtles are actually living with her while they're looking for a new place to live in the sewers. Meanwhile, April's been reporting a story about TGRI, a chemical company that's been digging up its old toxic waste and safely disposing of it. Shredder discovers this ooze is the key to the turtles' origins, so he kidnaps the head scientist, Dr. Jordan Perry, along with the last canister of ooze and forces the man to create two super mutants out of a wolf and snapping turtle. Teaming up with the pizza delivery kid, Keno, who just so happens to be incredible at martial arts, the turtles must again best the deranged Shredder and his two mutants.
Like I said up above, the darkness that the made the first offering so great is almost completely gone now. The emotions that brought some humanity to the turtles have also gone by the wayside. Sorry kids, no emotional character development here. Now, the four of them stay on a nice, stable path. They play out more like their animated counterparts in this one, dropping one liners and using some really cartoony techniques. Things like using a yo-yo or sausage links as legitimate weapons. Also, there have been several key cast changes this go-around. Paige Turco plays April in this one, and while she's a bit nicer to look at, she just doesn't have the same passion that Judith Hoag was able to conjure up as the original April. Not quite an even trade off in my opinion. Also, two of the turtles have had voice changes. Laurie Faso taking over as Raphael is hardly noticeable, but Donatello's switch (Adam Carl from Corey Feldman) was another bad move. His new voice is just plain annoying. Same goes for Keno, Ernie Reyes Jr. has one of those voices that just grates on you, but his martial arts skills are really entertaining, and more than make up for that. One more thing, and this maybe an insignificant thing to mention, but the turtles hardly ever use their trademark weapons here. Instead, they stick mostly to hand to hand, weapons taken from fallen enemies, or whatever happens to be lying around (like the aforementioned yo-yos and sausage links). While this is kind of funny, it really doesn't compare to the dark, gritty feeling you got from the original.
Now, even though this is starting to look like a negative review, it really is a decent movie. Even though it's lost its subtle, realistic touches that defined the first, it's still a fun little flick. The story moves along at a decent enough pace, and the fight scenes are still good stuff, despite the occasional eye roll moment. And what would a TMNT II review be without mention of the big musical number from one Vanilla Ice. However, the fun gained in the novelty of him being there is canceled out by the fact that you have to listen to him. However, that too ends up being a pretty entertaining scene, so it all works out for the best. 8/10.
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