Five Ways Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 Needs To Improve Upon The First One

Maybe mutate into a good movie?

By Nick Venable | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

teenage mutant ninja turtlesMore Turtles, Please!
Far be it for anyone going into a film called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to expect a movie that will actually focus on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Say what you will about Pompeii‘s cinematic worth, but at least it didn’t spend most of its runtime focused on Giza. Even with all the pre-release mayhem surrounding the Turtles’ origins and their redesign, I was still certain that the final product would deliver the foursome in a positive enough light to make all the worrying feel like a missed opportunity for anticipation. But no, audiences only got a couple of scenes where the half-shelled heroes were left to their own devices and could exist as characters rather than plot mechanics.

One of the better scenes in the movie involves the Turtles, knowing they’re headed out to a potentially fatal battle with the Shredder, innocently joining together for a beat-boxing session. It’s a fun reminder that these guys have spent their entire lives together, and it doesn’t involve Raphael and Leonardo falling into confrontational roles. The beat-boxing can be left behind, but the next movie definitely needs to center on these guys, rather than only bringing them out of the shadows for exposition and action scenes. I want a movie that celebrates the Turtles and their respective character traits, where Michelangelo says “Cowabunga” when he’s having fun, not because a screenwriter cram-stuffed it into his mouth right before he gets his ass kicked, just to appease fans. Give me that movie and I’ll put forth my money.


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