Shredder has survived being thrown out of a building and being crushed inside a garbage truck...HOW? Well anyway, he and his Foot Clan are back and get a hold of the scientist (David Warner) who created the ooze and plans to use it against the Turtles by mutating two creatures. Can the Turtles defeat their mutated enemies and stop the Shredder? Yeah, there's really not much to the plot. When you have an interesting title called "The Secret Of The Ooze", you expect it to have to have a few more twists and turns, but no, it's just a simple rival film about heroes fighting against bad guys, that's it.
Our four main heroes are just as fun and enjoyable as they are on the show and the previous film. They're always cracking jokes, being cool, always fun to watch, and kick more Turtle ass then they did in the previous film. However, there are a few downsides to them in this film as well to the film itself. First off, the puppetry, animatronics and design. While having a lot more movement, they don't look as real as they did in the first film, they look more like cartoons. I'm not saying that's bad, but compare their design in the first film to this film.
FIRST FILM
2ND FILM
Again, it's not bad since they're still life like, but still, the first films look and special effects made them a lot more realistic. Another thing that might disappoint you is they don't curse like in the previous film, but I'm fine with that since it didn't feel needed. However, what disappoints a lot of people who've seen this movie is the toned down violence. Remember the brutal action packed fights as the Turtles fought with their trademark weapons in the first film...this film doesn't have any of that. Granted, there are more fight scenes than what the first film had, but it's all treated in a cartoony way. They don't use their trademark weapons; they use whatever object they find lying around and turn it into a weapon (Yeah, now kids can learn how to turn anything into a weapon). The sound effects are cartoony and the fights themselves while fun and entertaining, it's more played out for the comedy, while the first film was just played out for the action. I should also mention again about the Turtles is they're fun, but I'm starting to feel a bit of a blandness behind the voice acting at times.
The villain Shredder I will admit is not much of a Darth Vader rip off in this film, but sadly everything that made him cool and intimidating is gone here. He's more kid friendly evil than dark, cool and villainous as he was in the first film. Is his gang cool, no, it's just a bunch of kids again in gay Ninja costumes instead of being low life thugs, real ninjas, or ROBOTS for that matter. Oh, and remember how cool and badass Shredder's right hand man was in the first film, he's so over the top in this film that I completely lost respect for him. What's really depressing and insulting is he does become a Super Shredder in the ending, which does redeem his lack of being dark and scary in this film, but sadly we only see him in his Super Shredder form for only a few minutes since he gets ANOTHER anti climatic death that makes zero percent sense! On top of it, why couldn't Super Shredder be the main villain of the movie? Think about it, instead of surviving the fall and being crushed, how about the Clan finds his body, grab the Oozes from the scientist, and reborn him to become Super Shredder; it's a lot better than the two main villains I'm about to talk about and it makes better sense than him just surviving.
Now for the mutated creatures. In the trailer to this movie, it didn't show them. All it did was hint that Shredder has mutated a creature and is using it to kill the Turtles and all we see from them is the destruction they're causing and seeing the Turtles scared faces. That was actually clever. Now that I see them in the film, my question is WHY? Why not have the Turtles face a Super Shredder instead of facing these idiots. Granted, the designs look cool and threatening, the special effects while cartoony looking are still life like, BUT they have the mind of a baby! Yeah, instead of having a cool, badass and a punk personality to these two characters, we get idiotic babyish characters that are played out for laughs. My god, does this piss me off and it's indeed one of the many let downs that this film has to offer!
The supporting cast, man do most of them not save the film either. Splinter (Who by the way I forgot to mention is voiced by the same guy who voices Elmo on "Sesame Street") is just as cool, wise and humble as he was in the first film, but sadly I do wish to see him kick ass, but he's still awesome. April O'Neil is played by a different actress named Paige Turco in this film and just like as the character was in the first film, she's bland, not interesting, looks nothing like the character, and isn't hot like the character. So as you may have guessed, she's a bore. For some odd and strange reason, Casey Jones isn't in this movie, which is another let down. His replacement is a pizza delivery boy named Keno (Ernie Reyes Jr.) who knows Kung Fu. Instead of being fun, interesting or cool; he's just a thrown in bland character who's just there to fill in for a cool character who should be in this movie! As for the scientist played by David Warner, he's enjoyable and interesting at least and I do enjoy watching his relationship with the characters.
As for the film itself, it's clear that it was toned down to be more kid friendly. The minute when I saw the opening of New York City and seeing everyone eating pizza instead of seeing criminals committing various crimes, I knew I was in for something different. Again, the fights are very cartoony then violent and brutal; the Turtles look more cartoony than realistic; and the villains lacks the darkness that the original had. In fact, the film itself lacks the darkness that the first film had. It's more over the top like watching a cartoon come to life, but to be honest, I don't mind it as much. Don't get me wrong, the first film's look and style are better than what this film brings, but I was still at least enjoyably entertained by it. In fact, that scene when they're fighting in the fight club with Vanilla Ice rapping, I actually enjoyed it. It was random, it's amazing how idiotic the people are there, but I still enjoyed it.
While the film is flawed, bad, very campy, and tones down all the good stuff that the first film had, I strangely still found myself enjoying it. It's not good, but it's not that god awful of a film even though some of it is a complete let down and does get insulting at points. It's just a guilty pleasure movie, which I'm not ashamed to say that I enjoyed. Do I highly recommend it, no, but it's still entertaining to watch.
RATING 2/5
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