Film Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

NOTE: As of me writing this, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are currently on strike, demanding fair wages, better working conditions, protection from AI, among many other important issues that face writers, actors, and even other sections of the entertainment industry. I am in full support of the strike, and I encourage you to read about it, spread word, and if possible, consider donating to the Entertainment Community Fund, which helps financially struggling artists and workers in the film and television industry. Thank you.

 

I remember when the most recent live-action reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out in 2014, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, it was not particularly pleasant experience (and apparently not for the guys playing the turtles either), but I remember that one moment always stood out with audiences. It was about a minute long, featuring the turtles in an elevator, getting ready for the big climactic fight, and the brothers begin doing an impromptu freestyle, each building upon the beat started by the one prior. It’s a cute moment, and it was considered the one part where the characters felt like the ones audiences have long been familiar with since they were probably young children, myself included, though I wasn’t necessarily obsessed like some were.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem basically feels like an entire movie made up of that moment. With Seth Rogen spearheading the project, serving as producer, co-writer with his usual collaborator Evan Goldberg, director Jeff Rowe (who co-directs with Kyler Spears), as well as Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit, and even a voice actor – he plays Bebop. It’s an ever-so-slightly different take on the material, which finds our turtles Donatello (Micah Abbey), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), and Raphael (Brady Noon) living in the sewers with their father Splinter (Jackie Chan).

They have been raised to be afraid of humans because of how they treated him, both as a regular rat and after being mutated by the mysterious ooze that transformed the baby turtles that he took in. So, he only allows them to sneak out for necessities, plus cool ranch Doritos – party size. However, their curiosity gets the better of them, and they have a growing desire for connection and to be a part of a community the way people have in their local neighborhoods. They find an opportunity to do this when they figured they can become heroes for stopping a series of robberies orchestrated by a criminal mastermind known as Superfly (Ice Cube), and they enlist the help of a nice ambitious high school reporter, April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri).

It will probably be a big talking point, but it’s not hard to see why Into The Spider-Verse may have had a big influence on this. Not only does it have a very visually radical animation style, a far cry from the stuff we’d usually see from Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks, but it has a very modern approach to its aesthetics and reference points, often utilizing meta nods to the source material via cheeky jokes, Easter eggs, or thematic connections, and in a roundabout way, especially compared to the Spider-Verse movies, about the POC experience, both thematically and aesthetically.

But I think it should be stated that Mutant Mayhem has a very distinctive style that is wholly its own. Unlike Spider-Verse’s mixture of comic book splash pages, Ben-Day dots, anime, and collage art styles, Mutant Mayhem has the feel of an underground comic come to life. Roughly sketched, with muddy water-color-y backgrounds, grungy designs, and nods to martial arts film and culture (and I’m talking the cheesy strip mall version of martial arts culture). The always reliable Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross provide a propulsive score with melancholic synths that highlight the emotional beats. And on top of that, you have an amazing soundtrack curated by Gabe Hilfer, filling the film with 90s East coast hip hop. One fight montage set to an inspired use of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” had me absolutely giddy.

Ultimately, the film can be boiled down to being about the desire for acceptance, of not having to hide who you are in order to be loved, or have that loved be conditioned on something you provide. There is an undercurrent of assimilation, the want for marginalized communities to fit in with the new community they find themselves in, without the fear of being rejected – or worse, actively attacked for being different from everyone else. It’s a broad theme, but it is a film for kids after all, and I think it handles these themes with a surprising amount of grace, nuance, and emotional resonance.

A lot of this being this effective is largely due to the stellar voice work from the cast. Having actual teenagers portray the turtles feels like one of those “duh” things, and changing aspects of their portrayal away from the surfer dude personas into something more real, more relatable, more awkward. Rogen and Goldberg really tap into their classic improvisational riff style hangout comedy vibes from their classic R-rated comedies, and it really makes us endear with the brothers, watching them tease each other, support each other, hype each other, and otherwise getting into goofy shenanigans all over New York, which is beautifully and richly realized here, dripping with personality in every street corner, bodega, and alley way (there’s even a pretty audacious nod to the whole “You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us” bit from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man).

The actual plot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem isn’t necessarily anything to write home about, it’s fairly straight forward. It’s features a colorful collection of characters, who don’t necessarily have the most depth outside of the core group of the turtles, Splinter, and April. Ice Cube’s Superfly makes for an amusing villain, but he can get a tad too cheeky in his line delivery to really sell the stakes, but that’s hardly the worst thing in the world. I had a really good time with the film, much more than I anticipated if I’m being honest. I don’t know if this is a hot take, but up until this point, I think there’s really only been a single good TMNT movie, and it is the original 1990 film, which I still think features some of the finest costume work, not only in Jim Henson’s career, but among the best in film period. There’s a lot that film does shockingly well, but in equal measure – though in different ways – this film arguably outmatches it. But it’s not a competition, both can exist and be loved. I think a lot of kids are really gonna love this.

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is now playing in theaters.