When Evil Lurks
While the leads in Jeff Rowe’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” spoke with the momentum of a bottle of Prime energy drink, I thought about fast paced versus hyperactive when it comes to this kind of movie “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and its amazing sequel are undeniably fast paced, but that’s what’s right for the material, “The Mitchells vs. the Machines,” co-written by this film’s director, also packs so much into its runtime that there is no way to catch all of it on first viewing. Those films are quick because they’re fueled by so many ideas that you can see them bursting off the screen. This one is quick because it thinks it should be.
And yet, for all its hyperactivity designed to disguise how little is going on underneath, “Mutant Mayhem” feels like a pretty thin venture thematically. That being said, it also boasts some truly stunning visuals and enough creative voice work to make it tolerable on a hot August day when families need an air-conditioned theater for 90 minutes or two hours. I only wish all the mayhem led somewhere more rewarding.
When Superfly and his gang come in, all of the visuals of “Mutant Mayhem” explode, this is because the animators not only bring their A game to creative character designs that recall the source material but also make them pop on the big screen. The whole movie looks like a comic book come to life with an “Spider-Verse” aesthetic from start to finish. Characters can go from simple animation that looks hand-drawn to something more like stop-motion animation and then back again in ways that keep things visually engaging throughout.
If only those visuals were given more depth by their characters and story beats. Ultimately a coming of age tale, it tells us about four teenagers who find themselves stuck between Splinter’s overprotectiveness and Superfly’s anger towards life they want to live somewhere else altogether. And while this is indeed an interesting theme (not least because it shows us a version of this franchise where “teenage” actually means something), it seems rather lightweight for children or even parents who can cope with slightly more sophisticated ideas. It feels like there should be another script here which takes as many risks as do its visuals instead of following an expected path through points A and B in what has become known as ‘the coming of age playbook’.
To be honest, we don’t really learn enough about the turtles either this may sound ridiculous but I’m afraid it’s true because they’re pushed along an action track that barely gives them chance to show any personality beyond one or two traits each. For example, Leonardo becomes April’s love interest; he is also the most responsible member of the crew but even so we never see much growth from him personally. As for other three brothers..well let’s just say there isn’t much room left after everything else has been taken care of! Of course not everything can be “Mitchells” or “Spider-Verse,” though those films did manage grounding elements into this genre’s more fantastical storytelling while still speeding through their narratives. Maybe it’s my age or lack of energy drink intake but “Mutant Mayhem” just feels too hyper most times.
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