Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

In the year since defeating Shredder and keeping him from destroying New York City Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael have been living in the shadows underground in the city's sewers out of the prying eyes of the masses. Their friend Vernon agreed to take credit for defeating Shredder, and since then has been living the life as the "hero" of the city. Even though they all agree that his arrangement is best for everyone, life has been tough for the turtles. Raphael has been taking it the hardest, believing that they should be up on top continuing to help keep the city safe. As it turns out, they just might get their chance, as Shredder has returned, and he's got a new evil ally - an alien by the name of Krang. The mutant ninja turtle brothers once again have to step out of the shadows and work together in order to defeat Shredder once more, with the help of April O'Neil, Vernon and a new ally named Casey Jones.

I can't really believe I'm saying this, but I enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, I did kind of enjoy the first one as well. This one and the 2014 reboot obviously aren't meant to be great movies, more like a "check your brain at the door and just enjoy it" type. It's got plot holes on top of plot holes, with a really simple storyline, but there's something about it that was just a lot of fun. Personally, I thought the first one was better - better story, better characters, etc. - but Out of the Shadows was surprisingly well done. I guess what gets me the most is the fact that I'm not even really a TMNT fan to begin with. I've seen one or two of the older live-action films and thought they were completely stupid (don't even get me started on Secret of the Ooze...I couldn't even get through the first 30 minutes of it). I especially liked the characters of Bebop and Rocksteady. They played the stupid-but-funny henchman role pretty well.

The only things I didn't think were that good were Tyler Perry as Baxter Stockman and Stephen Amell as Casey Jones. Nothing against them personally, it's just that it felt like their characters were both not given very meaningful parts, so their characters were just...there. It's like the story wouldn't have changed much whether or not their characters were included. I got a little annoyed at that considering I do like both actors a lot. Each of their full potential felt wasted. The character of Shredder also felt a bit wasted, but not quite as badly.

As much as I enjoyed both Out of the Shadows and the first TMNT, I'm not sure I would like a third one. I would certainly go see it if/when a third one comes out, but it's not really something I'm totally looking forward to. If you have kids who love the cartoons, or if you enjoyed the older live action movies, I think it's a good movie to see. As mentioned, it's stupid, but it's fun.

Star Trek Beyond

It might seem exciting to have the opportunity to "...explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before". Captain James T. Kirk and his crew aboard the Starship Enterprise have undoubtedly had many adventures during the first 2-3 years of their mandated 5 year journey through unknown space. To be fair though, even while discovering new civilizations and expanding one's knowledge of the known universe, it can be easy to become, shall we say, complacent, to the point where such a journey eventually loses its appeal. Captain Kirk begins to wonder if it's time to leave the captain's chair and explore other opportunities in Starfleet. His best friend and right hand man Spock is feeling the same way - he contemplates leaving Starfleet and spearheading an attempt to rebuild the Vulcan homeworld. Both Kirk and Spock must set aside their ambitions for the time being, however, as they are sent on a mission to look into an abandoned ship which had been attacked by an unknown enemy. Their rescue mission turns out to be a trap, and so Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew are taken captive by a brutal, violent and cunning alien by the name of Krall.

Star Trek Beyond is the third installment of the rebooted Star Trek franchise, and it's safe to say that it's a heck of a wild ride from start to finish. It's easy to see the influence of some of director Justin Lin's other movies such as the Fast and the Furious franchise. The action sequences definitely had a Fast and Furious in space feel to them. Not necessarily an entirely *bad* thing, but also not necessarily a *great* thing either. Especially when action such as the sequences found in Fast and the Furious can possibly be considered a dime a dozen. I don't mean that in the sense that it was all just mindless action per se, but rather the adrenaline-racing pace of the action was obviously similar. As an action movie lover myself, I had a lot of fun in the theater. I could also see a notable difference in the writing between Beyond and the previous rebooted movies. With Simon Pegg in charge of script writing duties, I could see the tone of Beyond grow closer to the original, more philosophical idea of what Star Trek is, and not another Fast and the Furious clone. I hope that trend continues onto the next installment.

That said, Star Trek Beyond is not without its problems. I liked Idris Elba as Krall well enough, but it felt like something was missing to make him a truly memorable villain. I'm not really sure if it was his motivations behind his actions I didn't like, or something else, but either way I was left wanting just a bit more from him. The script did have a pretty creative way to bring Krall into conflict with the crew of the Enterprise, so that in and of itself was a plus. As mentioned above, the action is pretty thrilling and adrenaline-pumping, but (mild spoiler) the way in which Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise defeated Krall was admittedly a little weird. I'm not sure if I'd say it was bad, it certainly was creative, but I feel like a less outlandish way to defeat Krall would have been better. Really the only other true beef I had with the movie was the soundtrack. Maybe it's just me, but the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy doesn't really seem like the type of music I would normally associate with a movie/series such as Star Trek. But that's probably just me.

As far as the rebooted franchise goes, Star Trek Beyond is probably my second favorite. I'm one of the (apparently) few who greatly enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness, and it also happens to be my favorite of the reboots. Star Trek Beyond is yet another exciting, adrenaline-pumping ride through space that leaves me anxious to see what is coming next. Side note: I know it's probably a long way off, but I really am hoping sometime in the future for a new adaptation of The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. I guess we shall see if it happens.

Suicide Squad

A Black Ops team dubbed the "Suicide Squad", consisting of the worst incarcerated criminals is created by a conniving, ruthless government official by the name of Amanda Waller. This team, which includes Harley Quinn (normal but certifiably insane), Deadshot (sharpshooter/assassin), Captain Boomerang (insane street-level criminal who has skills with a boomerang), Killer Croc (body is mutated to look like a reptile), Slipknot (skills with rope and an assassin), El Diablo (controls fire), and Katana (wields a katana which can trap the souls of the dead) are tasked with bringing down a supernatural entity of an unknown origin. Their consolation in participating in the Squad is a reduced sentence. Once they realize they've been set up to fail, each member of the team must set aside their own selfish ambition(s) in order to effectively work together to come out alive.

I'm not sure what critics have against the DCCU (DC Cinematic Universe), but as I did with Batman v. Superman, I must disagree with all of the disparaging, and mediocre reviews. If anything, I honestly liked Suicide Squad better than I did BvS. Granted, I have not had a chance to check out the Ultimate Edition, so I cannot make the assessment that my concerns with the theatrical release were dissuaded. Suicide Squad has its problems, but it is not the huge pile of crap it's being made out to be. I found the story to be much easier to follow, since they didn't try to combine multiple comic arcs into one long story. Not to say that BvS's story was *too* hard to follow, but it was obvious since Suicide Squad didn't have multiple comic story arcs combining into one it was a much more coherent and well put together product in the end.

As with most of the characters of BvS, in Suicide Squad I thought they did a pretty good job (with a few minor details here and there) of sticking to the essence of who their comic book counterparts were. I think my personal favorite characters were Will Smith as Deadshot, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.

However, the things where Suicide Squad lost me from saying it's the best DCCU film to date are:

1. Joker and Harley's relationship - In the movie, Joker is constantly weaving in and out of the story as he's pursuing Harley to bring her home. Now, I'm no real expert (I only read comics every so often, and have seen a few of the animated series), but as far as the comics and animated show(s) go, from what I understand their relationship is supposed to be an abusive, almost-but-not-quite Stockholm Syndrome type of relationship where Joker just tolerates Harley, and it's Harley who's actually the one in love with the Joker. In that regards it was weird seeing their roles switched. There were times where it showed instances of the psychological (and sometimes physical) abuse Harley endured at the hands of the Joker, but it was never a big part of their relationship - at least, as far as the movie shows. For all we know that stuff could have been happening behind the scenes. I do think Jared Leto and Margot Robbie as Joker and Harley Quinn respectively played their roles well, and I look forward to seeing them in future movies.

2. Katana - I loved the character; however, I wish that her character had been written as being bilingual instead of only speaking Japanese - unless there was an instance or two where she spoke English that I missed. She never really interacted with the rest of the group, and so the audience doesn't get a good chance to really get to know her. I will say though, there is one especially touching moment amidst the chaos where we do see a touch of humanity from her, so that was refreshing.

3. Killer Croc - He had a decent sized role, but I still wanted more from him. He played the giant brute of the group well, and even had moments (like Katana) where we saw a different side of him, but I was left wanting more.

4. Enchantress - As the villain of the movie, I think she did well with the material she was given, however it wasn't much to go on. There was no real depth to her character, no real gravitas to make her a satisfying villain. I think that had more to do with the script and not with Cara Delevingne who played Enchantress. Towards the final fight, I had hopes of seeing something magical (pun intended) occur and she would turn out to be a great villain, but it just sort of crescendoed and then fizzled.

All in all, as mentioned above, Suicide Squad is not a horrible movie. It's actually quite a bit of fun. This is one where if you are a comic fan (or if it just happens to look good to you) do *not* listen to the Debbie Downers and go see it. I know I'll be seeing it at least one more time.