Weekend Watch: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Meg 2: The Trench
Martial arts amphibians and giant sharks ahoy
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, teenage turtles save New York and Jason Statham faces more giant sharks. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite
I’ve been a fan of the Turtles since I was a teenager. In fact, I used to run around with a couple of friends, a broom handle tucked down the back of my shirt, pretending to be Donatello when I was 13.
Shut up, I had fun.
Which is to say, I have plenty of nostalgic connection built up to Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s superhero satirizing creations; I read the original comics, enjoyed the TV ‘toon (even as the BBC changed the name to ‘Hero Turtles’ and forced poor presenter Andi Peters to explain in print that it was “to avoid confusion with the many ‘ninja’ films out there” … yeah, right!) and loved the first live-action movie in 1990.
Still, I’m always open to new adaptations, mostly because there’s no point in clinging to the past, especially when there are so many different takes on the Turtles out there. Most have fallen short for me (though have dedicated audiences), which makes it all the more pleasing to report that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is one of the best translations of the turtle teens to the screen in years.
Directed by Jeff Rowe (co-director of the superb The Mitchells Vs. The Machines from 2021), and co-written/produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Mutant Mayhem manages to feel like it was made by teenagers in the best way.
The animation style, resembling something torn from a teen’s sketchbook, is both arty and scrappy, and the voice cast is uniformly great. Having teen actors record together gives it an organic, authentic feel and the movie manages to even give the villains (led by Ice Cube’s Superfly) a new twist. Shoutout also to The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri, who brings sparky life to a high school-level April O’Neil.
And all credit to Jackie Chan, who throws himself into the role of Splinter and brings real affection to the part. Plus, not only is he rightfully paid tribute to during the montage of fighters who inspire Splinter and his charges to learn martial arts, but the rat’s own fighting style owes plenty to Chan’s prop-happy, slapstick action stylings.
Overall, this is a fantastic, joyful movie that still finds time for real stakes and even squeezes in some true emotion, its message of acceptance delivered in such a way that it goes down easy, as opposed to a hundred other movies of this type. A definite yes to more from this team.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is in UK and US cinemas now.
Image Credit: Warner Bros.
In 2018, The Meg was released… or rather seemed to have escaped. A supremely silly yarn about Jason Statham’s diver Jonas Taylor dealing with a giant shark, it had little ambition beyond delivering on that basic premise. It’s far from a great movie, but it does offer some moments to enjoy.
Like many (including the man himself, if subsequent interviews are any indication), I was surprised to see UK filmmaker Ben Wheatley, the man who made films such as Down Terrace, Kill List, Sightseers, A Field In England, High Rise, and In The Earth, had agreed to take on the sequel. Especially as he’d just spent a couple of years frustratingly in the studio system trying to get the Tomb Raider sequel off the ground.
Yet Wheatley has proved to be an adept genre-hopper –– he’s also made a Rebecca adaptation, delivered action with Free Fire and crafted episodes of Doctor Who. He’s also a massive Jaws fan, so perhaps it’s not such a surprise.
Sadly, while his distinctive, subversive love of gore and dark humour do peek through (particularly in the final act), a lot of what he could’ve brought to the film is swallowed in a dumb, sometimes over-serious schlock-buster that never quite winks to the camera as much as it thinks it is.
Logic is not something you expect from a film like this, but Meg 2 has plot gaps big enough for a giant, toothy beast to swim through. Plus, given how much it relies on them, the effects are startlingly bad, Sharknado-level at times, which is baffling given the budget. Did they spend it all on bonce polish for the star?
Positive points? It piles on the creature feature action, offering up not just one giant shark but several, and other big beasties from the titular trench to boot. But the extended sequence of Statham and his team trapped down there feels more like a slog than anything else in the movie. There’s room for tension, but here it just feels dull and overextended, shorn of the fun brought by other sections.
If you just want a brain-free monster movie with a few thrills and spills, Meg 2 will deliver, but don’t go expecting much more.
Meg 2: The Trench is in UK and US cinemas now.