‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ Review: Superfly’s Revenge

With its far-reaching references, “Mutant Mayhem” is much like the brand new wave of animated movies, like “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” and the Spider-Verse movies (and even perhaps going again a couple of years, with “Ralph Breaks the Internet” and the Lego films), that enjoy a popular culture pastiche of emojis, gifs, viral movies and chatspeak.

And the music is at all times on-point; Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross produce a killer rating of their signature wild, industrial rock combined with a couple of softer piano-heavy interludes. Other sequences leap off the display screen because of the addition of quintessentially New York hip-hop, reminiscent of DMX and Blackstreet.

The casting is a factor of magnificence, with extra comedic expertise than I’ve the area to name out right here. Hearing Paul Rudd, Rose Byrne, Seth Rogen, John Cena, Hannibal Buress and Post Malone (as a reluctant dangerous man who simply needs to sing) as numerous colourful — and I imply that actually and figuratively — mutants is like, say, getting a free order of breadsticks together with your pizza.

In truth, the forged of facet characters nearly outshines the turtles themselves within the comedy division, with Chan’s endearing Splinter and Ice Cube’s Seventies Blaxploitation-style funky-fresh villain, Superfly, being the prime examples.

But ultimately, there’s little complexity to the characters and no shock to the plot. And even the messaging, about tolerance, good intentions and outsiders discovering their brood, is so unimaginatively expressed that it feels cliché.

A movie unintentionally caught in its personal type of adolescence, “Mutant Mayhem” has loads of charms however tries so laborious to be cool, humorous and related — so completely on-line — that it forgets to chill with a slice, some buds and simply, you recognize, vibe.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters.