Last fall’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn’t live up to the nostalgia for the original comic book, syndicated cartoon, or the earlier Turtles movies of the early ’90s. So now—perhaps at the bidding of franchise Sith Lord Michael Bay—rookie director David Green looks to be turning all the dials up to 11, as evidenced by a gnarlier, more radical first trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows.
In one of the few comparisons that will ever be drawn between Ninja Turtles and Downton Abbey, Laura Linney is the first face that appears on screen. An Avengers-style wormhole storm then opens up over Manhattan, hinting at a rumored-to-be-returning favorite villain. Meanwhile, the Turtles try to prevent a high-speed jailbreak (we’re guessing Shredder is in the S.W.A.T. van), and a montage of the Foot Clan getting their asses kicked sets up an introduction to the most handsome iteration of Casey Jones yet.
It’s mildly interesting, but then Tyler Perry appears, and all hell breaks loose. Observing the solemn code of mad scientists, Perry giddily overloads his laboratory with power and the trailer’s punchline lands with the emergence of his creations: mutated knuckleheads Bebop and Rocksteady. There’s something gratifying about seeing Bebop shutting up Michelangelo with a smack down, particularly if you’re lukewarm about this incarnation of the Turtles. Pretty soon things are exploding everywhere, Casey Jones brings Rollerblades back in style, Megan Fox foxes it up, and the Turtles are out-surfing a tank—all set to a remix of Run-DMC’s “It’s Tricky.”
It’s enough to get you at least curious about another round of Bay-influenced mayhem when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows cowabungas into theaters June 3.