Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. In terms of visuals, Shadows offered a virtual carbon copy of the first film – which was fine with me, as both looked great.
Delineation seemed superb. The movie always came across as tight and concise, with little to no softness on display. I noticed no shimmering or jaggies, and both edge haloes and print flaws failed to materialize.
Like most films under the umbrella of producer Michael Bay, Shadows went with a heavily teal and orange palette. This seemed tedious but the disc reproduced the tones well. Blacks appeared dark and dense, while low-light shots presented good clarity. Everything about the transfer impressed.
As for the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack – which downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 on my system – we got an engaging affair. The soundscape’s emphasis on action used all the channels on a frequent basis. The various speakers provided lots of information that filled out the movie and blended together in a seamless manner. This formed a dynamic soundfield with a lot to offer.
In addition, audio quality seemed strong. Music was bold and full, and even with a lot of looped lines, dialogue remained crisp and natural. Effects appeared rich and vivid, with clear highs and deep lows. I felt pleased with this impressive soundtrack.
We Are Family runs eight minutes, 15 seconds and provides comments from producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, director Dave Green, and actors Megan Fox, Noel Fisher, Pete Ploszek, Jeremy Howard, and Alan Ritchson. “Family” looks at characters, cast and performances. This tends to be a fluffy piece without much substance.
During the 14-minute, 19-second Expanding the Turtleverse, we hear from Form, Green, Fox, Fuller, Ploszek, Ritchson, property master Diana Burton,and actors Will Arnett, Stephen Amell, Laura Linney, Brian Tee, Gary Anthony Williams, Sheamus, and Tyler Perry. “Expanding” discusses non-Turtle cast, characters and performances. Like “Family”, it comes with a smattering of decent notes but tends to lack strong details.
Next comes House Party. It fills six minutes, 18 seconds with info from Green, Form, Fisher, Ritchson, Ploszek, Howard, visual effects co-supervisor Robert Weaver, production designer Martin Laing and set decorator Debra Schutt. “Party” examines the design and creation of the film’s “Turtle Lair”. Despite its brevity, “Party” offers a good array of notes.
It’s Tricky: Inside the Van goes for four minutes, eight seconds and features Form, Fisher, Ritchson, Laing, Green, Howard, Ploszek, Schutt and Weaver. As expected, “Tricky” tells us about the movie’s “Turtle Van”. It’s another short but efficient piece.
More material arrives via The Effects Beneath the Shell. It takes up three minutes, four seconds and shows parts of the film at various stages of visual effects completion. Without commentary, it lacks a lot of usefulness.
We also get three minutes, two seconds of ”Turtle Eggs”. With notes from Green, Burton, Fuller, Form, associate animation supervisor Shawn Kelly and screenwriters Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum. Here we find a few glimpses of hidden references to the comics and other sources. Some of these seem fun but we don’t learn a lot.
Three Deleted Scenes take up a total of four minutes, 54 seconds. We find “Promotion” (2:53), “Career Opportunities” (1:06) and “Kiss Me” (0:55). All three add to April’s screen time, and they also expand the relationship between April and Casey. They’re interesting to see but would have slowed down the film.
A second disc offers a DVD copy of Shadows. It lacks any of the Blu-ray’s extras.
Will fans of the 2014 film like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows? Probably. Will it win over new fans? Probably not. Both offer occasional action fun but they lack consistency. The Blu-ray delivers excellent picture and audio as well as a passable set of supplements. Shadows offers some entertainment but it never catches fire.
