If there is one thing I could have done without in my life it would be the continuation of the Michael Bay produced TMNT reboot. I would have been completely happy. That was until I saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows teaser trailer. While 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot had a grittier edge that lacked any kind of resemblance to the franchise, the Out of the Shadows teaser has the exact opposite feel to it.

TMNT is suppose to be the tubular adventures of four turtle brothers and their parental rat sensei who battle bizarre creature villains while navigating adolescence. Although the writers are the same, perhaps we can give thanks to the new director Dave Green (Earth to Echo). The Out of the Shadows teaser is spastic and drops very few hints about the plot, but it delivers more of that beloved TMNT personality in just 140 seconds than what the entire run time of the reboot did.

Here we find the Shredder (now played by Brian Tee) acting his revenge on the turtles by recruiting two thugs Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams) and Rocksteady (Stephen Farrelly aka Sheamus from WWE) that become mutants of their own thanks to Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry), who fans know will become a mutant himself later on. Per usual, Channel 4 news reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox) finds herself in trouble and a new hero hockey stick wielding hero, Casey Jones (Stephen Amell), arrives on the scene to save day.

There’s also flashes of alien spaceships coming from out of the sky near the end of the teaser. It has been rumored that Out of the Shadows could delve into Dimension X territory, which is the homeworld to Krang, the little anthropomorphic brain that sits inside the stomach of a mech suit he built while residing in the fearsome Technodrome – I can’t make this stuff up if I tried.

Now all of this may sound completely bonkers and stuffed to the brim like Spider-Man 3, but for some reason I find this to be a welcome change compared to that pile of garbage reboot – the only notable scene in the movie is the elevator beatbox session.

I grew up watching the Saturday morning Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon in the ’90s, owning all of the licensed toys, bed sheets, and more. The first two films were also wildly enjoyable to me as a young lad – less so as an adult, but the nostalgia remains. And of course, Turtles in Time is arguably one of the best arcade side-scrollers ever created. All of this wackiness in the teaser gives me hope that the franchise can rise up from the ashes in which director Jonathan Liebesman helped lay the foundation for.

Extended commentary:

• Bebop and Rocksteady look a little rough, but I’m sure the effects will be touched up before the film’s release.
• There seems to be some kind of macguffin the turtles are protecting before they begin their fight against Bebop and Rocksteady.
• Stephen Amell looks kind of out of place since the character Casey Jones most notably has long brown hair. Running away on rollerblades doesn’t help his case either.
• Those alien spaceships look like rejected Transformers since Paramount distributes that property too.
• I think Will Arnett is hilarious, but I am not a fan of his character in these movies.
• Where is Whoopi??

Here are the two teaser posters featuring Bebop and Rocksteady that were released earlier today by their respective actors on their Twitter accounts (click on either one to enlarge):

(Click on any thumbnail below to open the image gallery)

Directed by Dave Green, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows stars Megan Fox, Stephen Amell, Will Arnett, William Fichtner, Brian Tee, Tyler Perry, Brittany Ishibashi, Laura Linney, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Johnny Knoxville, Pete Ploszek, Tony Shalhoub, Danny Woodburn, Gary Anthony Williams, and Stephen Farrelly. This film is set to arrive in theaters on June 3, 2016.

Source: TMNT Official YouTube Channel