Superhero Media: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - Secret of the Ooze

Remember how good I said the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was? Well this isn't as good, but is still better than I remembered it being. Following on a couple of months from the defeat of the Shredder, the Turtles are living with April and aren't up to much, suffering some major cabin fever now that the Foot Clan aren't tearing around. There's also an element of the Turtles getting older, even though it hasn't been all that long since we met them in the last film, this will get explored more in the third film, which we'll get to in time. These peaceful times, however, won't last long, as the Shredder survived being crushed and is looking for revenge.The diminished Foot start recruiting at martial arts dojos and things get more complicated when a private lab, TGRI, come onto the scene and Splinter reveals the canister that once contained the ooze that mutated them all; a container marked "TGRI". 

The turtles decide to investigate, only to find that TGRI have already destroyed the ooze to cover their tracks, bar one canister, which the turtles are unable to stop the Foot from getting away with. Shredder plans to use the ooze to create his own mutants to battle the turtles, but is betrayed by the captured Professor Perry and ends up with Tokka and Rahzar, strong but infantalised mutants that the turtles can readily outsmart. The puppetry (still Jim Henson) is better in this film, but the fight scenes are not as well choreographed as the original, except perhaps "cold-cut ninja". Casey Jones being absent is a bit of a let-down, but he probably wouldn't have fit the tone as well as the first film. Also, Vanilla Ice raps over the big Turtles/Tokka Rahzar fight at the end, which is, of course, terrible. Seriously, have you listened to any Vanilla Ice lately? He drops references to being a Nazi. I'm not even kidding.

Secret of the Ooze is not as good as the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but is probably the sequel the original deserved. It's not as original, but the technology is better, the story is stronger, but the characters aren't as developed. I actually own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on DVD, but I don't think I'll bother with Secret of the Ooze as it just doesn't do it for me as much as the original or even Turtles Forever. That said, when Heroclix get around to making a Tokka and Rahzar, I'll be certain to grab them for Ultimate Alliance games, maybe even team them up with the Brotherhood of Mutants or put them in my Foot/Hand war game idea. See what I mean about even the bad (or, in this case, not quite as good) superhero films are still filled with ideas that can be used for gaming? Worth checking out if you've never seen it or haven't for years.