Difficulty Spike: The Karai fight near the end of Chapter 3. After slight to medium difficult battles leading up to it, suddenly you're fighting a constantly teleporting, avoids-almost-all-your-moves-easily Ninja Mistress THREE TIMES as you move up the construction site, all while fighting a seemingly-endless and increasingly difficult bunch of Foot ninjas. THEN you go right into a battle with Shredder and another similar batch of ninja. Hope you saved your pizzas, throwing weapons and leveled up your turtles.
Funny Moments: This exchange when the Turtles first encounter a Purple Dragon armed with a knife.
Leonardo: You shouldn't play with sharp objects. Michelangelo: You shouldn't run with them, either. Boy, did I learn that the hard way!
Hilarious in Hindsight: Mikey says he always wanted a tattoo. This was around the same time the character designs for the 2014 film were released.
Porting Disaster: The PC version has no graphical options outside of changing the screen resolution, a bug that doesn't allow players to exit from menus forcing them to close the game by other means, co-op not working at all if you use private lobbies or invite friends, the Turtles getting stuck during gameplay and many other problems.
The Problem with Licensed Games: It was disliked, critically, for its poor AI, bugs, boring environments, and half-complete gameplay.
It's easy to get lost in the environments on first play through, or go the wrong way. The AI Turtles never offer any help, other than shouts of "We've been here too long!"
The game will occasionally bug and not trigger open the next section after you've beaten all the bad guys.
Happens in Survival mode, too. Particularly the warehouse level, where enemies sometimes freeze in spots where you can't get to them, or Mousers will clip through environments and get stuck.
The Turtles themselves sometimes get stuck in mid-air.
Learning all the special moves and combos in the dojo is frustrating and awkward, although button mashing randomly in battle sometimes leads to some really cool moves (though it would be nice to know how to actually do them).
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The Turtles just look a little...off... in the comic style cutscenes, with their realistic looks drawn in a stylistic comic book way.
The movie:
Angst? What Angst?: Bebop and Rocksteady had no idea the experiments were going to mutate them, but they don't seem to mind at all. If anything they seem to enjoy it.
Audience-Alienating Premise: The fact that it was a sequel to the 2014 film turned at least some people away, with even defenders admitting that being tied to the previous film hurt this one. That wasn't the only reason this film was a Box Office Bomb, since it was released during a very packed Summer, but it almost certainly didn't help, either.
Casting Tyler Perry as Baxter Stockman. Some people were a bit wary with the casting choice and feel that a different actor should've been chosen; others felt that he did fine and played a fun, if not cartoony villain for the movie. There's also a third camp that doesn't care about the casting choice and is simply glad that Baxter wasn't given a Race Lift.
The amount of characters and references from the 1987 series. While some appreciate the fact that beloved characters such as Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady finally came over to the big screen, others see it as simply Pandering to the Base and overcrowding the movie, due to the writers relying too heavily on nostalgic callbacks in order to force the fan's approval.
Complete Monster: Besides Shredder returning, Commander Krang is an alien warlord from another dimension, who allied with Shredder to help him build a powerful teleportation device, so he could bring his Technodrome to Earth to cause death and destruction all over the planet. When Shredder succeeded, Krang with glee revealed to him that he never planned on sharing power and then freezes Shredder to add to his "collection" of dozens of creatures. Preparing to obliterate New York with his powerful weapons, Krang intends to raze the whole world, viewing Earth as nothing more than his toy to play with.
Baxter Stockman got noted a lot as the most fun part of the movie. Some negative reviews went so far as to say Tyler Perry seems to be the only actor who actually wanted to be there.
Bebop and Rocksteady are considered the best standouts in the movie due their mutant designs, chemistry with each other, their bromance, and having the funniest moments in the movie.
Fanfic Fuel: The scene where the Turtles are tormented with the decision of whether to stay mutant, or take the purple mutagen and become humans permanently. While the Turtles choose to stay mutant and destroy the purple mutagen, this hasn't stopped fans from imagining what could have been.
Oliver Queen during the flashbacks of Arrow has a hairstyle quite similar to Casey Jones' long hair and now his actor gets to portray the character, albeit without the traditional 'do.
Casey's complaints about how the shotgun intended for guarding the prison wagon isn't even loaded, which makes the bow and arrow look like a much more practical choice.
And now we have Casey meeting Vern Fenwick, played by Will Arnett, making this the closest thing we'll get to the Green Arrow working with Batman in live action!
In the Honest Trailers video of the first film, the narrator and the kid accompanying him both agreed that the new movie should have "a mutant warthog and a badass rhino." Guess who's showing up in this movie?
Even better is that he listed Krang, Casey Jones, and Bebop and Rocksteady as the ones not appearing in the movie, all of whom were saved for the second.
A leather-clad Rocksteady wielding a large bat on his character poster bore quite a few similarities to Negan, who was about to make his debut on The Walking Dead at the time of the poster's release.
Casey Jones is depicted as a police officer in this movie, spending very little time with his iconic mask. The crossover comic Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III also has him be a police officer at first, but he regains his usual thug persona and wears his mask more often once his amnesia is cured.
Climactically, the film's big battle was between the Turtles and Krang high in the air while April's battle took somewhere below. Six years later, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie was released and we're treated to the Turtles fighting Krang One high in the air while April fights Krang Two somewhere on the ground.
Before skydiving, a worried Raphael asks himself, "What would Vin Diesel do?" Alan Ritchson, who voiced Raphael, would later star in Fast X.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: While the film makes many improvements over the first one, the ending battle with Krang is very similar to the ending battle from the first movie, with the Turtles fighting a single stronger opponent somewhere high in the air, while April and Vernon deal with the henchmen below. Donatello is even in the same position of hacking the villain's Doomsday Device.
Just Here for Godzilla: Even some people who didn't like the previous film are willing to check out the sequel either to A) see Stephen Amell kicking butt as Casey Jones, or B) see Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady finally appear in a movie.
Memetic Mutation: "My name is Oliver Queen," for Stephen Amell's portrayal of Casey Jones and his introduction line to April.
April simply dumping a costume hat onto someone's head makes all others believes he is wearing a costume, while the guy himself is staring in disbelief.
While everyone else has been reasonably updated, Krang still talks and acts like he's an 80's cartoon villain.
Instead of having the mutagen simply mutate animals and humans who came in contact with them into human-animal hybrids, the movie tries to explain that it "mutates humans into the animals they've evolved from". Essentially throwing the perfectly reasonable explanation away for something that makes no biological sense, which many found laughable.
Nausea Fuel: When Bebop and Rocksteady are eating spaghetti messily out of oil drums, Bebop decides to finish up by slurping a long spaghetti noodle in through his ears and through his nostrils down into his mouth.
The Krang concept art by Krichevsky has a decidedly darker tone than the animated series.
The first design has some throwback flair, showing the alien warlord brain in the belly of a large android with glowing blue eyes. Of course, this looks similar to the one used in the original animated series that ran from 1987 to 1996, but with a more sinister feel. After that is a set of metal legs/tentacles, with Krang riding atop them.
The third is a very updated look for Krang's android body, with sleek lines, articulated hands and no familiar face, though the living brain is still situated in the machine's stomach. And last is a "Capsule Walker" design which looks closer to the mech used in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series.
Pandering to the Base: With the introduction of Casey Jones, Bebop and Rocksteady, the Turtle Van, the Foot Clan being ninjas, the redesign of the Turtles, and the introduction of Krang, some people feel that the movie is simply aiming for nostalgia factor and little else. See Just Here for Godzilla above. Given that the end credits play a cover of the 1980's cartoon's theme, it seems pretty obvious this was in effect.
Krang's voice in the film is provided by Brad Garrett, whose baritone voice is rather strange for the traditionally high-pitched voice of the character.
Stephen Amell was considered too off for Casey Jones. Casey is an extroverted character with a certain level of ham to him, while Stephen Amell is an actor who's talents work better for playing a restrained and stoic character; Amell's most famous role gave his character an Adaptational Personality Change that worked for his talents, but despite having a different backstory here, Casey is still written to be the loudmouth jabrony as before, making Amell's portrayal of him stand out even more.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Mikey gained a lot of flak from the first film for trying too hard to be funny, and for constantly flirting with April. In this film, he balances out his humor and takes certain situations more seriously, he only hits on April once and never even considers trying to date her, and he even goes through Character Development in the subplot where the turtles consider becoming human again with the mutagen.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: The Raph/April, Mikey/April and Casey/April shippers are all at each other's throats this time around.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While opinions are still split on whether or not the movie is good, its lighter tone and inclusion of fan-favorite characters at least make it more interesting to watch and feel like a genuine TMNT adaptation compared to its predecessor.
Tear Jerker: After being revealed to the cops after breaking into the police station to steal back the mutagen sample, the cops call them monsters. After escaping and back in the lair, Mikey is obviously shaken up and says they weren't just afraid, they acted like they hated them. Splinter has to comfort him to get him back to normal.
Stephen Amell was well-received when it was revealed he would play Casey Jones, but there have been some complaints over his lack of a resemblance to the character, namely that instead of the medium-length hairstyle Casey has been known for in most incarnations, the trailer shows him to maintain a close-cropped style. note This may be justified given that Amell needs the short haircut to play Oliver Queen in Arrow, in fact having to use a wig whenever they do the flashbacks to show a much less groomed Oliver. And also because filming for season 3 of Arrow only ended in the same month that filming for Out of the Shadows started.The fact that Casey Jones is a police officer in this film, and thus would probably have a shorter, closer to regulation, haircut is probably a good reason for it canonically, though changing Casey from a vigilante to a cop was a very unpopular change itself.
April isn't liked either thanks to her awkward sexualization and Megan Fox's bland performance. It didn't help that Fox's performance seemed like a step-down from the 2014 movie. Many prefer her portrayal in the first film.
Splinter, Karai, and Shredder all feel underused in this film. Shredder doesn't even fight the Turtles.
Krang, to an extent. He appears for all of one scene to give exposition to Shredder about his portal device, disappears for the second act, and arrives just in time for his Technodrome to begin assembling in the third. On top of that, only Shredder and the Turtles ever communicate with him.
Some people feel this way about Casey Jones, stating that he wasn't very relevant to the plot at all, and that he didn't bond with any of the characters well.
Even if the message of Be Yourself needed to be enforced among the turtles to prove that they don't need to be human to accepted by society, this doesn't change the fact that being able to supposedly assume a temporary human form would have been an invaluable asset to them as ninjas. Raphael just smashes it to pieces without thinking of the possibilities.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Like the first film, the use of motion capture on the turtles looks off at times, albeit it's not as disturbing as it was before (short of the part where Donnie's hand briefly morphs into a human hand).
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Raph rightfully calls out Leo for not telling the others about the ability of the ooze to turn them human, telling him that he alone can not make any decisions for all of them. Eventually, when Leo decides to ask his brothers about their opinions, Raph just grabs and smashes the vial without asking Don or Mike about their opinions, essentially doing exactly what he called out Leo for doing earlier.
This seems to be in effect after the divisive previous film, as the changes regarding Shredder and the Foot to make them look Truer to the Text have been better received. Same with the inclusion and casting of fan favorites Casey, Bebop and Rocksteady.
The first trailer starts off rather serious but quickly goes for as much goofy action comedy as you can fit into a single trailer. Stephen Amell shows up as Casey Jones saving April with a hockey stick and topping it off with Bebop and Rocksteady appearing, looking very accurate to their original cartoon appearances, right down to the purple glasses, mohawk and goggles. Even those who disliked the first movie admitted they loved this trailer.
, which is a remix of the original cartoon's theme song.