Mutant Mayhem’ Does This Better Than Most Superhero Movies

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

The Big Picture

• Mutant Mayhem
  ‘s finale focuses on ordinary people helping mutant heroes, a departure from modern superhero norms.
• Superman II
  and
  Spider-Man 2
  showcase the importance of everyday citizens aiding superheroes, a trend lost in newer films.
• Mutant Mayhem
  is a refreshing take as it balances the ridiculous with emotional stakes, incorporating human heroism.

Unsurprisingly, the finale of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem focuses on the titular reptiles having to save New York City from a big monster. This is a modern-day superhero film, after all, so the story has to culminate in a battle that’s massive enough in scope to provide lots of spectacle and guarantee every member of the dense ensemble cast has a chance to shine. Mutant Mayhem is familiar with the hallmarks of this subgenre and aims to deliver a recognizable third-act finale to moviegoers. Thankfully, Mutant Mayhem director Jeff Rowe and team bring enough visual imagination and energy to ensure it’s largely an enjoyable home stretch to the story.

Part of why this big battle proves so engaging is that it eventually departs from the norms of modern superhero movies in a big way: it involves everyday people. At the start of the story, Splinter (Jackie Chan) reveals that he keeps the turtles underground away from the outside world after they are almost killed by humans for being “different.” Now above ground trying to save the world, a wounded Splinter is approached by a human that he thinks is coming in to kill him. Instead, this man asks if Splinter needs help. A news broadcast from April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri) has clarified to the public that the Turtles and Splinter are good guys. From there, a swarm of ordinary New Yorkers helps these mutant heroes take down a massive version of the nefarious Superfly (Ice Cube). It’s a lovely finale that nicely finishes off Mutant Mayhem’s storyline about the turtles wanting acceptance from everyday people. It also, unfortunately, highlights how few modern superhero movies ever show much interest in non-superpowered citizens.

‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ Follows Superhero Movie Tradition

The absence of modern-day scenes where superheroes get aid from the people they’re protecting is perplexing given how it was once ubiquitous in these films.Superman II, for instance, had the apparent demise of Superman (Christopher Reeve) at the hands of Zod (Terence Stamp) be followed up by Metropolis residents grabbing any objects they can find and approaching the evil Kryptonian. These people may not be able to leap a tall building in a single bound, but the heroism of Superman has inspired them to fight a guy who just took out their favorite superhero. It was a selfless act that proved so sweet and reflective of how Superman can inspire the best in all of us.

Decades later, the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies also wrung great material out of run-of-the-mill New Yorkers coming to Spider-Man’s aid in his hour of need. Most notably, Spider-Man 2 featured a scene where a subway duel between Spidey and Doc Ock resulted in the former character’s mask coming off. The people on the subway gawk at how there’s just a kid behind this superhero persona, “no older than my son!” one man observes. Instead of inspiring them to turn on this crime-fighter, the New Yorkers help Spider-Man get his mask back and promise not to divulge his secret identity. Afterward, Doc Ock attempts to get Spider-Man, only for these train passengers to stand between the villain and Spidey. Like the Metropolis citizens in Superman II, they won’t be daunted by a super-powered bully.

These classical takes on superheroes believed that figures like Spider-Man and Superman were around to instill good values in both in-universe characters and moviegoers. These characters have abilities we can’t imagine, but they can inspire moviegoers to act a little nicer and be a touch less selfish. After all, “I believe there’s a hero inside all of us,” as a wise Aunt May once said! Sequences depicting these superheroes inspiring citizens to stand up and be courageous were an inevitability in films with such thematic focuses. However, a new age of superhero cinema would soon come that wasn’t quite as interested in everyday people. With this era, the most memorable scenes in Spider-Man 2 and Superman II were about to get a lot more scarce.

‘Man of Steel’ Completely Wiped Out Metropolis

The dynamic between everyday citizens and larger-than-life superheroes didn’t vanish from superhero movies overnight. As late as 2012, The Avengers scored some of its most entertaining moments depicting Captain America interacting with New York police officers during an alien invasion. However, the 2013 film Man of Steel would drastically change the way superhero films approached bustling cities. This feature’s extensive finale depicting the destruction of Metropolis at the hands of General Zod inspired widespread criticism and discussion over how casually the feature depicted this city and its people getting crushed. While Spider-Man 2 and Superman II were intensely focused on how ordinary souls reacted to superhero mayhem, Man of Steel had only an erratic fascination with everyday people.

In the wake of this title, superhero movies began to either shift their finales away from crowded cities entirely or make sure to emphasize there was minimal collateral damage. The former option became a go-to choice for these blockbusters, with Captain America: Civil War setting its biggest fight scenes far away from populated areas and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice having its DC superheroes duking it out with Doomsday in the largely empty Gotham City docks. With these backdrops, there were fewer opportunities to repeat the controversial elements of Man of Steel, but there were also almost no chances of depicting ordinary people expressing immense courage under grand circumstances.

‘Eternals’ Missed an Opportunity for Sersi To Connect With Humans

Simultaneously, superhero movies began to shift their stories to focus more and more on cosmic figures or ultra-powerful Gods. This was a way to ensure that superhero films could keep dealing out increasingly new levels of spectacle, but it also ensured these characters were even further removed from everyday people. Even a project like Eternals where the lead character, Sersi (Gemma Chan), is said to have a fascination and love for people rarely gets to interact with or protect ordinary souls. That film’s finale inexplicably takes place on an abandoned island housing a volcano, far away from the human beings the Eternals are supposed to protect. A scene emphasizing human beings like the most memorable Spider-Man 2 and Superman II sequences would’ve really underscored the emotional stakes of Eternals.

Instead, the project focused on lots of CG mayhem for its climax, which got so big and loud it was hard to tell what mattered and why. Similarly, Shazam! Fury of the Gods only had a cursory interest in the everyday souls of Philadelphia that Shazam was supposed to be protecting, with the project getting weighed down by lots of mystical wizards and sorceresses. As for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it abandoned the “real world” altogether to spend an entire movie in the Quantum Realm. There were no ordinary people around to speak of, which made it impossible to understand the gravity of Quantumania’s plot. Seeing ordinary people in films like Spider-Man 2 and Superman II reminds audiences why these heroes are fighting to save the world in the first place. Without them around, these movies quickly just become a lot of powerful people blasting CG bolts of light at one another, which is incredibly inert dramatically.

‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ Is Surprisingly Grounded

In a welcome twist, the zany stylized world of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem makes room for ordinary humans that titles like Quantumania forgot all about. In the process, the feature delivers one of its most exhilarating sequences, as the audience sees (largely in one unbroken take) New Yorkers from various walks of life cooperating with various skill sets of Mutant Mayhem’s assorted mutants to get some important ooze into the hands of the Ninja Turtles. It’s a thrilling scene that allows the movie to indulge in more of its weirdo mutant figures without ignoring the normal people that Superfly’s rampage is affecting.

There’s a balance between the preposterous and tangible emotional stakes in this scene that’s been missing so often from modern superhero movies.Mutant Mayhem shows that an entry in this subgenre can have its cake and eat it too by being unquestionably ridiculous without losing touch with any semblance of reality. Plus, making a scene in the vein of Spider-Man 2and Superman II’s best sequences caps off the most important character arcs of Mutant Mayhem concerning the titular hero’s quest for acceptance. Hopefully, this animated title’s artistic achievements will inspire further superhero movies to remember the value of incorporating instances of down-to-Earth heroism in their stories.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is now available to stream on Prime Video.

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