Honestly, considering the overall turgid quality of the movie, the first entry in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot did a fine job with Shredder. As you can see above, the costume design was absurdly excessive. So many superfluous blades! But hey — it looked a lot like a contemporary Shredder. The sequel, however, is going a step further.
We’ve known for a while that Brian Tee has been recast as the new Shredder for the sequel, Out of the Shadows, but during the debut of the first clip from the movie at the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards over the weekend, we got to see him in action for the first time. The new Shredder has decided to ditch the ridiculous amounts of sharp objects on his person and tone the look down a bit:
Ladies and gentlemen… I give you… The… #SHREDDER #TMNT2 @ #KCAs pic.twitter.com/NJqYBAqqy8
— Brian Tee (@brian_tee) March 13, 2016
Restraint? In a movie produced by Michael Bay? It’s a rarity, for sure, but it actually really works here. The original wasn’t bad, but this is a lot more recognisable as Shredder.
It’s not quite the classic Shredder of the comics or cartoon — not a bombastic purple cape in sight, alas — but it’s a surprisingly reasonable take on the character. And hey, maybe this is an indication that the movie’s Foot Clan will actually be more ninja-like this time around, instead of the “generic terrorist organisation” they were in the first movie? We can but dream.
Between this new-look Shredder and Krang, it looks like Out of the Shadows is doing a decent job of bringing classic TMNT villains to life. Hopefully the movie will end up being better than its predecessor for it.