[IndigoErth]

Neither of them are good movies and are hugely flawed for separate reasons (with some shared reasons in the middle).

Personally, I prefer the second, primarily because it put the focus on the brothers as the stars of it (not halfassed April), the relationships between them (somewhat), tried to show a minuscule amount of down time with them, they look better in better lighting and tweaks to the models, Leo's vocal acting is better with Pete (for various reasons imo) and they did more with him than just have him present... and whatever else I'm forgetting.

That does not forgive it for the flaws, esp in a very lazy story, Casey, etc... but it did at least do a bunch of things (as mentioned) that I'd hoped for and, most importantly, did not leave me walking out feeling depressed like the first one did. (I'm sure getting some things I hoped for helped.) Feeling like "best movie ever"? God no... but I'd at least prefer not to feel depressed over it, even if some elements deserved an eye roll.



The only real subplot I see happening in the second - though imo it is very vague and you gotta pay attention to it to even pick up on it - is what's going on with Leo and his dealing with the failure of stopping Shredder from escaping, his disappointment in how he thinks they are not performing together as a team well (hit on by the opening training stuff, his comments after they go down the water fall, in the plane, etc), and the fear of how this new "it could turn us human!" ooze could tear them apart...all while Splinter told him that if he keeps the team together they'll always succeed. (And we know failing the last thing this guy wants to keep doing.) Stuff is bugging him for a good amount of the movie if you keep an eye on him... I give them a little credit that they keep this going with him and being vague isn't really a bad thing as its fun to pick up on it if you look hard enough, but it would have been nice to have at least one other subplot that is a bit more obvious and actually goes somewhere.