TMNT review by Robert Sousa
August 11, 2014 10:33 pm | Leave your thoughts
Approaching the release of this movie, I was not fond of anything that was revealed: Michael Bay being attached, the look of the turtles, and rumors of a new alien origin. All had me worried this would not be the Turtles movie I wanted. Having seen it, it is definitely NOT the Turtles movie I wanted, however it is not the disaster of a movie it could have been.
TMNT starts out fairly strong. Giving a little bit of exposition, there is some well-done art, animation, and colors that give a pleasant comic book feel. I like the first appearance where one of the turtles is in the distance on a roof as a shadowy figure. In their next appearance fighting the Foot in the shadows of the subway, we never see them, only the enemies being taken out and thrown through train widows. This is when the movie gives the feel closest to what could make a successful Turtles movie: shadowy, stealthy, acrobatic fighters that are rarely seen. Even after that, as they slide and skateboard through the sewers, the classic mood of them having fun as teenagers is conveyed. I liked them as the mysterious vigilantes, but the interest faded as soon as they were in the light conversing with each other.
I could not have cared less about the turtles as there was no character development. They were too similar to each other. They had different skills, but they were not showcased enough. My ranking goes Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Michelangelo brought nothing to this film except juvenile comic relief and lovey jokes about April. I hated what they did to Donatello and would have put him last, but he actually used his technology to help the group in troubled times. He was too “nerdy” but towards the end they give him a good scene where he wants to breaks that label. Leo didn’t impress me and his voice going in and out as Johnny Knoxville was distracting. Raph was the most angry and solemn of the group, and even opens up with a nice speech at the end about what his brothers mean to him. Their weapons could have been a good way to differentiate, but there were not enough scenes where they showcased the skills they possess. Instead it seemed they used clothing/accessories to give them uniqueness like Leo with his chest plate and Donatello with his goggles. It seems like they created their looks with toys in mind more than contributing to a quality film. Also the size of the Turtles has bothered me from the beginning. At six feet tall I did not like how they towered over most humans and the large size made them seem more brute than acrobatic. Definitely poor versions of these great characters.
Shedder was disappointing. Like the turtles, he was not fleshed out enough and did not have appropriate motivation or screen time, especially for such an iconic villain. His suit was too over the top for my liking. I did like his mask, but overall I would toss the armor. It looked like he had Swiss army knives on each arm. The armor seemed too clunky for him to be moving with such agility and grace and really took me out of the battle with Splinter. The clash with all four turtles at the end worked much better as he appeared more evenly matched. I think it fit well in the movie that his suit was more technological, but it was too much. There was too much of an emphasis on technology overall. I would have liked to see Shedder more warrior like and the Foot also with more ninja like qualities. In my opinion, the Foot would have been more fun as acrobatic ninjas instead of men carrying machine guns, shooting whenever something pops out. The new take on these bad guys was a failure.
Megan Fox, like everything with this movie, was just ok. She was not too impressive as April O’Neil. I feel like her best scenes were with her camera man, Vernon played by Will Arnett. Arnett was the high point of this movie. Not that you’d see it just for his performance, but I felt he was genuine. I enjoyed every scene he was featured in since he used the only lines of dialogue I laughed at. William Fichtner, as a main villain, was nothing too memorable. I am glad he was not actually Shedder as the trailers may have indicated. Finally, Master Splinter is present and shown as a caring yet tough father figure. I didn’t love his look or voice, but I was emotionally invested and thought he had some good scenes.
There had been rumors that the story would feature the Turtles and Shedder as aliens from another dimension which would have been silly; instead it’s a boring tale of test subjects injected with a mutagen that gives them powers. We find it is the result of work by April’s father, and she even named these creatures before saving them when the laboratory burned down. They use this to connect all characters; unfortunately, this adds no depth to the plot. The story is just forgettable and bland.
The CG was great. The turtles looked good standing on screen with live actors. There’s an especially good scene where April and Vernon are hanging on to Leo as he hangs from the edge of a cliff. I always worry with CG characters that they will look out of place with the live actors, but that was not an issue here. In fact, after Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, and now TMNT, CG is something I feel we don’t have to worry about as much.
Two scenes with Raphael stood out to me as completely thoughtless. The Foot presuming he is dead even when they do not have a body. A six foot turtle body should not be difficult to miss. Even with a lot of rubble, you would think they’d wait for confirmation. Another scene has Raphael shooting bullets back out from his chest. No explanation given. These two scenes stand out as memorably senseless.
I won’t toss this film, I’d give it a low taste it. Take a bite see what you think. I will not watch it again, but I am glad I ended up seeing it. I was honestly excepting to walk out. Some people will really enjoy it but not die hard TMNT fans. It has been confirmed that a sequel is coming, and I find that discouraging as I would rather see them scrap this version and start over again to give us the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie we want and deserve.
Tags: pop culture leftovers, teenage mutant ninja turtles
Categorised in: Movie Reviews
This post was written by David Griffin
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