By: Robert Murphy
Growing up I was in love with those four pizza eating heroes that lived deep down in the sewers of New York City and I'm sure a lot of you did as well, kids today even get to enjoy new versions of the classic characters and have fallen crazy for these teenage mutant ninja turtles. Now we have a new addition to tell the story of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael along with their rat master Splinter and how they all came to be. Once more we see the Foot Clan terrorizing the world and it is up to the four to put an end to it and save New York from this group and their leader, Shredder. Will they be up to the task? And will the movie prove to spark up some childhood memories? Well let's find out.
The first time I watched a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was back in the 1990's, where the turtles were played by men in big clunky and ridiculous looking suits but you know none of that mattered because it added to the charm of the already ridiculous idea of four human like turtles fighting crime like ninjas. Now things have changed though, technology has come a long way and we can see the turtles in a new way which should be better right? Well I don't think this was the case, the turtles are still lean, mean, fighting machines but for whatever reason the movie felt it was important to put a whole bunch of useless material attached to the turtles to amplify their personas. For instance Donatello is covered with random technological gizmos and gadgets to show how he is the smart one of the group and you just sit there and ask yourself, "why?". There was really no need for it and the turtles personas from the shows don't come up much as it is in the movie. The teenage mutant turtles I saw in this movie were bland characters, they had no substantial appeal to them at all and they're what the movie was all about so what is there left to enjoy?
The turtles most powerful enemy also returns for the reboot for TMNT and proves to be the greatest challenge they have ever faced before. The Shredder has always been an incredible enemy to the turtles in the show and he never fails to be one of my favorite bad guys from my childhood just by how skilled he is and how much of a challenge it is to fight him every time. His skills alone were what made him so deadly before but not in this adaptation unfortunately, this time the Shredder has a new fancy robotic suit that somehow comes out and it is simply stupid in my eyes. When we first meet Shredder in the movie, we see him training his skills by taking down armed Foot Clan members with his hands chained behind him, not taking a single scratch from the encounter. This was awesome but then why would you put the already killer warrior in a samurai suit covered in knives then? It was pointless and takes away from the Shredder character. His Foot Clan are not any better, we do see Karai (Minae Noji) make an appearance as second in command but she is barely even used or referenced as a character and appears weak and worthless rather than a strong character like in the show. The Foot themselves are just as weak, they appear more as thugs than elite ninjas under Shredder's command, they even wear weird masks that look oddly similar to the masks worn by the Immortals from 300 which makes even less sense.
Not much of what makes TMNT what it was to all of us is present here in the latest movie, when something does come up that would make you laugh or smile in nostalgia is ruined before it even happens. The one point where the turtles famous catch phrase, "cowabunga" comes out but it is ruined by a ten minute set up like a bad joke. Any and all references are ruined by poor set up and placement in the movie, the pizza loving, catch phrases, all of it was just a shallow pond that you're forced to swim in. I was mildly surprised by April O'Neil (Megan Fox) who was the one part of the movie that was actually accurate in comparison to the old show, she is driven, a great reporter and was the resident cutie for the turtles to pal around with. It may be a little hard to see with her dialogue being ruined by her partner and camera man Vernon Fenwick (Will Arnett) who attempts to constantly hit on her and fail time and time again.
In the end, I'm so immensely disappointed by the new TMNT movie, so very little remains the same of the original story from the comic book and shows that it might as well have been an entirely different movie. What little remains of the original story was ruined with painstakingly long set up and poor writing. April O'Neil was the somewhat decent character hidden away in the movie and other than an epic fight between Shredder and Master Splinter, there was not much to enjoy about the new turtles. Despite all this, the knuckle headed turtles proved to earn a pretty penny on this latest movie so maybe a new director will come in if a sequel is in the works.
The turtles most powerful enemy also returns for the reboot for TMNT and proves to be the greatest challenge they have ever faced before. The Shredder has always been an incredible enemy to the turtles in the show and he never fails to be one of my favorite bad guys from my childhood just by how skilled he is and how much of a challenge it is to fight him every time. His skills alone were what made him so deadly before but not in this adaptation unfortunately, this time the Shredder has a new fancy robotic suit that somehow comes out and it is simply stupid in my eyes. When we first meet Shredder in the movie, we see him training his skills by taking down armed Foot Clan members with his hands chained behind him, not taking a single scratch from the encounter. This was awesome but then why would you put the already killer warrior in a samurai suit covered in knives then? It was pointless and takes away from the Shredder character. His Foot Clan are not any better, we do see Karai (Minae Noji) make an appearance as second in command but she is barely even used or referenced as a character and appears weak and worthless rather than a strong character like in the show. The Foot themselves are just as weak, they appear more as thugs than elite ninjas under Shredder's command, they even wear weird masks that look oddly similar to the masks worn by the Immortals from 300 which makes even less sense.
Not much of what makes TMNT what it was to all of us is present here in the latest movie, when something does come up that would make you laugh or smile in nostalgia is ruined before it even happens. The one point where the turtles famous catch phrase, "cowabunga" comes out but it is ruined by a ten minute set up like a bad joke. Any and all references are ruined by poor set up and placement in the movie, the pizza loving, catch phrases, all of it was just a shallow pond that you're forced to swim in. I was mildly surprised by April O'Neil (Megan Fox) who was the one part of the movie that was actually accurate in comparison to the old show, she is driven, a great reporter and was the resident cutie for the turtles to pal around with. It may be a little hard to see with her dialogue being ruined by her partner and camera man Vernon Fenwick (Will Arnett) who attempts to constantly hit on her and fail time and time again.
In the end, I'm so immensely disappointed by the new TMNT movie, so very little remains the same of the original story from the comic book and shows that it might as well have been an entirely different movie. What little remains of the original story was ruined with painstakingly long set up and poor writing. April O'Neil was the somewhat decent character hidden away in the movie and other than an epic fight between Shredder and Master Splinter, there was not much to enjoy about the new turtles. Despite all this, the knuckle headed turtles proved to earn a pretty penny on this latest movie so maybe a new director will come in if a sequel is in the works.
Good:
- April O'Neil wasn't too bad of a character and was the closest I got to an original character from the show
- Master Splinter and Shredder's fight scene
Bad:
- The new Shredder is ridiculous and it's clear Michael Bay is taking his Transformers styling and applying it here
- The turtles are bland characters who adopt a new look that is just awful
- The original story is completely lost on this movie
Scully Rating: 3.0 out of 10
Scully Rating: 3.0 out of 10
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