Movie Review: "TMNT"

T-U-R-T-L-E Power.

With the voice talents of Mako as Splinter, Sarah Michelle Gellar as April O’Neill, and Patrick Stewart as Winters. Based on the comics and cartoon shows, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

The story goes like this: Master Splinter has sent Leonardo to South America to train to be a better leader. During this sabbatical, Donatello does tech support, Michelangelo pretends to be a “Turtle” for kiddie birthday parties, and Raphael spends his night as a vigilante called The Nightwatcher. Casey Jones and April O’Neill stay with each other. And the Foot Clan work for whoever gives them money, seeing as the Shredder is dead.

Leonardo returns just as 3,000-year-old stone statue generals pommel the city trying to capture 13 evil monsters which will be sent back through a portal into another dimension that just so touches down in New York City. If you don’t know at least some of the history of the series, this may not be a movie for you.

SPOILER: 3,000 years ago a warrior opened a portal that gave him immortal life, but turned his generals into stone and unleashed 13 evils on the world. This being a year the portal can open (in New York, nonetheless) the Turtles investigate what’s occurring.

I really liked this movie. It’s a small cry from the TV cartoon I watched growing up but it was still enjoyable. Surprisingly, it was dark. The usual amount of humor, cornball and otherwise, was somewhat lacking. Most of the really funny lines were shown in the trailer (pretty standard nowadays…)

Before I talk about what worked, let me go over what didn’t. This movie, while fast action-paced, is not a true kids movie. I don’t think that a lot of them would get it. The usual parody humor was replaced by drama. The beginning was a small introduction to what the Turtles were, before we find that they’ve broken up and it’s the return of their elder brother Donatello that enables them to be a force to reckon with. It also seems to me that many of the comic book genre movies are doing the, “superhero gone for an extended period of time” thing, which can get monotonous (see also: “Superman Returns”)

Also, the script relied on clichés. While kids may not see them, I’ve seen them only too often. Of note, an immortal guy trying to raise an ancient, otherworldly power that only comes once-so-often, a team of individuals broken up that has to reform, two members of the team having the power struggle… etc. This does not mean however that the film was bad, it just used a lot of instances done before. But the center of a portal to another dimension can be accessed from New York City? Who ya gonna call?

What worked for the movie was the graphics. Softer and somewhat fluid, I was really impressed with how the characters looked and reacted, especially during fight sequences. One of the scenes that stuck out was Raphael and Leonardo fighting on a rooftop in the rain. It was incredible. Also, the direction and editing of the story. No shot/take lasted too long, and it kept the movie going. Lastly, there was a story.

Overall, this movie deserves a solid ‘B.’ Could’ve been better, could’ve been funnier, but then again it could have been a lot worse. Not a bad way to drop $5.

-Chas