[yasr_overall_rating]
As Shredder joins forces with mad scientist Baxter Stockman and henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady to take over the world, the Turtles must confront an even greater nemesis: the notorious Krang.
The turtles are back again, but this time, to shine in the city instead of hiding their identities in the dark sewer. When they hear of a dastardly plan to destroy the world, they rise to the occasion and save it.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is altogether a different kind of superhero movie. Their style is more comedic and lighthearted, but different from Spiderman and Iron Man. They’re not associated with Marvel, so perhaps it’s not fair to compare them to these heroes. Instead of focusing on one hero there’s four, and ironically, they’re turtles, which makes any villain’s imposing threat instantly wimpy. My favorite was when the villain said, in his villainy voice, “eliminate the turtles!”
The humor was the best thing about the movie. It struggled for character motivation and carelessly tumbled down an uneven path to a victory that seemed way too easy to achieve in the first place. There were multiple villains, multiple heroes, and other new characters introduced to the TMNT franchise, all begging for screen time and suffering from not getting enough.
Any superhero movie, whether represented by Marvel, DC, or TMNT from Mirage Studios, has an unmistakable challenge before them, and that’s this: to tell an old story in a new way, with fresh characters and a plot that pulls the audience in from start to finish. And with superhero movies becoming the norm (and only growing in power), the movie must be fresh, and not use the same old tricks in the bag. Unfortunately, TMNT fell prey to the sameold sameold and even worse, it never grabbed my heart or made me care.
If anything, the movie is mindless entertainment with a few treasured comedic moments. For kids, perhaps it would be a nice way to spend a hot summer afternoon. But as far as purposeful, redeeming and butt-kicking entertainment, it stayed in its shell.
Overall, I think there’s promise for the TMNT story, and it’s obviously very successful in the comic book franchise and thrives with a committed fan base. The one thing I missed, and the one thing that I think could have saved it, was to use character backstory as the backbone of the story, and reveal character motivations through past discoveries. I kept yearning for that, but it never came through. It gets close, but never delivers.
When the turtles return, like they hinted to at the end, I hope they truly kick butt, and also touch hearts, for even deep in the sewers, there is potential for that.
In theaters June 3rd
