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TMNT

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back—and they’ve never looked this good. Thanks to the strides that moviemaking has made in computer animation, moviemakers are now able to take these reptilian heroes to new heights. The action sequences are far more impressive than the previous films, which used live action and rubber suits.

Unfortunately, the wonderful visuals are probably the best thing about this movie. As a child of the TMNT era, I had high hopes for the film. But it doesn’t quite deliver. The biggest problem is that TMNT doesn’t pull you in, and it doesn’t make you care about the characters.

The plot follows the escapades of the band of brothers post-Shredder (their archnemesis). The group has apparently disbanded, with Leonardo (the leader) training in South America, Donatello (the brains) working in tech support, and Michelangelo (the goof-off) eeking out a living by working as a kiddie-party character. Rafael (the hotheaded one) is the only turtle still fighting crime, patrolling the city as the vigilante Nightwatcher.

The brothers reunite just in time to face a new threat to the city: thirteen ancient monsters and a quartet of immortal, 3,000-year-old warriors. They have help along the way from Master Splinter (voiced by the late Mako), April O’Neal, and the hockey mask-wearing, baseball bat-toting Casey. But this threat to the planet takes a backseat to the turbulent family dynamics of the turtle clan. Though the movie boasts some great action scenes, the majority of the film focuses on the fighting and squabbling of the brothers. Whether or not the world is saved is unimportant; watching Rafael lose his temper for the umpteenth time is what we are to focus on.

TMNT makes a good faith effort to both revive the turtles’ glory days and revitalize the franchise. For kids, the movie is a novelty filled with bright colors and flashy imagery. For nostalgic adults, however, the movie falls flat. It’s at once anticlimactic and well, too cartoony. Had the filmmakers pursued the darker undertones of the original film, it might have been a very different story. But as it is, TMNT is a pretty shell with nothing inside.

Written by: Jess Boettger

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