Watch my youtube review HERE!
Once again we have another Hollywood blockbuster based on a comic book series. Of course this series is the loveable Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which spawned two great TV series and three campy but slightly endearing movies in the 90's. This film is directed by Jonathan Liebesman and produced by Michael Bay...yes, that Michael Bay... It stars Megan Fox, Will Arnett, William Fichtner with Alan Ritchson, Johnny Knoxville, Jeremy Howard and Noel Fisher voicing the Turtles and Tony Shalhoub as Splinter.
The plot follows April O'Neil a she tries to uncover the workings of the foot clan and comes upon the Ninja Turtles. Together they must stop the Shredder from gassing the city (a la Amazing Spiderman) and trying to take their blood (a la Amazing Spiderman 2) for mutagen. With this film comes an over produced and badly written product that is bound the sell toys but fails to engage the viewer and make them care about anything that happens on screen. Sure it's slick to look at and the action scenes can be fun but it's hard to care about a movie that is bland and uninteresting; especially when it has terribly written dialogue.
Now the actors actually try. They try their hardest with the material they were given but unfortunately what they're give is badly written with underdeveloped characters. Megan Fox actually isn't terrible, it's just the lines she is given to say that are bad. The voice work for the turtles is actually pretty good too and Raphael actually has a bit of a character arc but once again what they're given to say is laughable and not in a good way.
Michael Bay's influence on Jonathan Liebesman can really be seen in the visual style of this film. You have all the dolly moves, lens flares and canted angles only really being different by having a cooler colour palate. There are so many movies mimicking this style these days that it's no longer exciting and even though it's slick I find it rather bland. The set pieces also get over-long at times as well as incomprehensible, making what was exciting no longer engaging. When you take into account humour that doesn't hit there isn't really much that is entertaining in this film and it's supposed to be a blockbuster.
What the new Ninja Turtles film does is only take what's on the surface of the franchise and it expects that too be enough. The truth is that there is more to the Ninja Turtles than the fact that they like pizza, know Ninjutsu and are teenagers but this movie and the filmmakers involved don't seem recognise that. The film seems like it's only made to be brand and because of that it forgets about the characters and in the process it becomes a rather forgettable film. Gone are the characters we loved and in their place are rather grotesque shells (pun not intended, but kind of intended as well) with nothing beneath the surface, just like the toys I'm sure it will sell.
2 out of 5 stars.
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