The city of New York has been terrorized by an organization called the Foot Clan for too long but reporter April O'Neil believes that there are persons willing to defend the city from such terrible and cruel attacks. Little she knows that these heroes are much more unique than what she could have imagined and know she will have to join them to save their home from the most terrible being they have ever faced, Shredder.
There's no easy way to start with this I can assure you.
First things first, I was a big fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since their first cartoon series from 1987 which prompted me to know more about them and made me realize that they were initially a parody from the "Noir" style of superheroes (especifically Daredevil) and were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It also made me follow them in their different incarnations like the movies and live action series, to this day my favorite interpretation is the 2003 cartoon version, I'm not currently following the 2012 Nickelodion series.
So yeah, I love these characters and when I learned that they were getting another movie I was excited and quickly disappointed when I learned that Michael Bay was involved, but fortunately this time he wasn't directing and just producing instead while the true director would be Jonathan Liebesman who I didn't know but I was glad that it was someone different.
So, what did I think about this movie?
Let's just say that I went expecting nothing and I wasn't disappointed in that regard.
It's a shame since the opening sequence is pretty strong, featuring most of the classic story about the TMNT and the kind of beings they are which worked pretty well, but unfortunately is followed by a quite simplistic story that doesn't offer any surprise whatsover, even by superhero standards the plot is as predictable as you can get.
I must warn you that despite that Bay is not directing this film, you can clearly tell that this is one of his movies. There's pretty juvenile humour, big action, really bulky characters and explosions, etc. It's quite bad in that sense and pretty much "TMNT: Transformers Version".
Let's talk a bit about the cast shall we?
The protagonist is April O'Neil played by Megan Fox and I'm going to be the first to admit that she's one of my guilty pleasures, I just think that she's a really beautiful woman and she always delivers the "eye candy" factor for me. She actually doesn't do a bad job, she's not spectacular by any means but I still think that she made a decent work at portraying April and it's pretty faithful to most of the versions.
But holy crap, was her story with the Turtles contrived as hell. For one, she's the daughter of the scientist who created the experiment that turned them into what they currently are and she suddenly remembers that she actually gave them the names of Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo when they were normal which helped her to make the connection. How the hell did she come to that conclusion? It was just so forced.
Besides, I wish that the film would stop telling me that Megan Fox is such a gorgeous girl. Movie, I have eyes, I know that she's a bombshell, I know that she's knockout, you don't need to keep forcing that image in my mind.
Stupid sexy Fox.
Anyway, what about the Turtles, you know, the main attraction?
They are really hit and miss.
I'm not going to hate on the designs since I actually don't think they're as bad as some people say. I think Leonardo is pretty cool looking and his personality follows suit, this is simply a quite good portrayal and faithful to his usual characterization. Raphael is also really good, I truly enjoy this bulky version since that's pretty much how I've always imagined him, just like his big tough guy act which is exactly how I like him. Michaelangelo is more of a mixed bag since his design is a bit too "cheeky" and his personality is kind of annoying but I suppose that Mike has always been that way more or less so it's no big deal. Donatello is a complete fail though, his personality and look are so in your face, I know that he's the nerdy guy, you don't need to give him broken glasses and making him start shouting percentages to emphasize that.
Their humour is not exactly great either, some jokes made me chuckle but most of them made me cringe, especially the ones focusing in poc culture, they got old pretty fast. The relationship between the brothers is solid but nothing to write about.
Supporting cast is okay. There's Will Arnett as Vernon Fenwick and he's one of the funniest characters from this movie but mostly because of the personality the actor injects instead of the actual writing. Splinter is also here and while his characterization is solid, his design is by far the worst from this movie, is just so utterly ugly that you can't stare at him for too long. There's Whoopi Goldberg playing playing Bernadette Thompson (April's boss) and she's pretty much Whoopi Goldberg so if you like her acting, you will like her here, the problem is that she doesn't do too much, she's wasted in this film.
The antagonists are not really good. Shredder is played by Tohoru Masamune and he actually does a pretty good job at the beginning portraying a quite serious, imposing and intimidating presence but later he gets his armor and all his personality gets lost in it, the design is really Transformers-inspired so I didn't really like it (Then again, the premise of Shredder has always been a ridiculous one so I won't complaint much about it). No spoilers, there's a character who turns to be evil pretty early in the movie and it's so predictable and his motivations are so simple that you can't help but laugh about him (Hint: He wants money).
The dialogue is incredibly heavyhanded, sometimes you will see the characters saying the kind of personalities they have instead of showing them and of course, there will be overexposition. Plus, what's the deal with Shredder talking Japanese while the other characters speak to him in English? Go one way or another but not both please.
The effects are nice but at some points it's pretty obvious that they're CGI characters and the battles are well choreographed but nothing that impressive.
And I suppose that's my final veredict: Is not really good overall.
Is quite bad actually and at some points is even worse than Transformers: Age of Extinction. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone and even die-hard fans from the TMNT should be aware that they're not going to get the best product from this film. Watch it only if you're truly interested.
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