As a young child there were many toys that I truly loved - He-Man, Transformers, GI Joe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Of all of those recent movies have been released except for He-Man and I am awaiting that one with high hopes. The Turtles though were something that I found a true liking and of course the closest that I could relate. They were of course teenagers and loved pizza. So what if they lived in a sewer and probably smelled bad, I could never get enough of the cartoons or the toys and was completely amazed when the original movie came out. It was actually well done. Although the original April O'Neil wasn't my favorite, she kind of grew on you. After a few sequels and cartoon movies, I had thought the franchise was doomed. But in today's Hollywood, any movie out there is up for "re-imagination". I am glad they are re-inventing the turtles though. They needed an edgier look and of course with today's special effects and CGI what better way than to include the TMNTs.
I was a little worried because I had heard Michael Bay was in charge of this one. Luckily for the Turtle fans out there Bay wasn't the director and was pretty much a Co-Producer. Apparently he is busy working on how to screw up another Transformer movie. Some people don't like Megan Fox but in the role of April O'Neil, she did a great job. April is a little on the corny side and well what teenager wouldn't look at her and fall for those good looks. The Turtles are teenagers after all. The only draw back to this movie was the character development in shredder. There wasn't any at all. He was kind of a side note and the only thing that made him even remotely cool was a metallic Samurai Iron Man suit. It was interesting but a little too much. Will Arnet Plays a great goofball and William Fichtner plays a great bad guy. I actually wish they would have made Fichtner Shredder. It would have actually made some sense but then again, who am I to say how Hollywood should make a movie? I don't even get paid to write these reviews.
I can tell that this wasn't Michael Bay because there weren't as many explosions as one could expect out of one of his movies. Yet, if you know his movies you can see the humor and use of actions that equate to a Bay movie. Other than those undertones the movie has a pretty good pace. The action scenes come often and one can throw in a good laugh track. The graphics are great. It is nice seeing the turtles as beefed up wrecking machines. There is violence but in order to keep the PG-13 rating there isn't any gore.
I would recommend this movie to all the Turtle fans out there. Even if you think you might be dissapointed by the lack of Fan Boy love, it still does the Turtles justice. Children 9 and above shouldn't have too much of a problem watching it either. Although some of the scenes can be a little scarrier for the younger ones. The comedy does suit the younger crowd. Unlike Guardians of the Galaxy the comedy here is geared to the young ones. If you have no love of the TMNT or any kind of action flick and just want to cuddle to a honey, stay away from this one. If you are one of us that grew up watching them in cartoon form in one way or the other, you won't be too dissapointed, and some of you may actually end up enjoying it more than you thought possible.
