3 out of 5 stars
Family appropriateness rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
-Action violence throughout.
-Mild language
-One brief sex-related joke during the credits.
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is what the trailers promise: plenty of fun, action scenes within a generic story that offers little substance.
Reporter April O'Neal (Megan Fox) is basically Kate Hudson's character on "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and Robin in "How I Met Your Mother." She wants to be a serious journalist but is confined to cover menial, fluff stories. In order to break out of this rut, she is investigates robberies done by a group of outlaws known as the "Foot Clan," led by the evil Shredder (Tohoru Masamune).
This leads her to find a group of vigilantes who are fighting the Clan. It is extremely difficult to get anyone to believe her because they are mutant turtles who happen to be teenage ninjas.* There is a deal going on between the Foot Clan and someone who wants money that will put many lives in danger. The turtles need to stop this from happening, and O'Neal tries to help them.
The first scenes with the turtles are from April O'Neal's perspective. They fight so fast in the shadows that it is impossible to see anything. When the turtles are introduced, the action is seeable, and there are some good throw-downs between them and the Foot Clan. The action is done in a super-quick, martial-arts style. Like recent super hero movies, when they hit, they hit hard.
A lot of announcements about this film have been met with skepticism. It is based on a franchise that is important to many people, and the producer is Michael Bay, who is famous for the "Transformers" films. Many people do not like him because he does not care about the source material. A lot of what he directs are shallow, lazy movies with a lot of explosions. Some of the skepticism came from rumors that the turtles were going to be aliens -- which the filmmakers decided not to do -- and the casting of Megan Fox.
This movie ended up being better than I thought it would be. It was produced by Michael Bay, not directed by him. It is not an overly-long movie with nothing but action and crazy big explosions. It is more grounded than that. It does well balancing story with action.
Megan Fox does an okay job in this film. The role does not require a great performance, and she does exactly what is required of her. What might make fans angry is not so much her performance but the fact that the turtles' origins are linked to her and her father. I do not know much about this franchise, but I am pretty sure that is not how it is supposed to be.
Though it is not horrible, this movie is mostly forgettable. The story is just a generic action-adventure, and the characters are not particularly interesting. There is too much focus on April O'Neal's story and not enough on the turtles. It shows just enough to where I have the gist of who the turtles are. There is a lot of potential for some witty banter, but most of what they say falls flat. Though the action is well-choreographed, it is not capable of putting people at the edge of their seats because it does not matter what happens to the characters.
Had this been in the hands of a better writer/director like James Gunn, it would have been a much better film. I do not recommend going out to see it in theaters. Spend your money on something worthwhile like "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" or "Guardians of the Galaxy." This one can wait for a Redbox or Netflix release.
*See what I did there?
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