As
the Hollywood summer box-office comes to a close, another movie franchise from
the past is served up for movie-going audiences. This time, a beloved
children’s favourite animation from the 1980s and 1990s gets a live-action
treatment.
The
movie is titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The film is directed Jonathan
Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles, Wrath of the Titans) and produced by famed
directed Michael Bay along with Brad Fuller and Ian Bryce. The film stars Megan
Fox, Will Arnett, William Fichtner, Whoopi Goldberg and featuring the voices of
Johnny Knoxville and Tony Shalhoub. The script is Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec,
and Evan Daugherty. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters were originally
created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman. There were previous adaptations of
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1990, 1991, 1993, and a feature-length animated
film in 2007.
Will
another film adaptation do justice to the popular children’s characters? Do
read on…
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| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: (L-R) Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello |
SYNOPSIS:
New York is being terrorize by a crime wave lately and
hotshot television April O’Neil (Megan Fox) suspects that the mysterious Foot
Clan is involved. One day, she stumbles upon on of the Foot Clan’s activities
and discovers that there are masked vigilantes fighting against these
criminals. She investigates the identity of the vigilantes and is shocked to
discover four genetically mutated turtle with ninja skills named Leonardo,
Donatello, Raphael, and Michalengo. Together, they and O’Neil work together to
bring down the Foot Clan who are led by a notorious leader named Shredder.
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| Megan Fox in the lead role as April O'Neil |
SCRIPT:
Mediocre and predictable. Since it is a movie aimed at the much
younger generation, it is no surprise that the plot is quite predictable. There
was actually good characterization of the part of the human lead characters but
very little on the hero turtles. It jumps back and forth too much on present
plot and back stories which could be difficult to follow. The film’s dialogue
was kept simple and not too complicated. There were some funny lines too but
would have loved to see more. The ending was not so good for me as it was
extremely anti-climactic.
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| Will Arnett as Vernon Femwick and Megan Fox as April O'Neil |
ACTING:
This film does not showcase acting talents prominently
but Megan Fox and Will Arnett did pretty okay. As usual, William Fichtner gave
a good performance as the villain but the film focused more on the hero turtles
rather than him. The hero turtles were performed using motion capture visual
effects so I can really evaluate much. I would have loved to see more of Whoopi
Goldberg’s character though.
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| Michelangelo provided the majority of the comic relief |
FILMING:
Surprisingly, the production was not too badly done. The
action scenes were exciting and the visual effects were great. The ninja
turtles were primarily created on film through the use of motion capture
performance like the film Avatar (2009) and the visual effects were quite well
made. I was hoping for more ninja skills and stunts to be on display though as
they were done too quick.
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| Director Jonathan Liebesman on set with motion capture performers for the ninja turtles |
PACING:
Not too bad. Good start, good middle, but it got a bit
tiring towards the end.
TONE (MOOD):
A group of uniquely mutated animals with martial arts
skills team up with a determined investigative reporter in order to battle
mysterious enemies who plots a sinister plan of epic proportions.
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| Ninja turtles getting ready for action. |
DOWNSIDE:
Predictable storyline and anti-climactic ending.
UPSIDE:
Good
comedy and good visual effects. That is pretty much it.
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| April O'Neill (Megan Fox) in a scene with our ninja heroes |
OVERALL:
It was just an okay movie. I felt the filmmakers could
have at least make it more adult-oriented rather than focused primarily for
kids. It was just a decent adaptation.
.
RATING:
6.0 out of 10
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