Synopsis: They’re back… and they’re ready to kick some shell!

It’s the Year of the Turtle as everyone’s favorite hard-shelled heroes finally meet their match when an army of old foes and ancient monsters, under the command of a mysterious tycoon, threatens New York. Patrick Stewart, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Laurence Fishburne lend their voices to this powerful action-packed thrill ride.
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TMNT 8.0

I should perhaps be embarrassed, but I thoroughly enjoyed this CGI adventure of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Even though it is imperfect on a number of counts, it had plenty of excitement to spare and enough character development to sustain it. In fact, it was enjoyable enough that I’d watch a second one by the same team without even batting an eye.

The film, while not an obvious extension of the three previous live-action films, has been tailored to snugly fit as a sequel to the set. It doesn’t refer to previous events, but it was also shaped to not undo, or overlap with, anything from the previous films. It can also be watched as a separate story, so long as one has a little background on the characters (because, thankfully, they also avoid retelling the TMNT’s origin).

Personally, I think they did a sharp job of it, considering they were making a new film 15 years after the last one. They could have been lazy and done a “reboot”, as is common practice these days, but, instead, they gave us a new adventure that fans and novices can both enjoy. Not bad at all.

The premise this time is that the team has been disbanded for over a year as Leonardo is away to South America to develop his leadership skills. Meanwhile, a plot to round up thirteen alien beasts that were unleashed upon the world three thousand years ago is unfolding. Evidently, the TMNT will have to find a way to thwart the baddies, but first, they need to regroup and get their act together.

To me, the main issues with the film are the plot development and the CGI.

With regards to the plot development (the worst of these two evils), there are tons of holes and irrational moments along the way: for starters, the beasts have been around for 3000 years, but for some reason have only caused havoc upon their arrival – and not since. And yet, here they are being rounded up in New York City by the baddies. You mean they were NYC all along? How is that possible? Well it’s not explained. There may be a reason, but we’ll never know what it is.

That’s the main problem, as far as I’m concerned, but there are others and it’s peppered with little inconsequential, but moronic stuff like the main bad guy standing on a round portal, over a pit and surrounded by the thirteen cages for the thirteen beasts. There is no path or bridge anywhere. How did he get there? Did he jump? Teleport? Or did the portal just form around him?

Or when Leonardo returns home, he is a stowaway on a cargo plane. To disembark, the plane’s wheels come out as if they were about to land – but above the ocean, in midflight! I don’t know who conveniently let him out (maybe he paid someone) but it gives off an air of absolute rubbish – especially after he jumps off and a hang-glider automatically pops out of his backpack and closes up at will, permitting him to glide to and fro. Say what?

These sort of things happen far too frequently for my taste, but the advantage is that the story doesn’t hinge on them. In the first case, you can simply tell yourself that the bad guy found a way onto the portal, somehow – it’s just unexplained. In the latter, Leo would have been on the cargo plane anyway, and he would have found a way out to get home.

It’s just the “how” that’s problematic. In some cases, it’s possible to write it off –especially when it’s in the context of an action/superhero film, because they’re totally unrealistic, they’re fantasy- and just enjoy the ride. I was able to do so here. But, admittedly, it’s always better when a film is a little bit clever and doesn’t slip up like this.

The CGI is another problem. I read a review from some guy saying it was the best CGI he’d ever seen. I beg to differ. The motion was alright (or, at least, I didn’t notice any problems – which is a good start), but I found that the film sometimes looked like a high-budget video game. It mostly looked better than this, obviously, but… I don’t know… something was missing. The settings weren’t always convincing; I kept looking around for bystanders, and other minor detail that one would find in real life, and it was often lacking. It wasn’t terrible at all, but it could have been better – let’s just say that it wasn’t made by Pixar.

However, having made the film in CGI opened up the scale of the film. I can’t begin to imagine how much this would have cost if it had been done in live-action – there were scenes that were epic and there’s no way they would have achieved anything like this with “only” 34 million dollars. So I will give them that much: they managed to make a bigger-than-life film with far less due to the CGI. And it was a big plus – I found that opening up the film, giving it a bit of grandeur, only helped the TMNT. It made them more superheroic in some way, it made the film more exciting.

Thankfully, the corniness of the earlier films has been mostly left behind. Instead, we got some pretty decent relationship stuff between the main characters. Nothing Bergman-esque (or whatnot), but it was quite well fleshed out for an action flick – I really got a sense of where the characters were in their lives, how they felt and how they related to one another. And their (limited) growth in this film was handled just right – it wasn’t too much and not too little either.

So, all in all, I’d say that ‘TMNT’ was a rather decent film, for what it is. If you’re expecting the next ‘Gone With The Wind’, you’ll be disappointed. But if you’re looking for some action/adventure escapism, you’re definitely well served with this instalment. I just wish they would have made another. ‘Cause I may have to watch it again to get my fix of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at this point.

…and I don’t know if I would survive the embarrassment.