Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Now before I begin this review let me clear the fact that this MOVIE is aiming for the new younger audience. This movie is not focusing on aiming for the fans of the past generation. So lets look at it this way.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is directed by Jonathan Liebsman and Produced by Michael Bay. It stars Megan Fox as April O'Neil, and 4 turtles who don't look that good with the CGI. With this kind of set up, its already predictable that this would be a disaster.

As I watched this movie in a theater packed with a tremendous amount of children. I guess I could say, this movie was entertaining for me. The stars of the movie are, hands down the Turtles especially Mikey. They stole the movie in every scene they were in, and I would watch a 1 hour movie with just all of them goofing around and making jokes. However, in fact the movie often negates the fact that the turtles are the main subject in this movie, it circles it's story mostly around April O'Neil. As for her character, I found her annoying at many times. And because Michael Bay has something to do with this movie, Megan Fox had to do scenes for the "benefit' of Bay as usual. Going back to the turtles, I think that they had nailed them and captured everything that we loved about them, the movie is worth watching because of them. The Villains are one of the weak points of this film. Shredder is a very dull, boring and predictable villain. He is only there for what I believe is fan service. Other than that, his motives are unclear and the reason he is in this movie is for the battle scenes.

As for the story, it is filled with unbelievable amounts of cliché. Because of this, I had no choice but to be irritated at times or sometimes these scenes gave no effect to me whatsoever even if the main intention of the scene was entirely different. The evil plot of the villain, was downright cringe worthy, plot holes were circling from there and there. . Clichés and plot holes aside, the story is what I would imagine for children and all of us were to look it that way, then I guess I could say the plot was alright I guess. The action sequences were just OK, there were some that were interesting and some that was incredibly DIFFICULT to watch. I know Michael Bay didn't direct this, but My God. Every Michael Bay action-cliché is in this movie. The Slow Motion, Explosions, Attractive Women and the incredibly shaky camera. I almost felt dizzy watching some of the action sequences.

At the end of the day, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a great movie to watch if you want bonding times with your kids or if you're totally high or craving for some pizza. In my opinion, it won't ruin your childhood, in fact it might even remind and bring back old memories of your childhood, with the many references being made in this movie. The kids will love this movie and I recommend everyone to bring pizza while watching it.

A dull and boring villain, a mediocre plot filled with a massive amount of clichés and Michael Bay style action sequences. without the Turtles, this movie would be pure trash.

Verdict: 6.5/10

Fmovies: I luckily avoid reading opinions before seeing a movie. This movie was a perfect entertainment for the less than 1h50 that it lasts. Although I had enjoyed watching TNMT anime when I was adolescent, I've never been a hardcore fan and it is true that I cannot spot any of the traits that other purists criticized about. What I certainly know is that it was a nice combination of Transformers/Batman/Martial-art material based on a plot that seemed solid and justified.

Megan-April was more Megan than April, but she is the right actress for that sort of character. She is not the true red-hair girl I would prefer to see, but she is not less successful than fake blonde J.Alba in Fantastic4, or fake-redhead Scarlett J. in the Avengers. She has the right age and overall stature for the role and she is always fun to watch.

The turtles were very versatile and realistic in all ways and I liked that each one got an emphasized ability (or weakness!), differentiating from the anime where all looked quite the same.

The action sequences were mind-blowing, synchronized at the ultimate speed the human eye can perceive them. Unlike transformers and other movies where the action and fight are so messy, shaken and difficult to follow that you wished to just skip forward to the outcome, in this case it is absorbing, spectacular and humorous. Which is what all TNMT productions are really about.

The music, production design, voices and sound are exactly as they should be to throw you into the screen.

It might not be a 10, but in front of all those purists destroying franchises, 10 is the least I could give to hope for at least 2 sequels. And I don't mind who ever purist out there may just avoid it.

Don't miss it!

Story, presentation, originality, humor, character presentation and acting are all things obviously left unexplored in this epically abysmal 2014 installation of the turtles franchise.

The action sequences are bland but plentiful. Faithfulness to the original series is lost. Megan Fox acting is quite possibly the worst part of the movie, unbelievable and disconnected throughout.

With as many franchises that he shits on, I advice you to try to stay as far away as possible from anything Michael Bay touches in the future.

If you look at it objectively it's like a mash between most popular action films with extremely distinguishable parts taken from others. Combind that with a story so shallow and predictable that a 5 minute trailer video would be a more appropriate medium for this release. We mourn the times when action movies didn't make us cringe in every other scene.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fmovies. What a stinker! These Turtles are big gross slimy steroid freaks. They may crack wise and talk about pizza to appeal to fans but they're lifeless and empty shells of previous representations of the characters. Abby Elliott is wasted in a bit part as Megan Fox's roommate. She would have been a better choice for April O'Neil than the Botoxed and colorless Fox. The script isn't great but some of the material could have worked better had they cast an actress with the slightest bit of talent. But no, instead we get this vapid woman who should have faded into obscurity years ago. What the hell was Will Arnett doing in this? Oh and did anyone doubt when you first see William Fichtner that he would turn out to be a bad guy? If your answer is yes, congratulations on seeing your first movie ever. Wish it was a better one. The changes made to the backstory are unnecessary and add nothing good. Poorly acted, shallow, dumb, downbeat -- it's a crappy excuse for what should be, first and foremost, escapist entertainment. The late '80s / early '90s Turtles cartoon and movies were hardly high art but at least they had an enthusiasm about them that was fun to watch. Skip this tired garbage. It's an hour and a half I'll never get back.

Here we goÂ…

So Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the reboot to the ever so popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman for some reason and produced by Michael Bay, also for some reason.. You all know the story by now. 4 mutated turtles grow up in the sewer raised by a giant rat who knows martial arts and trains them so they can protect the city from Shredder. No difference in this movie.

So the movie opens up in sort of a graphic novel type animation telling the story of the turtles which I'll admit was a nice nod to the original source material from which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came from. From there we meet April (Megan Fox) who's trying to get a story about the evil foot clan that have been terrorizing the city. She then witnesses the turtles stop them and follows them to get evidence of their existence. The turtles stop her and return to their master who says they need April's help. I won't spoil why. From there they must work together and stop Shredder from releasing a toxin on the city.

I wanted simply one thing from this movie after all the crap I've seen from it over the last few years. I want the turtles to be the turtles. I want them to reflect how they were in the 2003 cartoon preferably. A darker take but still humorous and likable. I grew up on that and the 80's cartoon and 1990's movies. Thank the lord I got that. The turtles are the best part of this movie. They deliver some funny lines although not everyone of them hit. Like you can feel that the jokes were modeled for kids which the whole movie is basically. It's like a big toy commercial. Or a Crush soda commercial. Or a Samsung phone and tablet commercial. Yeeeeah lot of product placement in this movie. Very obvious at that. Anyways as for the other characters we have April O'Neil played by Megan Fox who was alright. I really wish they worked on her dramatic screams though because those were just awful. We also have Will Arnett as her camera man who I guess is supposed to be the comic relief in this movie but literally does not have one funny joke in the whole thing even though you can feel you're supposed to be laughing but I didn't even smirk. It was like watching a stand up comic bomb his performance. Splinter was an enjoyable character. You could really see how he tied this family together.

Now if there's one thing I like in a movie it's a good villain. Did I get this? No. No I did not. Shredder has no character to him at all. In the 2003 version of him he got all this character development and I learned the motivation behind why he did what he did. In this he's literally just a guy who wants to make money. Or at least help Eric Sacks (William Fichtner) make money which is a very stupid motivation in my book. Usually villains steal money for the purpose of something bigger but in this.. they just want money. Which Eric already has because he lives in a freakin castle on top of a mountain! How much more money does he need?! Sigh.. Shredder was just so one dimensional and uninteresting. I was so let down by this.

Well what about the effects? They're actually pretty good. They did make the turtles sweat a lot though. Like A LOT. But it looked nice so I was happy about that. One downside is the CGI went down a little when interacting with humans. Like in Transformers 4. Not much to say other than those two things because I didn't focus on it much.

One last thing and I know every reviewer is saying this but it ca

Folks, it's no exaggeration when I say this one is bad. And I'm not just reviewing it as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. The Ninja Turtles are a lore. Every telling of the story deserves its own version, like Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, or Batman. Adam West, Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck all play different versions of Batman in different universes. Though I have a version of the Turtles I like best, I can set aside that prejudice for this review. It's just a very awful film. It's so bad, I don't understand how the current rating stands at 6 stars.

The movie has no real sense of identity, like the filmmakers really had no idea what to do with it. Where are the Turtles going to go? What are they going to do when they get there? Is it going to be spring time or winter? Should it be in the city or in the mountains? Low to the ground in dark settings or high up on roof tops in broad daylight? Are the Turtles stealthy ninjas or mini-Hulks that just needlessly destroy stuff? And are they main characters or secondary plot pieces? Is April O'Neil tech savvy, or does she still conduct interviews with pen and paper? (Through the first half-hour, perhaps even by the end of the film, you'll have a tough time convincing yourself the title shouldn't have been "April O'Neil: The Movie.")

It's very evident that the writers did not know how to work with "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Again, this has nothing to do with a faithfulness to any kind of version of TMNT. Just, really, they had no clue how to make those four elements work. They're not so much teenagers as they are just dumb. The movie lets the Turtles aspect be self-implied. The Mutants part as well, though it does play loosely into the plot (heh, just kidding, there is no plot). The idea of ninjutsu, though, is a complete afterthought. Seriously, it's just sandwiched in there somewhere and plays no relevance to the story whatsoever, nor has an identifying presence for any character, even Splinter or Shredder.

Yeah, Shredder. That's a whole other useless incorporation. The guy is somewhere between a clunky Power Ranger villain (the ones in great big suits that don't move very well) and Bane from "Batman and Robin." He doesn't even fill the main villain role. That "honor" would go to William Fichtner's character, Eric sounds-like-sex Sacks. Shredder's just a tool. His appearance, fighting-style, and overall awkwardness are all loud, awful reminders of how the filmmakers knew nothing about ninjutsu or how to use it. "You know what? Just make 'em fight with ninja weapons, put lots and lots of blades around, and be sure the word 'Japan' gets into someone's origin story somewhere. Close enough."

Yes, the Turtles are kind of funny, but it's completely incidental. There were times when the movie tried to force something humorous, but in the theater I was in, no one laughed. And I was in a packed house. Their personalities are nothing but typecasting: Leo is the serious control-freak, Raphael the brooding B.A., Michelangelo is a goof-ball, and Donatello is the inventive... nerd! Yeah, nerds are inventive, right? Let's make him a snorting, glasses-wearing dork! You know what, just make him Simon from Alvin and the Chipmunks. You never feel like you get to be a part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They're just kind of there. The viewer is more watching from April or Vern's vantage point, never