MOVIE OF THE WEEK (8/8/14): TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
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| "We better not be late to this party man ... I took an extra 20 minutes to make sure I had my best clean mask!" The titular characters – Michelangelo (orange mask), Rafael (Red mask), Donatello (purple mask with glasses) and Leonardo (Blue mask, with swords) prepare to face off against their arch nemesis in a scene from director Jonathan Liebesman's take on the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES. |
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Danny Woodburn, Abby Elliot, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Pete Polszek, Alan Ritchson, Minae Noji, Whoopi Goldberg, William Fichtner, Tohoru Masamune and the voices of Johnny Knoxville and Tony Shaloub
WRITER(S): Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Evan Daugherty (screenplay); Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman (original characters on which the film is based)
DIRECTOR(S): Jonathan
Liebesman
WEB SITE: http://www.teenagemutantninjaturtlesmovie.com/60 SECOND PLOT SYNOPSIS (OR AS CLOSE TO IT AS ONE CAN TRY TO MAKE): Re-booting the storied franchise, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stars Megan Fox as April O'Neill, a TV reporter in New York City looking for a big break. You see, she's stuck doing mostly popcorn features while her colleagues get to chase big stories – and there's no bigger story than the Foot Clan (so named because they step over people) currently terrorizing the Big Apple.
As it turns out, Eric Sacks (William Fichtner) is trying his best to stop the Foot Clan, but he holds a much deeper connection to April as her father worked with him at his research facility back in the day. But following her father's tragic death in a fire at Sacks Industries, she's lost contact with much of her past, which included playing with some animals that were in his research lab ...
Meanwhile, a band of four brothers with very distinct personalities train in martial arts in the sewers beneath the city. They are trained by their master, a wiser, older individual who knows one day his adopted sons will be needed to save the city ... And he is a giant rat named Splinter (voiced by Tony Shaloub). But that should not be surprising to anyone who knows anything about the logic-minded Donatello, the fun-loving Michelangelo, the calm Leonardo or rage-filled Rafael.
And thanks to April's sleuthing and the actions of Shredder (Tohoru Masamune), the evil Foot Clan leader, the world might just be ready to find out who they are ...
WHO WILL LIKE THIS FILM THE MOST?: Transformers movie fans, pre-teens, people who enjoy lighthearted super hero movies
WHO WON'T – OR SHOULDN'T – LIKE THIS FILM?: People who don't like the cartoony (in practice) superheroes, people who hated the Transformers movies, anyone who likes a bit more of a serious tone to their superhero movies
BOTTOM LINE – IS IT GOOD, GREAT, BAD OR DOWNRIGHT AWFUL? It's average at best ... Which given it's lackluster humor, focus on the human characters and new origin story, will translate into "below average" or "awful" long before it translates into "good" for many people.
WHAT'S GOOD (OR BAD) ABOUT IT? "It's better than Transfomers ..." Now, if you are paying attention, you'll likely have noticed that Michael Bay's handling of the Transformers, a franchise that has disappointed critics wildly with its unintelligible storylines, racist subtexts, objectification of women and overall lackluster acting has also pulled in over a billion, yes a billion, dollars in box office receipts. Thus, for as much as people love to hate on Bay – this article on Entertainment Weekly's Web site sums it up nicely – he continues to turn out hits.
Well America, that's largely on you. And given the fact his influence (he's a producer on the film) is all over director Jonathan Liebesman's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), don't expect the hate or the money to subside any time soon.
The things that are good in the latest installment of TMNT are very good: The fight scenes are engaging, Shredder feels like an unstoppable force-type villain and the Turtles play well off one another. Unfortunately, the desire to make a kid-friendly group of superheroes also finds Liebesman and company throwing in some awful jokes, taking playful nature that is central to Michelangelo and turning him into an annoying, Jar Jar Binks-like girl-crazy figure and some downright questionable acting by the human characters.
The major problem, however, is that this version of TMNT isn't really about the turtles at all: It's mainly about the transition of April O'Neill to central player in not only the Turtles' operations but very existence, which is sure to rub some the wrong way ... The Turtles at times feel like tag along players in their own movie – and NO ONE ever said to his or her self "You know what the TMNT need to make it more interesting? More April O'Neill!" You can tell Fox is doing her best to make the character work, but with the story's focus largely being on her instead of the Turtles, the daunting task of carrying the film is a bit more than she is up to. It's not that she's bad; it's just that she's asked to do way too much when she never should have been. The audience should be connecting to the Turtles and that is the where the proverbial wheels start to come off ...
Adding to the problems is Arnett, whom it feels forces out every one of his bad punchlines, turning in a performance as a news cameraman not seen since Hank Azaria starred in the ill-fated Godzilla movie in the late 1990s. Fichtner is also pretty bland in his turn once his character's true nature is revealed, which is foreshadowed enough that anyone paying attention can tell what's going to happen before it does.
Put it this way: TMNT plays almost like an anti-Guardians of the Galaxy. The things it does well it does pretty well ... But jokes are flat, the edge is taken away by the lack of cohesion and it seems like it's suffering an identity crisis: Do we want to have the, super kid-friendly, lovable characters in zany action sequences ... Or do we want them to have an edge, do sick martial arts moves and/or play like a coming of age tale that is mostly centered around the main human character? The film feels like it's trying to serve too many audiences, which in turn hurts it from finding one defining one that might really enjoy it. There is MORE than enough within the story of the Turtles to make an interesting film, but this one feels a bit shortchanged.
Not that it's not enjoyable at times ... It's just that the latest installment of the heroes in a half shell comes off as a bit half baked.
WHO WON'T – OR SHOULDN'T – LIKE THIS FILM?: People who don't like the cartoony (in practice) superheroes, people who hated the Transformers movies, anyone who likes a bit more of a serious tone to their superhero movies
BOTTOM LINE – IS IT GOOD, GREAT, BAD OR DOWNRIGHT AWFUL? It's average at best ... Which given it's lackluster humor, focus on the human characters and new origin story, will translate into "below average" or "awful" long before it translates into "good" for many people.
WHAT'S GOOD (OR BAD) ABOUT IT? "It's better than Transfomers ..." Now, if you are paying attention, you'll likely have noticed that Michael Bay's handling of the Transformers, a franchise that has disappointed critics wildly with its unintelligible storylines, racist subtexts, objectification of women and overall lackluster acting has also pulled in over a billion, yes a billion, dollars in box office receipts. Thus, for as much as people love to hate on Bay – this article on Entertainment Weekly's Web site sums it up nicely – he continues to turn out hits.
Well America, that's largely on you. And given the fact his influence (he's a producer on the film) is all over director Jonathan Liebesman's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), don't expect the hate or the money to subside any time soon.
The things that are good in the latest installment of TMNT are very good: The fight scenes are engaging, Shredder feels like an unstoppable force-type villain and the Turtles play well off one another. Unfortunately, the desire to make a kid-friendly group of superheroes also finds Liebesman and company throwing in some awful jokes, taking playful nature that is central to Michelangelo and turning him into an annoying, Jar Jar Binks-like girl-crazy figure and some downright questionable acting by the human characters.
The major problem, however, is that this version of TMNT isn't really about the turtles at all: It's mainly about the transition of April O'Neill to central player in not only the Turtles' operations but very existence, which is sure to rub some the wrong way ... The Turtles at times feel like tag along players in their own movie – and NO ONE ever said to his or her self "You know what the TMNT need to make it more interesting? More April O'Neill!" You can tell Fox is doing her best to make the character work, but with the story's focus largely being on her instead of the Turtles, the daunting task of carrying the film is a bit more than she is up to. It's not that she's bad; it's just that she's asked to do way too much when she never should have been. The audience should be connecting to the Turtles and that is the where the proverbial wheels start to come off ...
Adding to the problems is Arnett, whom it feels forces out every one of his bad punchlines, turning in a performance as a news cameraman not seen since Hank Azaria starred in the ill-fated Godzilla movie in the late 1990s. Fichtner is also pretty bland in his turn once his character's true nature is revealed, which is foreshadowed enough that anyone paying attention can tell what's going to happen before it does.
Put it this way: TMNT plays almost like an anti-Guardians of the Galaxy. The things it does well it does pretty well ... But jokes are flat, the edge is taken away by the lack of cohesion and it seems like it's suffering an identity crisis: Do we want to have the, super kid-friendly, lovable characters in zany action sequences ... Or do we want them to have an edge, do sick martial arts moves and/or play like a coming of age tale that is mostly centered around the main human character? The film feels like it's trying to serve too many audiences, which in turn hurts it from finding one defining one that might really enjoy it. There is MORE than enough within the story of the Turtles to make an interesting film, but this one feels a bit shortchanged.
Not that it's not enjoyable at times ... It's just that the latest installment of the heroes in a half shell comes off as a bit half baked.
OVERALL RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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