Another month another year, another reboot or remake, and we're back with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles again after the failed Michael Bay attempts.
Plot wise again I wasn't overly impressed. Let's not get carried away here there isn't much you can do with the Turtles and this offering is clearly aimed at the younger generation so...Baxter Stockman is killed and his mutagenic ooze is stolen, but not before some falls down into the sewer and creates our heroes. Years later the now fully grown Turtles must try to stop a criminal known as Superfly (not Baxter Stockman for some reason). Turns out Superfly is a big mutant with a mutant gang (guess how?) who are planning to turn the human race into mutants with the ooze.
What's the fundamental change this time? Well it mostly appears to be the visuals for the most part. On the whole I appreciate the art style used, I appreciate the attempt at a new angle and approach visually but I have to be honest and say I didn't really like it. Personally I just thought it looked messy, I know that is the style but I would have preferred it a bit neater. Whilst some shots/sequences definitely looked gorgeous (night skylines for sure), at many times I felt everything looked a bit hectic.
Another main factor I didn't really like here was the plain and simple fact that the Turtles make friends with all the villains to the point that they turn on Superfly AND they all get a happy finale! Now don't get me wrong I appreciate the story angle here with the bad guys realising their mistakes and admitting they don't really wanna be bad, they've just been misled by Superfly. But this really messes with the whole Turtle lore in my opinion and leaves nothing for future movies. As it stands right now, Bebop, Rocksteady. Leatherhead, Wingnut etc...are all good guys living in the Turtles lair! And can I ask, did we REALLY need the Superfly villain to actually sound like a cliche Blaxploitation character? Bit on the nose.
I was also not too overwhelmed with some new character aspects. Splinter is voiced by Jackie Chan, the master of martial arts infused with stunt comedy. Alas they have taken away the wise old man aspect from Splinter and gone with a somewhat dumbed-down comedic relief angle, minus the stunt comedy. Splinter also looks rather heavy-set and goofy truth be told. Sure he can still fight but we only see this once with the rest of the time just offering lighthearted silliness. Also not a fan of what they did with April O'Neil. Again I hate to bring up politics but yes they race-swapped April and also made her rather dumpy for some odd reason. Why?? They could have also gotten a voice actor with a real Aussie accent for Leatherhead geez!
I just feel like they've missed the mark here trying to appeal to the MCU base again. Like, Splinter and the Turtles learn martial arts...by watching TV? Was this just to get some visual laughs? Surely Splinter could have maybe gotten some literature, studied hard over the years, and then taught the Turtles himself? The fact they ALL did this at the same time is kinda stupid. All the Turtles also seem to have smartphones with no connection issues. I mean, I get they're young and I might be picky but really? How? Did they steal them? And why does Splinter fall in love with Scumbug? A mutant cockroach (gender-swapped I might add).
I know this might sound ridiculous in a kid's movie about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but, I didn't like that they used actual kids for the voices of the Turtles. To me it just doesn't sound right even though the ages are correct for the characters. Call me crazy but I prefer having actual voice actors for the characters. Plus we didn't really get fully fleshed out Turtles in my opinion, probably because of the age angle. For example, everyone in the movie talks about Raph's anger issues and rage, but we never actually see any of it, probably because they wanted to keep everything nice and safe. And then there's the soundtrack, yeah, trying WAY too hard guys. You didn't need to crank out a hit song for every new scene Jesus!
Unsurprisingly they leave Shredder for the sequel which was obvious right from the start, weak move. I mean I'm curious for sure but considering all the main villains are all cosy in the Turtle lair there's gonna have to be some major story U-turns. Either that or we won't be getting anymore Bebop, Rocksteady etc...? But who else does that leave?? Aside from the lesser known lesser cool villains.
So I dunno, I'm kinda torn here. It's not a bad movie that's for sure and as I've said I do appreciate the artistic style. But overall I still think it fails to beat the original way back in 1990 mostly because this doesn't really feel like a true Turtles flick. This feels more like a cool niche fantasy that just happens to have the Turtles in it. Like you could have replaced the Turtles with any number of fantasy characters and it still would have worked. I just didn't feel like there was anything that really made it stand out as a Turtles movie. I also miss that level of grit and darkness that the original 1990 movie had, all these recent versions are all too kiddie friendly, almost like weekend cartoons.
5/10
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