Today's movie: TMNT
Rated: PG (mild language, animated action violence, and some scary cartoon images)
(Voice) Actors and Actresses of note: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Patrick Stewart
So, for those of you who didn't grow up in the 90s like I did, or don't have children who are hooked on the remake, let me do a brief summary. Four turtles and a rat found their way into radioactive goo, grew to human size, and learned to be ninjas. As far fetched as it is, the writing of the old cartoon worked, which spawned three live action movies and countless video games and other merchandising.
Now, TMNT is the fourth movie to be made, but the first to do two things. Numero uno, this movie is done entirely in CGI. This really helps the turtles look and feel a bit more realistic, making the movie more believable than the live action counterparts. Secondly, this movie explores what happens to the Turtles after they've defeated arch-nemesis Shredder. Leonardo, the leader, goes to South America, and the rest of the Turtles have to live in a world in which they are no longer heroes. Donatello and Michelangelo take day jobs while Raphael continues fighting crime as the vigilante Nightwatcher. Raph also has issues with Leonardo leaving for such a long time, which adds a nice element of Turtle dis-union never really explored in the earlier movies or cartoon series. Supporting cast April O'Neil (Gellar) and Casey Jones have moved in together and are trying to "settle down."
So the plot is as follows: O'Neil is hired by international businessman Winters (Stewart) to find four statues, supposedly fellow warriors turned to stone 3000 years ago when Winters opened a portal to another plane of existence, in which doing two things, those being a) achieving immortality and b) unleashing thirteen monsters upon the world. Convoluted? Don't worry. It doesn't get in way of the action. The Turtles fight one of the monsters one night, and get pulled into the action.
Flotsam (that which is good, like treasure that washes up on a beach):
- Extended TMNT universe (post-Shredder)
- Good tension between Raph and Leo
- Excellent CGI
- Decent story resolution
Jetsam (that which should have been discarded):
- Donatello and Michelangelo were bit gag players
- No extended scenes of TMNT vs. Foot Clan
Final rating: 4 broken katana blades out of 5.
-D out.
3 comments:
SPOILERS!!!
sounds cool, i wanna see it! i was a huge turtles fan. in junior high i used to charge $0.25 each for a drawing of a ninja turtle or $0.75 for all four in one drawing. what a deal! several of my classmates believed that i came up with the ninja turtles...i actually couldn't convince them otherwise.
Nice, I like the rating. What movie should we venture to see next, I wonder?
Cowabunga dude!
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