Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(2014)

Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(2014)
*Mild Spoilers Alert
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Official 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(2014)' Poster.

      A mildly successful reboot attempt amidst the trend nowadays, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' is a surprisingly funny and entertaining summer blockbuster movie.

"Pete Polszek".

"Alan Ritchson".

      April O'Neil(Megan Fox) is a reporter for Channel 6 in New York, covering mostly what she describes as dull news. She has been researching for quite a while a gang called 'The Foot Clan', which has been terrorizing for quite a while the people of New York, hoping that she will ultimately grab her big break. But while performing her undercover research, she discovers a group of vigilantes who are trying to stop the acts of terror being performed by the clan. It's only a short period of time when O'Neil finally meets the vigilantes, who are actually teenage mutant ninja turtles. First we have the leader 'Leonardo'(Motion capture "Pete Ploszek", voiced by "Johnny Knoxville") in blue, the tough one 'Raphael'(Alan Ritchson) in red, the comedic one 'Michelangelo'(Noel Fisher) in orange, and the geeky one 'Donatello'(Jeremy Howard) in purple. Involved in what is going on she will discover the true origin story of these four turtles and stumble by the master plan of the clan which is lead by the evil 'Shredder'(Tohoru Masamune). Other major characters include 'April''s friend and co-worker 'Vern Fenwick'(Will Arnett), Master of the turtles the mutated rat 'Splinter'(Motion Capture "Danny Woodburn", voiced by "Tony Shalhoub"), 'Shredder''s evil businessman-partner 'Eric Sacks'(William Fichtner), 'April''s boss 'Bernadette Thompson'(Whoopi Goldberg), 'Foot Clan' member 'Karai'(Minae Noji) and 'April''s father 'Dr. O'Neil'(Paul Fitzgerald).

"Jeremy Howard".

"Noel Fisher".

      Recently a trend has been increasing in Hollywood Studios: Launching franchises from popular games. Some were successful like 'Transformers(2007)', while others were moderately successful like 'G.I.: Joe(2009)'. So when the decision was made to re-launch 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', one of the most beloved 80's characters, many thought that was a very obvious decision. However, the production didn't go through as smooth as one might hope. When "Michael Bay", the person who launched the 'Transformers' film series, announced his involvement fans of this brand went crazy. Furthermore, when false reports emerged about the tampering of the turtle's origin story and the darker tone of the movie, more criticism came through, which made many fearful about the launching of the franchise and its future. But with the release of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(2014)', any doubt about the future of the series was casted away. Sure in terms of storytelling and being an origins movie, 'TMNT' sure plays it very safe and takes a traditional route. Still the movie succeeded in keeping the character that many of us laugh authentic in the middle of a humorous and action packed blockbuster.

"Will Arnett" and "Megan Fox",

"William Fichtner".

      Director "Jonathan Liebesman"('Battle: Los Angeles(2011)' and 'Wrath of the Titans') performed a decent job with the movie. The director certainly performed a decent job with this new franchise-launching movie, yet bringing little new things to the table and actually taking the same direction that "Michael Bay" has been taking with the 'Transformers' series in terms of bringing an action movie with a thin story. "Josh Appelbaum", "Andre Nemec"(co-wrote 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol') and "Evan Daughetry"('Divergent') penned a pretty traditional story. While trying to stay as true as they can to what people already know about the 'TMNT', they failed to go out of the box and decided to go with a safer route, which is pretty unfortunate due to the bags of potential they had. Hopefully threads that were barely noticeable could be adopted in the planned sequel. In terms of special effects, the movie was pretty heavy with them and sometimes a little too reliant on CGI. Still the action movie had well executed effects and the use of 3D was one of the best during this summer movie season. Composer "Brian Tyler"('Iron Man 3' and 'Now You See Me') provided us with a loud score, which was very much what we get to expect in a summer action movie.

'Shredder'.

'Splinter'.

      The trajectory the story took was decent, making the pace of the movie a great one when talking about this aspect. Yet one thing can be noticed is that many felt the time frame was very short and that the movie was cut short. Many wanted to see more, and if work has been conducted on the story maybe a higher level movie could have ended up on the big screen. Ditching the darker tone in favor of a more comedic one was the right decision, making the movie include some funny lines used and the comedy mostly came from the lead four actors. The first act was very much 'April O'Neil'-centric and could have been actually trimmed at some instances, mapping out well the situation and making very clear the direction the movie is taking. However, the movie really shifted to full gear once the movie actually showed the characters that the movie actually talked about. The action that was included was pretty normal. Though the snow/truck action sequence was very impressive and was a model of how much the 3D was used effectively. The climax battle scene was also an impressive one, though a bit of a letdown when compared to similar movies other climax battles. The ending was a generic one wrapping the movie's events, setting the ground for future sequels while also leaving many plot holes unresolved.

"Noel Fisher", "Pete Ploszek",
"Megan Fox", "Alan Ritchson"
and "Jeremy Howard".

"Noel Fisher", "Pete Ploszek",
"Alan Ritchson" and
 "Jeremy Howard".

      The use of motion-capture is growing, and using this technology within this movie was pretty good movie from the part of the producers. And the design they went with, and using the eye bands and gadgets to differentiate them was a spectacular movie. "Alan Ritchson" capitalized on his real chance and brought us the 'Raphael' that we all love and love to hate some times. "Pete Ploszek" also provided a decent performance as 'Leonardo', though deciding to make "Johnny Knoxville" voice the characters was disappointing for "Pete", but gave us a more comedic 'Leonardo' than a serious one. "Noel Fisher" nailed it as the funny 'Michelangelo' making him the star of the movie without a doubt. Props to "Jeremy Howard", who brought us a funny-cool-nerdy version of the nerdy 'Donatello'. The casting of "Megan Fox" was a 50-50 chance. On one hand casting her due to her fame and commercial appeal is a given, on the other hand she is not the first choice for 'April O'Neil'. In general, she held her own and gave a fairly acceptable performance, though casting a younger upcoming talented actress would have been more preferable. "Will Arnett" also gave his all within his limited character, same could be said about "William Fichtner", who also was limited by his character. Casting "Tony Shalhoub" to voice 'Splinter' was respectable, yet denying "Danny Woodburn", who provided the motion-capture, was a bit harsh. The portrayal of 'Shredder' was a weak one in my opinion, scratching barely the surface of their arch nemesis. Hiding the actor's face was the better decision, hopefully casting a better actor in the planned sequel. Including "Whoopi Goldberg" was a fun to watch and hopeful that her inclusion in the sequel will be a stretched one.

      In conclusion, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' succeeded fairly in launching a new franchise while providing us with a relatively fun yet not developed movie.

Official 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(2014)' Poster.

-'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Info:
-Starring: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, William Fichtner, Alan Ritchson, Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Johnny Knoxville, Danny Woodburn, Tony Shalhoub, Tohoru Masamune, Minae Noji and Whoopi Goldberg.
-Based on: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.
-Studio(s): Nickelodeon Movies, Platinum Dunes and Paramount Pictures.
-Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman.
-Screenplay by: Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Evan Daughetry.
-Music by: Brian Tyler.
-Running Time: 101 minutes.
-Budget: $ 125,000,000.
-Box Office: -Domestic(US): $ 191,204,754.
                     -Foreign: $ 286,000,000.
-Ratings: -IMdb: 6.4/10.
               -Rotten Tomatoes: 20%.
               -Metacritic: 32%.

               -PERSONAL RATING: 7.0/10.

-'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Trailer: