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I loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja (Hero in the UK) Turtles when I was little, so this new film - titled simply TMNT for this attention-span-addled generation - is something of a nostalgia trip for me. My favourite was always Raphael, the reason for which escapes me, but my younger self would have definitely been pleased with the prominence he receives in this new instalment. Raphael's relationship with leader Leonardo is a major plot point and leads to one of the film's best scenes, a fight on a rainy rooftop at night, which looks simply superb. Indeed, I thought the whole film was very well designed, with the makers going for a dark Batman-esque style. For a film from a young production company (Imagi Animation Studios), it's certainly very impressive in that respect. Unlike many recent CGI cartoons, there's more than just surface gloss here, though, as TMNT actually possessed quite an intricate storyline with numerous characters, which actually led to one of its shortcomings: it got a bit too muddled at times, lacking focus on an overall plot direction.
The film started very strongly, with a short Laurence Fishburne-narrated introduction covering the necessary background information, followed by an interesting and unexpected prologue set in South America. The film does not tell the Turtles' origin story, thankfully, instead going for something like Superman Returns, starting the film at a point when the heroes have been away for a while. Unlike Superman's recent rebirth, though, TMNT is by no means short on action; in fact, it rushed through things too much at times, meaning that certain characters got short shrift (April O'Neil, for example, just filled an all-purpose 'action woman' role). The Turtles themselves, though, were all very well defined and entertainingly performed. Another small niggle was the fact that the Turtles had no real opposition until the end - the bad guys were aiming for the same thing as the good guys, essentially, up until the chaotic climax. Nevertheless, it entertained me a lot with its numerous exciting action scenes and appealing sense of humour. The Turtles are certainly a unique concept, and while long-time fans will no doubt get a kick out of this new adventure, it seems to me that the film will probably have a fairly small niche audience.
The summary
Overly convoluted it may be, but TMNT was great fun. It just needed to be a bit more focused.
