Review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) by Izayoiver7 — 08 Aug 2014

I just saw the film in theaters (standard). To sum it up, I had fun with it. It's not necessarily kid-friendly though as there were a decent amount of adult jokes thus making me feel this film contrary to what others say, is geared towards older tmnt fans who are more adults rather than younger ones today who would be kids.

I'll say this straight up though, I came into viewing this film as a summer blockbuster ie fun and action oriented rather than awesome story-telling, so I am reviewing this as such.

I think they did a good job of bringing the turtles to the modern age ie updating them while keeping the spirit of the turtle's family concept alive.

I'm not exactly sure why people were complaining about the cgi. It simply worked. In all honesty the only CGI character that seemed a little out of place was Splinter, but not enough to warrant any sort of raging over. A lot of the character movements were crisp and I would think that has to do with the fact that they went mocap instead of all cgi.

I liked the turtles. They had good characterization of the turtles and the character design, though kind of stereotypical, fits the turtles. I just wished they individually showcased the turtles a bit more. I wanted martial arts action with the weaponry as their weapons was part of their personalities as well.

Splinter needed more shine, but he had something.

Shredder imho is probably the best in terms of pure-martial-arts-action-fun. The tenacity and attitude he showed was simply what I would put as 'beast'. Sure he didn't get much shine in terms of characterization, but neither did anybody else.

Overall action? I like how they didn't rely too much on shaky-cam for action sequences as that is something I notice a lot of American/hollywood action films tend to do to make the action sequences more exciting than they really are. I hate it, personal gripe. It feels like lazy fight choreography. I grew up watching hong kong martial arts films, so I prefer some finesse over practicality. Ever seen UFC casted martial arts films? Bleh. Actually a mixture of both, but a good balance with finesse tipping the scale a bit. I do however dislike the close-up shots during action sequences in the film though. Unless they are zooming in on a specific technique/attack in the film to emphasize its impact, unnecessary close-ups in action sequences ruins them to an extent. Donnie Yen's fight choreography imho is great and utilizes close-up shots well. Also the slow-mo, as expected when Michael Bay was involved. Not a fan of it unless used correctly. If they are used to extend a fight scene, then no, but if used to emphasize a certain action then yes. TMNT had a mix of slow-mo for extension and slow-mo for emphasis, so I'm ok with it.

One thing though that will be in tandem is the overall theme of family and teamwork. I loved how they utilized it well and especially in their biggest action scene.

As for April and Vern, they're just kind of there. If you go into this for the turtles kicking butt and not expect a highly detailed story with intricate plot devices like people for some reason are doing then you will enjoy it. If you go in expecting Lord of the Rings level of story-telling then don't be surprised when it 'fails' you. I'm quite surprised sometimes with people's lack of distinction between genres, especially for film.

Otherwise my biggest gripe was that it felt short or should I say rushed. It is 1 hr and 41 minutes long, but I honestly think they could've extended it to the 2hr mark and added some padding with the beginning while extending action sequences. What can I say? I like good action. The more the merrier.

Is it worth a 10 admission? If you like Ninja Turtles yeah sure. If you're iffy about it, go matinee. I'll be watching it again, but this time with my brothers for a more authentic TMNT nostalgia feel and will be trying out the 3D version, even though I heard the 3D was underwhelming.

Because I went in with a smaller list of expectations, I am giving it a 7.5/10.