Review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) by Charlie P — 29 Mar 2018

Rescued by a young girl from a burning laboratory, and raised by the wise mutated rat, Sensei Splinter,(Tony Shalhoub), four Teenage Terrapins known as Leonardo (Johnny Knoxville), Raphael (Alan Ritchson), Donatello (Jeremy Howard) and Michelangelo (Noel Fisher) must put thier skills in ninjutsu and butt-kicking to the test when The Foot clan, a ruthless terrorist organisation led by the evil metal samurai, Shredder (Tohoru Masamune) plots to invade New York. But to do that, they must first find the girl that saved them years ago, now grown into the young reporter, April O' Neil (Megan Fox).

Although it isn't true that Michael Bay directed this latest attempt at bringing the "heroes in a half shell" back to the big screen, a lot of his less desirable tropes are still present, with the narrative being focused heavily on annoying human characters such as April herself and her insufferable assistant Vern (Will Arnett) rather than the titular characters themselves along with irritating juvinile comedy coming from him and Mikey.

However, the brisk running time, the impressive setpieces consisting of Splinter's fight with Shredder and the good voice acting from the turtles and Splinter themselves keep this reimagining far from being the worst thing that Bay's ever done.

Overall, aside from a few additional problems that involve the obvious reshoots that changed Shredder's identity from the secondary villian Eric Sacs (William Fitchner) to an unknown identity, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a mostly harmless, slightly entertaining action film.