Review of TMNT (2007) by Maksim B — 02 Jun 2011

An attempt to restart a much beloved cartoon franchise from the early 90s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a decent computer animated delivery which suffers from an aging audience and a new generation of kids who have no idea of this franchise.

About 15 years of special effects development has had definitely a positive effect on the Turtles since visually this movie is impressively dark with a remarkable urban and underground vibe getting it very close to the original cartoons. The action sequences, in fact, are better than those of multiple dismal action and epic deliveries of recent years and satisfy even the highest HD demands.

Another preserved asset of the TMNT brand is the character of the four turtles. Though the characters of Leo, Don, Raf and Mike are not as funny and entertaining as before, their overall unique personal features are decently captured by director Kevin Munroe. On the other side, Rafael's aggressive and rebellious character is way over the top and instead of creating and strengthening one of the major plot lines it irritates with the too much attention spent on him.

Unfortunately what has been gained by the very good effects and relatively successful depiction of the turtles is easily lost by the absolutely messy story. Multiple sub-plot lines are simply thrown into the movie without much coherence and bring unnecessary confusion to the audience. It all becomes a dark ninja action-packed mumbo-jumbo mess,which looses its funny charm of the famous 90s.

TMNT is a strange delivery. It brings back much beloved characters, but to an audience which is already grown up and could not easily accept the obvious content and coherence issues in the movie. At the same time the new generation of kids probably know nothing of the Turtles and find them completely strange to the kids pop culture of nowadays.