Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Starring Megan Fox, William Fichtner
Directed by Jonathan Liebesman
In many ways, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman’s cult comic book creation that spawned a massive global empire was bigger than Marvel’s The Avengers in its heyday of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
After all, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had several feature films, a successful cartoon series, endless toys and even a touring rock ‘n’ roll arena show. Now, thanks to Michael Bay’s production company and some gargantuan leaps in movie visual effects, the wisecracking and butt-kicking heroes in a half shell are back for a modern reboot.
This updated origin story is essentially the same, with a few convenient plot tweaks, and features Megan Fox as intrepid reporter April O’Neil who stumbles upon the reptilian foursome’s crime fighting tactics. Fox, who was reduced to vacuous eye candy in the Transformers films, actually succeeds in carrying the bulk of the film, especially in the first expository-heavy forty minutes.
There’s also something to be said about a strong, central female character who isn’t the typical damsel in distress. The Turtles themselves are rendered through impressive motion capture technology and highly entertaining vocal work, especially from Vancouver’s own Noel Fisher who plays the perpetual party animal Michelangelo.
Granted, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is often a silly affair and the script won’t win any awards but it never feels bloated and features several effective action sequences, including a mountain slope chase that is so ridiculous it’s hard not to enjoy and easy to see the playful homage to the franchise’s roots.
