source: TMNT

I remember watching the turtles on TV when I was a kid. For some reason I never got around to watching the original trilogy, or indeed this animated version of the story, and I haven't seen the two new films either. So I thought I'd better start somewhere. I guess I've started at the bottom with TMNT, because it's inexcusably awful. It's a loud mess of a film, with no discernible plot and lots of flashy animation included in an attempt to make up for the deficiencies. A case of style over substance, then. The turtles look and sound nothing like they did in the old cartoons that I used to like, and the action scenes are a headache-inducing whirl of noise and imagery that looks like the result of your laptop having a breakdown. The animation of the characters is uniformly awful, particularly the grossly sexualised April O'Neil or the Mr Incredible looking Casey. What is astonishing is the level of voice talent wallowing in this mess. Laurence Fishburne narrates, Mako voices Splinter in his last-ever performance before his death, and even Ziyi Zhang plays in support. I notice the turtles themselves are voiced by nobodies, though. Maybe that says something.

Needless to say this film is overdue. After the woeful effort that was Turtles in Time, the animated series that emerged in recent years saw a rejuvenation of the once popular franchise. All we needed was a film. Shot entirely in CGI, TMNT is a great example of why we should still care about the heroes in a half shell. Gone is arch nemesis Shredder, replaced with a brand new enemy. Four immortal warriors made of stone, led by powerful business man Max Winters (Patrick Stewart) are roaming the streets hunting down ancient monsters for their own gain. The back story isn't overcomplicated by writer/director Kevin Munroe who keeps the plot simple and the action high octane. As usual, Leo and Raph aren't seeing eye to eye which leads to a stunning battle between the two on the rooftops of Manhattan as the rain beats down. Old friends are back to, with the return of April O'Neil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and hapless vigilante Casey Jones (Chris Evans). The decision to shoot in CGI pays off as Munroe uses it to his advantage to use shots that would have been very difficult in real life. Also, the film looks amazing and also manages to have a dark element to it, much like the recent animated series. The film is packed with humour and one liners, and although a kids film still has enough in it to keep older fans happy. The hint of a sequel within the film is promising as hopefully this will be the beginning of a new series.

That is of course not to say that video games can't have beautiful cut scenes with a great, inventive story. Nothing about this movie is inventive though, and nothing about it makes sense either(Much like a video game). The villain of this movie and these 13 monsters are completely uninspired and resemble your by the numbers bad guy in a cartoon film. The turtles even fight against each other, which makes very little sense, and finally when we reach the climax(And I use the term very loosely here), we are unimpressed with what happens. Basically, at the end I don't feel that any effort or love was put into the script at all. Even during the film they have the gall to put the name of each Ninja Turtle on the screen when they first appear! What?! Did the director really think the vast majority of people who were seeing this movie wouldn't know who the Turtles are?! Frankly, I feel that this is proof positive that the director is insulting the intelligence of Ninja Turtle fans everywhere. This is a very poor reboot of the franchise. If you absolutely have to, just see the original live action movie made back in 1990.

When I was a little kid I loved the Ninja turtles. So needless to say, when I heard they were coming out with a new movie, I couldn't wait to see it, but the minute I heard it was all CGI, I could tell right away that it would be a far cry from the franchise that I had become so fond of. I thought to myself that it would have been more appealing to the older loyal fans, and kids would still want to see it. But after I actually watched it, I changed my mind. The story wasn't really interesting enough, so it didn't really matter if it was computer generated or not. There seemed to be a lot of character references that I didn't get. I assume that you had watch the current series to understand who everyone was. I found what was going on to be so forgettable. I was not compelled to see what happened to the characters or how their problem became resolved. It wasn't entirely bad. I supposed that for a kid's standards of movie entertainment, this did the job. But for an old fan, I completely disappointed.

The rental box for this piece of crap should be stamped with a large warning label: 'For Children Only. May cause vomiting and suicidal thoughts for adults'. Except, of course, that the film's violence has earned it a PG rating, so I'm not sure if parents would choose this for their kids, either. Well, the Turtles are back in a movie that looks so much like a video game that all it needs is the Sony PS3 logo. The acting is fine with such names as Patrick Stewart as villain, Max Winters and Laurence Fishburne as the narrator. The story is kindergarten simple and the dialog is on a par with the most mediocre Saturday morning efforts. There is less action that you would expect to find and the jokes don't work. So what's left? The film starts with a 3,000-year-old back-story that ends with 13 monsters being released into the world. Meanwhile, old turtle friend April O'Neil sets out to find Leonardo who has been training alone in Central America. She convinces him to return to his family, which has been floundering in his absence. Isn't the profound wisdom of Master Splinter enough to keep these guys on track? Anyways, he does return and after a bunch of squabbling, the turtles get back down to the business of making money- I mean fighting evil. I can only guess that this mass marketing machine that lead off with a movie is aimed at youngsters and maybe at those who enjoyed the cartoons, movies and games from the last time these four were set upon the wallets of impressionable children and their helpless parents. There is nothing new to offer, here and what is re-hashed wasn't interesting the first twenty times we saw it in movies exactly like this one. This work was first posted on realmoviereview.com

Lets face it, what was I expecting when I went to see this movie. My expectations were low, very low. But my nephew wanted me to bring him, so I brought him. To me, as always, the most important thing about a movie is the storyline, and this movie, the storyline sucked. The storyline in this movie was sloppy and not exciting at all. If they were going to do a remake, why not make a better storyline. Sure, this movie was for kids. But the storyline was too complex for kids and too stupid for adult. Changes to the cartoon wasn't good. I grew up watching the Saturday morning cartoons and infinite reruns of it. And watched the 2 live action movies. April O'Neil, instead of a reporter, is now a artifact finder... And Casey Jones just wasn't as cool. The graphics were not impressive, nothing blew me away. I don't know what they were doing. It wasn't 100% cgi, you can tell that some scenes, they clearly cut back and used claymation. If they did that to make it look real, they failed badly. So why did I give this movie a 5? cause my 6 year old nephew enjoyed the film cause of all the bashing. Even though he is too young to remember the names of the ninja turtles. All and all, this is for the kids.

What the hell is a matter with you all? A 7.2? This movie was a terrible piece of crap. I admire the fact that Hollywood wanted to bring back the turtles, but they should have waited for a much better script than the piece of s**t that they got. The movie's storyline was just tedious and repetitive (turtles have to stop monsters from bringing about the end of the world) which made the film seem like a three-part Saturday morning cartoon brought to the big screen. The movie lacked humor as well which is what makes the turtles fun to watch and makes them lovable. The only good thing about this film was how the CGI was able to bring more exciting fight scenes and action to the film, but it was something again that the movie could have had more of. I was extremely disappointed with this film and I hope to God that they do not do another film like this again. If you want to watch a good Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie than watch the first two films.

Let me first say that I was the biggest Ninja Turtles fan growing up. I saw the three live action films in the theaters and loved two of them (no need to point out which I did not care for). Going into "TMNT", I did not expect to get anything anywhere near the awesomeness of the first two live action films. I knew that this was a different movie, and I was okay with that. I knew that these turtle's were the turtles of a new generation and that is all fine and dandy; I'm cool with seeing something I love and having a new story told (see my reviews on the X- Men movies). No, the reason that I disliked "TMNT" was not because it was the same Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from my childhood, but it is because this movie was very, very lame. Let's start with the plot: It was atrocious. I didn't want some fantastic explanation with space age variables. Success is mapped out with a Ninja Turtles movie and they failed miserably. It should be something simple. Someone like Shredder, Baxter Stockman, Krang, they would all work. I'm not saying that those exact characters need to be featured, but someone interesting. A random half hour episode from the 1990's cartoon has much more substance that this film ever had. The second major reason why this movie was so lame was because it is so kiddy. Remember seeing the original? It was a kid's movie, yet it was tough. It's really too bad kid's shows and movies are so innocent these days. I mean, kids can take a little harshness and reality. It doesn't need to be so lame. "The Brave Little Toaster" is more adult than "TMNT". I didn't like any characters either. Casey was dorky, April was not right, The Foot Clan and the girl they were with were pointless, Splinter did not have any of his original charm, and the turtles were just second rate knock offs of what they should have been. I didn't like the CGI in this movie either. It was okay, I guess, but I have seen much better. This movie was not something I would want my kid to watch. If they think this foolishness is cool, which it is advertised to be, then they would be dead wrong. This is stupid.

I went into this feature not quite knowing what to expect. I grew up with the turtles and was a huge fan of the comic book, the cartoon series (the original, of course), and the movies (only the first two). Growing up with the first two movies, I was really hoping that this one would be live-action. I will have to say though, that I was not at all disappointed in this feature. At the beginning of the movie, I was slightly disappointed in who the rivals were. It seemed very far fetched, even for a Ninja Turtles movie. However, about half-way through the movie, I found myself forgetting about the not-quite-so-wonderful way the story line was set up. I'm not going to give away too much, but let's just say that the feud that has existed between Leo and Raph reaches an interesting point in this movie. Overall, I would have to say that any turtles fan should give this film a shot. Try to not go into it with expectations set by the first two movies. Just think of this as a stand-alone movie, even though it does roughly follow the story-line set by the first two. If nothing else, the CGA is wonderful and the voice acting isn't so bad either.