Film review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The movie is long and Megan Fox often looks confused, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has thrilling action and achieves a high level of believability

From left, Raphael, Splinter, Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Megan Fox as April O'Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. ILM /Paramount Pictures

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Director: Jonathan Liebesman

Starring: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Whoopi Goldberg, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Pete Ploszek, Jeremy Howard, Danny Woodburn, William Fichtner

Three stars

For their reboot of the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, the producer Michael Bay and the director Jonathan Liebesman have taken on a full recap of the turtles' origin story and their epic conflict with the dastardly Foot Clan crime syndicate.

As a late-summer entry arriving just as the school year begins, Turtles could see some moderately enthusiastic, if somewhat unpredictable, response from the film's target audience, since many of the series' fans may have already moved on in the seven years since the last outing.

The newest addition to the series opens with the New York City lifestyle TV reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox) looking to get a lead on some hard news, but her boss Bernadette (Whoopi Goldberg) couldn’t be less interested.

Even her regular cameraman Vern (Will Arnett) isn’t sure she has what it takes to report on the crime wave that is sweeping the city as the notorious Foot Clan terrorises New York residents.

When April sees a vigilante attacking Clan goons one night, she stumbles upon the story of her career, tracking down a quartet of six-foot-tall, mutated talking turtles with ninja fighting skills.

Named after four Renaissance artists, the teenagers Raphael (Alan Ritchson), Michelangelo (Noel Fisher), Leonardo (Pete Ploszek) and Donatello (Jeremy Howard) make their home in the city’s sewer system with their mentor, the sagacious rat Splinter (Danny Woodburn), who has trained them in the martial arts.

Technically still in training, the turtles are unprepared to take on the Foot Clan fighters and their fearsome leader Shredder, but their interference in his criminal plans has made them targets.

Meanwhile, April turns to the billionaire industrialist and old family friend Eric Sacks (William Fichtner) for assistance in deciphering the turtles’ origins, not realising that he has formed a secret alliance with Shredder.

When the turtles and Splinter take her into their confidence, she discovers Shredder’s plan to take over New York and the key role the turtles might play in defeating the Foot Clan, if they can only overcome their petty rivalries and work together.

The screenwriters Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Evan Daugherty devote a lot of time to setting up April’s investigation of the mysterious vigilantes, which provokes a frustrating delay before the turtles finally appear on screen. Extensive use of flashbacks and explanatory dialogue that reveal her lifelong connection with the mutants also have a dilatory effect – while laying groundwork for future sequels – but provide an authentic account of the turtles’ origins while keeping the humour at an appropriately juvenile level.

Not much of that easy-going style rubs off on the human characters, however, as Fox spends much of the movie acting bewildered as April tries to keep up with the rapidly shifting plot developments. The usually reliable Fichtner delivers a generic, simplistically motivated baddie.

Arrested Development's Arnett has the only role that comes close to matching the turtles' verve, but doesn't get enough time onscreen.

The cast members portraying Splinter and the turtles achieve a persuasive level of realism that was not possible with the elaborate puppetry and costumes required for the original film series, and adequately fulfil expectations for their characters.

The process employed to achieve live-action integration with cutting-edge visual effects looks superior on screen, sharply and smoothly rendering some thrilling action scenes and delivering impactful 3-D character detail.

The 101-minute running time and the cartoonish violence may deter some would-be fans – or, at least, the adults who pay for their movie tickets.

* AP