Various things come to mind when I think of turtles -- the mascot for the University of Maryland, the sea-based ones that occasionally visit the beaches where we vacation each year, and the 1960s pop band responsible for upbeat songs such as "Happy Together" -- but teenagers, mutants, martial arts, and especially superheroes don't come to mind.
After all, the only fictitious turtle I grew up with was the one in the old "The Tortoise and the Hare" fable. For others after my generation, however, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sprung to life in the 1980s thanks to a comic book by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.
Their work then turned into a lucrative franchise that swept the nation and included toys and other such paraphernalia, an animated TV series, and four live-action films, the first debuting back in 1990. Having never read nor seen any of that, I can't attest to any sort of quality or lack thereof, but do know that the popularity waned in the 1990s, only to be resurrected in 2003 as a reimagined, animated TV series.
The revival continues with "TMNT" (although the abbreviated title originally had me thinking it was some sort of resurrection of the old Superfly movies), yet another feature length film based on the characters. This time, however, rather than having humans in turtle suits (created by Jim Henson's shop way back when), the entire pic is computer-generated.
While I'm not overly familiar with the original films' plots (beyond what I've recently read about them), it's obvious this isn't a remake of the original film, but rather is something of a continuation that takes up somewhere after the original or one of its sequels left off. Accordingly, those similarly not familiar with the characters and their tale must do with some brief voice-over narration that quickly gets the back-story and rest of the setup out of the way.
What follows is something that feels more like the plot to such an animated TV show rather than a feature length, theatrical release. It seems an ancient leader became immortal way back when, causing his army to turn to stone and a number of monsters (13 to be exact) to be released to wreck havoc on the world.
Back in the present, our heroes -- named after some of the Renaissance masters -- have fallen onto hard times. Their rat-like sensei (veteran Japanese actor Mako in his last role) has sent the leader off to Central America for reasons not exactly clear (presumably training of some sort), leaving the remaining members to their own devices. One dons costumes for kids' parties, another does telephone technical support, and the last -- the constantly bitter one -- decides to continue fighting crime on his own as the Nightwatcher, sometimes joined by fellow vigilante, the human Casey Jones.
When that former general turned immortal businessman (voiced with gravitas by Patrick Stewart) starts rounding up his stoned (ha-ha) comrades as well as the baker's dozen allotment of beasties (with the aid of TV reporter April Jones and some ninja woman and her band of martial arts warriors -- presumably explained in some previous medium), the turtles eventually get involved. As the leader and the sullen crime fighter bicker and battle among themselves, they and their two comrades relearn the meaning of teamwork and ultimately save the day.
That might be exciting and/or fun for younger kids, but there's little here to interest or engage anyone else. Of course, I'm decades away from the target demographic, so that's probably okay to some degree. Yet, writer/director Kevin Munroe (making his feature film debut after working in the world of video games) should and could have made the offering more appealing.
Instead, it seems a lot of attention and money went into transferring the characters and New York City setting over into the world of computer animation. While not up there with the standards set by Pixar and their top-notch competitors, and perhaps a bit too dark, the film does look better than I imagined it would (fearing it would sport the clunky, low-end graphics found in some such films). The action is fluid and the "camera" is nearly always on the move, meaning things are never too boring, at least from a visual standpoint.
Feeling more like the latest episode of a TV show than a big-screen flick, "TMNT" delivers an appropriate life lesson (teamwork wins the battle) like its race-based predecessor (slow and steady wins the race), but not enough in terms of engaging story or characters. That is, unless you're a diehard Turtles fan, in which case you might be humming "So happy together." The film rates as a 3.5 out of 10.
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