Monday, April 23, 2007

Review of TMNT

Just saw the new TMNT, aka Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, movie and I must say...Cowabunga! When I heard that it will be full CGI, I was hopeful. I was RIGHT! It rocks!

The movie takes place after Shredder's defeat/death, with the team essentially broken as Leonardo is training in Central America (how did a man-sized turtle reached there was never told), Donatello and Michelangelo have jobs, and Raphael spends his time as a vigilante 'Nightwatcher'. The story focuses on Max Winters, an immortal warrior who tried to take over the world 3,000 years ago. Due to a mistakes of his 3,000 years ago, 13 demonic beasts were let loose into the world and Winter's 4 generals were turned into stone. Leonardo returns and tensions begin to rise between him and Raphael over the leadership of the team. The Foot Clan also made a small appearance (as expected), with Karai leading them.

The story was full of holes. April O'Neil is now a ninja, worse she is now good enough to kick Karai's butt. Yes, that's Karai, leader of the Foot. How is it that only Casey Jones (a moron) could tell that Raphael was the Nightwatcher? The final fight was way too short. The ending was terrible, it was as if the director just wanted to end the movie ASAP.

But who cares about the story! Who go watch TMNT for the story? We go to see the action and the wacky humour. The action was solid (the roof-top fight between Raphael and Leonardo was great) and the CGI was almost flawless. The wackiness was toned down however as the tone of the movie was far grittier than before (more in line with the comics) and there was a hint of a sequel at the end.

23 years after appearing forthe first time, TMNT is still going strong. Not bad for a parody of Daredevil huh.

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