Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Alright dudes, the wait is finally over. I finally saw the new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie today, which was released last month, and now I will let you all know what I thought of this awesome movie.

Nearly 25 years after the original Ninja Turtles film was released in theaters, this reboot, which grossed $125 million, is the start of a new franchise when you look at the production values.

Kirk Baird of The Blade said in his review, “The turtles look great, move gracefully on screen, and exhibit character and reptilian charm.”

With director Jonathan Liebesman as the leader, it’s surprisingly a lot of fun. You might think this film is mindless and silly, but I don’t think so, and like I said before, it’s a lot of fun, with the main parts of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” there.

April O’Neil, played by one of the hottest actresses, Megan Fox, is a TV reporter who just wants to cover all of the crime stories all over New York City. She crosses her fingers that with all of the research she has been doing on the Foot Clan (who Baird says, “a name derived because these evildoers step on everyone good in the city”) will boost her career.

Vernon Fenwick, played by Will Arnett (who you might remember as Gob Bluth on “Arrested Development”), is her cameraman, whose understanding for her difficulty is driven mainly by desire.

Eventually April comes really close in her story before the turtles come to save her. Unless you have forgotten the turtles’ names: Leonardo, played by Pete Ploszek and voiced of Johnny Knoxvill, wears the blue mask and is the leader of the turtles, who is normally calm. Raphael, played by Alan Ritchson, wears the red mask, is the strongest of the four and has the shortest temper who often likes to compete with Leonardo. Donatello, played by Jeremy Howard, wears the purple mask and is the smartest of the four, with a forte in technology that helps the turtles out when they are fighting crime. Michelangelo, played by Noel Fisher, wears the orange mask and is the comic relief, the simple and most laid-back of the turtles, and has a crush on April.

The turtles are all about six-feet tall, have an immense ability of ninjitsu and acrobatic skills along with super strength, and their shells protect them from a stream of bullets.

If you all know the basic, the turtles like to crack jokes, eat pizza, and fight crime.

They also live in the sewers, where they’re taught by a rat who they consider their father, Splinter (Danny Woodbury and voice of Tony Shalhoub), a rat who was mutated, along with the turtles, in a laboratory through the experiment of scientist and affluent corporate leader Eric Sachs (William Fichtner). The turtles’ arch-enemy Shredder, played by Tohoru Masamune, who is also the leader of the Foot Clan, wants the ooze that mutated Splinter and the Turtles for an evil plan.

You might be trying to make sense of all this, but should you really make sense in a bodacious Ninja Turtles movie.

Baird said in his review, “Liebesman was a director on the rise based on the trailers for 2011’s Battle Los Angeles, but the film tanked, and 2012’s Wrath of the Titans — a minor improvement over 2010’s Clash of the Titans — didn’t do his career any favors.”

Liebesman quite possibly is trying to start a radical franchise, now heavily on our nostalgia for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” that was once insanely popular, and since this film was released in August, that is usually a dead zone for films.

This is why this film works. Liebesman notices that he’s got nothing to lose, so he puts in everything, holding just about nothing back. A dizzying down-the-snowy-mountain chase scene which has all four turtles, a truck, and bad guys in their SUVs, for instance, is adrenaline rushing and exciting. Don’t be afraid of missing anything. Baird noticed that, “here’s also a more than passing resemblance to Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) in the film’s quirky camera shots, dark tone, and even several plot elements.”

As director, Liebesman looks like the perfect dependent of Michael Bay. Since Bay produced “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” this pairing makes sense.

You will know that there are significant differences between the two.

Liebesman’s action sequences are far more contained and with far less sounding chaos around them than in a handful of Bay’s work. Unlike the “Transformers” movies, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’” cartoonish combat helps the story out rather than trying to replace it.

Even though this isn’t a great, tubular movie, it’s not a bad one either.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” is meant for the fans of the turtles’ franchise: the original comic books, the animated shows, the video games, and even the previous films.

Other cast members include one of the funniest comedians, Whoopi Golberg, as Bernadette Thompson and Minae Noji as Karai.

In the end, I’m happy that I saw this film, although I will admit that it’s nowhere near as good as the original. Still, it’s worth checking out, in my opinion, so you should check it out while it’s still in the theaters. It’s funny, action-packed, and has a lot of drama that will hold your attention, unlike the “Transformers” movies.

There was one part where near the end when the Turtles go into the building and they think they found an elevator but it's only a huge batch of Foot Soldiers, one of the kids in the back of the theater said, "Dang! They ran into a whole army." I cracked up laughing at that remark.

Good news is that they are planning on making sequels to this movie, so we should hopefully see more familiar characters from the show soon, like more of the Channel Six crew and the other villains. Turtle Power to that!

Well dudes, I hope you enjoyed my review on all the TMNT movies as much as I have reviewing them. Thank you for tuning in on all my reviews of the films and thank you for your patience for my review on the remake. Stay tuned this Friday for the finale of "3 Ninjas Month." COWABUNGA!!!