Stars Megan Fox, Will Arnett, William Fichtner, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Pete Plaszek, Jeremy Howard, Minae Noji with Johnny Knoxville, Tony Shalhoub and Whoopi Goldberg Directed by Jonathan Liebesman Well, at least the got the characters of the turtles right. The overall design, however, is down to personal taste since it does breach the Uncanny Valley - CG designed characters whose realism just doesn’t sit right for one reason or another. We might have accepted them as cartoons, or even rubber suited in their previous incarnations, but striving for grounded realism here has led to a sense of hyper realism that sometimes lead to some really scary looking close-ups. That being said, the serviceable plot does give us some nice moments and action set-pieces. The ‘snow battle’ as handled by stunt master Dan Bradley (listed as Snow Unit Director) is a key highlight and just about the best thing in the whole movie; an amazing action set-piece worthy the price of admission. In comparison, the final battle feels anti-climatic, unless you’re a pure Ninja Turtles fan, then it might be to your liking. The villain’s plot feels like a under-developed idea from The Amazing Spider-Man (or even TMNT, for that matter), but it is beside the point here. The problem some fans might have is the issue of the origins that tie April O’Neil (Megan Fox) to Splinter and the Turtles, as well as how her father had a hand in their creation, while unknowingly working for the Foot Clan, who now come across more as Yakuza thugs than the ninjas they were before. April herself is a TV fluff reporter, looking for a scoop to climb the career ladder, but her boss (a very under-utilised Whoopi Goldberg) is having none of it. Begrudgingly assisting her in her quest is her cameraman, Vernon Fenwick (Will Arnett) who has a crush on her. Yep - no Casey Jones, fanboys. Director Jonathan Liebesman, who brought us Battle Los Angeles and Wrath of The Titans, does a serviceable job in pulling the elements together, perhaps save for one niggling bit that bugged me* to no end. (I’ll put it at the end with a spoiler warning.) Anyway, given that the turtles are motion captured performances on location, the effects work gels well enough to give us some thrills. As mentioned, he does get the characters of the turtles right even if Leonardo does seem a touch under-used. Donatello’s nerdy geek is out in full force while Michelangelo’s party dude persona brings the comic relief (note the elevator scene) and Raphael’s the cynical tough guy who’s often challenging for leadership. April is more sassy and independent which makes Megan Fox, surprisingly, the next best thing in the whole movie after the turtles. The humour works although the bad guys fall short. The design for Shredder is impressive, but I had some flashbacks to Silver Samurai in The Wolverine. The speed at which these characters move suggest extensive CG work - or at the very least, motion captured performances - which brings us back to the Uncanny Valley and the feeling that, just perhaps, it should have been a cartoon after all. While Liebesman would bear the responsibility of the overall product, it would be more fair to look to the writers, or maybe the producers. The exposition is heavily laced throughout the movie as if there is this need to explain everything and tie elements together. You can feel the influence of Bay-hem. Like any of the Transformers movie, this is a ‘check-your-brains-at-the-door’ flick that would become a guilty pleasure for some in the long run. The action set-pieces and humour do make up for the lack of story, but just by a little, while Megan Fox delivers a credible performance that shows how serious she took this project, nicely making us forget about those giant robots stuff. Ultimately, the movie does come across as fluff. It’s too lightweight to matter, save for that middle bit in the snow. Aside from Fox, who does try, the other live stars are phoning it in. William Fichtner has been better elsewhere and Goldberg has been funnier. There is a sense that quite a bit of material was cut out, and if it was done to serve the turtles, more might have been cut from the beginning. They do take a long time to turn up in their own movie. Rating: **1/2 of 5 *Spoiler filled complaint. In executing their nefarious plan, Sacks took the helicopter from his private residence to New York city. Shredder stayed to duke it out with the turtles, and left later - but somehow managed to get to New York even as Sacks’ helicopter landed on his building. The turtles, being in pursuit, tool their sewer shortcuts, and still couldn’t beat either to the location. How did Shredder move that fast? If it were a cartoon, it wouldn’t even be an issue. While it’s worth watching the whole show, skip to the relevant part at the 7:10 mark.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2017
|