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| Photo from gofobo.com |
Director Jonathan Liebesman's "Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles" is not as terrible as one might have expected. But
in the sense of bringing back memories to this 90s child, this movie is the
best so far this year.
The film does suffer because of the comic
book-based elements that inevitably must be grounded in the 'real world' with,
at times too much backstory. From main character and our eyes into the lives of
the Turtles, April O'Neil (Megan Fox.)
O’Neil, a struggling news reporter seeking
to make her bones on a story about the FOOT Clan. In doing so, she encounters the
Turtles and befriends them, realizing that she -- and her scientist father --
had a hand in their origin.
Through a series of
confusingly-written scenes that burden us with too much backstory, we learn
that the Ninja Turtles were her pets as a young child, and that her father was
shot and killed by the villainous Eric Sachs (William Fichtner). The movie is
obsessed with explaining how things work in a world dominated by sentient,
talking turtles trained in the art of karate.
From here, the movie auto-pilots its
way through weightless, logic-less CG set pieces as Sachs and his Master,
Shredder, scheme to unleash a deadly pathogen into New York City, one which
Sachs will make money on by providing the government with a cure -- which he'll
derive somehow from the Turtles' blood. Given the obsession of explaining the
science, I was relieved with the lack of information provided here.
When the Turtles plays the nostalgia
card it happens without being forced, which is refreshing. Fans will be pleased
to finally see their beloved characters cut loose in action scenes, in ways
that enjoyably harken back to the animated series.
Megan Fox arguably gives her best
performance in a summer tentpole to date, but she's still unable to quite nail
the deadpan humor the character is often required to deliver. Her dream to be taken seriously as a journalist, which she announces
repeatedly, is dropped in favor of an unconvincing and un-earned goal of
accepting the turtles as her brothers.
