Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one of those children’s shows I used to watch all the time with my sister while growing up, so when I saw this movie advertised, I was interested in going to see it.
This movie was very similar to the storylines of other versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with the four of them wanting to be normal and join the human world.
I liked seeing the story of how Splinter found the turtles and became their dad. I’ve always loved seeing the father and son relationship between Splinter and the turtles, and it was really sweet to see him trying to protect them from a very early age…and that he was still trying to protect them, even though his actions were clearly more stifling than anything else.
One of the main things I really liked about this movie was the fact that the turtles weren’t amazing fighters. The first scene where they fight, it seems more like they win by accident, since they start off experiencing ‘friendly fire’.
I did think April was an interesting character, and I liked the fact that, despite her wanting to be a reporter, she suffered from a severe case of anxiety the first time she tried speaking on live television. I definitely thought that made her seem like a well-rounded character.
I did find it a bit hard to follow the action scenes of this movie at times, as there were so many mutants working with Superfly. I think condensing down those mutants would have been better, as the movie didn’t really take the time to expand on more than the basics about those characters.
I did really like the visuals of this movie, although there were some scenes between Splinter and a cockroach towards the end that I just felt were…very inappropriate. Especially as there was more of a story between Leonardo and April, and nothing was really done with them.
I did think that Superfly worked really well as a villain, especially as I had the chance to see his origins at the beginning of the movie, which made me a little more sympathetic to him…even though what he was planning to do was completely wrong. Plus, it was interesting to see him trying to get the turtles on his side, rather than outright trying to attack them.
I did find this movie entertaining for what it was, but I can’t really say it added much to the franchise. It’s worth watching if you ever enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I don’t think it’s a movie I would watch a second time.
Ink of Blood 