THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It’s crazy that we can find guilty pleasure out of the damnedest of movies. So you should feel less surprised when I consider 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as one of them.PLOT
The film is a retelling of the iconic superhero team, giving a brand new origin to the central characters. This time, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael & Splinter were part of a scientific experiment called ‘Project Renaissance’. When a fire broke out, they were freed to the sewers. As their mutations would gain them human attributes, the rat Splinter would learn ninjutsu and teach it to the four turtles for self defense. Now that they are teenagers, he insists his adopted sons to lay low and not head to the surface confronting the sinister Foot Clan until he believes they’re ready. That all changes when they choose to confront the evil ninjas, stopping them from raiding cargo containers. The only witness to spot them was local reporter April O’Neil whose investigating the enemy group. She tries to explain to her supervisor Bernadette Thompson (Whoopi Goldberg) that he saw a vigilante, but the Channel 6 staff dismiss her due to her lack of proof. When the Foot’s leader, the Shredder, hears of what happened with the failed raid, he orders Karai (Minae Noji) to lure out the turtles by using hostages as bait. They do just that at a subway station. It would backfire on their end when the new heroes outsmarted them again and freed the hostages. With April being one of them, she chooses to follow them to get proof. She takes a picture of them from afar, but they notice her and delete it from her phone, requesting to not tell anyone of their existence. Due to their names, she would recognize them to be the same turtles from Project Renaissance in which her father was part of as a scientist. When she tries again to convince Bernadette of their existence, she is fired for the story too ridiculous to believe. She does confide in her ex-co worker Vern Fenwick of her discovery and convinces him to take her to Eric Sacks of Sacks Industries, who was a lab partner to her dad. When meeting him, he claims that Project Renaissance was an experiment meant to cure diseases, but was lost due to the fire. Disappointed that the Turtles disobeyed him, Splinter insists April to be brought to their sewer home. When they do so, he explains that April’s father started the fire because he discovered Sacks was align with Shredder and had bad intentions with the experiment. When the fire started, it was April who took them to the sewers for safety and from there, they became who they are now. Just as he reveals Sacks was the protege of Shredder, they are found by the Foot (thanks to a tracker Sacks planted on April). Despite defending themselves, they’d be overwhelmed by the presence of the Shredder. The leader would leave Splinter for dead after providing a relentless beatdown, whereas he takes Leo, Donnie & Mikey to Sacks’ estate. Raph is left behind when presumed after being buried in rubble. Luckily, he gets out just as the enemy leaves. After tending to his father, he vows to save his brothers. April convinces Vern to take them to Sacks after meeting the turtle up close. When breaking in, April finds the other turtles getting blood drained in order to create an antidote for a virus Sacks has made and Shredder will release above NY, knowing his protege will profit from those who seek the cure. Raph takes on Shredder himself, only to quickly lose. The enemy would leave him for dead again just before April injects the brothers with adrenaline which saves them. As all escape the compound, they take down multiple Foot soldiers including Karai on the way down a snowy mountain. The turtles would confront Shredder together at a radio tower in the city where the virus is intended to be spread above. April & Vern would subdue Sacks and take the cure from him. This would be a moment of redemption for O’Neil as the former friend confesses to have killed her father during the fire. The fight between Shredder and the turtles would be so hectic that the tower’s support beam would collapse. As April reaches the tower and distracts Shredder with the cure, the enemy would charge at her but the heroes would catch her from falling to her death. Surprisingly, they would stop Shredder together when the turtles would lunge April to him, kicking him off the tower in which he shockingly survives. As the beam hits the ground without civilian casualties, the turtles return to the sewers undetected and use the cure on Splinter to help him recover from his wounds. Some time after Shredder’s defeat, the heroes would thank April for her help, showing off their own modified van in the process. But the film would end in hilarious fashion as the group would retreat after Mikey accidentally launches a rocket on Vern’s new car.
THOUGHTS
Since this film came out when I was an actual teenager, I actually had high hopes. While this didn't hit the same mark previously made by the 90s live action films, that doesn't mean it as completely bad. In an overall sense, I do believe director Jonathan Liebesman did his best in making exciting for most fans that were anticipating this. There are a lot of issues to discuss, which I'll get to, but I do think there are some good things to acknowledge as well. Personally, I can't be the only one who thought the computerized design of the turtles are well done. The details that were put on each of them are incredible to notice deep down. Not only do they choose to wear their own apparel, but the paint on their shells first done by April is still visible. I do appreciate all the stand-in actors that provided motion capture for the heroes including Splinter. All of their designs are as lifelike as they can get. With that paying off, the fight scenes do so as well big time. Particularly, it was the snow mountain chase that blows me away every damn time. Even Shredder's suit had a badass design that would make sense in a modern standpoint. Apart from this, I think the reason I've been able able to sit down to this more than once would be how it represents how every decision will always affect your future and when you choose to be a leader, do it one step at a time. I caught onto this pretty quickly thanks to an interesting cast. I don't think anyone expected the heroes to have a personal connection to April, but this does make the story more interesting nonetheless. Without exaggeration, I do respect Megan Fox in making her someone very compassionate with her line of work and determination to do the right thing. This mindset led to a bombshell she never thought she'd encounter and thanks to it, her involvement in saving the world made her whole again. No one really talks about Splinter, but I do respect Tony Shalhoub for voicing the rat as a strict yet loving father who knew better than anyone his sons would struggle with acceptance the second they expose themselves to the surface. They may be lucky to have new friends out of April and Vern, but not everyone will react the same. He is teaching them patience because the last thing he wants is for them to be disappointed with reality. And in the end, he reminded us what a badass he is when taking on the Foot before being overpowered by Shredder. Even he was overpowered by the enemy, but at least it proved how far he was willing to go to protect his sons. It doesn't feel like an argument when I say Raph gets the most shine again compared to his brothers. Alan Ritchson did a great job portraying him as the aggressive one who didn't know his limits until learning the hard way when taking on Shredder. It was through that beating where he accepted the benefit of having a team and boy did he have a good one out of his siblings. He never liked the idea of being led until realizing have better ideas on how to handle conflict. I never would have imagined Leo to be voiced by Johnny Knoxville, but it now sounds logical since he is seen as a leader in Jackass. Apart from that, he does a good job in having that sense of dedication and remains the most cautious in comparison. I still think Jeremy Howard was a great choice for Donnie, pulling off in playing him as the gentlest yet inquisitive of the group. He puts his intelligence to good use which pays off every damn time. And credit has to be given when saying how smart of a decision it was for him to make his staff retractable. Of all traits he has, that should've stuck around in future adaptations. Noel Fisher has all my love and respect for when he played Mickey Milkovich in Showtime's Shameless, but getting to play Mikey here had to be a second coming because he was great in this role as well. The whole time, he was making me laugh for remaining the most laid-back and makes the most of everything. I relate to pizza being a weakness because it's too damn delicious to ignore. The coolest thing about him here is that he has a skateboard with mini rockets, which he used to his advantage in the snow mountain chase. You can't deny the badassery of that combination. My favorite moment of this film overall has to be when the brothers before during their elevator trip. It gets to me every time because it shows sometimes, you need to hype yourself up to get through the goals. And it was glad all four had each other for that particular moment. I wasn't so crazy about the addition of Vern because he's not as interesting as the other characters. However, I do think Will Arnett does his best in making such by showing him as one who is willing to help but is not the best at it since like April, he doesn't really have the best set of fighting skills apart from the luck he had in taking down Sacks. He honestly had the worst luck in the movie whereas he fails to woo April and two of his vehicles get destroyed in his very eyes. At least the sequel gave him better luck than this. Going into the villains, you know it's hard to imagine this franchise without Shredder. From what we get to see of him, Tohoru Masamune nails it in making him as formidable as he's supposed to be. And on the other hand, William Fichtner pulls off making Sacks one who was echoing the hunger for power his mentor was all about. While Shredder would stick around a little longer, at least the takedown on Sacks would give the heroes one less hero to worry about. I’ve given this movie all the due credit, but it didn’t excuse the shit that bothered me story wise. For example, why did April have to change clothes on the job? I don’t think anyone would care what she’d be wearing during a live yoga demonstration. And what are the damn odds for her to pass by the Foot’s cargo raid? I know we needed an excuse for her to see the turtles, but it’s fine off of the subway altercation. I even grow to think that scene is slightly pointless, especially when they ruin consistency by having the scene take place on a rainy night, only for April to return to her apartment clean like she wasn’t even there. She’s even lucky none of the Foot snatch her phone when she’s trying to record them because it’s not like they didn’t see her whip it out. And why the hell would she use a flash when she knows that would be a guaranteed giveaway? I know she’s gotta take the pic from afar, but she still could’ve taken it without flash. I also don’t blame her for showing video proof of the turtle’s existence, but she shows Bernadette a pointless video of feeding them pizza when she could’ve showed how one was strong enough to break fucking glass at infant size. You want to talk about continuity errors, how about April’s laptop saying it was still in the afternoon when she goes home, but we know that can’t be right because it’s nighttime by the time she’s browsing. These issues continue when it’s supposed to be a sunny day when Shredder ambushes the heroes’ home, yet it briefly rains when he takes them out of the sewer. I know whether can be unpredictable, but I don’t think it’d be that out of pocket. And if we gotta keep talking about conveniences, Sacks gave April a business card tracker just hours before the turtles bring her to the sewer. Imagine if she never saw them again, that’d be sadly pointless for him. And why was April even allowed to feed the animals in the lab when her dad was working on a top secret experiment? She is too damn lucky neither Sacks nor her dad kicked her out before the fire. And how the hell did Vern know April was calling him when she was calling from a pay phone? It’s a miraculous guess while also being a miracle to find a pay phone in a post 2000s society. Also, why wasn’t the outside of Sacks’ estate not guarded? That is asking for someone to break in, especially on the day of your master plan going in motion. On top of that, I found it pointless for April to taunt Shredder with getting the cure because that’s asking to get killed by a villain. The only thing that pissed me off more than that is her being able to take him down with the help of the turtles. I really got nothing against her, but she did not need that moment to prove herself as a hero. Stopping Sacks was good enough. With all that’s being said, I do wish you all good luck for trying to ignore all said issues. To wrap up, 2014's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a guilty pleasure action flick meant for any fan of the iconic franchise.
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