Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

As you probably noticed, this was my 'looking forward to' film for October.  I didn't think I was going to get to see it at the cinema because my Dad didn't want to see but luckily I went to visit some friends in Sheffield and they wanted to see it.  Win!  This was my favourite cartoon as a kid (just behind The Flintstones) so I was uber-excited and a little pensive that they could ruin one of my childhood favourites.

This version of the original cartoon mostly follows April O'Neil (Megan Fox) and her desperation to be a real reporter by taking foolish risks that no one else will.  In doing so, she got a glimpse of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle but being so desperate to get a story she tells her boss and gets laughed out of the office.  That is when she meets all four of the turtles and enlists their help to save New York from an evil scientist trying to make money.

Sound familiar, well it should because the story is a combination of every superhero movie so far.  There is nothing original about this story or the lead character.  She is the typical female lead (less maybe the Avengers) of a superhero movie, it's just that in this case the heroes or Turtles so it doesn't become the 'love story' we are so used to (although Michelangelo does appear to have a thing for her).  However, in feeling like they need a love interest they brought in the completely redundant Will Arnett, whose character attempts at humour and being the love interest fail epically.

Speaking of the Turtles themselves, could they be anymore boring.  Michelangelo was by far the highlight of the whole film because he brought some much needed humour to the proceedings, the rest were tired, boring and predictable.  There was no excitement like there used to be in the cartoon and even in the 90's movies.  The CGI may have been better but I'd much rather sit through the 1990 version, at least that kept with the trend of the cartoon and made the turtles fun.  Plus, is it just me or did the new CGI turtles (and Splinter for that matter) look a lot more gross that I remembered, I always knew they lived in a sewer but it never looked like they did until now. yak!

I'm really disappointed to say that although it kept my interest throughout it wasn't great, the story was dull and predictable as were the turtles.