TMNT

* * ½

STARRING: Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mako, Kevin Smith, Patrick Stewart, Laurence Fishburne, Ziyi Zhang, Mitchell Whitfield, James Arnold Taylor, Mikey Kelley, Noah North

2007, 85 Minutes, Directed by: Kevin Munroe

Description: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles return in an all-new CGI action adventure, written and directed by Kevin Munroe. After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei, Splinter (Mako), becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City. Tech-industrialist Maximillian J. Winters (Patrick Stewart) is raising up an army of ancient monsters, and only one super-ninja fighting team can stop them - Leonardo (James Arnold Taylor), Michelangelo (Mikey Kelley), Donatello (Mitchell Whitfield) and Raphael (Nolan North)! With the help of old allies April O'Neil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Casey Jones (Chris Evans), the Turtles are in for the fight of their lives as they once again must face the mysterious Foot Clan, who have put their own ninja skills behind Winters' endeavours. — Amazon.com

Hardly as bad as most critics made it out to be (31% on the RottenTomato.com scale is a bit unfair), this recent computer-animated attempt to revive the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze of the late-1980s/early-1990s is at worst bland and unmemorable and average at best. The animation is patchy: fantastically detailed backgrounds are offset against designs of the humans that simply look too “kiddie” and negates the more serious tone the movie is trying to create. (The Turtles themselves comes off best in this particular medium.) Some of the childish goofiness that marked the original TV show and previous movies is missing and the plot is threadbare to say the least. Still, TMNT never outstays its welcome or bores. Kids — in particular boys — will lap it all up and ageing fans of the originals with lowered expectations will have an okay-ish time.
 

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