First let me say, if you walked into the theater for a movie about four talking mutated reptiles and expected an Oscar-winner then go seek help immediately. I'm not a huge Turtles fan and I wasn't alive for the precious 80's cartoon series. I was however, a huge fan of the 2003 TV series so my turtle knowledge is pretty vast.
The Good About The Movie
Tons of talk was generated about how the turtles looked during promotion for this film. Yes, the turtles look very weird to not be aliens. I still think they look weird but the thing is the CGI is on point. I can't say I seen lazy moment of CGI in this film. The turtles' accessories moved along with them and everything. The plot is pretty easy to follow and each turtle maintains their trademark personality with the breakout star easily being Michelangelo. This is like a Michael Bay movie, but here it works.
I was not expecting a movie with heart when I walked in. During the course of this movie you actually care and feel for the turtles as their journey goes on. The turtles were easily the best thing about this movie to the point where I hope a better sequel is made. That there statement leads me into the bad.
The Bad Things About This Movie
This is a Michael Bay-esque film. The thing is though, the director isn't being like Michael Bay to the point where he'll have a very simple plot and try to bash some deeper meaning into it out of nowhere. The plot is straightforward with only one significant side story. We do follow April O' Neil (being played by Megan Fox) for the first half of the movie. This movie definitely had the potential to be good. For the sequel I suggest a better writer and replacing Megan Fox. When I found myself actually enjoying this movie there was Fox rambling for about twenty minutes just to suck me back out of the movie.
When ever I watched the TMNT cartoon they always showed Shredder as THE villain so I felt a little bad that he was very undersold as a threat. Shredder as a villain is a character you only know two things about and he tries to kill the turtles and Splinter. I wish he was more realized in the movie like the Turtles were. Vern (played by Will Arnett) was pretty much just there for some jokes that missed instead of hit. Don't expect a whole lot of Whoopi either because unlike April, she served her purpose and left the movie.
Overall:
Don't expect movie of the year, don't even expect movie of the month but if your bored and have some extra money this movie will give you some laughs. If you like the Turtles you will have fun, if you have never been a Turtles fan you will probably find this movie horrendous. So by far, the only big problems this movie had was B-movie writing and if recast Megan Fox if she's not nude in the next movie. Good popcorn flick.
3 Out of 5 Stars
Nitpick: THERE WAS NO NINJA RAP!