PREMISE
The film follows the Turtles as they work to earn the love of New York City while facing down an army of mutants.
THE GOOD STUFF
THE NEW-AGE T.M.N.T.- I grew up on T.M.N.T. in a way that very few people I know have. I watched that television show as a wee lad, I bought those action figures, I spent $30 trying to beat that arcade game back in the early 90s, and most importantly, I came of age on the movies teenage mutant Ninja turtles (1990) teenage mutant Ninja turtles part 2: the secret of the OOZE (1991) and teenage mutant Ninja turtles 3 (1993). To someone so embedded in this franchise, I got to say the voices of the turtles have always been Corey Feldman (Donatello), Brian Tochi (Leonardo), Robbie Rist (Michaelangelo), and Josh Pais (Raphael). Even through other iterations of this franchise, I strangely found myself recalling the events and scenes of those movies with the voices of those characters in my head instead of the actors who were actually playing them at the time. That is until now.
The simple yet ingenious thing about this movie is that they make the turtles into teenagers. There is a bit of innocence so endearing as the movie goes along. The performances of Nicolas Cantu (Leo), Brady Noon (Raphael), Micah Abby (Donatello), and Shamon Brown Jr. (Michelangelo) perhaps overshadow anything that’s come before them. This movie takes modern-day Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg-written pop culture references and doesn’t make them feel out of place. This is a comedy more than anything else, and it’s because of these four amazing performances in this film.
Master Splinter & April o’neil– Throughout every iteration of this franchise, there has always been the issue of underwriting Master Splinter and overwriting April O’Neil. Something that could have really hindered the quality of this movie to any true nerd of this franchise, such as myself, is either do the same thing with these characters or make them way more important than what they are. This movie somehow manages to incorporate new elements into these characters that are very fun and engaging.
At this point, Ayo Edebiri is just effortlessly hitting home runs. Between her roles in Abbott elementary, the bear, and now this, I think it’s safe to say she can be considered one of the M.V.P.s of 2023 so far. Jackie Chan really shines through here. Justifiably, we always associate that name and that image with action flicks. And I’m not saying that we’ve forgotten how funny he can be or anything like that. It’s just lovely to be shown the comedy side of him again after being without it for what seems to be a pretty long time.
Animation– The artistic style is going for a lot more of a hand drawn effect than anything that the spider-verse films even tried to do. It’s a weird kind of cell shading, and it takes a moment to get used to. When it came to quite literally anything but action sequences… every single solitary shot looks like a screensaver. I don’t necessarily know if it’s a good idea for other films to use this kind of animation. In the wrong hands, it can get chaotic and kind of annoying. But in this film it works for the most part.
THE BAD STUFF
THE ACTION- This is kind of a coin-flip call for me because a lot of the action sequences that simply involve hand-to-hand fighting are done very well. There’s a montage action sequence at the end of the first act that is cleverly done. The simple things work. However, when the action gets more complicated and grandiose, things tend to be less exciting or interesting.
There is way too much going on in the climactic sequence of this film. Not saying I couldn’t understand what was going on. Still, due to the animation, I feel your eyes can’t keep up with everything happening on screen when the camera gets to moving really fast, and there are a lot of large objects colliding with each other. Or maybe I’m just old.
THE UGLY STUFF
The antagonists– When I look at the list of names that have attached themselves to this project I am kind of taken aback. The cast list reads as a Wes Anderson cast list would, honestly. There are about 10 names or so that any common moviegoer could recognize, and outside of Ice Cube and Paul Rudd (who are both very excellent, by the way, in their respective roles), none of the names that you will recognize have anything to do other than to say a quip here and there. It’s a real shame, too, because when the villains get a chance to interact with each other, it’s funny and interesting.
I would go as far as to say that there probably could have been an entire movie about them, and it would have been a fun watch. The script doesn’t know what to do with the villains here. It’s a common problem of modern-day superhero flicks sadly.
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Late last month it was announced that a sequel and a two-season television series to this film were in development for Paramount Plus. Doing that much for something before it even comes out is.. a bit much, let’s just say. But after seeing this film, it makes a bit of sense.
Paramount seems to be a studio that rehashes A WHOLE F******LOT of nostalgia franchises (mission impossible, Star Trek, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, TRANSFORMERS, Terminator, etc etc,). It’s something that they can excel at. And I trust that they’ll do the right things with this one. This is the franchise to try and do a whole bunch spinoff-y type things with.
My love for this franchise goes back to when I was seven. If this was a bad film I would have activated my caps lock key and went to town, typing at the top of my lungs. But after seeing this… I have to admit. My heart is warmed. I am so happy this movie is this good and was made in this way.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM is in theaters now.
