For fans of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it’s time to rejoice. Your 4 favourite turtles – Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael- return to the big screen after an absence of 14 years in an all-new CGI adventure, written and directed by Kevin Munroe. Which is about time since most UrbanWire readers were probably in pre-school when the last turtle movie, the third in the series, was screening in 1993. Thankfully, this film does not attempt a reboot but instead carries on from after they’ve defeated all their arch-enemies (including Shredder, who appears in fine CGI form when one of the Turtles reminisces about the old days).

We first see Leonardo (James Arnold Taylor), who’s been sent off to South America for training to be a leader at the behest of their teacher Master Splinter (Mako), and has continued his crime-fighting streak in protecting the innocent villagers from evil druglords.

In his absence, however, the other Turtles have gone soft and fallen apart. Donatello (Mitchell Whitfield), previously known for his smarts, takes on a job as a tech support phone operator, while Michelangelo (Mikey Kelley) spends his time pretending to be a guy in a turtle costume at children parties. Meanwhile, Raphael (Nolan North) seems to be sleeping all day, but by night he’s a metal-clad vigilante with an equally cool motorbike, stalking the streets of New York City as Nightwatcher, fighting crime with fear and violence, rather than his Splinter-taught ninja skills.

With Shredder out of the picture, the Turtles’ new nemesis is introduced by a subplot featuring a flashback 3,000 years ago involving generals that have been petrified, leaving their leader consigned to immortality and immense power. The leader of these stone generals, Max Winters (Patrick Stewart) has since become wealthy beyond imagination and has engaged the Turtles’ old allies April O’Neil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Casey Jones (Chris Evans) for help in recovering his “brothers” – the petrified generals, with the intention of releasing them from their petrified state, and he does so eventually. And that is how April bumps into Leonardo, in a village in South America, after hearing stories of how a “ninja” has been helping them combat crime and fight off evil soldiers and druglords. She manages to convince Leonardo to return to New York City to stop the rest of the Turtles from degenerating into further rot.

From then on, it is a sad degeneration in terms of plot. Leonardo is displeased and jealous that this new crime-fighting hero, “Nightwatcher” (he doesn’t know it’s Raphael) has taken over the Turtles’ job. He confronts Nightwatcher and in the ensuing battle, finds out it’s actually Raphael. However, Raphael breaks both his swords in combat and as a result, Leonardo is captured by Winters’ generals with the help of the Foot Clan led by Karai (Zhang Ziyi). It’s part of a subplot in which Winters tries to reverse his immortality state.

However, even in the ensuing final battle, we don’t see the usual Turtle power. What we see, instead are the 4 Turtles and Master Splinter engaging in their enemies to stall for time while someone thinks of an ingenious way to defeat them, which they of course do eventually. This, I feel is a real let down because anyone who has watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would know that their 4 favourite Turtles are supremely trained fighting beings capable of taking on anybody.

The running time of 87 minutes is a disappointment, especially for fans who have been waiting expectantly for this release. The last Turtle movie was more than 10 years ago, and after waiting for so long, I’m sure that fans would’ve expected a better, and definitely longer movie full of turtle action.

And seeing them back in action will surely bring tears of joy. For even if the storyline is a disappointment, Munroe has done an excellent job in keeping the archetypical Turtle characters and the movie actually focusses on them rather than the storyline, as opposed to the typical action movie.

Rating
4.5 out of 5 stars for Turtle fans
3 out of 5 stars for everyone else

Movie details
Opens: 23 March
Runtime: 87 minutes
Cast (voiceovers): Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Patrick Stewart, Zhang Ziyi, Mitchell Whitfield, James Arnold Taylor, Mikey Kelley, Nolan North
Director: Kevin Munroe