Over the years, I have come to realize that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are probably my favorite property. It is easily top four with Transformers, Dragon Ball Z and Power Rangers. I can't explain it, nor WILL I. It's my prerogative. I have figures all over the damn place in my room and my favorites, by a mile, are my 1/4 sized set of the Ninja Turtles from the first live action movie. The property has been rebranded, rebooted so many times, it's hard to keep count. And I've watched nearly all of them. I enjoy each iteration.
When I heard this movie was going to skew the turtles on the younger side of their teenage years, I half rolled my eyes. I go hot and cold on Seth Rogen. I feel like I've aged out of most of his humor and I can find him very annoying. All that being said, I love this property, a movie was going to be in the theaters, so of course I was going to see it and give it a shot.
So what did I think? I loved it. It took me a while to get used to the animation style, it's like, Diet Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. We can see that this street graffiti look is here to stay and hang out for a bit, so we might as well welcome it into our lives. Once I got over the initial ugliness of some of the humans (Baxter Stockman for example), this movie really settles in. Also, before we go any further, the look of Splinter is oft-putting to me.
I was not expecting an actiony movie like Turtles movies of the past. The action we did get was appropriate for teens just starting to get into real fights. I liked that they struggled against normal guys because they had not been in real combat before. It's a perfect example of what happens when you learn from watching videos, but then have to apply that in real life.
I also liked the arc of the characters and how they grow. It was fun watching Leonardo finally gaining the respect of his brothers as a leader. I also loved the choice of having him, not Donatello in recent iterations, fawning over April. Watching the other brothers finding their places on the team with their dynamic was also fun. There was also so much chemistry between them and it was good to not see them constantly bickering.
I was initially worried when they announced the cast of this movie and just how many characters were in it. I felt that for the first movie, they would take away too much screen from the turtles and just oversaturate the whole thing. Fortunately, they are not the focus and show up in chunks throughout the film. Honestly, they get a lot of big names for bit parts. Kind of a waste if you ask me.
The voice acting was strong in this and I never knew that Ice Cube as himself, playing Baxter Stockman is what I was missing in my life. This was 90s era Ice Cube, which I think a lot of you would appreciate. I mean, he straight up talks about molly whopping people. Ice Cube was being Ice Cube and I'm here for it. Jackie Chan was a surprise choice, but he's had enough experience in the game that he can emote with his voice very well and he comes off as the caring father that he portrayed.
Just the theme of family and wanting to fit in definitely resonated with me, so I felt something watching this movie that I didn't think I would. I've grown softer in my later years.
Would I recommend this movie? Absolutely. Do I want to watch it again, absolutely. I feel like I might have missed some bits because I was distracted THE WHOLE MOVIE because Alamo was having an off day and I didn't get my food until 15 minutes before the movie ended. Why does this matter you say? Because I ordered ten minutes BEFORE the movie started. So I had to wait the whole damn movie to get fed and I came to the movie hungry. So I was in a MOOD and distracted, not able to fully enjoy this like I wanted to. Anyways, go see it... on demand somewhere because the shelf life of movies in theaters is obscene these days.
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