Matt Adcock’s film review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

An evil supervillian named Shredder (Tohoru Masamune) is waging a campaign of fear and intimidation using his army of soldiers called the Foot Clan.

With even the authorities at a loss as to how to protect the city, four unlikely vigilantes rise from the sewers and begin to take the fight back to Shredder and his minions.

These Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are lab grown superheroes, namely Leonardo (voiced by Johnny Knoxville), Michelangelo (Noel Fisher), Donatello (Jeremy Howard), and Raphael (Alan Ritchson) led by a ninja sensei rat called Splinter (Tony Shalhoub).

So it’s game on as the Turtles team up with fearless sexy reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox) and her clueless cameraman Vernon Fenwick (Will Arnett) to try and save the city and unravel Shredder’s diabolical plans.

Cue some eye-popping set pieces as the Turtles bring the noise in terms of battles, chases and funnies. The special effects breathe life into these ‘heroes in a half shell’ allowing each to have a personality and kick total ass with their various ninja weapons.

Along the way William Fictner pops up in a fairly preposterous key role which he delivers in the style of a budget Christopher Walken. Fox doesn’t have much to do except wear tight sweaters and bend over for the camera at strategic points. Her contribution for female empowerment cannot be underrated.

But the Turtles themselves command viewers’ attention throughout, moving and fighting like lean green reptilian bad asses even if their banter feels a bit fake.

There are plans afoot for at least two more Turtle films that will bring back more elements of the universe such as Dimension X and Krang. And as this reboot is fast approaching $400million worldwide , you should expect turtle power to be around for some time.

As someone nostalgic for the original TMNT movie and cartoon series, I’m pleased to report there is enough fun, not too violent violence and pizza fixation to make this new version worth checking out.