Oh, don't worry Violet... he's definitely "Sensei," as well as "Father" (which makes me mushy inside
).
And here's the promised review! (treading pretty carefully on the spoilers, so some of the cuts are kinda lame
)
**************
Just got back from my local theater, where I went to the 7:10pm showing with my two best friends and some of my animation major buddies.
Overall, on a letter scale, I'd give it a
B. Maybe
7.5/10 overall, but with time and rewatchings it'll probably go up to an 8.
And here's the breakdown:
STORY:
Honestly, the monster story felt tacked on to me... the movie could have functioned quite well without it. (Not without severe plot reworking, of course, but as far as tone goes) That said, they handled it better than I expected... so a sigh of relief for that. There was also a pretty easy-to-spot story error with the monster roundup. If you're paying close enough attention you'll probably catch it. Wish they had noticed that; it would have been relatively easy to fix.
It was the family story that sealed the deal for me. Once this story kicked off, the pit in my stomach caused by my early impression of the animation (see below) cleared. The arguments between Leonardo and Raphael especially were well written and acted, I thought... and the two rival Turtles were shown to have both flaws and strengths. Which I loved - Leo was my favorite turtle at one point (before I stopped being able to favor only one
) and I like to see him just at fault for tension as Raph. He's the sort that argues, but in a quieter, more biting way. And when he crossed the line on the rooftop... whoa.
ANIMATION:
Honestly, I spent the first 20-30 minutes of the movie soundly unimpressed. The lipsync was not very well done, a lot of things moved a little too "CGI" and not enough "natural"... I was like "aww, MAN... don't tell me I'm in for a cruddy movie..." But the lipsync improved over the course of the movie. I wonder if it was because the Hong Kong animators had less of a feel for how to sync English, especially at first? Who knows... but generally the ACTION part of the animation (running, fighting, etc.) was good, while the lipsync and the more subtle ACTING part of the animation (like, choosing what to do with hands/gestures) was good at times but extremely weak, even clunky, in others.
But that brother vs. brother fight... hoooooo man. Worth the $5.50 I paid for the ticket
by itself. Easily the centerpiece of the movie. Some good animation there, that's for sure.
TEXTURES/LIGHTING/CINEMATOGRAPHY:
In a word, fantastic. What was subpar in the animation department was balanced by the sheer look of the film. The textures are amazingly detailed, lighting is great, and cinematography also quite awesome. This was the part my animation buddies were most impressed with. One specifically pointed out the rain during the rooftop fight scene. It was indeed phenominal, and kudos to Imagi for that.
VOICE ACTING:
Also phenominal. ESPECIALLY whenever Leo and Raph were arguing... none of it sounded forced to me.
I'm used to Mako because of Avatar, so I loved him too... though those used to a smoother Splinter voice may find it hard to adjust. The lipsync would sometimes not match his voice well at times, though. Random thought: some of those mouth shapes Splinter made reminded me of Don Bluth's work. X)
SCRIPT:
At least in terms of the lines said,
generally good. I'll mention the Leo/Raph verbal fights again and say that nothing felt out of place there. Mikey had some painful lines, though at least some were obviously
supposed to be that way. I think the weakest dialogue in the film were the one-liners. Some hit, some missed, some missed by a mile. I don't mind that they were there, but I would have liked some better ones.
As for the opening narration by Lawrence Fishburne... yeah. Pretty badly executed. Though as he got into the backstory, I stopped noticing as much. Not sure whether that was due to me being drawn into the story or him just getting better. There was just too much drama in the tone for a story like this, I think.
And the "name" actors did pretty well.
MUSIC:
I'll be brief here and just say I liked it. The score, at least. My main complaint is I just wanted to hear a few more different themes. Good thing the Nightwatcher theme is a good one that I didn't get tired of.
THEATER EXPERIENCE:
Positive. It warmed my heart to hear the audience cheer and applaud as that green flame appeared on the screen when the movie started. There was also scattered applause for each Turtle's introduction, and more applause when the end credits hit. Didn't notice too much audience reaction throughout the movie (though some one-liners got some decent laughs) but the beginning and ending... aaah. Good time to be a Turtle fan. I wore a TMNT shirt that I made last night (with Leonardo on the front
) and my animation guys commented on it, haha.
FINAL WORDS:
Maybe Peter Laird likes monster/alien stories, but I honestly prefer the Turtles in their home city, fighting ninjas or street gangs. Yet, this film did OK for what it was. Perhaps aiming for "all ages" was a mistake, as I heard several people commenting about the film "not knowing who it was directed at" as we all left. Though I thought it really did feel aimed for the old-school in-their-twenties-fans, especially with the family tension. We oldies (and hardcore fans) tend to enjoy that stuff.
There's talk of a possible sequel. And of course, Karai's parting words left plenty of room for one... and, dare I say, one that could adapt a certain well-loved story from the comics.
With the practice they had on this film, I'd love to see what Imagi could do with a second Turtles movie. This one just has to do well enough at the box office and maybe they'll consider it. Though I for one would definitely want them to push the boundary and make any sequel PG13. Then maybe we can see some sweet nunchuck action from Michelangelo... and perhaps a couple choice (but still relatively tame) words from Raphael.
If I wasn't a Turtles fan, I'd probably like it significantly less. But the thing was, this film was MADE with crazy fans like me in mind... so I suppose it succeeded there. I can understand reviewers giving it negative reviews, because I think you just can't enjoy it as much if you're not a fan.
