TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (2014)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

I seem to remember that this reboot got an unusual amount of fan-hate back in the day, though I admit I didn't see it in the theater. I stated my opinion the TMNT franchise back in my review of the 1990 live-action adaptation-- that it's fun but lightweight. As long as the four jive-talking terrapins and their rat-daddy keep their standard characterizations consistent and there's lots of high-octane action, what's to hate?

Possibly 2014 got some hate just because it's become standard for critics to despise anything produced by Michael Bay. I've seen my share of Bay films that were so hyper-active that they were visually incomprehensible. But 2014, directed by Jonathan Liebesman and scripted by three writers that seemed to get the Turtles mythos pretty well, was quite easy to follow. Of course, the conflict is standard Supervillain 101. This time, the Shredder (Tohoro Masamune) isn't interested in petty matters like seducing young teens to a life of crime, as he was in 1990. He, his Foot Clan, and a new mad scientist (William Fichtner) go straight to the city-blackmailing option, planning to unleash a radioactive mutagen on New York. 

Of course, being the righteous reptilians they are, the Turtles start assailing his operations, and this attracts the attention of reporter April O'Neil (Megan Fox). In fact, 2014 somewhat improves upon the usual origin in which April has no common backstory with the five mutants. Here, she's the daughter of a scientist who was involved in the experiment that created the mutagen, and he was killed by colleague Eric Sacks (who has "bad guy written all over him from his first scene). In April's first encounter with the vigilantes, she recognizes their names, having known all five experimental animals in her dad's lab. It's pretty improbable when the script claims that rat-sensei Splinter actually remembers April from before he was mutated, but since I liked a lot of the humor (particularly the joke about the "99-cheese pizza"), I'll give that one a pass.

I also thought that all the big honking action-scenes were well done though not exceptional, and commensurate with what Michael Bay's fans expect of his films. The script is weak on the motivations of both Shredder and Sacks; they shake down cities just because they can, and Shredder's daughter Karai (Minae Noji) is reduced to the role of a bare functionary. Shredder wouldn't make my list of great comics-villains, but on occasion he does have a grandiose quality. 2014 just turns him into a human Transformer for the big fight-scenes.

Fox makes a decent support-heroine here, and Will Arnett provides a lot of "confused guy over his head" humor. I take away a few points because the Foot Clan aren't dressed as traditional ninjas, which is really about the only charm they have. The film was a box office success but the follow-up was less so, killing this reboot series, though another would appear seven years later.