Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), PG-13, ★

The Turtles and Megan Fox. 

Leonardo, the rebellious one. Donatello, the turtle with brains. Raphael, the rebel. Michelangelo, the joker. The comic books associated with the turtles has persuaded fans to embrace their joy with the stories and the quotes to just repeat in their lifetime. It is so infamous that producers from TV and film backgrounds made their own cartoon series and movies. I was not really a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because all I saw was just turtles joking around and fighting with criminals that somehow do not always click. I did see the earlier movies, which I thought was okay, but this movie is just pure garbage compared to the earlier movies that I think I should save my time writing it is all I about because who would care about the plot.

A Batman-type story begins with a criminal organization known as the Foot Clan are running New York City and Shredder is behind it. Rat master Master Splinter (Danny Woodburn) are training his four sons to defeat Shredder.

Reporter April (Megan Fox) and her cameraman, Vernon (Will Arnett), are trying to get better stories to make their reputation more bright. When April comes back to the docks when she was trying to get a dock worker say something about what mischief is going on, The Foot Clan is bringing something in until a figure comes in and defeats all the soldiers one by one as April is recording the event on her camera phone. She tells her roommate, Taylor (Abby Elliott), and her boss, Bernadette (Whoopi Goldberg), but no one believes her.

When New York City becomes terrorized by the foot soldiers, all citizens scramble for safety and as April gets kidnapped by the Foot Soldiers and escapes onto the roof, she encounters the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and that is the turning point when the movie goes downhill and gets actually boring.

Will Arnett and Megan Fox.

This movie is just a waste of time. I knew coming in that the movie was either going to be uninspiring or surprisingly cheesy, but surprisingly good. It is the former, but I think it is kind of worse. The movie does not provide exciting entertainment that gets me cheering for the Turtles because the four heroes do not do anything special or interesting. Granted, this movie is a lot shorter than the hideous Transformers sequel that came out this year. But, Michael Bay is still involved with this project and the second half turns into a kind of Transformers movie which does not provide any stakes to the main characters and gets really predictable.

Megan Fox actually is convincing as the reporter and the first 30 minutes of the film were quite enjoyable in its own way but her background and skills get set aside and has to become the damsel in distress in the boring climactic action sequence of the picture and all interests in her character go out the window and it was frustrating. Will Arnett does not provide any entertainment in his character. Goldberg looks embarrassed to be in the film.

Now, on to the turtles. The CGI turtles looks a little scarier and uglier than the turtles in costume. It is because I think that the filmmakers are lazy and they spend so much money to make a bigger Turtles movie with lots of special effects and brainless characters. Jonathan Liebesman, the director of Battle: Los Angeles, does not deliver anything new. I hope he makes a laid-back movie that can be both enjoyable and entertaining simultaneously because the first 30 minutes was not bad. But, this latest version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is just a product of recycled action-packed clichés and some product placement that does not do the iconic characters justice. It is one of the worst films of the year.

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