A few months back, I remember seeing the very dark and promising trailer for the new movie TMNT. Like many others my age (about to turn 29) I was very excited to see that someone was bringing back the “Hero’s in a half shell”. However what so often is the case in film today, the trailer for TMNT was much better than the film itself.

TMTN starts where one of the last films “Secret of the Ooze” left off. Shredder is dead, and the turtles must now move on with their lives. Still living underground, the turtles are now living mundane lives. They lack a super villain to keep them occupied and focused, and some of them have even taken on jobs. Mikey works entertaining children at birthday parties, while Don works as a tech support agent working from home, while Raph spends his nights scouring the rooftops in a costume fighting crime. He seems to have forgotten all that Master Splinter has taught him while he uses his built up anger to fight crime and not is talented ninja skills. All the turtles seem to lack discipline and focus, an obvious result stemming from the departure of Leo, who now resides in South America. He is their on an assignment from Splinter to become a better leader. Upon Leo’s return to the sewers, he quickly realizes that things are not the same as he left them. While Mikey and Don are very happy to see him, Raph is his same old self. He seemed to have taken it the hardest when Leo left. Leo must now fight to gain back the respect and trust of his brothers. The only problem is that all of a sudden the city, and more importantly the world seems to be under attack by a group of Ancient stone warriors who want to reign total destruction on the world with the help of and army of monsters form another planet. Leo and Raph must put aside their anger and frustration if they are to work together with Don, Mikey, April, Casey Jones, and Splinter as a team again and save the entire planet.

The biggest problem with TMNT was what appears to be a total lack of direction in the story. The movie wasn’t nearly long enough to adequately focus on and finish all the sub-plots that get introduced. The best example of this would be the sub-plot of Leonardo and his training to become a better leader. This story-line never quite gets finished as there is no significant moment in the film where you can sit back and say “ok, I see what he learned on his training”. The other problem with the story is that it just took to long to get to the exciting parts of the story. It became so focused on getting the turtles back together, that everything at the end just seemed rushed. The final battle sequence was nothing exciting which in itself was a disappointment since the film was made in the limitless world of CGI. The same limitations that existed years ago when the original films were created do not exist now, so you really could have had the most amazing ninja turtle battle sequence ever, but just didn’t.

The movie also fails in it’s attempt to create very basic animations for the human characters, while the turtles, the city, and the whole world around them were CGI. I understand the need for risk taking in film, however, after the first time you attempt this, and you see how bad the human characters contrast with the rest of the scenes, you simply should have taken the time to redo them. This alone wouldn’t have saved the film, but it could have made it a little stronger. While the turtles looked great running on rooftops, even the CGI, especially the close-ups sometimes looked more like the work of an armature. I will however give credit where credit is due. There is a scene in the film where Leonardo and Raphael are fighting in the rain on a rooftop. This scene was so superbly done. It was one of the best animated scenes I have ever seen. To bad the rest of the movie didn’t follow suit.