Allow me to take you back to Autumn 2007. I was 11 turning 12, my Uncle and Step Aunt were preparing to get married (in fact we saw this movie right before we went to look at the limo they were hiring for the event), my excitement for the first Transformers was growing as it would be out next school holidays, and myself, my parents, my sister, my cousins and aforementioned uncle and step-aunt went and saw TMNT 2007. Our reactions to it back then were... mixed at best, though I haven't gotten the opinions of most people who saw it with me. I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of the movie back then, but by the end of that year, I saw the first Transformers movie several times to take that with a grain of salt. I'll admit its one of the reasons I got out of the series, aside from going to High School in 2008 and last weeks review not really getting much air time of free tv. This is the first time in almost over 10 years I've seen this movie, and in that time many things have changed, for better or for worse. So, how does it hold up in the eyes of a 22-year-old compared to what it did in the eyes of an 11-year-old? One way to find out.
Starting with the plot, our story starts at a time when The Shredder is no more, but in its place, a new force is rising. 3000 years before the present day, a warlord summoned thirteen monsters to help him take over the world, with the price of immortality, and losing his generals who he considered his family. To return to normal and finally die, this warlord must return the thirteen monsters to where they came from once the portal opens again 3000 years later, also known as modern day so the Turtles can fight them. In the said modern day, the Turtles are older, the Shredder was defeated, and with the exception of the odd thief, New York was pretty much safe. Leo was sent to South America to train for a year but chose to stay longer, Mikey was now a children's entertainer (and apparently scarred for life because of it. This is why I feel sorry for clowns, kids are cruel), Donnie's now working as an IT call center helping dumb people fix computer issues and Raph... became Batman. I'm not going to beat around the bush, he became a semi gadget-focused vigilante, so imagine Batman as a turtle. Eventually, Leo returns to New York (because the plot called) and after the four turtles unite, they learn of what's going on... to an extent. They believe a new character called Winters is summoning an army of monsters when it is, in fact, his former generals who he brought back to life while keeping them still as stone. Eventually, the generals take all but one of the monsters and try to pass of Leo as the thirteenth monster in order to backstab Winters, but April and Casey eventually get the real monster into the portal, causing the curse to be lifted. Oh, and the Foot Clan are in the movie too.
The thing about the movie is that it is mostly character focused, which is part of the reason why the overarching plot's a bit of a mess. The main focus is on the turtles reuniting because when Leo comes back there is still a fracture in the team, they don't work as well together as they used to. Considering the characters at the center of this, Leo and Raph, the amount of time Leo has been away at minimum, among other aspects to the characters, I think this works. It never feels forced when you consider the context that went into the fights. What does help is that right before their big battle is one of the best fight scenes I've seen in a movie purely because of the song used. Overall, I do think the story works, but its something that I did hate when I saw the movie originally because I was confused as to what this was meant to tie into as a kid. Part of the reason being the aforementioned "barely airing on free TV", but this does tie into the 2003 show while sporting references to the older movies.
In terms of presentation, this has aged well both visually and in audio. The cast has a lot of surprising names in it (I wasn't kidding in that title as its a reference to the voice actors). Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mako, Patrick Stewart, James Arnold Taylor, John DiMaggio, Kevin Michael Richardson and more all put in really good performances in this movie which does help give the film a level of passion to it which is kinda surprising as I'm willing to bet this was greenlit as a quick cash grab. Visually the CGI looks solid, while it's not the best for its time, there is a clear style to it which does help separate it from a lot of CGI films, especially more recent ones which tend to blur together visually for me. The soundtrack is the style of the soundtrack I enjoy, audible, lets you know that its there any chance it can get while helping to reinforce a lot of scenes' tone. Heck, the scene I was talking about before, Raph is fighting the twelth monster in the kitchen of an old school diner while a remix of Spiderbait's version of Black Betty plays as the background music. It is a song I really like (grew up with it thanks to my father), I love seeing it used in interesting ways and it made that scene so much better for me. The big thing about this movie which is not its problem, but a stain on the movies that will follow it is that it looks way better than the Bay Turtles (another time! It can wait!). There's just enough detail and just enough grit to the style to make it stand out, again showing there was a passion that went into the movie.
This movie is a lot better then I remembered it being when I was younger and genuinely worth a watch. Is it a perfect movie? No, kinda comes with the source material, but for what it is, it's just serious enough to be entertaining while still being a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Up next is the Nickalodian version to wrap up this TMNT marathon.
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