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Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 2023 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Story
Rebellious teens ignore all the rules and get everything they want. Splinter is worried about their safety (rightly so, have you met humanity?) but eventually realizes that he’s being overbearing.
There’s a giant whale mutant chimera in there too.
It very much feels like an 80’s plot with 2020’s slang.
Score: 0.5
Characters
The turtles are extremely authentically teenage boys. My sister-in-law, a teacher, looked a little shell-shocked (pun intended). The antics, limited forward thinking and overthinking had me getting flashbacks to being a teen.
April was great, despite the lazy puke jokes, and I really liked having her be the same age as the turtles.
Score: 1
Dialogue
This dialogue will feel dated by the end of the year. There’s more slang than you can shake a ninja star at.
The penchant for the turtles to all talk at the same time is both relatable and well done, although exhausting to follow. The teasing and quipping felt natural and hilarious. The villain was over-the-top but it worked.
April’s smarts and snark were awesome.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
The style of animation felt very dark. The backgrounds were gorgeous and the characters great, but it was a lot of dark on dark on dark.
The music was good and did it’s job, but was nothing special.
Score: 0.5
Fun
The movie was interesting and fun, but went from pure pessimism to ridiculous optimism way too quick near the end. It felt like the writers wrote themselves into a corner and decided to just do a big battle.
The 4yo loved it and the 7yo liked it but not a lot.
The rest of the family enjoyed it, but we were all tired by the end.
Score: 0.5
Overall
An excellent TMNT movie with lots of action and for the first time the turtles felt like actual teens. April was a standout character and making her a teen was a brilliant idea. That said, the last act of the movie felt forced and the colour palate was a little too dark.
Final Score: 3 Stars out of 5