Review: TMNT

Because I still don't have Tooth and Claw and Legacy: Broken finished, I figured I'd throw up a quick review of TMNT.

I took my 4 year old son to see this movie at the dollar theater last week, and surprisingly had a good time at it. Am I happy that I didn't spend 5-10 dollars for the 'real' theater? Of course. But it was a surprisingly good movie, and even better one that took the source material almost seriously.

It was not as dark as the original comic books, but it lacked the camp of the movies from the early nineties. Ultimately, a good balance between the two states. Would I have liked to have seen this movie as dark as the source material? Oh yes!

That would have been awesome, but of course, that would also mean that we'd have a rated R animated movie. And though anime and cartoons in general are gaining in popularity here states-side, I don't think a major animated movie release would succeed with a rating higher than PG-13.

The plot was pretty much a standard super-hero story. Introduce the heroes, have them help each other out a bit. Introduce the bad-guy. Then fight.

Not bad, but nothing spectacular. Additionally, the "plot twists" which the movie had were somewhat broadcasted. I doubt my 4 year old caught on, but I knew what was going to happen in that regards fairly early in.

Voice acting was done quite well, and this is something that I'm ecstatic over. Too often, voice actors get that screaming thing going on (see the animes Dragon Ball Z or Naruto for examples) rather than acting in a more natural sense.

If this continues, then I can hold out hope for good voice-subbed animes over the next few years.

I can hope - but I'm not necessarily holding my breath for it.

Anyways, the movie was fine, though nothing spectacular. Like I said, I'm happy that I didn't spend the full price for a movie ticket - but I could see myself getting this movie for my boy if he ever asks for it. The drawbacks here were the usual things that one dislikes about American animated fare.

It gets a 2.8 out of 4.