This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Cowabunga!
Plot Overview
Once upon a time in the Big Apple baby alligators—then legal—were popular pets. When they grew to unmanageable size, resourceful New Yorkers consigned them to the sewers where they grew to croc size and were reported by city sewer workers who were met with ridicule. When the rumors turned out to be true, the gators were hunted by organized safaris. This seems to have morphed into TMNT:
In 1999 a scientist in NYC set fire to his lab when he discovered it was
being used for nefarious purposes, and his partner then killed him.
His little girl, however, freed the lab animals (“They were
my childhood pets”) who migrated to the sewers where
they were transformed by the mutagen injections they'd
received to become a big daddy rat & giant anthropomorphic
turtles. The rat read a discarded book on ninjutsu [sic], taught
himself the martial art, and trained the turtles. They refer to him
as “father.” On the first day of spring in 2014 the
(cold blooded) ninja turtles emerge aboveground disobeying
their sensei who felt (“Your training is not yet
complete”) they needed more coaching before fighting.
Meanwhile, young, ambitious
journalist April O'Neil (Megan Fox) lands in trouble with her boss
Bernadette Thompson (Whoopi Goldberg) and spooks her
roommate Taylor (Abby Elliott) when she reports observing
giant turtle vigilantes fighting crime on the streets. She traces
them to their lair where she discovers they were her erstwhile
pets raised by an old rat whose normal life span is only two or
three years, but he was mutated. The family dynamic is consistent
with author Nafkote Tamirat:
No amount of insistence on his part was going to transform us into that TV-movie family where having only one parent makes everyone that much closer. In my experience, having a single parent was like having one leg: you got used to it, but you always sensed a phantom limb. (103)
The rat is a disciplinarian and the turtles rebellious teenagers. The newly formed alliance between reporter and menagerie softens them with her female influence to become more tender towards one another.
Ideology
Itty-bitty painted turtles became the popular new pet, but they were either too fragile or not well enough cared for causing a lot of them to expire in the night. Resourceful parents discovering their demise went to the pet store and bought a substitution. Their kid didn't know the difference. This happened more than once.
Budding journalist cum assistant
scientist April paid more attention naming them after famous
Renaissance painters. The rat-father tucked them into bed with
color-coded blankets. Solomon has it that if you (Prov. 22:6) “Train up a child in
the way he should go: … when he is old, he will not depart
from it.” The parents are to recognize the predilections
of their child, “the way he should go,” as in the
natural leanings of a plant, and train him up that
way—consistent with righteous values, of course—and
that is what he will embody in his later years. To get his errant
teenagers to confess where they'd been in the sensei's absence, he
puts them on the rack, figuratively speaking, the ha'shi. The four were
thus trained in four different ways: one balanced on a Rube
Goldberg pyramid of furniture like a circus performer, one batted
a ping pong ball back and forth between two paddles, one knitted an
endless blanket, and one stood on his head. When they emerged to
fight crime, they each wore a different colored mask: purple,
orange, red or blue. And of course each had his distinguishing
name: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael, which names
(“I know those names”) April recognizes after
“all these years.”
Production Values
“” (2014) was directed by Jonathan Liebesman. It was written by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Evan Daugherty, with who knows how many borrowings from earlier iterations. It stars Megan Fox, Will Arnett and William Fichtner, with appearances by Whoopi Goldberg and Minae Noji. Their characters were somewhat believable, which is saying a lot. Fox was frozen in demeanor but was credible eye candy.
MPA rated it PG–13 for sci-fi action violence. The story concerns 15–16-year-olds but is geared to 12-year-olds, typical Hollywood. The action is mind- numbing. The CGI is extensive. Runtime is a merciful 1 hour 41 minutes. Sequels, anyone?
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
Turtles in the wild are slow moving, camouflaged creatures geared for defense. Here their mutant versions are heavy footed bad asses. Go figure. They seem to be popular. I personally do not like to see humanized animals that talk; God's creatures suffer enough in this world without stripping them of their natures. Adding insult to injury they represent individuality. These are my personal opinions.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed fun. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Amazing special effects. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Three and a half stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Tamirat, Nafkote. The Parking Lot Attendant. Copyright © 2018 by Nafkote Tamirat. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2018. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org