By Bryson Beach
I’d be remised if I didn’t first speak about the world’s tragic lost. Transcendent athlete and Louisville’s own Muhammad Ali passed early Saturday morning. While his boxing career was over by the time I was born in ’88, his influence has never eluded me. Growing up, my father was a huge Ali fan, so by the time I was of age and noticed his pictures, shirts, calendars of the champ, I couldn’t help but ask questions and dig up all the information I could on the man affectionately known as “The Louisville Lip”.
Ali’s athletic peak was at a vastly different time. America still has racial & social tensions as you can see anytime you log into Facebook or tune into the news, but we’ve still come a long way from the days of Muhammad Ali. Here was an Olympic Gold Medalist and American Hero who was still treated as a second class citizen because of the color of his skin and religious affiliation. I’m not saying the man was a saint, but he was headstrong in beliefs and quest for social change, even risking all the glory and fame of his boxing career to do so. I’m not a believer that today’s pro athlete has to be a role model or take a stance on social issues, which makes me appreciate what The G.O.A.T. did in and outside the ring. I could go on forever about the man, but I leave you with an accompanying video clip of his most epic fight. Rest in Power, Champ.
When I was but a mere child I was obsessed with many things: Dinosaurs, Pogs, Sonic The Hedgehog (I had the bedset!), and Ninja Turtles. I loved the show and I had so many different turtle action figures it was truly ridiculous and a true financial burden on my parentals. I was so excited that my mom was taking me to pick a new turtle toy when I was a kid, that I slammed my pinky in the door of our Suzuki Swift. That’s dedication, folks. The video games were pretty gnarly too.
The initial trilogy of live action movies debut in my earliest years and I had fond memories of the films. Awesome action, Kevin Nash, time travel, and ninja raps were all involved! I’ve had the opportunity to watch the second two recently and they weren’t as good as I remembered when I was a youngster, but I still love them. When the last TMNT movie came out in 2014, I was skeptical.. CGI, Michael Bay, Megan Fox. That didn’t exactly sound like a recipe for success. To my surprise, it was pretty solid. It wasn’t magnificent but it was an exciting reboot for the next generation of fans.
So, per usual, I returned to the great town of Shelbyville, met up with 4 percenter, Morgan, and went to the movie. I get a complete F as a movie goer this time round as I wore a USMNT jersey (spoiler: We’ll never be great at soccer), and didn’t even get an Icee! I’m basically a fraud.
(SPOILER ALERT: Crucial movie details ahead!)
This movie was definitely geared towards childhood and I had to continue to remind myself about that when watching. There were many elements of the story that just moved along quickly for the sake of moving on quickly. I understand that, but they could have used a bit of a slower burn with the maturation and relationships amongst the villains and minute-long conversations to move along a part of the plot.
That being said, some of the things that were likely geared at younger audiences were very entertaining. The most entertaining of the characters in the film, were two of the newest: Bepop & Rocksteady. Shout out to my dude Sheamus of WWE fame in his role as Rocksteady, by the way. The two were the quintessential brawns-over-brains henchman. While offering a new threat to our heroes, they were just as valuable in comic belief, even if their antics were mostly cartoony and sophomoric. It’s what you expected going back to the initial TMNT animated series, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Sticking with the vein of zany cartoony portrayals, I have to say I loved Tyler Perry’s portrayal of Dr. Baxter Stockman. It’s just about impossible for me to shake the idea of Madea whenever I hear Tyler Perry, but I forgot about for 100 minutes (film’s running time). This wasn’t an Academy Award caliber performances but little nuances like his over-the-top geeky mannerism and snorting laugh were awesome.
Stephen Amell was cast as Casey Jones in this film. I don’t watch Arrow, but I’ve always heard good things. I didn’t like Casey Jones too much in this film. The spin of him being a corrections officer with dreams of becoming detective was a nice and different touch, but I still would have preferred the classic, darker, vigilante like Casey. This one was just too cheesy (and I’m not talking about Mikey’s pizza). It was a disappointment in a film with excellent voice acting for all four turtles and solid acting performances from Megan Fox.
The preview of the film showed all you would expect in a Michael Bay produced film: action & explosions. The movie had plenty of explosions from the first scene on the highway during Shredder’s escape to the final scene to save New York. Both of these scenes would have felt much more special if they didn’t seem like I’d seen them in Bad Boys II and Transformers 4 respectively. C’mon, Mr. Bay, I’m sure you can come up with other ways for cars to explode or spaceships to crumble. While these annoyed me to no end, other action scenes like the airplane-crash-river battle in between the turtle teens and Bebop & Rocksteady were exhilarating and a visual treat.
The previews did indeed give us a glimpse into the over the top action, but they also kept the wraps of the movie’s true villain: Krang. For those of you who remember the comics or cartoon, he’s the grotesque looking brain that takes shelter inside of a giant android. The CGI for the little pink chewed up gum looking bundle of evilness could haunt the nightmares of a young fan, which is good. His premise to take over and demise was predictable and basic, but the fact it was under wraps was a job well done.
The CGI looked great, the turtles’ roles and personalities were all diverse and unique and we get the age-old struggle of the brothers’ finding themselves as a team when they all have different ideologies on how to handle their new-found responsibilities. The film had comically funny characters and lackluster performances and pacing, but it’s honestly not bad for a family outing or old-school fans yearning for one more dose of turtle power. Cowabunga , dudes!
2 ½ out 4 Crabs.
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