I said before that the good momentum of the TMNT movies stopped with the last movie. Now, I did not intend to imply that this movie is bad. Just not a good successor to TMNT 1 and 2. Both movies were very good, faithful adaptations of the heart of my childhood, while TMNT 3 is, while not a bad movie, not really a good one either.
The movie jumps right into the past, trying to set up the conceit of the film, but fails. First, it’s a bunch of samurai and what looks like an Arab fighting with katanas on horseback, before the Arab is captured, yelling “Mitsu”. This turns out to be Prince Kenshin, son of Lord Norinaga, an obvious reference to Oda Nobunaga from Japanese history. He ran away to aid the rebellion against Norinaga and was brought back.
We then jump to the present, where the turtles are training. Raphael, of course, is getting sick of the same old thing and walks off, before April, played by Paige Turco, shows up with a number of gifts. She’s going on vacation and picked up some stuff for them at a flea market. One of the items turns out to be a scepter, which allows the holder to travel through time, so long as someone else of equal weight is holding the scepter in the past.
April and Kenshin wind up switching and the turtles follow soon after, replacing Norinaga’s honor guard. Thankfully, Casey Jones, again played by Elias Koteas, is around to keep an eye on the visitors from the past, while the turtles go back to help April.
The plot is, put plainly, ridiculous. But the presentation isn’t bad. The CG when the scepter activates is pretty unsettling and otherworldly, so it sells well the mystical power it has. Though it’s also a little too convenient, as it’s never explained how or why the Norinaga clan has this artifact, what it is, or where it’s from. Even the previous film built up the mystery of the Ooze and gave context before dropping it on us. But this movie lacks that.
Moreover, while the fight scenes are still done very well, the humor is much more forced and it even tries going for more gripping drama with the people of the past’s plight, along with Raphael and Michaelangelo wanting to stay in the past by the end of the movie. The turtles even come off as jokes at times, like when they ride horses and cannot control them. Which is believable, but not Mikey riding backwards while carrying the scepter, only to immediately get knocked unconscious and lost for half the film.
It still has it’s good moments, but I found the interactions with the past people to be kind of boring at times, especially when the turtles wind up in some random scroll, having apparently killed Norinaga’s ancestor, which they try to make a plot point, but never really goes explained.
Finally, there’s the turtles themselves. They no longer look good. The costumes now are a lot lighter and feature spots that don’t look good at all. This is the movie where the animatronic feel of them comes out, as they move a lot more robotically and, when they open their eyes wide, it looks very unsettling. Perhaps that’s what they were going for, but I didn’t like it.
The shot composition and music are still well done, along with the fight scenes, but the plot, changes to the turtles, and characters leave a lot to be desired and I cannot ignore them. While I will not call this a bad movie by any stretch, I cannot recommend it.
Not Recommended
The Professional Protagonist 