Mutant Mayhem is the TMNT film that every iteration of these characters has been leading up to. Yes, the original film from the 90s will forever remain, but also forever be limited by the technology and technique of the times. The Michael Bay films...while ambitious and appropriate for the time, felt a bit silly in taking these characters so seriously.
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem straddles the line between self-awareness and seriousness. This is a surprisingly sweet, heartfelt, and earnest film that carries some serious heart and, dare I say, humanity. It's a movie that explores something that other iterations have only briefly touched on: what it feels like to be a teenager, let alone one who has to be afraid of what the rest of the world thinks of you. It's nice to see a film that isn't cynical about humanity, and celebrates the best of us, whilst acknowledging our complexity. We need more of that.
This is a movie that subverts our expectations and challenges our preconceived notions of what an "action film" should be. It's absolutely hilarious, with a snappy, quick witted, almost mumble core style that I immediately gravitated to. I was honestly shocked how well-written and funny this movie is. It has so many great lines and call backs (again, they overdo it a tad) that had me bellowing. It's also a movie that intelligently analyzes the Turtles mythos and makes the brilliant decision not to waste the characters. (You'll get what I mean when you see it).
You can tell when actors are having a ton of fun with the material, and it just shone through in every frame of this movie.
Speaking of which, the Turtles - Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Raphael (Brady Noon), Donatello (Micah Abbey) and Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.) are absolutely perfect. For the first time, they feel like teenagers and exude a youthful energy that is really difficult to capture sometimes. They have excellent chemistry, even if I felt they sometimes blended together; we're used to the Turtles having extremely distinct personalities and it's not really the case here. I can see that bugging some people, but there's enough of these characters' historical tendencies here that it's obvious their distinct interpersonal dynamics will eventually be fleshed out in sequels. These are the Turtles at the youngest we've ever seen them, after all.
I also have to shout out Ice Cube's Superfly. He's an awesome villain, with Mr. Cube shouldering a lot of the load in making him charismatic, funny, and threatening. Jackie Chan was a natural choice for Splinter and he's obviously fantastic; I'm genuinely surprised he hasn't played this role before. The rest of the mutant gang is great, if a bit under utilized; Seth Rogen's Bebop and John Cena's Rocksteady - characters we've all been dying to see - don't get as much screen time as I assumed they would, but it's fine.
Ayo Edebiri's April O'Neil has (unsurprisingly) annoyed some, as she's, you know...a Gen Z person, but I thought Edebiri and the writers did a great job of modernizing the character and having her make sense with this new take.
I didn't even mention the GORGEOUS animation, which feels a bit more evolutionary than revolutionary, but is all the same a welcome change. Remember the TMNT movie from 2007? The one with pixels and polygons? This film - in the vein of Spiderverse - eschews realism for a deliberately hand-drawn, cell-shaded look that harkens back to kids scribbling the Turtles in the their notebooks while bored in class. It's a brilliant decision and makes the film worth watching for the visuals alone. (I also like how steeped in the 80s aesthetic and weirdness this film is).
One last thing...the music. My God. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross never miss, and the last thing I expected was for the music to be so amazing and memorable, but they did it again. With a killer 80s synth/sci-fi vibe, this movie's soundtrack is worth listening to by itself (I've been putting it on while working and it's perfect). A+ song choices as well.
If I had any complaints, I do think the film takes a bit too long to get going, but once it does, it's paced extremely well. I felt the pop culture infused dialog (whilst realistic) did veer into product placement territory (and yes, there were some distracting product placements as well), which took me out of the film at times. I also felt the sound mixing was off in some scenes, which could've been my theatre, but there was a tinny sound, especially in the beginning. Oh, and there is an over reliance on overly expository dialog that I felt could've have been modified a little bit. The movie stops, multiple times, to deliver exposition in a way that I felt was a bit unnecessary.
Overall though...this may be one of my favourite movies of the year. It's truly wonderful, sweet, exciting, funny, and endlessly entertaining and heartfelt. It was the Turtles movie I didn't know I needed, and now I can't wait for the sequel. And yes, there will (likely) be a sequel, and yes...HE will be in it. If you know, you know.
