TMNT 2007

Michael Ordona, Los Angeles Times: Despite the doll-like cartoonishness of the human figures (O Pixar, what hast thou wrought?), the filmmakers seem to expect us to take this animated romp seriously. Too seriously. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Now and then one character accuses another of glorifying violence, 'that brute vigilante junk.' Talk about hypocrisy: Without the brute vigilante junk, this 82-minute picture would be approximately 2 minutes long. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Everything should look familiar to longtime turtles fans -- their underground sanctuary, complete with video games; the rooftops where the heroes convene at night, surveying the city. But it all looks and feels reconceived, refreshingly so. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: ...while the visuals are terrific, the plot is a distracting clunker that feels like it was written one line at a time by a bunch of overexcited fan-board commentators playing a round-robin storytelling game. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: TMNT is a junk-food pastry. The plot is the wrapper. The action is the oily sponge cake. And the message -- family, family, family -- is the processed cream filling. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: A passable brand rebooting exercise that will impress younger kids even if it doesn't satisfy older fans. Read more

Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly: This all-CG reboot is missing the goofy excitement of the old TMNT. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: Completely pointless. Didn't three features in the early 1990s and countless cartoon incarnations take these crime-fighting critters as far as they could go? Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: What's lacking, except in too-quick flashes, are some of the subtler spices -- wit, self-mockery -- strewn through this franchise in all its various formats. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: There are endless scenes in which the turtles sit around discussing their feelings. All the talk of anger management and sibling rivalry is sure to test the attention spans of viewers in every age group. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: These characters don't feel like the turtles of old; there's not enough excitement to reinvent the franchise, and just barely enough to revive it. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Time stands still during the many feeble jokes; the Turtles comic book came out in 1984, the last year you could get a laugh just by ending a sentence with the word 'dude.' Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: The turtles themselves may look prettier, but are no smarter; torn irreparably from their countercultural roots, our superheroes on the half shell have been firmly co-opted by the industry their creators once sought to spoof. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It has a dreadful Ghostbusters-Stargate plot, virtually no decent jokes, but toss in a little digital skateboarding, a lot of digital swordfighting (gunplay, too), a couple of 'Cowabungas,' and you've got yourself a hit. They hope. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: There's an attention to detail in the visuals and sound design that pushes it up several notches above most kiddie fare. It's not art, dude, but it will do. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: TMNT offers some real thrills. The computer animation gives the turtles relatively believable expressions, movements, musculature and (green) skin tones. Read more

Misha Davenport, Chicago Sun-Times: The animated fight scenes are both beautiful and realistic. You forget you're watching a computer-animated feature. In a film about ninja turtles, you couldn't really ask for anything more. Other than perhaps a sequel, that is. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Worst of all is the lack of genuine laughs. Writer-director Kevin Munroe has apparently forgotten that the Ninja Turtle phenomenon started as rib-nudging parody. Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: It's not exactly Renaissance art, but it is an honourable attempt to revive the turtle-tastic franchise. Read more

Stephen Garrett, Time Out: What remains is intensely numbing action scenes, poor plot machinations and joyless character sketches all rendered in exquisitely cold CGI. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It takes more than an awkward title attempting to sound cool to overcome its mundane plot and silly dialogue. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Ditching the cheeky, self-aware wink that helped to excuse the concept's inherent corniness, the movie attempts to look polished and 'cool,' but the been-there animation can't compete with the then-cutting-edge puppetry of the 1990 live-action movie. Read more

Nathan Lee, Village Voice: Unlikely to achieve BFF status with the MMORPG set, this CGI feature is light on the LOL factor, heavy on the ADD action scenes, and, like, TOOIFM (Totally Out Of Its Freakin' Mind). Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: As a piece of film design, the movie is first-rate; on sheer aesthetics alone, it rivals Triumph of the Will for astonishments. Read more