Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

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Written by: Kevin Eastma and Peter Laird (characters), Bobby Herbeck (story), Todd W. Langen and Bobby Herbeck (screenplay)
Directed by: Steve Barron
Starring: Judith Hoag, Elias Koteas, Sam Rockwell,  
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
Four teenage mutant ninja turtles emerge from the shadows to protect New York City from a gang of criminal ninjas.

Verdict
It's giant turtles fighting crime in New York. It's an outlandish premise that the movie lands surprisingly well. The fact this movie isn't outright terrible is a victory in of itself. While this takes the defining turtle characteristics from the cartoon, it pairs that with the darker and more serious tone from the early comics. This makes it distinct from the popular cartoon, resulting in wise-cracking one liner turtles that fight a character preying on teens looking for a place to belong. It's a silly premise that works better than you'd imagine.
It depends.

Review
This movie is a little bit of having to be there as this movie released during the peak of Ninja Turtles popularity. The movie came out on the heels of the very popular cartoon and widespread merchandising. The original comic, published in 1984, borrowed ideas from and parodied Marvel's The New Mutants and Daredevil, combining cold blooded, slow turtles with the fast pace fighting style of ninjutsu.

Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo

Crime is on the rise, and teenagers are stealing everything. The disbelief you must overcome is giant teenager turtles that are proficient at karate. I can buy that easily enough, but in the context of this world, it's difficult to believe that Raphael can walk around in a trench coat and fedora without arousing questions. He's initially dismissed as a punk wearing green makeup. The four turtles,  Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, happen to save reporter April (Judith Hoag) one night when attacked by a group of these roving teens. While she's unaware of who or what saved her, Raphael continues to follow her hoping he can recover his sai she picked up that he dropped during the scuffle. That leads to Raphael taking an unconscious April back to the hideout after yet another scuffle where we get exposition on how giant turtles can even exist and their master Splinter who happens to be a giant rat.

Shredder

This isn't the cartoon where the turtles win every battle. They're attacked by the Foot Clan, a group that's been recruiting teenagers and pushing crimes. Their motives are unclear, mainly this movie needs bad guys and people for the turtles to fight. After losing the battle the turtles recover to plan their next move. I was surprised at the depth. Despite the jokes and frequent one liners, we see how much the turtles care about each other. They are indeed brothers.

Raphael, Splinter, Donatello, Michaelangelo

Eventually they stage an attack against the Foot Clan and their evil leader, Shredder. Believe it or not Shredder and Splinter have a past. It's flimsy at best. This movie stands on a ridiculous premise, but it does a great job of making it seem grounded. The least grounded part is that Splinter learned karate as a regular rat before encountering radioactive ooze that caused him to grow into a bipedal being.

You must give this movie a fair amount of leeway. Shredder seems interested in running this crime ring in New York, though he likes to overdress to an extreme. It would be overly generous to state his plans are overturned when a figure from his past returns, but that is technically what happens. It's just that this movie never really intends to go very deep. No sane person dresses like a blender. This deserves a fair amount of credit, based on a comic that was borne from the idea of parodying other comics while taking a darker tone. It's not a revolutionary plot, but the premise takes this farther than I ever would have imagined.