> Pulitzer-prize winner Stephen Hunter:
> "all of it at least makes some kind of coherent sense but maybe that's
> just the grown-up in me, searching desperately for those desperate
> props called "rules." It's a far grittier, grungier kind of New York
> than in the previous films, and the detail has been worked out to a
> thoroughly impressive degree. In fact, as a piece of film design, the
> movie is first-rate; on sheer aesthetics alone, it rivals "Triumph of
> the Will" for astonishments.
>
> As a movie rather than a design exercise, it's also not without its
> pleasures. The vocal performances (Patrick Stewart, for one; Sarah
> Michelle Gellar, for another, and Ziyi Zhang for still another) are
> vivid. The action sequences are excellent, particularly a dust-up
> between Raphael the "maverick" and Leo the deposed and now returned
> "leader" of the turtles.
>
> Only on one issue does "TMNT" pretty much flop. That is its plot. Or
> rather its plots, all 16 of them. It gets off with a big splat, a
> chunk of exposition so dense not even a 13-year-old could stay with
> it. The upshot is that the film is technically superb and quite
> enjoyable as long as you don't bang your head against the plot."
>
> And from occassional Ebert & Roeper Guest Critic, Michael Phillips
> (Chicago Tribune):
>
> "Besides being lame, cold, ugly-spirited and hard on the eyes, "TMNT"
> should've gotten a PG-13, since it's all head-banging and assaultive
> frenzy disguised as a story of how four brothers learn to fight as
> one.
>
> "To be fair, blood isn't the name of writer-director Kevin Munroe's
> game. Neither is cleverness or invention.
>
> "In between "Death Wish"-style excursions designed to rid New York
> City of its criminal vermin, 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."
>
> And former Ninja Turtle fan cum Entertainment Weekly Critic, Gregory
> Kirschling reports:
> "it burns to report that this all-CG reboot is missing the goofy
> excitement of the old TMNT. By way of meager update, our green crime-
> busters now fight a messy panoply of villains and monsters instead of
> the fearsome Shredder, and sidekick April O'Neil (the voice of Sarah
> Michelle Gellar) trades in her yellow pantsuit for 21st-century Lara
> Croft gear. Also: not enough pizza. C+"
>
> Terrence Briggs, asking who the bloody hack does Ziyi Zhang play?
> Karai?
> Peace to you...