TMNT rock on AWSOME!!!!

I won't lie to you, I'm an old-school Turtles fan when April O'Neil was a news reporter and "Cowabunga" was cool. But after watching TMNT, the new CG-Animated feature made on the popular comic book-turned television show, I realize that there's more to the mythology than I initially percieved. Like the great comics such as Spiderman and Batman, the Turtles are more about character than superpowers. Four turtle brothers who have to grow to depend on each other (being teenagers, maturity is still setting in and creates rifts that force them to confront each other). They are initial outsiders since they are in fact different from humanity and use their talents as shadow-walking ninjas as a means of survival in a city that would either exploit or destroy them. Too bad this movie doesn't do much to use these ideas to their fullest potential. The story starts off with narroration (by Lawrence Fishbourne) which catchs everybody up on the Turtles. We are told their nemesis The Shredder has been defeated, and that their next real problem comes from an ancient evil opened up by a secret portal created by an alignment of the stars that unleased monsters on this planet. These monsters, over a thousand years, lay dormant waiting for the time of another alignment, which obviously will be happening in present day. We find out that the Turtles have been split up after their enemy's fall with their leader, Leonardo, taking to the South American jungles. His brothers bide their time with jobs such as tech support geeks and children's parties (They already have their own costumes). The outside of the four, Raphael, decides to take to the streets himself as a vigilante. But everything changes when a millionaire puts together a device to reactivate the portal mentioned in the prologue. What is his ultimate goal? Is it world domination? Or perhaps trying to fix a mistake made thousands of years ago? At his beck and call are a horde of stone minions that are used to wrangle up the loose monsters. But there is a closer link to the stone minions and the millionaire that will lead to the conclusion of the tale. For the boys in green, they are on a steep learning curve to be able to work as a team to take on a force before it unleashes more monsters. I'll be honest with you again, this is really more a kid's movie, but it does take some pretty steep turns to more adult fare, especially when some infighting between two of the brothers turns violent. I can see where it could go further, reach deeper into it's mythology and reveal something profound. But it seems comfortable in self-parody and doesn't do a half-bad job at it. And there there's the set-up of characters that is really the treat, especially when you look at the villain. The superficial villian in this movie might seem to be the millionaire, when villainry ultimately becomes an idea; brotherly intollerance. When brother fights brother, be it flesh or shell, worlds fall apart. But there are many problems with this movie. First of all, the movie jumps around too fast and doesn't take time to let events escallate. Almost like a video game, it's too interested to get to the next level that it forgets to lead up such a level. While the fights in the movie are very good (much better than the droll of the gladiator movie 300), there are times when the fights feel disconnected from the rest of the movie. There needs to be more lead-up to action sequences otherwise we feel left out. And ultimately, the dialogue in the movie (especially regarding Master Splinter, rat master to the Turtles) feels a little forced. But again, this isn't a movie for critics, but for kids or men who want to return to childhood for 90 minutes. But wouldn't it be better if you could watch TMNT on the same level of sophistication as, say, Spiderman or X-Men? I believe it's possible as long as someone is willing to try. Perhaps director Kevin Monroe will perhaps do just that the next time around. All in all, while I AM recommending this movie, I don't recommend this to everybody. This is for the schoolboys as well as the fanboys who wish they could live in sewers, eat pizza everyday and fight the forces of evil with swords or a very long stick. Anyone else would feel and overrated amount of Shellshock