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Sarusama really wants to see it so me, her and two other people are going to see it today. She's a total fan of the series so she'll go see it no matter what. I'm predicting it will really suck but I often predict that and am proved wrong.

Maybe I'm just naturally long-winded, but this is going to be a bit of a long post.

Visually, the movie is absolutely astounding. They must have worked their butts off, because every action is fluid, even the mouth movements when they're talking are greatly animated. It's the first full-length animated movie that Imagi Animation Studios has done, and all I can say is: MOAR.

Voice acting was superb, too. With the exception of hearing Jim Cummings (HE NEEDS TO F***ING STOP) in a few of the characters, I'd say that the cast did a great job of pulling off their characters. Patrick Stewart, while he did a good job as Winters, sounds a bit out of place for this movie. Pretty all-star cast of Sarah Michelle Gellar as April, Ziyi Zhang as Karai, and Chris Evans pulling off a greatly comical Casey Jones.

Pros for the movie are as follows:
1) Everyone, especially the turtles, were kept fully in character true to the original comics. Sure they had their moments (during fight scenes) where they'd rattle off smart cracks, but that is a part of the nature we've come to love about them.
2) Raphael was finally BELIEVABLY angsty. Coupled with his constant grudge against Leonardo, his own pressure to exact justice in the city he loves, and constantly feeling as though he's in Leonardo's shadow, Raph feels compelled to take matters into his own hands since he can't rely on his "fearless leader" brother. He feels let down, betrayed, and hurt by this, and the feeling of helplessness is what drives his rage toward his older brother.
3) The Raphael vs. Leonardo fight. Hands down the best, most defining moment of the entire movie. I know I'm talking a lot about Raph right now, but that's because he's my second-favorite character and the writers actually did a good job with him. Either way, back to the fight. The dialogue exchanged between the two of them helps to allow viewers to visualize the tension between them, and Leonardo utters ONE LINE which pretty much sums up Raphael's insecurities: "I'm better than you." I didn't think he'd have the guts to say it as that was a pretty low blow, but you'll see when you see the movie. That scene is enough to make me want to buy this movie, even though I'm freaking buying it already.
4) I know it's corny, but the entire rhetoric of the movie is about the turtles learning how to fight as a family again, instead of fight WITH each other. More often than not Donatello attempts to work through the tension between Raph and Leo as a mediator but to no avail. I love how the movie goes from obvious family separation and chaos to unity, after lots of exchange of dialogue and that one fight.
5) Casey Jones is hilarious. Seriously, listen to the guy. If you don't laugh out loud at least once, well.... You suck. He makes a lot of off-handed, on-the-side comments you have to listen for that are pretty priceless.

Cons are as follows:
1) Plot is a little general but slightly convoluted too. For people who haven't seen the 2003 show or read the comics, they aren't going to know who Karai is, why the hell she's there instead of the Shredder, etc.
2) Just like the 3rd movie, the film was lacking in good fight scenes. Sure the Raph/Leo fight completely PWNS, but what fans like to see is all 4 of the brothers fighting masses and masses of ninjas together while doing their usual witty banter and showing off martial arts we wish we could do.
3) Since the film is about family unity, it tends to focus more on Leo and Raph. That's great, because Raph is awesome and Leo is cool, but for people whose favorites are Donatello and Mikey, they're going to be a bit let down as they are almost invisible in the movie. Sure, there's one scene in the beginning with Donatello doing his tech support job (I laughed so hard) and Mikey has his usual funny lines, but their screen time pales in comparison to stuff about Leo, Raph, and even Winters.

In all, I'd say this movie was greater than I expected. Even the first 2 movies combined pale in comparison to this film. So before you go to check rottentomatoes.com, go see it for yourself. You may find that your opinion and their opinion differ greatly. And if you don't like it, you don't like it. It's better than blindly speculating and never giving it a chance.

If I could grade this movie, I'd definitely give it a B+/A-, because I was dully impressed. Of course, I'm biased because I've loved this series forever and love every single character. I'm going to go see it again, and normally, I'm too cheap for something like that. This will be the fourth movie in my lifetime I'll be going to the theaters to see twice, and I have no regrets. What's another $6.75 when I can immerse myself in 90 minutes of awesome nostalgia?

Prerequisites for this movie will probably have to be an interest in the darker 2003 cartoon series, the comic, or just a couple of the characters (Raphael fans will swoon every 5 minutes, I kid you not. He's freaking awesome, dare I say hot... Oh man I feel dirty now). You gotta have a fair attention span too, and you have to have an appreciation for a somewhat thin plot and for a dozen fill-in voices by Jim Cummings and Billy West.

And if you've got kids and they like the movie, McDonald's is doing TMNT promotion happy meals right now. I may even get one myself. I freaking want Donatello.

Great post, Sarusama. Couldn't have put it better myself. ^_^

I LOVED THIS MOVIE. I grew up with the show and the movies, and I don't think they could have done any better than this. It was amazing.

"I'm better than you." : At that part, my boyfriend and I turned to each and went, "Ooohhhhhhh...! Low blow!" xd