The worry about rebooting a beloved property is that the filmmakers will misplace the material's charm in the process. I'm not sure if anyone would call the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "beloved," but an argument can be made that there was a sweetness to the characters underneath the martial arts shenanigans. Produced by Michael Bay, the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a dark rethinking of the franchise -- there's even a Dark Knight joke, har har har -- and, boy, is it a bummer. My review is up at Screen International.
