Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The quartet of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael emerge from the New York City sewers to rescue their ninja mentor Splinter. The live-action characters go on to deal with their evil nemesis, Shredder, in the second film and time travel in the third. The last film in the series, TMNT, is an animated affair with our heroes dispensing justice to an army of monsters.

I never understood the fascination with this series, but it was extremely popular in the late 1980s and early '90s. The franchise tried to reimagine itself a couple years ago with the animated feature, which is better than the first two sequels and nearly as entertaining as the first film, but it didn't reinvigorate the fans. My biggest complaint is that the characters never evolved, and the jokes—which were funny at first—wore thin awfully fast.

The VC-1 encode varies depending on the film, with TMNT looking nearly perfect. The first film has very poor contrast leading to a drab and lifeless picture. Colors are dull, blacks are grayish, and there's virtually no dimensionality. Things improve with the second film, but not much, while the third live-action outing has an improved color palette and detail. The first three movies are plagued with some edge enhancement and blatant DNR, but given Warner Brother's track record, this is to be expected. The fourth film is reminiscent of a Pixar film with vivid colors and excellent depth. Unfortunately, the story doesn't match the visuals.

As with the video, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio quality improves dramatically with each subsequent film. Dialog sounds canned and hollow in the first three films, but surprisingly, the surround experience is quite immersive and active. Sometimes the discrete bombardment can be overwhelming, but given the comic-book visuals, it's par for the course. The animated film has an outstanding soundtrack, with impressive amounts of LFE, well-placed rear effects, and improved frequency response.

For a 25th-anniversary box set, the supplements are pretty weak. The first three films include a theatrical trailer only, while the fourth film replicates the standalone Blu-ray release with a director's commentary, some deleted scenes, and a couple of featurettes. The packaging is unique, with the discs housed in a pizza box—yes, you read that correctly. (To the uninitiated, the Turtles' favorite food is pizza.) Also in the box is a graphic novel, a knit beanie with the Turtles logo, a signed sketch, and eight character cards.

I thought my 10-year-old son would enjoy these films, but I thought wrong. He rarely laughed, which I guess is a good thing from a parent's perspective. Regardless, fans have never seen the films look this good on home video, but I'm not sure the casual fan will want to revisit the tired franchise.

Release Date: August 11, 2009
Studio: Warner

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Movie: 6/10
Picture: 5/10
Sound: 6/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret of the Ooze
Movie: 5/10
Picture: 6/10
Sound: 6/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
Movie: 4/10
Picture: 7/10
Sound: 7/10

TMNT
Movie: 6/10
Picture: 9/10
Sound: 9/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics