Film: Jessica Kellgren-Hayes

Having spent the ‘90s in the single digits I am, of course, painfully familiar with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Along with Power Rangers and X-Men (which I still maintain is a great TV show – and not just because I had quite the crush on Rogue), the Ninja Turtles were a stalwart of Saturday morning kids’ TV. Those were the days when having five channels was flashy and all styles of programme could be found on the same channel. Personally, I am rather fond of that style of channel; it encourages a family to sit together watching the same programme as even if only some of them like it, well, they’ll enjoy the next one. One of the great things about LatestTV is its diversity – and I don’t just mean letting a girl who can’t hear properly present the film show!

This week I have certainly experienced that variety; Joseph and I are working on a scary series called ‘Shocktober’, all about the zombie experience at Tully’s Farm – watch out for it if you’re a horror fan! At the same time we are reviewing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for PostFeature, which, although it is the first TMNT film to be given a 12A rating, is certainly a film for children (and not necessarily in the ‘oh, what a great reference’-still-amusing-for-adults Shrek type vein).

“Don’t mistake me; I love a good explosion”

The new film is released on the 30th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles saga and is another city-destroying blockbuster from Michael Bay. Personally, I’m not a great fan of his work or of any film in which millions of nameless, faceless people die and the supposed ‘good guys’ don’t even notice … don’t mistake me; I love a good explosion, I adore a well done car chase and the mindless fun of a big budget, glittering Hollywood action film certainly serves a purpose. But let’s contrast for a moment the gratuitous and heedless death count of Bay’s Transformers films (in which large robots crush buildings that must be full of people) to the Fast And Furious franchise, in which every body has a face and the heroes put themselves in danger to save innocent bystanders! Granted, they also drive on pavements and through towns and typically manage to flip over other cars, but the camera takes pains to show people jumping out of the way (dear goodness, can the general public jump at a pace in the F&F world!) and when a car flips over, we see people crawling out or else their death is mourned. These films care about people – even the bad guys have someone who sheds a tear for them! Now that is my kind of action film.

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