Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Escalating like a tepid uninspired frantic boil, the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film never hesitates to nunchaku an identity of its own.

Formulaic without circumventing its conventions, accelerated at the expense of conscious depth, maudlin where it could have been instructive, taking its love of cheese pizza, far, far to far, it's kind of cool if you grew up with the characters, like a sand duned mediocrity, or going to a beach where you can't swim, but its secrets are revealed much too quickly, leaving no room for theories or suppositions, just blatant banal facts.

Perhaps I'm being too hard on the film.

It's obviously made for children under the age of 10.

Like a preparatory film designed to familiarize pre-adolescent audiences with the filmic structures they'll comprehend more elastically as their parents allow them to see films like The Avengers.

But, if I'm not mistaken, this same age group likely saw The Avengers, and were likely therefore prepared in advance for something with more depth, something with more than just a funny elevator scene.

April's (Megan Fox) a strong character, so is Vernon (Will Arnett), their interactions driving the narrative for viewing parents, Vernon's troubles time-honoured and tragic, April's pursuits, dedicated and commendable.

But still, I mean, wouldn't an 8-year-old know that her attempts to sell a tale about humanoid vigilante turtles to her boss without indisputable evidence would quickly be characterized as narcotic induced quackery, even if they're noble in their ingenuous search for the truth?

I suppose they would identify with April as their parents regularly dismiss the truths uncovered during their own sleuthful explorations.

I don't know.

Wrath of the Titans

Didn't find many redeeming qualities in Wrath of the Titans.

It's one of the worst sequels I've ever seen.

Counting on the manufactured pop-cultural codes disinterestedly built into its tired formula to lethargically generate knee-jerk approvals and instantaneous wonder, it proceeds from one predictable banal scene to another while relying on constant fighting and trite dialogue to move things rapidly along.

There is a five minute interval where the film seems to recognize its stench at which point things become somewhat more appealing.

But this interval passes swiftly and then it's back to taking itself and its ancient subject matter far too seriously for another 45 minutes.

At which point it ends, thankfully after only a little more than an hour and a half.