What I love about so many Chinese historical epics is how they blend history and myth. Now famed director Hark Tsui, who created the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA series, brings the real life story of Chinese historical icons Detective Dee and Empress Wu to the screen in a big budget, vfx-driven spectacle that includes spontaneous human combustion, high flying kung fu and a talking deer.

Detective Dee (Andy Lau, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS) was exiled after engaging in a revolt against regent Wu (Carina Lau, 2046), who he believed was murdering her way into becoming the first empress of China. On the eve of her coronation, a series of mysterious murders have occurred where people have been bursting into flames. Wu decides to bring back Dee in order to prove that she is not involved and partners him with her top officer Shangguan Jing’er (Bingbing Li, THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM).

But he doesn’t know who to trust, so he seeks the advice of the arrogant albino detective Pei Donglai (Chao Deng, ASSEMBLY), who is also a suspect. At the site of one of the murders, the construction site of the giant Buddha created in the likeness of Wu, he meets one of his former conspirators, the foreman Shatuo Zhong (Tony Leung Ka Fai, ELECTION), who leads the investigation into a supernatural direction and adds the powerful and mysterious chaplain into the growing possible murderer list.

Detective Dee uses keen observation like Sherlock Holmes in a movie that has the vibe of a 7th century James Bond flick. If a top sleuth has to have a cool weapon what would be cooler than one that can determine weaknesses? Dee’s mace can find the flaw in an opponent’s weapon and then destroy it. That’s a gadget that 007 never had. Like HERO, this tale has very Chinese themes. Dee is more interested in the greater good than revenge. He is determined to find the murderer, but not if it costs innocent people their lives. As a result he comes off as a noble, selfless figure.

Visually alone this film is worth seeing. The action set pieces, costumes and fight choreography are rich and exciting. The sky-scraper-high Buddha is a magnificent construction. I’d vote for it to be the eighth wonder of the world. The Phantom city is an underground black market where six-armed men play instruments, mechanical puppets attack and boat rides are inspired by the River Styx. Looking at Empress Wu’s elaborate gowns, one wonders how long it takes her to get dressed in the morning. The chaplain’s retreat is guarded by evocative stone statues that suggest movement and a herd of deer that aren’t afraid to use their antlers.

The real Detective Dee was Di Renjie, an official who served in the Chinese Tang Dynasty and Wu Zetian’s Zhou Dynasty and was a key figure in transforming Wu’s reign from terror to honesty. You won’t see the real version of his story here. But when you’re making a fantastical epic detective tale use the legend instead of the truth every time.

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This follow-up does what all follow-ups should do and that is to extend the story instead of simply trying to replicate it. In the original, Po the Panda, the greatest kung fu fanboy of all time, was astonishingly chosen as the legendary dragon warrior, the hero destined to save kung fu. In this chapter, with him finding his kung fu groove, he must save kung fu from a new weapon and its wielder, a vindictive peacock determined to take over China. Po must find inner peace to overcome this awesome threat.

Jack Black is back as Po, who is still in awe of the fact that he gets to hang with kung fu legends, the Furious Five. He begins having flashbacks to his youth and goes to his father Mr. Ping (James Hong, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA) to learn more about where he came from. Turns out he was adopted. I would have thought the fact that his father is a goose would have clued him in much earlier. What Po doesn’t know is that the evil peacock Lord Shen (Gary Oldman, HARRY POTTER) has something to do with why he was not raised by his panda parents.

This is basically the entire emotional crux of the story. Po must learn about his past (which is not much of a secret to the audience due to a nicely animated 2D prologue) and come to terms with the fact that his life didn’t start off perfectly. In a nice parallel, Lord Shen has parent issues as well, due to his parents banishing him for what he did to the pandas after the Soothsayer (Michelle Yeoh, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) foretold that he would be taken out by a warrior of black and white.

Po’s excitable personality and less than conventional kung fu style provide a nice dose of humor. A scene where Po and the Furious Five hide out in a Chinese dragon highlights the film’s great gags and timing. It’s a poop joke, but an inspired one. Black is the perfect Po, giving the character the perfect mixed of geeky exuberance, clumsy naivety and unwavering determination. On a comedic level, I do miss the great interplay between Black’s Po and Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu, which was a highlight of the original. Shifu makes only a brief appearance at the start and finish here.

Director Jennifer Yuh and writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, along with their fellow filmmakers, try to balance between the emotional crux, humor and rousing action. Sometimes rousing action wins. But at least the action is spectacularly mounted. Yuh rightfully frames her kinetic fight scenes with wider angles in order for us to actually see the choreography. This is a technique that has been forgotten in American action films, but does luckily remain in Asian kung fu flicks.

Po’s new struggle isn’t given the same grand treatment as the original. Previously he struggled to live up to a giant responsibility thrust on him that he was woefully unprepared for. Even those who were on his side like Shifu and Tigress (Angelina Jolie, SALT) didn’t think he was going to succeed. Now he’s got them and the rest of the Furious Five behind him. Moreover, mommy/daddy issues in films are a dime a dozen and it’s not something Po seemed to have been struggling with until Shen and his cronies forced him to have flashbacks.

That said, the film provides an internal conflict that isn’t as complex as the original, but it’s still compelling. Po is a very likable unlikely hero. He’s always been insecure about his role as the dragon warrior and his uncertainty about his past fits nicely into that conflict. He feared that he was an illegitimate kung fu fighter and now he fears he is an illegitimate son. The best scene in the film comes on a boat. Po is trying to master inner peace like Shifu, but gets frustrated and lashes out. Tigress comes out and tells him a tale of how she hardened her fists by punching a wall repeatedly for 20 years and now she doesn’t feel anything. Firstly Po doesn’t have the patience to dedicate himself to anything consistently for 20 minutes let along 20 years, but more importantly the scene begs the question if inner peace comes from simply not feeling or if it comes from something more complex.

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Following the release of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON in 2000, the U.S. market became ripe for fantastic kung-fu adventures. The following year, thanks to support from Quentin Tarantino, this 1993 Hong Kong hit came to the States. Unlike Ang Lee’s Oscar nominated martial arts masterpiece, this wuxia flick is a more traditional variety, mixing history, fantasy, humor, melodrama and awesome fight sequences.

Like a Chinese Robin Hood tale, Iron Monkey (Rongguang Yu, NEW POLICE STORY) robs from the corrupt governor (James Wong, ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA) and gives back to the peasants. The mysterious Iron Monkey turns out to be the herbalist Dr. Yang, who helps the poor along with his assistant Miss Orchid (Jean Wang, ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA IV). Governor Chen is so paranoid that the Iron Monkey will strike again that he sends Master Fox (Shun-Yee Yuen, DRUNKEN MASTER) and his men out to round up every suspicious person in town. They end up capturing traveling physician Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie Yen, HERO) and his young son Wong Fei-Hung (Sze-Man Tsang). Wong Kei-Ying is as skilled a fighter as the Iron Monkey, so the governor kidnaps his son to forces him to hunt down the peasants’ hero.

The plot allows for every combination of fights possible. Iron Monkey vs. Wong Kei-Ying. Miss Orchid and Wong Fei-Hung vs. the guards. When the governor losses all credibility, the former Shaolin master and now evil imperial official Hiu Hing (Shi-Kwan Yen, THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN) comes to finally put an end to the Iron Monkey. The final battle pits Iron Monkey and Wong Kei-Ying against Hiu Hing on top of burning poles. Like any good kung-fu film, the fights get more intense and mind-blowing as they go along. While there are a lot of fight sequences here, the filmmakers find an emotional reason for each one.

The Iron Monkey fights for the people that can’t fight for themselves. Wong Kei-Ying fights for his son, as his son fights for him. Miss Orchid has a tortured past that leads her to a closer connection to the child, who to the Chinese will grow up to become a legendary folk hero. Director Woo-Ping Yuen and Yen, who served as the action director, bring out the best in their key fighters. The fight choreography in this film is like poetic dance.

The comedy is very broad and might be distracting to a Western audience unaccustomed to the wide range of tones. One moment the main characters are in silly disguises and uttering puns and the next there is a deeply heartfelt speech that would feel comfortable in a Tennessee Williams’ play. While it’s a bit of a mixed bag, the rich character types and amazing action makes this worth watching alone. It’s a tradition in China to mix magical fantasy with historical characters. They allow a chance for magic in their history. If you allow for the same in this film then you will be richly rewarded with entertainment.

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While Chia-Liang Liu is listed as the director, Jackie Chan was the man director of the action, which makes up a great deal of the film. This film was released in China in 1994 as a sequel to Jackie Chan’s 1978 film DRUNKEN MASTER. The film balances slyly between a traditional kung fu flick and a Buster Keaton slapstick comedy.

Chan plays Wong Fei-hung, the impetuous son of pious kung fu teacher Wong Kei-ying (Lung Ti, A BETTER TOMORROW II). He tries to follow the straight and narrow path of his father, but in a sneaky plan to not pay duties on ginseng, he gets wrapped up in an inequities smuggling scheme. Aiding him is his crafty mother-in-law (Anita Mui, A BETTER TOMORROW III), Manchurian agent Fu Wein-Chi (co-director Chia-Liang Liu), kung fu trainee Lily (Chan Kui-Ying), and fishmonger/kung fu teacher Tsang (Felix Wong, THE TIGERS).

Like any good kung fu flick, Fei-hung needs to have a series of increasingly better opponents. Of course there is snide British consul (Louis Roth, POLICE STORY II) pulling the strings. He’s using a steel plant as a front to smuggle Chinese antiques out of the country. Henry (Ho-Sung Pak, BLOODRAYNE) is his corrupt foreman who abuses the workers and John (Ken Lo, NEW POLICE STORY) is the consul’s aloof right-hand man.

The film kicks off with a plot that would have been familiar in a Laurel & Hardy film. Wong-Fei’s attempt to get around the duties just leads from one humorous problem to the next. Before too long he’s in so deep that his father kicks him out of the house. This begins the emotional pull of the film where Wong-fei must make amends. He is a master of the drunken boxer style of martial arts. The loose style makes him flexible and unpredictable. But against his father’s wishes, Wong-fei finds that getting drunk makes him nearly invincible. It’s a wonderful element, because like the Hulk, we know that his superpowers have a good side and bad.

The interaction between Chan and Mui is the best part of the film. Her comic timing is as sharp as Chan’s fighting skills. Considering the film available is dubbed, her performance still comes through. (Props must be given to the English dub actress as well.) Chan and Mui work as two peas in a pod. Fei-hung is trying to get away with his ginseng scam while the mother-in-law is trying to cover up her mahjong playing. It’s a unique son-in-law and mother-in-law relationship that adds a fresh touch to the overall story.

Chan knows how to divvy out the thrills. He starts with unique fights that have funny settings and builds to a lightning speed conclusion that really packs a punch. He also knows how to use action to enhance story and character. When a villain beats up a steel worker, it not only makes him a villain, but also a skilled fighter. So when Wong-fei easily handles him, we know he really is the drunken master. In the process, Chan establishes himself as both a martial arts and comic master.

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King Hu’s landmark martial arts film is like getting several films in one. Hu combines a political mystery with a siege story with a ghost story with a metaphysical battle between good and evil. It was the first Chinese film to win a prize at Cannes; it won the technical grand prize and was nominated for the Palme d’or. Many martial arts fantasies, such as CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and THE HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, were inspired by this wuxia classic.

Ku Chen Chai (Chun Shih, DRAGON GATE INN) is a clumsy scholar and painter who lives with his mother in an old abandoned fort. A traveling warrior Ouyang Nin (Tin Peng, MAGNUM FIST) comes to his stand and asks for his portrait painted… and for some questions answered. He’s looking for someone. Meanwhile, Chen Chai’s mother wants to introduce her son to their new neighbor Yang Hui-Ching (Hsu Feng, DRAGON GATE INN), because she is desperate for her son to marry and have kids so that the Ku name will carry on. When she mentions the government exams Chen Chai keeps avoiding, Ouyang offers his help, but Chen Chai is content with his simple life. But his simple life will be completely disrupted when he gets involved in the plot of a corrupt eunuch who wants to have the entire family of a whistleblower killed.

This isn’t your typical kung-fu flick; Hu works Zen Buddhism into the corners of the entire story. Abbot Hui Yuan (Roy Chiao, GAME OF DEATH), a martial arts master, plays a large role in the story’s subplot of the enlightened versus the worldly. Eunuch Wei sends increasingly deadlier agents to find the fugitives – the plot element of the worsening “big boss,” a standard plot of martial arts films and later video games. Abbot Hui Yuan uses no weapons and takes the fugitives, which includes renegade general Shih Wen-chiao (Pai Ying, DRAGON GATE INN), in to protect them against the corrupt officials. He trains them in the martial arts, but they constantly feel hunted. And when Wei sends the evil commander-in-chief Hsu Hsien-Chen (Han Yin-Chieh, THE ONE ARMED SWORDSMEN), they are confronted with a formidable foe.

Between the action, Hu works in an innocent romance between Ku Chen Chai and Miss Yang. But Miss Yang isn’t your typical love interest. She has motives of her own and she isn’t just a damsel in distress. Moreover, the banter between Ku Chen Chai and his mother adds for a nice dose of comedy. A unique element is that the film stays true to its characters. Ku Chen Chai never becomes the martial arts phenomenon over night, but uses his brains to help the fugitives. In the end his fate becomes a subplot to the bigger tale of enlightenment versus worldliness, and yet his life was always an ode to enlightenment.

Hu technically provides a rich tapestry as well. He has patience in telling his story, and in a very Zen fashion waits nearly an hour before he gets to the first fight sequence. He’s interest in building a different kind of tension in the audience other than bloodlust. Provocative use of jump cuts often startles the audience and creates unease. His cinematography is beautiful, using spiderwebs as a metaphor for the corrupt world and the sun as a vision of enlightenment. Watch how he films the monks, it’s not just because it makes them look badass. For his technical achievements, he uses hidden trampolines to make his characters fly, bouncing off buildings, roofs and bamboo trees.

Hu keeps us guessing throughout. Each plot turn creates more depth and intrigue. The story is so engaging that it carries us along for three plus hours through its superfluous ending. While the closing might not have anything to do with the plot of main character Ku, it does give a grander look into his future. He might not be a rich official or married or a martial arts master, but in a Zen way his life is richer than anyone who has any of those Earthly things.

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Most people will know this movie from the bloody head-smashing clip that once played before the “Moment of Zen” segment of THE DAILY SHOW. Based on Tetsuya Saruwatari’s manga, this gory kung-fu flick was made at the start of the ’90s, but its make-up effects seem like rejects from zombie film material circa 1980. One doesn’t expect great acting in martial arts films, but this one takes cheesy to a whole new rank level, and the dubbed version only makes it sweeter. This is the exact film that my BOMB category was created for.

In the not-so-distant future of 2001, Riki-Oh (Siu-Wong Fan, SUPERCOP 2) is sentenced to prison after surviving five bullets to the chest. Souvenirs he tells a prison guard after he fails the metal detacher. Before too long, the qigong master is wreaking revenge on prison thugs. His punches so powerfully that he puts his fist through villains’ stomachs. This catches the eye of the portly glass-eyed, metal-clawed Assistant Warden (Mei Sheng Fan, PROJECT A 2), who with the prison’s Gang of Four runs a drug ring behind the walls of the privatized jail. But when Warden Sugiyama (Ka-Kui Ho, VIOLET COP) returns from vacation in Hawaii, the even more evil villain puts down his heavy fist.

For all intents and purposes, the plot is simply an excuse to string together one bloody make-up effect after another. Skulls, stomachs, fists, etc. are pulverized into puree scene after scene. The absurdity of it all is unparalleled. Take one fight in particular. A tattooed Asian martial artist named Oscar battles Riki-Oh in the courtyard of the prison. Oscar cuts the sinews on Riki-Oh’s arm. So what does the superhuman Riki-Oh do? Well, he ties the sinews back together with his teeth and is ready to fight once again. Oscar is so shocked he commits seppuku, slitting open his stomach. But wait, it was just a trick. Oscar pulls out his intestines and begins to strangle Riki-Oh with them.

So you get the point. Over-the-top doesn’t do this film justice. Everything is pushed to hilarious extremes. Making the Assistant Warden a fat slovenly villain isn’t enough, check out his impressive porn video collection behind his desk. The Warden’s top brown-nosing male assassin can’t just be effeminate, but has to be played by a woman (Japanese actress Yukari Oshima, SECOND STRIKE). It’s hard not to think that the plot wasn’t made this bad on purpose. Excess as a form of satire. But the Z-grade effects and acting just put this sucker above criticism. It never fails to entertain, if you’re into the sick, twist and ridiculous. So the next time you think those people practicing qigong in the park look silly, think about your head being smashed into Jell-O and know that Riki-Oh is out there defending the oppressed everywhere. Laugh at your own risk.

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Companion DVDs to feature films, which either launch the Tuesday before the film’s theatrical release or day-and-date with the film on DVD, have become increasingly popular, allowing fans more adventures with often supporting characters. Now in conjunction with the KUNG FU PANDA DVD release, DreamWorks has given fans a 20+ minute short chronicling the origins of the Furious Five told to a class of kung fu students by kung fu mega-fan Po.

In the scenes with Po and the kids, the animation again is CG, but the backstory tales are in the same 2D animation style as the opening sequence of the feature. Each tale teaches the kids an important lesson of kung fu. Mantis’ impatience leads him into a trap. Viper, as a young snake, shows her kung fu master father what a fangless little one can accomplish. Crane wasn’t always viewed as a master, especially as a scrawny kid in kung fu school. As an orphan, Tigress struggles with those afraid of her anger. Monkey didn’t start out as a hero either, but with help from Oogway he learns to put his painful past behind him.

The stories are simple fables that play out at a fun and quick pace. The 2D style is a nice choice, giving the “origin stories” of the legendary heroes a distanced feel from the CG framing story. Not all the voices from the feature came back. The changes work when the stories feature younger versions of the Furious Five, but the imitations of Seth Rogen and Jackie Chan are distracting.

Director Raman Hui (SHREK THE THIRD), along with writers Todd Berger and Paul McEvoy, do a good job of making the film never preachy about its lessons. The framing devise, which is often just that — a devise, is actually used nicely to tell a simple story about Po. SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE is a pleasant bonus to the feature, especially for fans. Now I want to use banana peels as throwing stars — ingenious.

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Outside of the first SHREK film, KUNG FU PANDA is the best movie from DreamWorks Animation. Unlike other DreamWorks’ productions that have relied too heavily on pop culture references, Mark Osborne and John Stevenson’s film has a self-contained world with jokes based on the characters not FAMILY GUY-style “let’s throw out as many references as we can and see what sticks.” Containing the hallmarks of a good family film, PANDA doesn’t talk down to anyone in the audience and provides something for everyone. Martial arts fans will particularly love the action and the subtle references to kung fu classics.

Po (Jack Black, HIGH FIDELITY) is a pudgy panda who dreams of becoming a great kung fu warrior like his heroes — the Furious Five. His father Mr. Ping (James Hong, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA), on the other hand, is grooming him to take over the family noodle business. Meanwhile, kung fu master Oogway the turtle (Randall Duk Kim, THE MATRIX RELOADED) senses that savage Tai Lung the snow leopard (Ian McShane, TV’s DEADWOOD) will escape from prison and destroy the Valley of Peace. He decides it is time to select the mythical Dragon Warrior. His closest disciple, Master Shifu the mouse (Dustin Hoffman, TOOTSIE), presents the Furious Five as contenders for the legendary kung fu master title. However, on the day of the selection, Po makes an unexpected explosion onto the scene and is selected as the Dragon Warrior.

Po turns out to be the ultimate kung fu fan boy, collecting all the Furious Five action figures. However, his kung fu skills are the worst that Master Shifu has ever seen. The Furious Five, which includes Tigress (Angelina Jolie, TOMB RAIDER), Monkey (Jackie Chan, LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER), Mantis (Seth Rogen, KNOCKED UP), Viper (Lucy Liu, KILL BILL: VOL. 1) and Crane (David Cross, TV’s ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT), resent Po even being in their presence. At first Shifu doesn’t trust Oogway’s choice, but over time learns to let go.

Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger’s screenplay based on a story by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris has a zen vibe running throughout. Oogway even states that the now is a gift that’s why it’s called the present. Po is a lovable innocent who doubts himself, but doesn’t want to quit. Shifu has grown cold over the years ever since one of his students betrayed him. Shifu must first learn to stop judging Po before the panda’s destiny can be discovered. Their big training session at the birthplace of kung fu is ingenious and captures the spirit of the entire film.

Beginning with the 2D-animated opening sequence and ending with Po’s showdown with Tai Lung, the action sequences are first rate. Like all good action films, the action sequences are about character first and action second. Filled with excitement, laughs, and good characters brought to life by a wonderful voice cast, KUNG FU PANDA is more than a gimmick for the year of the Chinese Olympics; it’s a movie with some kick.

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This fictionalized version of the story of Chinese martial arts master Huo Yuanjia has the same wire-fu and complex fight choreography that one would expect in a modern martial arts picture. But what was unexpected was the heart. The simple story deals with classic conflicts, such as hubris, redemption and corrupt rulers. I couldn’t avoid thinking of HAMLET in the end.

As a child Huo Yuanjia wants nothing more than to train with his father in the martial arts, neglecting all his studies in every other area. After a beating by a rival, he vows never to lose again. Grown, with a young daughter, he is the best fighter around, but he’s arrogant, taking on any freeloader from the street as a student and running up huge debts. His childhood friend Nong Jinsun (Yong Dong) worries that his need to fight will destroy him. And so it happens that Master Chin, the rival who beat him as a child, returns to town, which leads to Huo Yuanjia losing everything. Now, alone, wondering the desert, Huo Yuanjia is taken in by a blind farmer named Moon (Betty Sun). After he is rejuvenated, Huo Yuanjia returns to his hometown to make amends, but now the English and Japanese rule the city, spurring Huo Yuanjia to fight for something honorable.

What particularly struck me about this film was how the fight sequences related back to character. The big showdown between Huo Yuanjia and Master Chin takes place in Nong Jinsun’s restaurant. We know Huo Yuanjia is nearly bankrupt and he flippantly tells his friend that he will pay for any damages resulting from the fight. So as the rivals destroy the establishment, it works as a metaphor for how far Huo Yuanjia has sunk. In American films, the action sequences are too often diversions from the plot. Not here. As for the fight choreography, there is nothing as spectacular as the fights in Li’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA, but one must remember that the martial arts star is now in his early 40s. I’ve heard that he declared this is last stunt film, and it’s definitely a good one to go out on.

Huo Yuanjia, who lived from 1869 to 1910, is a spiritual leader to the thousands of members of the Jin Wu Sports Federation, which has locations around the world. This film is a respectful ode to his legacy. While this isn’t Shakespeare, it is a well-told legend, taking on grand themes and making us care about the characters that represent those themes.

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Sometimes what you bring into a movie makes a big difference in how it will be viewed and ultimately enjoyed. If you’re a history buff you may be irritated with period inaccuracies in a war movie. A fan of a certain comic might hate a feature version because it’s not what they remembered or wanted. So going into TMNT it has a lot riding against it in terms of fans’ expectations and how critics or even the general non-fan population view the Turtles either from the animated TV series or men-in-suits live-action films. It’s tough to do anything right in some critics’ minds when your franchise started with grown men playing teenage mutant ninja turtles.

I come to TMNT as a person who was a big fan of the TV series as a kid and vaguely remember liking the original live-action film when it first came out. Therefore, I have knowledge of the franchise and expectations of what would make a good or bad TURTLES movie. Thus my recommendation of the film comes from that point of view. If you were a fan of the series (but maybe not a hardcore one, I can’t say how it stacks up to the comics) then you will not be disappointed by this film. All others should either go in with an open-mind or take their baggage and fly over to another theater that’s not playing this movie. TMNT isn’t a great film, but it brought back fond memories of the characters that I loved in my youth.

As the film begins, the Turtles have split up and leader Leonardo (James Arnold Taylor, STAR WARS: CLONE WARS) has gone into seclusion to train to be a better leader. On a mission to collect ancient statues for vastly rich businessman Max Winters (Patrick Stewart, TV’s STAR TREK: NEXT GENERATION), reporter-turned-adventurer April O’Neil (Sarah Michelle Gellar, TV’s BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) finds Leonardo, who doesn’t seem to want to come back to his brothers and master Splinter (Mako, CONAN THE BARBARIAN). It seems their family is in disarray. Donatello (Mitchell Whitfield, MY COUSIN VINNY), the brilliant one, has taken a lowly job as a computer tech support operator while Michelangelo (Mikey Kelley, SCOOBY-DOO AND THE CYBER CHASE), the laid-back skateboarder one, works as a kid’s party performer. To everyone Raphael (Nolan North, TV’s PORT CHARLES) just sleeps all day, but what they don’t know is that he is really moonlighting as the angry, vigilante Nightwatcher.

But after April and her vigilante boyfriend Casey Jones (Chris Evans, FANTASTIC FOUR), deliver the statue to Max Winters, we begin to think that the tycoon’s plans are a bit evil, especially when he hires the Foot Clan assassins, led by Karai (Ziyi Zhang, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON), to help him find 13 monsters who have been unleashed on the city.

What surprised me about the plot were the surprises. And what I mean by that is that I didn’t expect any. I groaned when the bad guy Max Winters was a wealthy businessman, but his story turned out to be different than the usual devious corporate tycoon. There also was a parallel worked in between the crumbling of the Turtles’ family and the problems within the family of the villains. This parallel was a nice addition that was unexpected. Even without it, the fast paced and well-animated action sequences combined with the nice portrayal of the Turtles made the film a fun ride. It captured the same feeling I remembered as a kid with its silly wisecracks and cool action. I also liked the internal conflict between Leonardo and Raphael, who is performed perfectly by North.

Yet, the film isn’t without its problems. April is very bland and underdeveloped. Casey has his moments, but is sort of lost in the story at times. In an effort to return franchise regulars to the first CG animated film in the series results in a few too many shoehorned moments. The inclusion of Karai and the Foot Clan is especially weak, giving them little purpose. They could have been completely deleted and no one would even notice. Fans will understand why they are there, but rookies to the series will be confused.

As for the CG from newcomer Imagi Ent., I was impressed. It’s not up to the standard of the big boys like Pixar and DreamWorks, but it’s a lot better than many of the other lower budgeted CG animated features that have come before. The action sequences are especially well animated. As for the character designs, the non-human characters are much better than the digital humans, but I’ve seen worse in even CG films with huge budgets.

So in total, the film feels like a very good direct-to-video with production values that are theatrical worthy. Fans will enjoy the film and parents who go in without prejudgment might just have as good of a time as their kids. If you go in wanting, or even thinking, that you will hate the film then you probably should skip it. Objectively I can say it’s not perfect, but it’s not at all awful. I’m recommending it because I had a good time while I was watching it and it gave me more than I expected while maintaining all the good things than I expected from it.

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