It has to be hard to keep a movie series going for three installments. "Jaws 3" failed miserably, "Robocop 3" was abominable, "Alien 3" didn't do so well, and it's better to forget "Critters 3." Yet another failure was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III" which premiered a bit late into the merchandising phenomenon. The "Power Rangers" had settled in for their invasion and it doesn't take much thought to figure out that a distinct lack of care presides over this final film in the series.
April O'Neal (Paige Turco, reprising her role from the second film) finds an ancient Japanese scepter at a pawnshop. Preparing to present the gift to Splinter, it suddenly sucks her into a time warp, sending her back Japan in the year 1603. The Turtles figure out the scepter and send themselves back in order to rescue April. Stuck in Japan, the four shelled heroes now must also defend a small clan from an overbearing warlord and his English counterpart.
This movie barely even tries. While the location shooting backed with beautiful mountain scenery looks great, the newly revised suits do not. Without the Jim Henson Studio, everything from the obviously computer controlled faces to the large eyes just look terrible. Unlike the previous two entries, the TMNT suits really look rubber, and it certainly doesn't help that the paint jobs are even worse. Who's idea were the spots anyway? Leonardo is easily the worst of the bunch with an elongated face that makes him look like a frog.
Casey Jones, once again played Elias Koteas, is downgraded here. Now inserted for comedic effect, the character change is grating, the hard edge from the first film is completely lost. He does deserve credit for pulling double duty, playing a character named Whit back in feudal Japan, but his lines there are few. Paige Turco gives a laughable performance, though this has as much to do with the quality of the script as it does her talent. Corey Feldman returns as the voice of Donatello, but the rest of the cast is unremarkable. Video games fans should take note: The fighting double in the costume for Raphael is none other than Ho Sung Pak, the player controlled character from "Mortal Kombat" (and the sequel) named Lui Kang.
Article comments
1 - Vic
You have my sympathies for apparently sitting through all three of these in a row. :-)
Vic
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
i seem to remember some talk about a fourth flick whenever that new cartoon version started. i doubt they would go for the "part 4" route though. they'd probably just use a wacky subtitle, like "TMNT - The Beginning" or "TMNT - Wrath Of Khan" or whatever.
Great review, once again.
3 - Matt Paprocki
I think they did use the "Beginning" or something like that. Remember the short lived live-action TV show with the female turtle? They released a VHS version of 3 episodes crammed together and called it a movie. It was something like that. "New Generation" maybe?