The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back on the big screen. After the success of the new Nickelodeon animated series that began in 2012, the franchise has been resurrected for a new generation of kids. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman (“Battle Los Angeles”) and produced by Michael Bay (“Transformers”), this new take on the turtles goes hard on CGI and finds a new origin story for the turtles that's just as polarizing as the producer himself.

Megan Fox (“Transformers”, “Jennifer's Body”) reports for duty as April O'Neil. During a conference at the film’s press day, Fox explained how she lobbied for the role in the first place. "I really wanted to do this, and I got the opportunity to go in and have a meeting.  It was Valentine’s Day.  I went in, and the three of us were in there for five hours at Paramount, for my first meeting.  Brian was texting me, “It’s Valentine’s Day.  Where are you?!”  And then, I got home and sent everyone emails saying, “You know what?  It’s okay if you don’t cast me.  I understand.  I just want you to know that I’m going to be in the audience regardless.”  I really campaigned to get this because I was a fan.  I was afraid, at the same time, because you don’t want to ruin something that you’ve loved and be a part of its downfall.  I was terrified of letting people down, but I had to do it because it was iconic to me, as a kid.  I just feel lucky to have gotten the opportunity."

Will Arnett plays Vernon Fenwick, Channel 6 cameraman, a character originally created for the animated series. In the original, Vernon plays a sort of antagonist to April O'Neil, but in this new version Arnett explains Vernon's inevitable crush on her. "It’s pretty early on in the movie that Vern makes his lame attempt at romancing April, and he gives up on it quite quickly.  And then, Mikey moves in there.  It’s hard to compete with a Turtle."

It also seems pretty clear that during the filming process, there was shift in April's connection to the turtles as Fox explains, "During shooting, we played around with that.  There was a Raphael/April connection, and then it turned into a Michelangelo thing.  That’s totally up his alley.  That’s who he is.  Mikey’s always been girl crazy.  That’s his personality.  I’m happy that it turned out that way.  Also, Noel [Fisher], the kid who plays him, is a really talented actor.  He steals the movie.  In my opinion, it’s Mikey’s movie."

There's hope for this franchise to grow into something worthwhile, but it was very noticeable that, much like in the case of The Amazing Spiderman, there were tweaks to the script that affected the plot and the pacing of the film. However, plenty of action sequences and good "Turtle" chemistry provided the only silver lining to an otherwise derivative storyline. There was indeed a lot of pressure from die hard Turtle fans for this film not to be another Transformers, and although Bay's imprint on this project is undeniable, Transformers it was not. Here's to the small victories in life.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opens in theaters on August 8th.