I’ve naturally averted my eyes and mind whenever a mention of the Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot (Paramount, 8.8) has surfaced. But a just-released photo of Megan Fox in a Turtles scene reminds me of two things: (a) Fox has obviously made up with Bay after he fired her off Transformers: Dark of the Moon five years ago for comparing him to Hitler, and (b) Fox’s career never really recovered from the combination of that whacking plus the disappointing reactions to her starring role in Jennifer’s Body and costarring performance in Jonah Hex…all in ’09. She fared relatively well with her supporting/cameo roles in Judd Apatow‘s This Is Forty and Sacha Baron Cohen‘s The Dictator (both in 2012) but to me Fox taking a starring role in the Turtles reboot is a metaphor for her career not having worked out. Obviously a paycheck move but one that also says “this is the best I could do so I took it, hoping for the best.” Fox is presumably loaded and healthy and doing fine in many respects, but it’s noteworthy that both she and Shia Labeouf (her costar in the original 2007 Transformers) have run into serious potholes since.