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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) | OT | Hey Dude, This Is NO Cartoon

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kehs

Banned
To someone who's seen the movie can I catch a PM or even just quick description on Mikey in this bad boy? How's he played with the laughs.. how do his fight scenes work out ? all that shtuffs..

Always loved how he was the youngest sometimes smallest looking one but was a fucking beast when it came down to the punch n kicks. Right up there with Raph says 12 year old me :)

Probably won't be able to go see it over this weekend and I need some kind of fix.

He does a great job of breaking up all the "serious" scenes without making it goofy, which helps cause the movie doesn't really take itself seriously(a godsend to me).

Physically, I'd say he's the weakest though.
 

Gorillaz

Member
awwwww....

between this and Jet i think i might just go see Guardians again at OMSI instead.
I honestly thought 40 mins in

"damn I wish I was rewatching Guardians right now" no lie haha

Also Master Splinter's eyes were kind of weird, I wasn't a fan of his look.
 

jett

D-Member
that sounds very disheartening jett..

The Forbes review is on point. It spends a lot of time on exposition of the frankly really shitty plot that attempts to connect every character with each other, solely to inexplicably aggrandize Megan Fox's role. We just do not get enough material with the Turtles just being the fucking Turtles. The TV spots pretty much showed all the scenes in which the Turtles show up. I don't understand how you can make a TMNT movie like this. It should be made for the kids, why the shit is this movie a Megan Fox vehicle?

BTW, as if I didn't make it clear already, Megan Fox is really dreadful in here. No charm, no charisma, no personality, no acting ability. She has one of those "barely emotes" faces that has been under the knife way too many times.
 

Varna

Member
Sadly, I might end up watching this at some point.

Fox as April has got to be the worse casting decision I've ever seen and they chose to make her the focal point? What the fuck.
 

Verger

Banned
*sigh* I really hope when people look back at why Ninja Turtles failed, it was not entirely because of the actual Ninja Turtles, but because of making Megan Fox of all people the whole focus of the film...


...wasn't this film supposed to be about "Ninja Turtles" anyway???
 

jett

D-Member
*sigh* I really hope when people look back at why Ninja Turtles failed, it was not entirely because of the actual Ninja Turtles, but because of making Megan Fox of all people the whole focus of the film...


...wasn't this film supposed to be about "Ninja Turtles" anyway???

I really don't get the decision makers in Hollywood. It's infuriating to just think about this movie. The turtles are good, they aren't amazing, but their personalities are well defined and they do kick some ass. Action is well shot, even if it is nonsense, contextually (what's the deal with those snow mountains). But that's like, maybe 20-30 minutes of footage. The rest is really bad. Like I said, if you've seen the TV spots, you've seen all the good moments with the turtles. The plot should've been just about the turtles with a minimal amount of April and the other ancillary characters. Inexplicably escalating into a "must save the entire city/world" plot is just moronic. Nickelodeon should've taken more care of their franchise, especially with the quality cartoon and merchandise they got. A disaster like this could really hurt it.
 

Penguin

Member
I really don't get the decision makers in Hollywood. It's infuriating to just think about this movie. The turtles are good, they aren't amazing, but their personalities are well defined and they do kick some ass. Action is well shot, even if its nonsense (I had no idea of the context behind the entire snow mountain sequence). But that's like, maybe 20-30 minutes of footage. The rest is really bad. Like I said, if you've seen the tv spots, you've seen all the good moments with the turtles. The plot should've been just about the turtles with a minimal amount of April and the other ancillary characters, inexplicably escalating into a "must save the entire city/world" plot is just moronic. Nickeloden should've taken more care of their franchise, especially with the quality cartoon and merchandise they got. A disaster like this could really hurt it.

I think my favorite is the newsroom subplot
Since... it serves no purpose and is dropped
 

Dynedom

Member
Sanjuro lied, people died.

MEGAN FOX ABSOLUTELY IS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THIS PIECE OF SHIT

Anyone who says otherwise is a goddamn liar. This movie is fucking garbage of the smelliest order.

For weeks I've been hopeful this could be decent, a good time, not even as a regular movie, but just a good TMNT movie, by TMNT standards. Well, let me tell you something. The movie starts off with Megan Fox... And it carries with Megan Fox for 20 minutes without a single glimpse at the turtles. Megan fucking Fox. MEGAN FUCKING FOX. The whole plot revolves around Apirl O'Neil, the characters revolve around Apirl O'Neil, the turtles revolve around April O'Neil, their entire origin revolves around April O'Neil. Megan Fox has the most screen time by far. Oh and guess what happens during the final fight between the turtles and the Shredder? You guessed it, it cuts between a scene with Megan Fox doing who gives a fuck. And guess who gives Shredder the final blow? That's right.

Megan fucking Fox. Fuck this movie. It's sad, really. It's terrible for reasons that have little to do with the turtles.

Sounds like the Transformers (and fuck it, I'll say it: Godzilla) problem. Advertise your titular characters: end up focusing on everyone else.

Wasn't going to see this POS anyway and my fears are confirmed. Thanks.
 

Gorillaz

Member
I would say they failed if they were trying to make Megan Fox the Shia of Turtles. Even if Shia got old to deal with in the Transformer movies he still was a decent "bridge" to it all.

They try to push Fox way too hard as being something like that. Especially since the gang has enough personality to hold their own.
 

jett

D-Member
I think my favorite is the newsroom subplot
Since... it serves no purpose and is dropped

lol. I do believe large swathes of this movie were rewritten/changed in post production. I'm convinced William Fichtner is meant to be inside Robo-Shredder and that was a last minute change/reshoot due to major fan blowback.

Sounds like the Transformers (and fuck it, I'll say it: Godzilla) problem. Advertise your titular characters: end up focusing on everyone else.

Wasn't going to see this POS anyway and my fears are confirmed. Thanks.

It's exactly like Transformers. The turtles play second fiddle to the humans. Will Arnett might have more lines than any of the turtles. You know what his movie totally needed? A romance subplot between Megan Fox and Will Anett. Yep, that happens.
 

Eppy Thatcher

God's had his chance.
How anyone can aspire to make a new TMNT movie and not at least go back and watch the campfire scene out of the first movie in an attempt to realize that some of the best parts of these brothers is just that - them being brothers - kind of infuriates me.

Mikey in the sewer waiting for his Pizza ignoring Leo
Raph going out on his own to get some air ... "Damn!"
Leo joining in on the hilarious banter as any teenage brother would do ...
Donny straight ribbing everyone with insightful one liners...

sigh...
 

Mononoke

Banned
*sigh* I really hope when people look back at why Ninja Turtles failed, it was not entirely because of the actual Ninja Turtles, but because of making Megan Fox of all people the whole focus of the film...


...wasn't this film supposed to be about "Ninja Turtles" anyway???

Assuming it fails? What if this is a huge success at the box office? I mean, I get what you mean, in terms of the movie failing (on a technical level). But it would suck if this did extremely well in sales, and ended up being a trilogy.
 

LaneDS

Member
Have expected the worst, despite wanting it to somehow be decent, but jett's post I think is enough for me to steer clear until I can see it at home (which is a bummer, as I'd have loved another quality live-action TMNT movie).
 

Verger

Banned
I really don't get the decision makers in Hollywood. It's infuriating to just think about this movie. The turtles are good, they aren't amazing, but their personalities are well defined and they do kick some ass. Action is well shot, even if it is nonsense, contextually (what's the deal with those snow mountains). But that's like, maybe 20-30 minutes of footage. The rest is really bad. Like I said, if you've seen the TV spots, you've seen all the good moments with the turtles. The plot should've been just about the turtles with a minimal amount of April and the other ancillary characters. Inexplicably escalating into a "must save the entire city/world" plot is just moronic. Nickelodeon should've taken more care of their franchise, especially with the quality cartoon and merchandise they got. A disaster like this could really hurt it.
I really really hope this is not yet another case of execs going:

"Look. We cannot have a movie featuring non-human characters taking up most of the screen time. Audiences will never "relate" to non-human characters. This is not an animated film we're making here, it's live-action. Live action means we need humans to be there for the audience to relate to....

....so let's hire Megan Fox!"


......
 

Dynedom

Member
It's exactly like Transformers. The turtles play second fiddle to the humans. Will Arnett might have more lines than any of the turtles. You know what his movie totally needed? A romance subplot between Megan Fox and Will Anett. Yep, that happens.

Have to appeal to that female audience. You know, the one that is dying to see a movie about bipedal turtles but have concerns if the movie will have any meaning.
 

jett

D-Member
BTW, this never happened:

dOwZRxh.jpg
 

Akainu

Member
Sanjuro lied, people died.

MEGAN FOX ABSOLUTELY IS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THIS PIECE OF SHIT

Anyone who says otherwise is a goddamn liar. This movie is fucking garbage of the smelliest order.

For weeks I've been hopeful this could be decent, a good time, not even as a regular movie, but just a good TMNT movie, by TMNT standards. Well, let me tell you something. The movie starts off with Megan Fox... And it carries with Megan Fox for 20 minutes without a single glimpse at the turtles. Megan fucking Fox. MEGAN FUCKING FOX. The whole plot revolves around Apirl O'Neil, the characters revolve around Apirl O'Neil, the turtles revolve around April O'Neil, their entire origin revolves around April O'Neil. Megan Fox has the most screen time by far. Oh and guess what happens during the final fight between the turtles and the Shredder? You guessed it, it cuts between a scene with Megan Fox doing who gives a fuck. And guess who gives Shredder the final blow? That's right.

Megan fucking Fox. Fuck this movie. It's sad, really. It's terrible for reasons that have little to do with the turtles.
Geez I was actually looking forward to seeing this.
 

Dead

well not really...yet
BTW, this never happened:

dOwZRxh.jpg
Lol there is even a toy of that

I'm sure the movie got cut the fuck up because it was so bad. That's usually the only reason why a major flick like this would be under two hours long these days.
 

jett

D-Member
Lol there is even a toy of that

I'm sure the movie got cut the fuck up because it was so bad. That's usually the only reason why a major flick like this would be under two hours long.

It's a majorly disjointed mess. There's no sense of storytelling or pacing. It's obvious it's a hackjob.

edit: since I'm dropping spoilers and nobody cares, the origin of splinter and the turtles makes even less sense than ever before. Splinter was always a rat, and never had a ninja master to look at and learn from either, because get this, a kiddie April O'Neil was the original owner of the rat and the turtles. :lol He learns martial arts from ragged books he finds in the sewers.

I don't get it. The origin story of revenge of the nick cartoon literally writes itself. It's so simple, and so effective.
 

Rootbeer

Banned
April: The Movie?

It is as I feared.

Hopefully seeing it tomorrow but my schedule is pretty full.

The origin sounds terrible. Reminds me of IDW but worse.
 

Eppy Thatcher

God's had his chance.
It's a majorly disjointed mess. There's no sense of storytelling or pacing. It's obvious it's a hackjob.

edit: since I'm dropping spoilers and nobody cares, the origin of splinter and the turtles makes even less sense than ever before. Splinter was always a rat, and never had a ninja master to look at and learn from either, because get this, a kiddie April O'Neil was the original owner of the rat and the turtles. :lol He learns martial arts from ragged books he finds in the sewers.

I don't get it. The origin story of revenge of the nick cartoon literally writes itself. It's so simple, and so effective.

HAHAHAhahahahahAHAAAAAHHHHHHHWWWWWHAAAaaaaaaaat???

So wait wait wait... is shredder like ... her Uncle or something?

How much coke do you think it takes to churn out something this ridiculous? I'm gonna fly a low end guess of mayhaps 4 8balls a night because gawt. Dayum.
 

jett

D-Member
HAHAHAhahahahahAHAAAAAHHHHHHHWWWWWHAAAaaaaaaaat???

So wait wait wait... is shredder like ... her Uncle or something?

How much coke do you think it takes to churn out something this ridiculous? I'm gonna fly a low end guess of mayhaps 4 8balls a night because gawt. Dayum.

Don't even ask me about the whole ooze business, it makes even less sense.
 

Verger

Banned
It's a majorly disjointed mess. There's no sense of storytelling or pacing. It's obvious it's a hackjob.

edit: since I'm dropping spoilers and nobody cares, the origin of splinter and the turtles makes even less sense than ever before. Splinter was always a rat, and never had a ninja master to look at and learn from either, because get this, a kiddie April O'Neil was the original owner of the rat and the turtles. :lol He learns martial arts from ragged books he finds in the sewers.

I don't get it. The origin story of revenge of the nick cartoon literally writes itself. It's so simple, and so effective.
Did Peter Laird actually write this shit? I sure hope not, or he did it on purpose knowing the movie was going to be utter dreck.

So they wrote out Hamato Yoshi completely, and then made so that all Splinter's knowledge of martial arts was because of books......

Man, the original movie's origin story is a masterpiece compared to this. And god knows it doesn't hold a candle to the 2003 or nick series'.
 

Gorillaz

Member
Now that i think about it

That scene of him picking up the dirty ass ninja book and learning it from there is hilarious as hell.
 

Tookay

Member
Lol there is even a toy of that

I'm sure the movie got cut the fuck up because it was so bad. That's usually the only reason why a major flick like this would be under two hours long these days.

Yeah that's usually the case.

I do think there's a reason why footage/trailers/marketing for this movie began so late.

Not to mention, all the VA changes for the main characters.
 

SRG01

Member
Wait, what? Did we all see the same film?
They spend like two minutes on that plot point and the rest of it is April just being a sidekick.

edit: Also, my theatre was packed for the 10pm showing.
 
Sounds like the Transformers (and fuck it, I'll say it: Godzilla) problem. Advertise your titular characters: end up focusing on everyone else.

Wasn't going to see this POS anyway and my fears are confirmed. Thanks.

Godzilla is a monster movie, your supposed to hold back the monster a bit. Couldve had a bit more of big G in the third act i would agree (more focus/longer on the Muto fight maybe?) but he isn't a walking talking character you can follow for a whole movie.
 

SRG01

Member
All in all, the movie is actually pretty entertaining, but suffered from editing and pacing problems. Once the movie does get going, it's pretty good.

I also think one of the biggest issues is that it's meant as a kid's movie, which means that there are certain plot points that have to be made explicit or simplified in order for the kids to get it.
 

Rootbeer

Banned
Did Peter Laird actually write this shit? I sure hope not, or he did it on purpose knowing the movie was going to be utter dreck.

So they wrote out Hamato Yoshi completely, and then made so that all Splinter's knowledge of martial arts was because of books......

Man, the original movie's origin story is a masterpiece compared to this. And god knows it doesn't hold a candle to the 2003 or nick series'.

I prefer origins where Splinter starts out as Yoshi and is mutated into a rat. That way he has a more personal relationship with Shredder as well as him being a ninja master making the most sense.

In some versions, like the 1990 movie and original comics, he starts off as a rat. He learns martial arts by studying Yoshi from his cage -- note that he does this BEFORE mutating. So he is one hell of a brilliant rat. While less believable, it has a sense of comicbookyness to it that I still dig. I think the 1990 movie executed it VERY well in that flashback sequence too.

But in this version... sounds like he not only starts as a rat but he learns martial arts from a book he finds. This feels like the LEAST desirable origin possible... not only does he have no personal vendetta against Shredder from previous human experience, but he also has no true connection to martial arts... he simply finds some old book and decides to learn it instead of having it a deeper part of his backstory.

And all this aside, he also looks, from the clips at least, like the most horrifying and ugly version of splinter to date. I wish they'd went with something more like the 1990 movie or something more like the concept art (which you can see in Ultimate Visual History that came out recently)

Course I have not seen the film yet so we'll see, I may be missing important details

Edit: Oh and they cut out that entire sequence with raph being in disguise? starting to get very strong impressions that this film went through a LOT of hacking and changes from their initial shooting script
 

happypup

Member
I prefer origins where Splinter starts out as Yoshi and is mutated into a rat. That way he has a more personal relationship with Shredder as well as him being a ninja master making the most sense.

In some versions, like the 1990 movie and original comics, he starts off as a rat. He learns martial arts by studying Yoshi from his cage -- note that he does this BEFORE mutating. So he is one hell of a brilliant rat. While less believable, it has a sense of comicbookyness to it that I still dig. I think the 1990 movie executed it VERY well in that flashback sequence too.

But in this version... sounds like he not only starts as a rat but he learns martial arts from a book he finds. This feels like the LEAST desirable origin possible... not only does he have no personal vendetta against Shredder from previous human experience, but he also has no true connection to martial arts... he simply finds some old book and decides to learn it instead of having it a deeper part of his backstory.

And all this aside, he also looks, from the clips at least, like the most horrifying and ugly version of splinter to date. I wish they'd went with something more like the 1990 movie or something more like the concept art (which you can see in Ultimate Visual History that came out recently)

Course I have not seen the film yet so we'll see, I may be missing important details

If I remember correctly in the ongoing IDW comics
he is a rat that is the reincarnated form of Yoshi. The four turtles also in the lab, are his four reincarnated children. Not my favorite set up, but they execute well on it.

I figure I will spoiler wrap this for anybody who wants to go into the comics clean but it is not a big spoiler.
 

Rootbeer

Banned
If I remember correctly in the ongoing IDW comics
he is a rat that is the reincarnated form of Yoshi. The four turtles also in the lab, are his four reincarnated children. Not my favorite set up, but they execute well on it.

I figure I will spoiler wrap this for anybody who wants to go into the comics clean but it is not a big spoiler.

You are right and while I did not mention that origin, I actually can't stand it. It is the most contrived version imaginable. They are obviously trying to have a middle ground between an origin where yoshi starts as a human and an origin where yoshi starts as a rat. I get it. But it feels forced to me.

Also... in that version splinter and the turtles starts off as lab animals where April works... again contrivances... what's so bad about the original comic origin? Or heck why not go with the Nickelodeon cartoon origin which I also think is pretty great. Or even the 80s toon.

Here is why I don't like the IDW version... I think there is something really beautiful about the fact that splinter is a SURROGATE father to the turtles. They are not blood related. They are note even the same species but they are a family. Trying to make them blood related is stupid to me.

I think anyone who comes from a family, as so many of us do these days, where you have adopted children/siblings, step parents/children/siblings, foster parents/children/siblings can appreciate what a strong and important message it is.
 

happypup

Member
You are right and while I did not mention that origin, I actually can't stand it. It is the most contrived version imaginable. They are obviously trying to have a middle ground between an origin where yoshi starts as a human and an origin where yoshi starts as a rat. I get it. But it feels forced to me.

Also... in that version splinter and the turtles starts off as lab animals where April works... again contrivances... what's so bad about the original comic origin? Or heck why not go with the Nickelodeon cartoon origin which I also think is pretty great. Or even the 80s toon.

Here is why I don't like the IDW version... I think there is something really beautiful about the fact that splinter is a SURROGATE father to the turtles. They are not blood related. They are note even the same species but they are a family. Trying to make them blood related is stupid to me.

I completely agree on the last part, but I still enjoyed the flashback scenes and the connection to a feudal Japan. Had it just been Splinter as the reincarnated Yoshi I would like it better, but the really important thing (at least as far as I got into the story) is they used the premise sparingly. It didn't factor into the events in a major way, but instead it felt like a nice reprise from the main narrative.
 
:jnc

Why wouldn't I be?

Also, I never lied. Of course Megan Fox is the top billing in this film. Why would you think otherwise?
Maybe because the film isn't called 'APRIL O' NEIL'? And because that character has never been the main focal point to any TMNT story before? Or maybe just because Megan Fox would probably be out-acted by the other April O'Neil.
This is a Michael Bay production after all though, so you're right, people should expect it.
 

Sanjuro

Member
Maybe because the film isn't called 'APRIL O' NEIL'? And because that character has never been the main focal point to any TMNT story before? Or maybe just because Megan Fox would probably be out-acted by the other April O'Neil.
This is a Michael Bay production after all though, so you're right, people should expect it.

April has been a primary character is almost every iteration of the franchise.

The comparison I was given before was the human characters in the Transformers films, which in this film don't have their own action sequences outnumbering the draw of the film.
 

happypup

Member
Maybe because the film isn't called 'APRIL O' NEIL'? And because that character has never been the main focal point to any TMNT story before? Or maybe just because Megan Fox would probably be out-acted by the other April O'Neil.
This is a Michael Bay production after all though, so you're right, people should expect it.

She was the main focal point in the 1990 film. She was both the audience surrogate and the focus by which the narrative arc moved. It starts with her, every major event in the movie is based on her choices, among the turtles only Raph does anything that moves the plot forward, and that was meet Casey Jones and bring April back to the lair (well and get beat up but really that didn't move the plot forward, it was April taking the turtles to her farm that did). Donnie and Mikey did nothing worth mentioning, Leo's only purpose was to argue with Raph, and Raph's only purpose was to get the humans involved in the story. Splinter had two big events, turning the one boy (but Casey turned all the kids), and defeating Shredder (but Casey actually finished him off).
 
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