Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Thread

[Drtooth]

Yeah, it's nice that they had a few little fan nuggets (not nearly enough), but you know what would be nicer? A better cast April that doesn't take up the whole movie and No Eric Sacks. I swear, they only kept him in because he was going to be Shredder (as an inherited title), but had to reshoot everything to have the real Shredder in the film. And they clearly wanted to keep him in the film, making him completely useless as a character, and stealing Shredder's scenes.

There's a lot of good in this movie, I'll admit, but there wasn't enough of it. April was in too many scenes, she was the focus of too much of the plot, and the scenes with only human characters dragged on forever. This is also indicative of the Transformer movies (if you edit them down to just them and key human scenes, they'd probably all be an hour long), which is the strangest parallel to both movie franchises.

That said, Baxter Stockman was going to be in the movie. His scenes were cut to make room for Saki, but still have room for Eric. A good rewrite of the script would have had Baxter as the scientist that came up with the poison the city to sell the antidote to the government plan, with Shredder being the rich guy who funds the plans, while also taking up more of the movie than he did. Also, Karai should have been Shredder's right hand woman instead of a leader of thugs. Seriously...the other villains were more interesting than Sacks. He didn't need to be in the movie at all, and just turned the movie into half mediocre outbreak conspiracy film, half an actual TMNT film.

Here's hoping film #2 focuses on Shredder, Splinter, and the Turtles, and less on April and Sacks. And if they have to shove a human focused story in there, make it Casey. he was in one of the original scripts, actually.

 

[mr3urious]

Thanks to the Nostalgia Critic, I never knew that the first movie was independently made. You would think that any of the major studios would jump at the chance to produce it, but apparently not.

 

[Drtooth]

That was back when New Line Cinema wasn't really tied down to a major company, wasn't it?

The first movie came at a time when Super Hero movies weren't exactly a thing (except Batman but even then, Batman was owned by Warner Bros), and the ones that did manage to get made were infamously bad (Howard the Duck). Even if TMNT was looked as a cartoon and toy line, Transformers and both He-Man films didn't do well either. So as popular as the turtles were, they had both things working against them. If there seems to be way too many super hero films now, it's definitely because we have the technology to film them to not look... well... Howard the Duck and He-man's live action film. Already mentioned them, no need to go further.

So comic book- not well known enough to draw interest in a movie

Cartoon- TV audiences rarely translate to a film one, and it wasn't high gear popular when the movie was entering that pre-production phase.

No matter what, it sounded like too much of a gamble for any major film studio.

And somehow, it managed to have a low budget and it worked. That's the magic of the first TMNT movie. All the money went into the animatronics/puppetry and the film had an aspect of gritty realism instead of looking cheap. And it is the best of the TMNT movies as a result. It's faithful to the comics (with just a few minor changes)... I'd say it's one of the best comic book movies out there.

 

[minor muppetz]

I didn't know until a few weeks ago that New Line Cinema was once an independent company. I read that none of the major studios wanted to do a TMNT movie, can't remember if it's because they thought it would be too expensive or too difficult (or maybe both).

Lately I've been thinking about how every TMNT movie made came when there was an animated show, and the movies took place in different universes than the whatever-current series (usually by being live-action). I wonder how well a TMNT movie would do if it were set in the same universe as the then-current series. If the first movie was fully animated and featured the same characters and continuity as the original series, for example, would it have been considered a hit or would it have flopped?

 

[Drtooth]

Lately I've been thinking about how every TMNT movie made came when there was an animated show, and the movies took place in different universes than the whatever-current series (usually by being live-action). I wonder how well a TMNT movie would do if it were set in the same universe as the then-current series. If the first movie was fully animated and featured the same characters and continuity as the original series, for example, would it have been considered a hit or would it have flopped?

While not officially one way or another, TMNT '07 was a sort of case. While it was supposed to slightly connect with the original film trilogy, with the opening sort of as a where are they now deal, there are some cases in the film that link it to the then current show. Karai was not introduced, leaving the audience to already know who she was (she was a prominent character in the cartoon series). The original ending where Casey Jones proposes to April was nixed because they wanted to wait to do it in the cartoon series. Why else would they do that if they weren't connected? There's also a passing reference to Splinter's love of Soap Operas (which had been hamfistedly Flanderized into the character in the show proper). So it's sort of connected to the series, but sort of not... it's confusing. And it made back its budget only because it was cheap to produce.

The sad thing is we almost got a follow up film, but Warner Bros wanted the film to be some high comedy thing that no one else involved really wanted. Arguing and haggling over what the script should have been delayed preproduction long enough for them to lose the film rights. Worst part? The film could have singlehandedly saved Imagi with WB pumping their money in. Astroboy managed to destroy the studio in production, leaving it to be bankrolled and/or released by Summit. You know, the studio behind those terrible Young Adult novel movies?

 

[Drtooth]

Here's something fascinating... more detail and care was put into background gags than most of the actual film.

Utroms?!? African American Baxter Stockman?! Extremely obscure reference to Arrested Development?!

How is it that the things hidden in the movie are more interesting than the film itself?

 

[CensoredAlso]

April was in too many scenes, she was the focus of too much of the plot, and the scenes with only human characters dragged on forever. This is also indicative of the Transformer movies (if you edit them down to just them and key human scenes, they'd probably all be an hour long), which is the strangest parallel to both movie franchises.

Which is why Bay shouldn't have been let anywhere near this property, director or producer. He has no clue how to do fanciful characters (he barely knows how to do humans, and with women he's downright insulting). Fans have let him get away with far too much, it's kind of a crime, lol. He got rich by making things go boom. A very proud legacy.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, but that's the thing about Turtles. While I am glad to say the film wasn't even near as explody Transformers films, it would have at least perked up the bland plague conspiracy script. It's not so much April was terrible a character as a poorly cast, overly focused one. I'd go so far as to say the unintentional results was that it came off like an unsold movie about a reporter trying to stop a deranged billionaire from unleashing a virus so he can sell the cure, realizing it wouldn't sell as a movie, and then slapping the Turtles on it last minute. And the worst part is, it totally wasn't the case. There's a lot that can be chalked up to trying to pander to the fans that complained about White Shredder, making Shredder and the Turtles feel removed from the film. I guess it was too late to completely remove Eric Sacks from the film, instead of reshooting him and giving him part of Baxter Stockman's role and keeping most of what Oroku Saki should have had (what they did). Frankly, I'm hating Eric Sacks more than April.

I'll also admit, if you're expecting a horrendously bad film that comes around and becomes fun, it doesn't. You'd expect it to be as action oriented farce that's at least fun to watch when that stuff manages to come around (okay, it is, but there's not nearly enough of it), but overall, what no one's saying about the film is that it's overall boring! At least the 60% of the time the Turtles aren't on screen. I'm generously giving what the most optimistic fanbase is saying and going "meh." Hopefully the sequel will actually focus on the turtles and this film was just a bumpy origin story with too much B plot in the way.

And yes... Bay stinks. They can't have Del Toro direct every movie. As I am to understand every single director young and old are completely awful besides him, supposedly.

 

[mr3urious]

The latest episode is more filler, but we got some good camaraderie between Donnie and Casey.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm glad the show's back. The problem is when they take a break after a hard episode, but come back to a breather. As stated before, the delay was to somehow get more attention for the movie, which makes no sense no matter how they explain it.

If there's one thing excellent about that episode, it's that they finally had a logical excuse for a Turtle vehicle to launch pizzas. If there's two things, it's the probably unintended parallel that a gang of three loser thugs have to take orders from an evil wizard voiced by James Hong... like these guys: