Posts Tagged ‘summer movie season’

#TMNT 2014

Posted: September 4, 2014 in Meat Me @ Camera 4
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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by @anarchyroll
9/4/2014

Transformers fans and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans now have something in common.

No, a long anti Michael Bay rant is not forthcoming. When a person sees his name attached to a film and Megan Fox as the lead actress, one must know what they are getting before they buy their ticket. I grew up on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was completely unaware of their comic book, alien origin story until a year ago. I knew only of the turtles in the cartoons and live action movies 80s/90s.

My favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, is Casey Jones. I was very disappointed to not see him in the movie at all. The camera time and character focus that could have been given to a Casey Jones was instead given to Will Arnett, cast as a comic relief sidekick for April O’Neil. As a fan of Arrested Development, I’m only half complaining. Half complaining is really all I can really do with this movie. There is enough good to at the very least balance out the bad, if not outweigh the bad.

The Good

  • The spirit/personality of all four turtles was unchanged
  • The look of each turtles was modified to make each look unique rather than the same with different colored bandanas
  • The Foot Clan use guns instead of swords which makes more sense in 2014 NYC
  • The jokes are funny
  • The action scenes are good

The Bad

  • The origin of the turtles and overall plot is basically the same as the recent Amazing Spider Man films
  • Too much Megan Fox for the first hour of the film (was to be expected)
  • No Kraang, Bebop, Rocksteady, Rat King, Baxter Stockman, or any other villains/henchmen
  • Tatsu was cast as a woman who did nothing of importance or impact at any point in the movie

Those who saw the movie may be wondering why I’m not complaining about the Iron Man esque Shredder. If I didn’t have a Shredder action figure from the 90s that basically looked just like the movie’s incarnation, it would have been at the top of my list. Also, the case can be made they just skipped right to Super Shredder, also no complaints there. Even the obligatory, unnecessary Michael Bay explosion just before the closing credits made me chuckle rather than shake my head.

I am happy that the movie made enough money to already warrant a sequel getting an immediate green light. Hopefully we’ll get to see some of the characters listed above who were missing in action this time around. 

The bottom line is this; if you didn’t grow up watching the cartoons and/or playing the video games in the 90s or 00s, there is absolutely no point in seeing this movie.