I loved the Turtles when I was a kid. I had action figures, comics, videos, t-shirts and bedding. I (like the vast majority of the world) haven't read the original comics; which I understand are in part a critique of the darkness of 80s comics like Frank Miller's Daredevil run. But I LOVED them as a kid. They were so much fun and they did the right thing. They had distinct personalities that worked well off each other and they went on weird adventures.
As I grew up, and became a 30 something, I left the turtles behind. I still harboured fond memories and a great affection for them, but it wasn't a property I associated with complex storytelling or dealing with themes that I would relate to and there wasn't any content being produced that got me interested.
I had a great time with this film. It's goofy and cartoonish, and that's what the Turtles are to me. I thought they got the personalities of the Turtles spot on and their interaction was fun. I honestly think that, although broadly drawn and inhabiting the cg bodies of humanoid turtles, they have distinct well drawn personalities and the way they look out for each other and squabble us well written and performed. The villains are ridiculous, but the villains in the turtles I watched as a kid WERE ridiculous. This film was not written or made to appeal to adults. If I was a kid, I'd have lost my mind for this film. As an adult who loved the Turtles as a kid, it felt like a well executed slice of nostalgia.
I felt like I was reunited with the characters I loved (the turtles, bebop and rocksteady) as a kid again. Krang and Shredder were slightly less ridiculous than they were in the cartoon (though still ridiculous). Sure Shredder turns out to be as gullible as Bebop and Rocksteady (why would he think Krang would share power with him?) but he was never actually a great intellect in the show I watched as a kid. I'm not saying it couldn't have been better, but I think this movie was fun as s**t. It could have been a lot worse. My inner 8 year old came out, I loved any moment the turtles were on screen and the rest was fine. My only complaint is that they didn't do any actual ninja fighting. x
You're not making a film with Bebop and Rocksteady in that is going to be taken seriously. It's just not going to happen. Best make it fun and this pretty much was the TMNT I loved as a kid and I bet this was a lot of fun for kids now. I love Michaelangelo until I die.
How much s**t is there on the menu and what *beep* flavour is it?
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klanky
8 years ago
It's posts like these that I think exemplifies why the movie did so poorly.
The idea put forth that the original comics were a critique of the "dark" super hero comics of the time is a myth. Both creators in the past have stated that TMNT was not intended as a parody and one of the still holds to that today - the other gives answers that can be summed up as "well it was and it wasn't".
True the earliest issues referenced other comics (specifically the works of Frank Miller and Jack Kirby) in a way that was humorous if you got what they were calling out but it's not like this lasted long anyway. Eastman and Laird developed, by the time they were hitting double digits the comics had developed a tone similar to most mainstream comics at the time and certainly when the two creators reunited after a hiatus of working together they made a genuine effort to do serious storytelling. Not only would I put Return to New York and City At War up there with some of the great comic book stories but so too work from other creators who wrote for the Mirage TMNT on stories like The River, Soul's Winter or Sons of the Silent Age to name a few. I appreciate you may not associate TMNT with complex storytelling or deep or mature themes but that doesn't mean it can't be, hasn't been or could be in other media.
Now I don't expect any movie to go to the depths of some of those story lines but most modern comic book movies strike a good median. You can't fault fans for expecting more from comic book movies right? No one expects them to be Shakespeare but no one expects to be this garbage either.
It should be pretty clear by now that this was just the wrong way to go. Even as a film adaption of the Fred Wolf series surely fans wanted to see the turtles fight Bebop and Rocksteady for more the three seconds. For all the buzz of getting a traditional looking Shredder and the Foot Clan we never see them do any proper fighting at all. Even though I'm not the biggest booster of the Fred Wolf approach or Michael Bay's style I was interested in Krang and the Technodrome and yet the battle with Krang quickly dissolved into the turtles dodging lasers and the lego Technodrome was extremely eye rolling. Talk about lack of ninja fighting, there's a lack of fighting in this period.
If you look at the gross of the 1990 movie compared to the 1991 Secret of the Ooze you can see this stark drop that can't be explained by anything that people liked it less. Even the cartoon started of having a semi-serious tone (about as much as allowed in Saturday morning tv in the 80s) but you saw it lose ground as it got progressively sillier. If you look at all the iterations of the franchise there's a definite correlation between how serious it's treated and how much the audience is interested. These movies should be the final proof - after all more more people turned out to see a movie that heavy backlash but from the trailers looked darker and having good mix in tone (the finished movie not so much) then the sequel which seemed to be doing everything people wanted.
The argument that it's made for kids doesn't hold water when it doesn't bare any resemblance to the current version on television kids are fond of. It's pretty arguable how much these movies are made for kids anyway, certainly the 2014 movie was said not for most it's production to be aimed at children but the sequel was and certainly had enough marketing geared towards children so why didn't they turn out for this? If they are going to aim these movies mainly at children (and I don't think they should) maybe consider what kids like now as opposed to shoving them with concepts popular in version we liked as kids.
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bobthegrinch
8 years ago
Fair enough. Like I said, I think it could have been better and it could have been worse. I enjoyed it enough, but I don't have any experience of Turtles beyond the Wolf cartoon and video games.
If it was something I cared about as much as you (and there are characters like that for me, that's not meant as a dig) I would probably also have engaged more critical faculties as I watched it. I really just wanted a nostalgia trip and it was reminiscent enough for me and I liked the characters of The Turtles.
How much s**t is there on the menu and what *beep* flavour is it?
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