welp, i saw Michael Bay's version of TMNT. · 8:41am Aug 18th, 2014
and..................... it's not good, but it's not bad either.
first off, the bad. it can be summed up in a few simple words. It's Michael Bay. we should've learned this would be the problem. did the last 3 Transformer movies teach us nothing? all his usual tropes are here, though the explosions are subdued here, thank goodness.
the decent. the plot was decent enough, as was Megan Fox's version of April (speaking of which, i think she went to Kristen Stewart's acting school cause her mouth is always open).
the good. say what you will of Michael Bay, he always keeps the established characters as they are. I.E., Optimus was still the stalwart and charasmatic leader we all know him as..... until he somehow became bloodthirsty in Age of Extinction (by 5 years of watching your friends get killed by who were once your trusted allies would change anyone)
in this case, the Turtles were spot-on in their personalities: Leo's still the stoic leader, Raph's the rebel (Most of the time), Mikey's the joker, and Donnies the brains.
next we come to what i consider the best part: Shredder. Man, did they make this guy intimidating. It's like they took all the best parts of his Live-action 90's, the 2003, and the 2012 versions, mixed them up with a little Transformers, and made him badass. He's fast, strong, agile, has detachable blades that can act like boomerang knifes, and can overpower the hero's in a half-shell easily. and to those worried that William Fitchner's character is him, don't be. he's still Oroku Saki. he's played by Tohuro Masamune. here's hoping he comes back in the sequel.
and yes, there is a seqeul confirmed, with Casey Jones, the Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady being confirmed for it.
so, how would i rate this> well, like i said, it's not good, but it's not bad either. it's nestled somewhere in between, like a... 6.9. here's hoping they improve in the seqeul.
In terms of a letter grade, I gave it a solid B-.
We're talking about Micheal Boom Boom Bay there had to be an exploding gas station somewhere.
Sequel? Well, if there is anything we learned about sequels its that they are either the same or the worst (with the rare better.) I expected worse from Michael Bay...
Oh well, now I gotta go see it.
Well, I haven't seen it yet, but you give me hope that it's actually fairly good.
Wasn't overly happy about Bay being the producer (and I sure as hay hope that he isn't involved in any way, shape or form with the sequel), but it seems like he did a fairly good job.
I have to ask, though: were the Turtles, and Master Splinter (of course) done in full CGI, or were they actors in costumes? 'Cause when I (and the rest of the TMNT fandom, of course) found out about the new movie, the announcement was made that it was going to be done live-action (ala the original 90's movies from New Line Cinema), but with the Turtles' and Splinter's faces/heads done in CGI, rather than masks, like in the original movies.
But, from what I've seen in the trailer of it, the guys seem to be done in all CGI. Am I right? Or so far off-base it isn't funny?
Anywho, getting back to the sequel you mentioned, I can't really say that I'm happy that the Krang (and by this, do you mean Krang, like in the original cartoon series, or the Kraang, like who are in the current TMNT Toon on Nick?), Bebop, and Rocksteady are gonna be in it. Mainly because Viacom, Nick and Paramount are taking the TMNT franchise too far back toward the way it was in the 80's and 90's for my liking.
Mainly because I was hoping that they would take it in a whole new direction like what 4Kids did back when they had it. But nooooooo! we get a (slightly) altered rehash of the 80's Toon. Nice.
Now, Casey being in it, I'm okay with. Mainly because he's been a part of the Turtle gang since the franchise's glory days when Kev, Pete and Mirage had it.
Don't get me wrong here, guys; I absolutely loved the original cartoon and movies...back then. (And I still love them; don't get me wrong there.) But, that being said, to my mind, Viacom, Nick and Paramount should've taken it forward, in a totally new new direction, not taken a 20-30 year dive back into the past. Opportunity wasted on their parts, IMHO.
Anyway, that's my 2 bits on the whole thing. Hopefully, I'll get to go see it soon. I know I'm workin' on it, anyway.