I'm going to be that guy - TMNT Flaws/Critiques/Spoilers

[Cooty_Cat]

Since this movie gets a ton a hate. We definitely need a place where those who dislike things about this movie can congregate and discuss. That way every thread won't be full of "Michael Bay ruined" posts.

I didn't like how Shredder didn't have any personal beef with Splinter. When I saw the Shredder with those scars all over his face I assumed Splinter had caused them. However he seemed to not have had any personal altercation with Splinter before they first met.

I also thought it was too convenient that Shredders super armor was ready the moment they found the turtles.

Also the fact that the turtles were super strong mutants worked against the movie in some of the fight scenes. Their ninjitsu came off as a little more than flips and huge punches in a lot of scenes.

 

[Nathan]

So there were no actual The Raid style action sequences?

 

[mkilban2]

Only part I didn't really like was Splinters look and voice. But I did like his personality and fighting skills.

Everything else was okay with me.

 

[Cooty_Cat]

So there were no actual The Raid style action sequences?

God no. lol. Don't get me wrong the action worked for the most part. But it was less skill a lot more exaggerated or heavy handed punches and kicks. Like I said I think that comes from their huge size and strength. These turtles have superhuman strength in this movie. Well I know for a fact Ralph does.

One scene showed promise when they all had to fight together but it only had some great martial arts scenes scattered.

On the whole I think the original Turtles displayed the ninja part alot better than the new movie.

 

[scifiwolf]

I think the martial arts we were promised got lost to the handheld cameras and the ADHD editing. Watching the BTS stuff, there is some mind bending skills on display by the world class guys they brought in and put into mocap suits. I think it's also easy to dismiss the stunts because they get translated to CGI characters. It's hard to remember that the fighting as filmed first and not animated 100% from scratch.

 

[warhorse78]

I think the martial arts we were promised got lost to the handheld cameras and the ADHD editing. Watching the BTS stuff, there is some mind bending skills on display by the world class guys they brought in and put into mocap suits. I think it's also easy to dismiss the stunts because they get translated to CGI characters. It's hard to remember that the fighting as filmed first and not animated 100% from scratch.

This. The shaky cam was what ruined the movie the most for me. What was the point of bringing in these world class stunt men if they were just going to hide them via shaky cam.

 

[TheAQU4M4N]

Holy **** so much lens flares, JJ would be crazy jealous.

 

[Cooty_Cat]

Holy **** so much lens flares, JJ would be crazy jealous.

The most pointless lens flare came when April walked into Sacks laboratory. I was like "That was random as hell."

 

[I'm Old Greg]

This is appropriate here then?

Found this and thought it deserved a repost:

"An open letter to those involved in the production of 2014's Teenage Mutants Ninja Turtles:

Watching a movie is an act of trust on the part of the cinema-goer. Not just in the context of the money and time we surrender, but in the emotions we invest. Cinema is an direct line between creators and viewers.

So, when Michael Bay (Rotten Tomatoes average 31.6% Fresh) taps Jonathan Liebesman (30.8%) of Battle: Los Angeles fame direct a script by Applebaum and Nemec, whose only films are Mission Imposible: Ghost Protocol (93%) and Now You See Me (50%), and Dauherty, whose only films are Snow White and the Huntsman (48%) and Divergent (41%), and they place Megan Fox (37.5%) as the lead we are well within our rights to question whether we should give you our trust.

In response to our doubts, Megan Fox has told us "Let me tell you something about those people. How much money did Transformers 4 make? Exactly. Those people can complain – they all go to the theater. They're gonna love it – and if they don't love it, they can **** off, and that's the end of that."

You know what, I'll take your advice. I'll **** off. You can take everyone else's $8.50, but you're not gonna take mine. You could have challenged me to give your movie a chance, to see it and make my own judgment. But instead you used the very mature and well-reasoned argument of "f___ off".

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opens this weekend. I'll take my $8.50 and watch Guardians of the Galaxy a second time. Because it's a great movie, made by a studio that doesn't treat me like a piece of **** who has no choice but to see their movie.

Signed,

Someone who finally took your advice and gladly f___ off."

 

[dru-zod2501]

Baxter Stockman was listed in the credits, but I didn't see him or hear his name mentioned once! And poor Karai's part is not even worth mentioning. Such injustice to two major supporting characters.

 

[Mothman]

Baxter Stockman came out during one of the old lab tapes April was viewing through after she first saw the turtles. You see Mr. Oniel and Erich Sachs standing smiling and an african american standing next to them with glasses. They do not even mention him by name but its obvious that was Baxter because he resembles the new reinvention of character

.

 

[NinjaTurtleFan]

Pretty good article on why the 1990's movie still rules:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonwillmore/2014-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-vs-the-1990-movie

 

[ShadowBoxer]

I just saw this tonight and I went in with low expectations due to reviews and word of mouth here in these boards. I will say this movie isn't as bad as the RT rating would have you to believe, nor is it the disaster/ child hood rape some Internet fanboys like to claim Bay produced movies do.

How the things I didn't like in this

1. Shedder and Sacs plan made NO SENSE at all.

2. The way the turtles/ splinter learned marital arts was kinda stupid. Splinter learned and taught the turtles from a book he found. Not a deal breaker for me as the origins of how they learned how to fight in the original movie is silly as well, but I still prefer that to what we got here.

3. The turtles not really using much skill while fighting and instead are just super strong. But again, it wasn't a huge deal breaker for me.

4. The random transitions from a non snowy NYC to snow covered areas while going to Sacs mansion. I mean seriously it's so freaking noticable and takes you out of the movie. It's even more insulting considering they don't bother to explain or acknowledge it at all.

5. I just didn't like that all the characters were connected in a extremely cliche way.

6. Lastly, the foot clan being nothing but a bunch of random generic goons with guns.

 

[TheAQU4M4N]

I wonder where that Raph in disguise footage had any connection to the actual film final storyline, also they filmed at a beach as well wonder where that footage would have been placed. I guess we will never know lol unless those scenes end up going on the Blu Ray.

 

[Grillz]

Baxter Stockman came out during one of the old lab tapes April was viewing through after she first saw the turtles. You see Mr. Oniel and Erich Sachs standing smiling and an african american standing next to them with glasses. They do not even mention him by name but its obvious that was Baxter because he resembles the new reinvention of character

Technically, Stockman was black since the original comic days, he was turned white (and a fly) for the original cartoon, and the 2003 cartoon brought him back to his comic roots.

 

[Loki882]

Fichtner should have just been Stockman. He essentially serves the same purpose.

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

Shredder and the Foot Clan were the worst part of the film, absolutely. I think what they did with him and them wasn't good, but it's fixable in a sequel. I could see a "back to basics" approach being taken with Shredder and the Foot in the sequel, instead of this Robot Shredder.

 

[Marvin]

Is he really a robot? I heard it was more like an enforcer and heavy type of deal ala winter solider with the other guy making the plans?

 

[Cassandra Cain]

I wonder where that Raph in disguise footage had any connection to the actual film final storyline, also they filmed at a beach as well wonder where that footage would have been placed. I guess we will never know lol unless those scenes end up going on the Blu Ray.

Seriously, what happened with these scenes?! It seems they cut out and altered so many more story element scenes to make more room for action sequences, that the plot really suffered as a result. If you check out a lot of the behind the scenes footage, there was a point in the film where both April and Vernon were taken into the turtle lair and were both present when the lair was attacked by the Foot Clan. There also seems to have been a large portion of the film where April carried Raph's sais with her (hilariously in her boots), as if she has some knowledge of how to use them. The second picture above was a scene in which Raph gave her a few defense tips with the sai and it looks as if they bonded or came to a better understanding of each other as April reaches out to hold his hand. These scenes may have had character development and better pacing, and it's a shame that so much of these were left on the cutting room floor. I'd rather have a 2 hour movie with a better story and pacing then just a shortened action fest with a sloppy plot line.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

I'm really disappointed that those scenes were cut...it seems to me that they cut A LOT. I hope it makes it to the bluray or an extended cut with all the footage added back in

 

[Marvin]

Seriously, what happened with these scenes?! It seems they cut out and altered so many more story element scenes to make more room for action sequences, that the plot really suffered as a result. If you check out a lot of the behind the scenes footage, there was a point in the film where both April and Vernon were taken into the turtle lair and were both present when the lair was attacked by the Foot Clan. There also seems to have been a large portion of the film where April carried Raph's sais with her (hilariously in her boots), as if she has some knowledge of how to use them. The second picture above was a scene in which Raph gave her a few defense tips with the sai and it looks as if they bonded or came to a better understanding of each other as April reaches out to hold his hand. These scenes may have had character development and better pacing, and it's a shame that so much of these were left on the cutting room floor. I'd rather have a 2 hour movie with a better story and pacing then just a shortened action fest with a sloppy plot line.

It's a fair point that more character work is preferable to more and more action but you really don't actually know why those scenes were cut. That is, you don't actually that they were sacrificed specifically for more action. That's like saying apes could have had even more character scenes if it wasn't specifically due to them stuffing that last act with so much action.

With these types of mo cap productions, decisions such as what to cut can be influenced by alot more than simply what 'works' for the story. For example, if ILM spends the buckets of money required to animate and render a scene of any sort, it's most like going to stay in the final(for the sake of the executive sanity). And inversely, if you have a scene you feel you want to add into the final cut, you need to make damn well sure you have time to process it through the pipeline. Slightly different than more traditional productions, and it makes editing something that needs to be planned out far earlier than say a woody allen picture. One has to assume there was a large learning curve on the production with this one, and that maybe they will have a better handle on such things in another go around. Just saying.

More character time does seem like it would have been the key to alot of problems though.

 

[Nathan]

I watched Zaron's review. The Turtles are now bulletproof. Seriously?

 

[scifiwolf]

I watched Zaron's review. The Turtles are now bulletproof. Seriously?

Only their shells.

 

[bullets]

Shredder speaking Japanese and having characters respond to him in English was odd. He was a badass though. I did like the suit even though he essentially turned into a video game boss. He really needed more development.


Splinter looked hideous , even for a rat. The voice kinda through me off. The tail was silly but made for some awesome fight sequences so I'm good with that.


The villain plot made no sense. Unless it was cooked up in under a week. There must of been some serious stuff left on the cutting room floor.

What happened to the foot clan? They just left everything for Shredder to handle? Also is Sachs dead or alive?


Michaelangelo was hilarious at times , but him cracking a joke while Shredder was beating Raphael up seemed out of place.

 

[Golgo-13]

I watched Zaron's review. The Turtles are now bulletproof. Seriously?

I assumed only their shell (Back and front/ Carapace and plastron) was bullet proof.

Hated:
Shredder looked like Silver Samuri from The Woverine
Megan Fox's face - too much surgery - she seems inhuman now
Splinter - looked creepy and his voice didn't fit
Pacing was a little too fast
Whoopi Goldberg
Vern