TMNT: User Review Thread.

[Loki882]

Pro's:

-The Turtles were good for the most part (aside from Mikey's creepy April crush).
-SOME of the jokes were amusing.
-Karai is in a TMNT live-action movie finally, yeah.
-Megan Fox wasn't terrible. She wasn't great, but she wasn't godawful either. She was passable.

Con's:

-Holy Hell did they screw up the villains. The Foot Clan are a bunch of generic paramilitaries with guns. Shredder is barely a presence in the movie, his armor is ridiculously stupid, and he has zero connection to Splinter/the Turtles. He's some jackass in a mech suit, nothing more. It honestly feels like Fichtner was supposed to be the Shredder (he and the filmmakers even said as much) but then they changed their minds at the last minute for whatever reason (fan complaints maybe) and quickly wrote "Shredder" into the movie/shot new scenes in the most sloppy way possible. Fichtner was phoning it in and they gave Karai nothing interesting to do.
-I didn't like Splinter, and having him learn Ninjutsu from a book was really lame, as well as cutting out the Hamato Yoshi element.
-The villain plot is mind-bogglingly stupid/nonsensical.
-The editing was terrible in some places.
-The Turtles were secondary characters in their own movie. This should have been called "April O'Neil, guest-starring the turtles."
-The movie is too short and thus character development suffers.
-The climax was a ripoff of TASM.
-ETC.

Overall, it's a 5/10. There was potential here, but piss-poor execution. Hopefully a sequel will do better.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

I see what you did there

At least somebody caught it!!!

 

[Kal-El.9859]

Pro's:

-The Turtles were good for the most part (aside from Mikey's creepy April crush).
-SOME of the jokes were amusing.
-Karai is in a TMNT live-action movie finally, yeah.
-Megan Fox wasn't terrible. She wasn't great, but she wasn't godawful either. She was passable.

Con's:

-Holy Hell did they screw up the villains. The Foot Clan are a bunch of generic paramilitaries with guns. Shredder is barely a presence in the movie, his armor is ridiculously stupid, and he has zero connection to Splinter/the Turtles. He's some jackass in a mech suit, nothing more. It honestly feels like Fichtner was supposed to be the Shredder (he and the filmmakers even said as much) but then they changed their minds at the last minute for whatever reason (fan complaints maybe) and quickly wrote "Shredder" into the movie/shot new scenes in the most sloppy way possible. Fichtner was phoning it in and they gave Karai nothing interesting to do.
-I didn't like Splinter, and having him learn Ninjutsu from a book was really lame, as well as cutting out the Hamato Yoshi element.
-The villain plot is mind-bogglingly stupid/nonsensical.
-The editing was terrible in some places.
-The Turtles were secondary characters in their own movie. This should have been called "April O'Neil, guest-starring the turtles."
-The movie is too short and thus character development suffers.
-The climax was a ripoff of TASM.
-ETC.

Overall, it's a 5/10. There was potential here, but piss-poor execution. Hopefully a sequel will do better.

Mikey's crush on April in the movie is no more stupid than Donnie's in the cartoon.

The part about the Shredder being wrote in due to fan complaints...I can buy that

And Splinter teaching himself is no more lame or stupid than a rat learning it by watching some guy do it....

 

[Nathan]

The stupid thing about the self taught Ninjutsu, is that it got rid of any ties they had to Hamato Yoshi (who doesn't doesn't even exist now) and the Shredder. They are just a bunch of experiments, who were lucky enough to stumble over a book that teaches Ninjutsu, to turn into our iconic Ninja Turtles. And it was probably a generic Ninja book too, which doesn't even contain a fraction of the Ninja secrets, something Splinter would have only learned as a pet, watching his master practice Ninjutsu for years, or had he been Hamato Yoshi himself. But I guess it doesn't really matter since they are mutants with super strength, and can pretty much overpower every opponent.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

The stupid thing about the self taught Ninjutsu, is that it got rid of any ties they had to Hamato Yoshi (who doesn't doesn't even exist now) and the Shredder. They are just a bunch of experiments, who were lucky enough to stumble over a book that teaches Ninjutsu, to turn into our iconic Ninja Turtles. And it was probably a generic Ninja book too, which doesn't even contain a fraction of the Ninja secrets, something Splinter would have only learned as a pet, watching his master practice Ninjutsu for years, or had he been Hamato Yoshi himself. But I guess it doesn't really matter since they are mutants with super strength, and can pretty much overpower every opponent.

Who knows if that is true or not? So much was cut from this film that it could still be there only to be revealed in the sequel...

 

[LostSon88]

Pretty hard to back track from all of that in a sequel…they made it pretty cut and dry that Splinter was simply a rat in a lab that learned Ninjitusu from a book.

 

[CEREBRAL....]

You guys are harping too much on the origins. Haven't you seen enough of these movies to know Hollywood writes their own story and tails off from their comic book origins. Should not be surprised.

 

[scifiwolf]

You guys are harping too much on the origins. Haven't you seen enough of these movies to know Hollywood writes their own story and tails off from their comic book origins. Should not be surprised.

Nobody here minds changes or fresh takes. There are certain core tenants of origin stories that need to be kept intact, however, and they were full on ignored here. As I've been saying since Thursday, the omission rather than outright change has allowed for a bit of rectification in a sequel. That's the only reason I personally am not very upset, but nervous if the writers and producers feel the box office success means people are actually satisfied with the narrative status quo.

 

[Marvin]

The stupid thing about the self taught Ninjutsu, is that it got rid of any ties they had to Hamato Yoshi (who doesn't doesn't even exist now) and the Shredder. They are just a bunch of experiments, who were lucky enough to stumble over a book that teaches Ninjutsu, to turn into our iconic Ninja Turtles. And it was probably a generic Ninja book too, which doesn't even contain a fraction of the Ninja secrets, something Splinter would have only learned as a pet, watching his master practice Ninjutsu for years, or had he been Hamato Yoshi himself. But I guess it doesn't really matter since they are mutants with super strength, and can pretty much overpower every opponent.

This may be the first time I've actually heard someone mention the work "luckily" as in, coincidence; as a negative thing. For all the fans harping on the ASM' like connective threads ruining the charm of things, it's just kinda odd to hear someone argue against this particular thing in this particular way. That being said, stories, especially in comic books, especially in origins are very much contingent on 'lukily enough' and contrivity. Superman's landing for example, or all that is peter parker

As for the issue of self teaching. I find this discussion also interesting. Here's something to think about. Does I think one has a better chance of mastering the forms, functions and more pertinently, the philosophies(of life) of Jeet Kune Do by watching some guy whose really good at it practice in their house or by reading the gotdamn illustrated book it's inventor Bruce Lee wrote specifically to teach/pass on this art form/way of life...
Why is one so much more accepted over the other into themselves, I mostly don't understand.

 

[CEREBRAL....]

Nobody here minds changes or fresh takes. There are certain core tenants of origin stories that need to be kept intact, however, and they were full on ignored here. As I've been saying since Thursday, the omission rather than outright change has allowed for a bit of rectification in a sequel. That's the only reason I personally am not very upset, but nervous if the writers and producers feel the box office success means people are actually satisfied with the narrative status quo.

Why not? Has it stopped them before (from making sequels) no it hasnt. Just as this TMNTs was it's own story the sequels will be too.

And what part of the origin needed to be intact in order for TMNTs to be successful in its story telling?

 

[DaveMoral]

This may be the first time I've actually heard someone mention the work "luckily" as in, coincidence; as a negative thing. For all the fans harping on the ASM' like connective threads ruining the charm of things, it's just kinda odd to hear someone argue against this particular thing in this particular way. That being said, stories, especially in comic books, especially in origins are very much contingent on 'lukily enough' and contrivity. Superman's landing for example, or all that is peter parker

As for the issue of self teaching. I find this discussion also interesting. Here's something to think about. Does I think one has a better chance of mastering the forms, functions and more pertinently, the philosophies(of life) of Jeet Kune Do by watching some guy whose really good at it practice in their house or by reading the gotdamn illustrated book it's inventor Bruce Lee wrote specifically to teach/pass on this art form/way of life...
Why is one so much more accepted over the other into themselves, I mostly don't understand.

No one has ever actually mastered martial arts from a book alone. It doesnt happen. It's only a tad more ridiculous than pre-mutation Splinter mastering martial arts watching Hamato Yoshi, but just enough to break the mythology. The only origins that make sense, are A) Fred Wolf and Nick origins with Yoshi being Splinter or B) the reincarnation plot of IDW.

 

[Marvin]

No one has ever actually mastered martial arts from a book alone. It doesnt happen. It's only a tad more ridiculous than pre-mutation Splinter mastering martial arts watching Hamato Yoshi, but just enough to break the mythology. The only origins that make sense, are A) Fred Wolf and Nick origins with Yoshi being Splinter or B) the reincarnation plot of IDW.

Far higher chance of a person with a human/keen mental capacity mastering it from a manuscript than by a lower life form do so by way of observation. It would simply boil down to the level of human intellect. Seeing as the mutagen clearly increased the mental capacity of these base creatures there is no telling what they can intuitively learn. Don seems to be freakishly smart for instance...

 

[ShadowBoxer]

I would give this movie like a 6 or 7 out of 10. It wasn't horrible and it was still better than say Transformers 4 ( which isn't saying much). I like the action, turtles interactions with each other, but the story was just stupid and megan fox was just meh to watch.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Mikey's crush on April in the movie is no more stupid than Donnie's in the cartoon.

The part about the Shredder being wrote in due to fan complaints...I can buy that

And Splinter teaching himself is no more lame or stupid than a rat learning it by watching some guy do it....

Agreed.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Honestly splinter learning marital arts from a book is more logical than a rat watch someone else do it. Both explanations are silly to be honest and I don't really mind that aspect of the reboot. Fanboys are are saying it's an abomination really need to realize what this movie is and what it's about. It's talking ninja turtles raised by a rat to fight an evil ninja organization. Not knocking it at all as I too like this franchise and grew up with it. But I am not gonna sit here and act like the mythos isn't some silly stuff.

 

[kickass]

As "silly" as this mythos is to some, no one can say it isn't original. I don't know any other story/idea/mythos like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

 

[kickass]

What would the reaction had been if both Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki were Japanese scientists? Just throwing ideas out there. I think I would have liked that much better. You hit 2 birds with one stone and make the connection clean and linear enough for everyone to understand.

Yoshi ends up feuding with Saki when he finds out their experiments are being used for Saki's own insidious plot.

 

[scifiwolf]

I wouldn't have cared as to their nature, as long as that relationship and essential motivation for Splinter and the Turtles were present.

Would Splinter even have known who the Shredder was once the script was changed so that it's not Sachs? Splinter would only have known Sachs was bad, but I on't think there was anything mentioned that he should have knowledge of Shredder's or the Foot's existences. He just magically knew and there was all this weight placed on that, but it was even remotely earned.

 

[Sterling Archer]

This movie was terrible. I don't know how anyone could say it was anything above awful.

 

[NinjaTurtleFan]

What would the reaction had been if both Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki were Japanese scientists? Just throwing ideas out there. I think I would have liked that much better. You hit 2 birds with one stone and make the connection clean and linear enough for everyone to understand.

Yoshi ends up feuding with Saki when he finds out their experiments are being used for Saki's own insidious plot.

Here's the thing... it would certainly be a different take on their mythos and substitute April for Tang-Shen, Saki could've been the head of the company, Yoshi and Tang find out what he plans to do with the Turtles and Splinter and burn down the lab, and Saki kills Tang-Shen and then Yoshi. Splinter claws Saki's face, disfiguring him, and Splinter and his sons scamper off into the streets and end up falling down a drain to grow up living in the sewers. However, where would Saki's combat and ninja-training come from? I could understand him being a collector of ancient samurai armor, helmets, swords, and memorabilia, but unless Saki was obsessed with his ancient ancestors, I still feel it takes away from the entire mythology and tries to write its own but missing familiar and appealing beats. I don't know why the Liebsman and crew thought Foot Soldiers as ninjas would be silly or the rich rivalry between Yoshi and Oroku Saki would be, but having Shredder being in a robotic suit isn't silly or "magic blood" inside the mutants isn't silly.

Apparently, writing a TMNT movie that sticks to the mythos was too hard for the screenwriters... either that or they're just too stupid.

 

[kickass]

I agree with you NinjaTurtleFan. Why are those core elements considered silly but not all the other weird and whacky stuff they included?

Perhaps they could have wrote in that Yoshi taught ninjutsu on the side, and Saki was secretly affiliated with the Foot. When Yoshi finds out about Saki's evil plans (whatever they may be), Saki kills Yoshi's wife after Yoshi frees the turtles. Then he flees and Yoshi, badly injured, is dying when the rat scurries to him as he calls for him. He covers him up and takes off to the sewers as he is dying. The lab explodes in a gulf of fire and we black out.

Yoshi awakens in the sewers and is already starting to change into a rat (long nails and whiskers). He finds the turtles and the rest is history.

I would even have it that Baxter Stockman was an intern at the lab and after the battle between Yoshi and Saki, stockman runs off with Saki and Saki uses him to try recreating the mutagen ever since (to no avail).

Bam. Already better and more fleshed out than what we got. I don't understand why that is too hard for them. These people are getting paid so much money and I just came up with a far better backstory for free in a matter of minutes.

 

[bullets]

What would the reaction had been if both Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki were Japanese scientists? Just throwing ideas out there. I think I would have liked that much better. You hit 2 birds with one stone and make the connection clean and linear enough for everyone to understand.

Yoshi ends up feuding with Saki when he finds out their experiments are being used for Saki's own insidious plot.

I really wanted them to have a history. That would of been much better than we got. Splinter learning from a book was inconsequential. That part didn't bother me. Learning April had them as pets wasn't a bad twist though.

 

[bullets]

There were a lot of kids at the showing I went to. One actually yelled " this is a great movie". Glad they enjoyed it

 

[LostSon88]

There were a lot of kids at the showing I went to. One actually yelled " this is a great movie". Glad they enjoyed it

There were tons of kids dressed as the Turtles at my viewing...some adults too.

After the movie a whole bunch of those same kids were playing Ninja Turtles outside of the theater.

 

[Rowen]

The best part in the turtles movie was when the turtles where in a elevator and mikey started beat boxing and Leo, raph started dancing to Mikey's beat boxing . Don didn't dance to Mikey's beat boxing.