What did you think TMNT fans?!

[buddha182]

Now that it finally came out - what did all of you think?! Did it live up to expectations, did you enjoy it? Was it good/bad, what?!

I loved it, especially being a huge fan of the original live acton movies myself (the ooze!!!). I didn't think it beat those, but still one of my own favorite non-Pixar CGI movies in a while!

And I gotta self plug, but if yuo want to read a really great interview with the TMNT writer/director Kevin Munroe, do so here.

 

[Catman]

The 1990 live-action adaptation is the ultimate Turtles movie. You really can't top it! But, this movie came close. I'll admit it.

 

[3dman27]

i look forward to seeing this when i get my money friday

 

[I_Hate_U_All]

The 1990 live-action adaptation is the ultimate Turtles movie. You really can't top it! But, this movie came close. I'll admit it.

It can be topped. It's good, certainly the best of them, but we've yet to see a GREAT Ninja turtles movie. One that utilizes the best the comics have to offer and mixes it with the gritty realistic feeling from the first live action film.

The reasons I'm think it can be topped is because of the poorer elements within the 90s film such as the wonky puppetry at times, and the cheesy performances by some of the less skilled actors... You can tell it still has a smackeral of 80s charm to it because of those elements.

trust me, I've seen the film a million times so I can remember its good and bad points.

The worst thing about the last turtle franchise for me was how it included 90s rap music. Ugh... I like some rap, but geez the stuff in the turtles movies was really awful.

Does this new movie use rap?

 

[4NutzinYoface]

http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11428765&posted=1#post11428765 Does THIS Thread answer your question

I absolutely loved the 1st Ninja Turtles Movie...kiiinda liked the second one (a little too goofy for my liking, and they didn't even FIGHT Shredder...come on..how cool was Super Shredder?) the 3rd movie...while it had some cool parts and great cinematography...it was soooo goofy and was a pretty bad film...plus the Turlte costumes looked ******ed for some reason!

This movie and the 1st movie are both awesome for different reasons...so I don't think that one is better than the other. I both love them...

..let's just talk about a sequel happenin' dammit!

 

[skorponok]

The reasons I'm think it can be topped is because of the poorer elements within the 90s film such as the wonky puppetry at times, and the cheesy performances by some of the less skilled actors... You can tell it still has a smackeral of 80s charm to it because of those elements.

The first film I think has pretty decent performances all round...and the puppetry isn't bad...

The 2nd and 3rd films lost it in that though (anyone ever notice that you can see Donatello's mask coming off during the NINJA RAP scene?)

 

[Nibune]

Going into seeing it I was very nervous about the film.
After having seen it all can say im very pleased with it.


Things that were if:
-I can overlook April not being a reporter, slightly
-the 13 monsters i guess became folk legend over last 3000 years, and gravitated to new york at same time, i guess its a cartoon afterall....right
-April was the intelligent one....cmon Donatello dont you have more then 5 lines
-Splinter voice actor was subpar
-The third live action movie is considered theyre past....i thought they were gonna neglect it

Things that were missing
- "I still got it" cant compare to "I made another funny"
- They never go into an all Turtle Shell form, or even retract their head

Things that were great:
- Leo v Raph
- Massive Foot Battle
- Hall of Helmets! from shedder's to Cowabunga Mikey Head...NICE

Things to expect:
RETURN OF THE FOOT....(i thought they were gonna reference Karai as Shreds daughter this time...well i guess next time)

 

[Dino Pollard]

April a ninja? The turtles literally trample over hundreds of foot member? Come on now. Don’t get me wrong I love the turtles and have been a fan since the original comics. This movie was not perfect but still great none the less. One thing that just bothered the h ell out of me was April She is not a fifth turtle she is a reported! Or at least a good friend who is a link to the outside world for them. Her being this 5th turtle reminded me of the abomination “The next mutation” with Venus De Milo (shivers). The other thing that really bothered me was the fact that in the end where the turtles sneak into the tower and have to go trough hundreds of foot members, they didn’t even get a scratch on them!! I know they are masters of ninjitsu but so is the foot. At least April could have gotten a good cut or two (or die). She is not that good! The foot clan is made up of elite ninja masters not chumps who fall over from one punch. However, there were many good aspects to the movie. I was a good revival o the franchise, the animation was spectacular, and the grittiness of Raphael was there with his rivalry over the order of Leo. This movie could have taken a bit of a darker tone but for a PG movie it was pretty good. I was just expecting more of a nod to the old black and white comic, I don’t know if that will ever happen though. It would be cool if Leo lost a hand though. I would give this a 7/10. Hopefully the next installment will be more sinister, and let’s see some blood!

Dude, c'mon. First off, April is finally being used effectively. No longer is she a helpless damsel in distress who's only good at fainting and getting tied up. Now she's intelligent and skilled.

And c'mon, the Foot have ALWAYS been portrayed as pretty incompetent in large groups. Haven't you ever heard of the Inverse Ninja Law? It's been a staple of the Turtles for years.

And Leo losing a hand? Blood? Please. It's not the comic, it has to be a little bit more light-hearted. You can't have the Turtles losing body parts or blood flying across the screen (the Image comic when these things happened, BTW, was horrible). Be thankful they've struck a nice balance.

 

[Catman]

It can be topped. It's good, certainly the best of them, but we've yet to see a GREAT Ninja turtles movie.

I thought it was great! It was dark, but goofy at the same time. The story was decent enough. It featured good fight scenes. The Turtles looked good. It ended with Splinter making a funny!

All good!

 

[I_Hate_U_All]

Dark and goofy. Exactly. They were going for a blend of both the cartoon and comics, leaning more toward the comics than the cartoon since the comics are very dark and bloody. That's what's so great about the first tmnt. It at least tried to be a great mature film as well as a fun one kids could enjoy. The sequels reflected the kiddy cartoon more which is one of the reasons they failed beyond crappy writing.

So I don't get why studios think they have to dumb stuff down for kids but that's what usually happens. Franchises start off at a medium point, being good for all ages, then grow dumber and dumber to supposedly be more suitable for children. Lame...

The first film's story's weakest points to me were the relationship with danny and his father. That was lame, lifetime family movie stuff. It's saved by the strength of splinter's lecture to the kid, which shows him the error in following shredder. But the cliche rebellious kid thing got old from frame 1.

Beyond that, I'd have liked more background on Casey Jones. The little we got was good, just more would have rounded his character out more instead of him just popping up out of thin air like that. Why is he a vigilante? Nobody knows... a lot of the characters are kinda 2 dimensional like that and it would have been nice to get more into their heads, but I guess time didn't permit it.

In that respect I view the first tmnt like I do Batman89, very good for a first time comic adaptation of its kind, but could have been better. heh. Cowabunga.

 

[cinquan]

So far I'm hearing g-8 reveiws. I loved it, My opinion, I think there was nothing wrong with the movie. Voices are perfect, I sad that Mako died after voiceing Splinter.

 

[I_Hate_U_All]

The first film I think has pretty decent performances all round...and the puppetry isn't bad...

The 2nd and 3rd films lost it in that though (anyone ever notice that you can see Donatello's mask coming off during the NINJA RAP scene?)

YEAH... the puppetry is to this day some the most AMAZING puppetry i've ever seen on film. who would have thought live action mutant turtles was possible until TMNT 1 came along? There were a few points when the mouth sync wasn't very good but whatever. The Amazing thing about it is that it's believable. You're almost fooled into not thinking "It's just a guy in a suit."

Ah... the magic of movies. Now with CGI, the magic's mostly gone...

hmm, no never noticed Don's head falling off. And I don't want to suffer though the ninja rap to see it either...

 

[Aztec]

Just saw it and I loved it overall. Here's the breakdown:

**Spoilers** Read at your own risk!!

The Good

1) Lots of action. The fight scenes were intense, violent, and plentiful. I'm glad the action to humor ratio favored action more.

2) Karai and the Foot were awesome in this film. I like the idea of them acting as hired guns while they reorganize to reconquer NYC's underworld.

3) Leo vs. Raph. Best fight scene in the movie and also the most poignant scene in the movie.

4) Casey, Splinter, and heck even April got to kick a little ass too. April and Casey's relationship developing was cool to see as well.

5) The introduction was very cool. Winters and his generals were total badasses and frightening fighters.

6) The subplot of the TMNT needing to come back together as a family. This was foiled very nicely by the not too dis-similar familial problems of Winters and his generals.

7) The Shredder references were cool. I like the fact that he still had a "presence" even after his death. This reminded me of "City At War" a bit.

This film was a worthy sequel to the first film. I'm glad they chose to basically ignore films 2 & 3 (but still not contradict them for those of you who enjoyed them).

The Bad

1) Mikey and Don got very little screen time. It's a real shame for Donny because he got very little screen time in the first film too.

2) Winters' "change of heart" was a little sudden. Early in the film while talking to Karai and the Generals he seemed pleased at the opportunity to take over the world with his army of darkness. Then all of sudden he just wants to die in peace? There was very little explanation for this sudden change.

3) The 13 monsters portion of the storyline was pretty nonsensical. Why 13 anyway? They only showed maybe 7 or 8 in the film as it was. I still don't see how destroying the monsters would serve to de-stonify the generals and finally kill Winters.

4) How is it that they couldn't find the biggest, meanest, and most destructive monster for so long? Don't you think someone would've noticed the dinosaur like thing running around destroying the city?

5) It was too short. It flowed well but another 30 minutes would have been awesome. Hopefully they'll release a director's cut DVD (and hopefully they'll do this for the first film as well!).

 

[Dino Pollard]

Beyond that, I'd have liked more background on Casey Jones. The little we got was good, just more would have rounded his character out more instead of him just popping up out of thin air like that. Why is he a vigilante? Nobody knows...

There was a scene cut from the final release that dealt with this. Casey was getting fed up with watching reports of criminals getting away that he decided to become a vigilante. Also, remember that conversation he had with April before they all went back to New York? April talked about him playing professionally and Casey said "before I was injured."

If that cut scene of Casey watching TV was included, I think the intention was to give people the idea that Casey was a professional athlete, probably hockey, who got injured and was without purpose until he decided to become a vigilante.

Winters' "change of heart" was a little sudden. Early in the film while talking to Karai and the Generals he seemed pleased at the opportunity to take over the world with his army of darkness. Then all of sudden he just wants to die in peace? There was very little explanation for this sudden change.

I've got to disagree with this. I thought they were hinting at Winters' change of heart right from the beginning. The fact that his actions turned his "family" to stone and the fact that he was trying to gather the monsters together again. The entire time watching it, I was actually thinking to myself, "wait a minute... why is Winters gathering the monsters if he already has immortality? Is he really the bad guy?" I think if you watch it again, you'll find there were enough hints showing that Winters wasn't actually the villain of the movie.

The 13 monsters portion of the storyline was pretty nonsensical. Why 13 anyway? They only showed maybe 7 or 8 in the film as it was. I still don't see how destroying the monsters would serve to de-stonify the generals and finally kill Winters.

Destroying the monsters didn't matter. What did matter was sending the monsters back to their dimension. That would reverse the curse. The curse was that by releasing the monsters, immortality was gained. However, the generals only gained immortality by being immortalized in stone. Winters gained true immortality, but over the centuries discovered that immortality wasn't all it's cracked up to be. By breaking the curse, i.e. returning the monsters to their dimension, that meant the generals and Winters would lose their immortality -- thus, they would die. I thought they explained this pretty well in the film, especially when Winters talks to one of the generals who says, "but if we break the curse then we won't be immortal."

How is it that they couldn't find the biggest, meanest, and most destructive monster for so long? Don't you think someone would've noticed the dinosaur like thing running around destroying the city?

I agree with this one. I thought it was a bit convenient that all thirteen monsters were located in New York. My theory is that they were drawn to the location of the portal, but there should have really been something stated in the movie to clarify this. Guess it just has to be chalked up to coincidental comic book luck.

However, now that I think about it, Winters did tell Karai that he was expecting some friends to arrive...

 

[Fanged-Hunter]

They really should be pushing Turtles as a PG-13 franchise. At least in this one there's some assumption allowed that Leo's being more lethal with his katanas than in the past.

The key to these types of shows is to focus on the concept of "Write for adults and kids will get it."

A "damn" and "hell" mixed with cuts and blood (just no lost body parts) are perfectly fine for PG-13. I'm surprise Leo was restrained as much as he was in the first movie.

None the less, I still loved this one. I'm kinda worried how many evenings I'm going to burn watching it when it's out on DVD.

 

[MoPlaYa]

I loved the new TMNT movie!!!

Great action (for a PG movie), had some humorous parts, the CGI was great IMO, the voice acting took some getting use to but by the end of the movie I was already use to them.

The first live action movie is still the best IMO but this is a close 2nd....I`d love to see a directors cut dvd......

I hope if they make another one Mickey and Don get more screen time

 

[kidbateman]

the movie was great. i really enjoyed it. but i do think it would be really cool if they pushed it just a bit more. and make it a ninja turtles movie not a raph and leo movie. thats the one thing that really bothered me was that it really focused on them. come on their fight has to be affecting don and mike too. and i though casey could have been a bit more tuff. IMO i dont think there will ever be a movie completely based off the first comics. they are way to graphic. little kids go ape **** for the turtles and to see the turtles with blood on there hands would more then likely scare some kids.

 

[RskimB]

The 1990 live-action adaptation is the ultimate Turtles movie. You really can't top it! But, this movie came close. I'll admit it.

I agree. The movie was amazing but still not able to eclipse the 1st flick. Te action was amazing, although everything seemed to unfold at breakneck speeds and the plot was a bit uninspired. But this movie was done with way more reverence to the turtles than the last two sequels.

 

[Catman]

everything seemed to unfold at breakneck speeds and the plot was a bit uninspired.

I didn't really mind. The movie was great. Its flaw was that the villains were pretty lame and not enough focus on characters other than Leo & Ralph.

 

[pickleweed]

i dunno, i couldnt sit back and enjoy it. i analyzed the **** out of it for some reason. the sets looked amazing, but there were a lot of things that were kinda all over the place in terms of quality. the dialogue and voice acting in particular were up and down. the acting in general was a little over the top with all the pointing and body acting. a lot of things felt forced by the studios interest to keep it kid-centric or family friendly (name tags? that gargoyle burping despite the animation? 80 minute running time? c'mon...) and some of the animation didnt hold any weight(the van skidding around corners in particular). i could almost see them scraping at the bottom of the budget. also, some of the character models were kinda eh. mainly secondary characters or extras, but still. The themes were very heavy handed, and the plot seemed to big for its running time.

being an animation major sucks at times.

but even with all of that, i didnt hate it. i just couldnt relax and dig it. hopefully my brain will shut off for the next time.