[Galactus]

To play the devil's advocate for a moment Amell could mean that the use of sexual humor is gone while the look and tone of the movie is stylistically darker ala the 1990 movie or the '03 series.

Of course to counter that we have Megan Fox in a catholic schoolgirl outfit and Bebop and Rocksteady looking like they've stepped out of the 80s cartoon show. I'm guessing that from Amell's perspective there's some truth in what he's saying but we had the same kind of statements from people in the last movie and look how that turned out.

As for Casey having an origin in the movie? The idea in principal isn't a bad one in fact in threads asking what we'd like to see in the sequel I stated I wanted to see the 'origin' from the '03 series and Mirage's Tales of the TMNT. If depicted well not only would it would suitably dark but explain why Casey becomes a vigilante.

Based on this and Amell's earlier comments there does seem to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what kind of character Casey is. He isn't a vigilante that learns any skills or develops any abilities, Casey Jones isn't a persona he becomes he just puts the mask on and goes, he's not even necessarily good at what he does. We don't need to see any journey like that because their is none but I suppose being a new version they're insistent they don't have to do things the old ways.

Perhaps even worse though is that in all set pics we've seen Amell seems to have fairly neutral facial expressions. There no signs of Casey's rogue-ish personality which is the heart of the character in most versions. It seems this Casey is as bland as his wardrobe.

I have a feeling that the story will go somewhat like this; Casey is April's high school or college sweetheart but she ditched him because he had no ambition and we find him them reconnecting in the movie and her words inspire to "make a difference" or "make something of himself" or some other movie cliche that inspires him to tackle crime his way like she does with her journalism.

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

That, at least, is an acknowledgement from someone officially involved that "yeah, we f*cked up on the first one."

If this was coming from an actual producer or director, and not just some actor desperate to upgrade from television to movies, I'd feel a little better.

Actually there's been some subtle acknowledgement from people involved in the last movie that they screwed up. There was video interview with Fuller and Form said something along the lines of "we'll change your minds" in relation to the sequel. While that may not be an acknowledgement they ****ed up it could be seen as acknowledgement most people disliked it.

Not to mention that the four turtle actors have mentioned the lack of their screentime. Jeremy Howard in particular at a con has made big declarations that this time they know what they are doing and have an actual script etc. You remember Howard was the one who admonished fans last time and made bold claims about things which sounded intriguing but ended up on the cutting room floor. You'd think he'd be careful this time.

Originally Posted by sethmartin

Turtle fans, whether casual or committed, have been very vocal about the fact that they want the Turtle movies to focus on the Turtles!

Y'know it wouldn't be quite so bad if the turtles got less screen time in the sequel if they had an adequate amount in the first. As it stands the movie has to fit in Casey's origin, his relationship with April, Bebop and Rocksteady's origin a lot of stuff with Vern and his celebrity friends, Baxter Stockman, the NYPD stuff, Shredder and the Foot's plan and now an invasion from Dimension-X as well as solid screen time for the turtles.

Many a movie series has been killed with this kind of overcrowding and that's even with noble intentions not the rather desperation moves of this movie.

I like the idea of multiple villains. The OT cartoon often had Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady, and Baxter Stockman all in the same episode. Also SOTO, did a decent job of juggling multiple villains.

The OT had multiple episodes to set up the status quo. Also I'm not sure I'd agree Secret of the Ooze did well in this regard. The intriguing TGRI plot and the turtles search for is unsatisfactorily set aside mid way through. A lot of time is wasted on setting two henchmen and Super Shredder really seems tacked on. It's certainly not the worst movie in this regard but I don't think it should be bandied around as proof this can be done.

think the only way to properly include Casey Jones is to have him start off as a vigilante who's against the turtles and learns to work with them throughout the course of the film (like the 1990 movie) with maybe just a quick flashback scene about how he came to be.

Surprisingly I agree with you on this.