How much slack would you cut Bayturtles if...

[ProactiveMan]

I kind'a like the movies on a certain level, but yes, they both have really bad stories. I don't think the writing is completely terrible either. There are some nice dialogue scenes in both, but the structure and overall plot sucks. I would have been a lot happier if they had have nailed the scripts down before shooting, and in the case of OOTS, spent more than an afternoon devising the plot.

[RaphaelsIsolation]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Now this is highly hypothetical, but give it a try.

How much easier would you have been on Bayturtles if:

1. They were a photorealistic version of what you expect the turtles to look like.

2. They weren't covered in random trinkets and flair.

3. They weren't 9 feet tall and UGLY AS FU*K.

They still would have sucked, but I think I would have found the movie a bit more palatable. And the general movie going audience might have agreed.

Thoughts?

Yeah I mean I didn't like the look very much. It is what it is, and it isn't horrible, I mean the large bulky "almost" Zulli look is ok.

I just wanted TMNT 1, 2, 3 look honestly. They tried making it different for the sake of it being different.

It would of helped a good amount. The look of them just kinda set the tone as overbloated... and lacking of quality.

[Andrew NDB]

Nope.


***DR***
Don't bypass the swear filter.

[Powder]

Despite the look being more or less my biggest concern leading up to the first film's release, it turned out to somehow be one of the least offensive things about these dung-heaps.

As I've said before, we're lucky they were big & ugly, because it would've been absolutely heartbreaking to have great looking turtles in horrible movies. With these, what you see is what you get- all flare, no care. You can't have any good expectations based on the aesthetics. With "proper" turtles you might go into it expecting something good, only to get kicked in the willy.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Powder

As I've said before, we're lucky they were big & ugly, because it would've been absolutely heartbreaking to have great looking turtles in horrible movies.

True. And when they failed, TPTB would assume that (faithful) great looking Turtles were part of the reason of the failure.

As is, we have a great big tub of pure Turtle sh*t -- basically the sum of everything they could possibly do wrong, even hypothetically -- they proudly served us, and all it went nuclear in their fat little hands.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Powder

As I've said before, we're lucky they were big & ugly, because it would've been absolutely heartbreaking to have great looking turtles in horrible movies. With these, what you see is what you get- all flare, no care. You can't have any good expectations based on the aesthetics. With "proper" turtles you might go into it expecting something good, only to get kicked in the willy.

Ya know, this sentiment really resonated with me last time you brought it up. But apparently not enough for me to remember it lol.

[CyberCubed]

At least it's a lesson never to give the Turtles noses/nostrils in any future incarnation ever again.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

As is, we have a great big tub of pure Turtle sh*t -- basically the sum of everything they could possibly do wrong, even hypothetically -- they proudly served us, and all it went nuclear in their fat little hands.

Let's hope it serves to be an example of what not to do. Every property needs one of those, I guess.

Some would argue ours was Next Mutation, but it's not that bad by any means, at least in terms of what they did "right" when compared to PD.

[ProphetofGanja]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

At least it's a lesson never to give the Turtles noses/nostrils in any future incarnation ever again.

I dunno, I think that they could be done tastefully. Haven't they had nostrils when some artists draw them in the comics? I mean real turtles have nostrils, so it's not like its illogical or unrealistic (despite the irony of worrying about realism in this property). I just think the Platinum Dunes character designers did an awful job, with a lot more than just the nostrils. All the Turtles have those weird egg-shaped heads, looking like creepy-ass Shreks. And then for some reason they tower over regular-sized humans. Just so many bad design choices, likely all simply for the sake of being "new" and "different" and "fresh"

[IndigoErth]

Good luck on nostrils never turning up again... Kind of inevitable.

Originally Posted by Wildcat

Were they actually her pets? I don't remember now.

My issue with this was she cared enough to rescue them but abandoned them in the sewer. Could have taken them to a lake or pond or something. Even the zoo maybe.

Yeah, she herself does say so directly to her room mate that they were her "childhood pets." (Which sounds odd coming from an adult woman speaking about lab animals...)

Agree with you, it's so weird that she ditched them like that. Show me a kid that would not have taken them home and either begged to keep them or hidden them!

[RaphaelsIsolation]

They could of made a TMNT movie without a huge ****ing budget?

I mean couldn't they just make a movie on 50 million? I think the could have.

[Shellington]

As everyone has said, design wasn't really as big a problem as getting a good story.


1 and 3 - I thought they WERE photorealistic. That was part of the problem. After all, real turtles...




I would be interested in seeing something reptilian and scaly, like this...




This look did earn an Oscar after all.


2 - This point stands. It's worth noting that the 2016 had the Turtles wear less stuff on their bodies, and looked the better for it (as did Bebop and Rocksteady and Krang, who turned out better than their concept art).

3 - The Turtles being huge and muscular was in the 87 and 2003 cartoons, it was from the 2012 cartoon and the IDW comics that the "youthful medium-size" look got prominence.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Shellington

3 - The Turtles being huge and muscular was in the 87 and 2003 cartoons, it was from the 2012 cartoon and the IDW comics that the "youthful medium-size" look got prominence.

Utter bullsh*t.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

The 2k3 turtles were bigger than the 80s and movie turtles but nothing compared to the PD ones.

I remember someone here claiming here long ago that the PD designs were inspired by the Fred Wolf turtles being giant hulks who used their muscle mass instead of their weapons to fight but that's obviously not true and another attempt at FW trolling/bashing.

Yes, they didnt use their weapons alot but other than that, their fighting style is almost nothing like the PD turtles. The FW turtles were smaller and less muscular than many of their enemies and used the environment to win most of the time.

As for the OPs question, no I wouldn't cut them any slack. While Its funny to poke fun at their appearance, I didn't think that their designs were really that bad and still liked their portrayal (except for Mikey being a creep). It wasn't their appearance but mostly the script that really let the movie down.

[Utrommaniac]

Drink when Cubed mentions the nostrils!

I'm pretty sure the turtles are 15 years old or so. I don't think the designers got the memo on what 15 year old boys look like.

It seems like another movie wherein Bay tries to cover over his insecure masculinity with explosions and action that runs so long that it overrides the characters themselves. Just seemed like most of the characters were either meatheads or doofuses.

OOTS could have had a little more on its Krang - who I think had a really good design for a Bay film, but he was a Plot Fairy that only showed up twice.

Drink when Utrommaniac talks about BayKrang as little more than a plot pusher!

[CyberCubed]

The weird thing is I never realized how hideous the Turtles look like with noses till this movie came out. And I'm sure it's not just the 30 years of seeing the Turtles with nothing on their faces below the bandana, it just looks hideous.

[IndigoErth]

Agree, Krang did virtually nothing, he never posed an actual threat. The most he accomplished was removing Shredder from the film. (Okay, he had a hand, er, tentacle in the creation of Bebop and Rocksteady as mutants, but only very indirectly.) Ultimately the main plot of this film boils down largely to a brief scavenger hunt. When it should have been about getting rid of a Technodrom that's busy trying to destroy the world.

After all the work put into him they kind of wasted Krang. Which makes it a shame they didn't make a film good enough to buy it a third wherein that they might have actually put him to use.



As for their age(s), honestly I just ignore it with a version like this. These films may claim that they are teens, but they sure as hell look more like grown men.

When we saw them as young kids in the first film, they looked about what... 10-ish? Maybe a little less? (Even though that one toy set claimed the junior Turtle figure to be "teen.") How the hell do you go from THAT to the grown looking Turtles in such a short time? Supercharged puberty? Unlike everyone else they lucked out and just woke up like that one morning? lol

In the first film, Splinter preferred to keep them locked up and overprotected, so I've just shrugged it off like he lied to them about their real age for a long time... Or something like that. (Like he conveniently just stopped keeping good count of the years, and they're so shelterd and taught to respect and trust his judgement - lest they invite his violent lashing out at them - that they just didn't question it.) After all, some parents don't want their children to grow up and try to continue treating them as kids.

[The Boston Ninja Turtle]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

They would cut them some slack if they had better Writers, Writers who understand TMNT better, The problem is regardless of who writes the movies, Michael Bay calls the shots, He was the one that changed the tone of the 1st movie, after complaining that it was too serious, and then wanting more humor in it.

this! 100% this

the designs can grow on you and if they dont in the end its really the last things that needs to be fixed...the turtles couldve been the ideal design and the story was still poopy

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by Shellington

3 - The Turtles being huge and muscular was in the 87 and 2003 cartoons, it was from the 2012 cartoon and the IDW comics that the "youthful medium-size" look got prominence.

Hmmm, maybe you should do some research before making wild claims.

FW:

Spoiler:

The FW Turtles are short.

2K3:

Spoiler:

And shock, oh shock, the 2k3 Turtles are also short.

[Chris]

Never forgive a bad movie for good designs. I loved some of the costume designs in Batman V Superman (minus cave troll Doomsday) but that doesn't excuse the movie for being terrible.

The best Turtle designs in the franchises history couldn't have saved these films. It starts with characters & story not with "we have this idea for a great action sequence".