Which 2014 turtle do you like the most/the least?

[evan2000]

Time for another poll! The options above allow you to pick your most and least favorite turtle in the 2014 movie. Remember, please put your favorite turtle in other universe (or in general) aside for a moment and just focus your judgement on the 2014 movie characters alone.

There isn't enough polling space to indicate your 2nd and 3rd ranking, but you can post them in the thread if you want, and explain why do you rank them as such.

I'll start, here's my personal ranking:


Donatello
Raphael
Leonardo
Michelangelo

To me, Donatello behaved the most in-character out of the four in this movie. He is smart and quiet, perfectionist as always (there's a 74% variable that there's a 61% chance it's overkill though), but he still acts like a teenager, likes to show off a little (BAAAM! You've been hacked!), and gets panic (come alone, or else we'll... you shall be punished and... stuff) or scared (OMG they have guns) now and then. His ninja/bo staff skill is top notch and knows how to make good use of the spring-loaded upgrade he installed. He also leads the team well, as he's the one (instead of Leo, wait I'll get to it) pointing out what to do next most of the time. Granted he carries too many unnecessary gadgets with him (I'm baffled by that exposed 110V electric outlet, is he carrying a nuclear power generator? And to think he cruised down a snow mountain with those fragile gears), take those away and he's still the Donnie we all knew and loved.

Raphael takes the 2nd spot for me because... well he was given the most screen time and the opportunity to save his brothers and even had a 1-to-1 fight with Shredder (not entirely fair but yeah). He is the fighter of the group, as in other incarnations, so it makes sense for him to be one doing this, and he did well. You can feel how passionate he was towards his brothers (and Splinter) and his raging anger when he found that his family was badly hurt by the enemies, which was what drove him all the way to save them, and nothing was going to stop him. That exactly what defines Raphael. I also like that he retained his sarcastic one-liners (thanks for the vote of confidence). Things that I didn't quite like are again attire-related: lose that sunglasses or nobody can take you seriously Raphael! He's not even using it when there's actual sunlight! It makes zero sense that it survived all the fight scenes, Shredder's battle, and a skyscraper fall without flying off or something... was it glued to Raph's head or what? Lastly, his "emotional speech" while they were falling off the skyscraper wasn't quite in-character to me, I can imagine the other turtles saying that, just not Raphael. But maybe that's the point, I dunno, to get the turtle least likely to confess to do it on screen. I just don't see it.

Leonardo... man, this movie isn't doing him a lot of justice. To put it gently, he is the poorest leader among all the other incarnations of Leo. Also the poorest fighter. Also the clumsiest. Is he a ninja? How many times he got electrocuted and knocked out again? He wields the deadliest weapon of the four but ended up always being the one who needed help. His plans were also poorly... erm... planned, if there is a plan to begin with. When the lair was attacked, he barely contributed anything to lead his brothers and sensei to safety (get to the fan room, just go!). At other times, he just followed Donnie's lead, or even Mikey's (yeah, let's play buck-buck). What's the point of asking all three of his brothers to hold the cell tower from falling, and allow Shredder to attack him/them freely? The tower fell anyway at the end. I can't think of many things Leo did right in the movie, if at all. I'd also complain about his attire (floating shoulder pads?) but that's the least of my concern regarding Leo.

So why did I rank Michelangelo last? Well he's not the pure, innocent and cute Mikey we all knew and loved anymore! This one's a creepy, horny and ugly Mikey-wannabe (sorry to fans of Mikey, I know that's harsh) who doesn't even bother to make his jokes funny. They apparently took the most popular turtle and portrayed him the worst. Why did Mikey unmask himself during the first meeting with a stranger? Aren't they supposed to keep their ninja identity, what's that word, SECRET? In the Nick series Slash defeated and unmasked Mikey as a sign of humiliating him, so now Mikey's literally humiliating himself in front of April? Yeah, maybe because his shell's tightening again. Moreso when he suspects April has more hot friends to introduce (facepalm). He shamelessly treated April as his new "girlfriend" ever since they first met despite getting zero reaction from April, I mean, even Nick's Donnie isn't doing that and actually understands his limit. To his credit, Mikey fought well as a ninja, at least better than Leo. But that's probably not his main function of the movie, what could be more important than being April's boyfriend-wannabe?

Please share your opinions!

[Leofan26]

Let's face it, the live action flicks never do Leo Justice.

[Autbot_Benz]

My favorite turtle from the 2014 Movie was Raphael. I just loved his toothpick chewing attitude. It was nice to see Raph having to go save his brothers and be a badass instead of being captured like SOTO and the crap kicked out of him 90's movie

My second favorite was Donny. I loved his demenor he came off as a bit of the rob paulson donny mixed with a new donny. I also liked his tech stuff on his shell

Leo was just there I have never been a fan of Leo. Leo is just the leader that Splinter puts in charge. Knoxville's voice didn't bother me either.

While in other turtle universe I love Mikey I too didn't care for the stalky horny Mikey they made in this movie. I hope they tone him down in the sequel.

[IndigoErth]

Let's face it, the live action flicks never do Leo Justice.
Gotta agree with ya there. :ohwell: Can we get a big Leo fan on these projects who can write him well please?

But despite things the big lug has won me over. His brothers... eh, I've warmed up to them a little bit, Mikey least of all though. Sorry Mikey, but I still find you a bit creepy.



Have to disagree with the breakdown of Leo though, I really had different perspectives on all those points mentioned.

And I suppose the movie failed to make the part too memorable where he was unconscious, woke up and a moment later his ass is trying to save April and Vern from a truck that's about the go over the cliff, all while the Foot were still actively after him. And then the three of them go over the edge, their only lifeline being that line and electrocution thing from the Foot that is attached to/embedded in his chest, I assume probably painfully so, esp when you add the pull on of it of his own weight plus April and Vern. Didn't do much, people say... April and Vern would have been dead right there and he was willing to risk going down with them.


Oh and shoulder gear actually is tied around his arms with black material, but there are very few shots it's actually noticeable. When they go charging out of the elevator and the sunlight it on them, you can see it when he lifts his arms up. (Hell, he's got other partly covered tattoos I didn't even notice until then as well.)

[snake]

I like Leo the most, because he didn't do enough to make me hate him.

[plastroncafe]

Leo had the best design, Raph had the best characterization, Mike and Don hurt my brain.

[Myko]

Leo the most, he was the least offensive. Raph's design was too brutish, Don's dialogue was over the top, and Mikey was super creepy and embarrassing.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

I liked Raphael because of his little speech at the end of the movie. I hated Michelangelo because I'm sure he's some sort of sexual predator, and can't wait until he's killed off in the sequel (I wish).

[Powder]

Leo best, Mikey worst. Leo had the best design & most familiar personality (which isn't hard to do, nor surprising given he had so little dialogue) whereas Mikey both looked horrible & behaved like a real jerkoff. Raph's personality was on point but I didn't care for his design so much, & Donnie was... passable but dear GOD that design. It's worse than Mikey in every way but the face, probably.

[Candy Kappa]

Leo was the least offending, he looked relatively okay, despite having gear that made no sense, like poorly secured shoulder plates and a well used bamboo mat over his chest. Did not handle his swords properly and had a horrible mismatched voice.

Mikey was worst in both design and portrayal, which is a real shame cause I really liked Noel behind the scenes, and he is dedicated enough to learn the basics with the Nunchaku.

[The Turtle Terminator]

Don seemed pretty in character with the IDW and animated stuff. And some of his corny dialogue was so corny it was good. I HATED Mikey this time around just because of:
The shell tightening joke
The bad lines
The After credits scene.

[Davetello]

Nice analysis, but...



Lastly, his "emotional speech" while they were falling off the skyscraper wasn't quite in-character to me, I can imagine the other turtles saying that, just not Raphael. But maybe that's the point, I dunno, to get the turtle least likely to confess to do it on screen. I just don't see it.



...disagree with that. If anything, he was the perfect turtle to show his vulnerability. We all know that beneath his hard man exterior he feels things more intensely than the others, & what better time to pour his heart out than when he thinks they're going to perish? The speech was slightly corny but it was one of the few things I enjoyed about the film. It was a rare attempt at giving the film some substance and heart.

[Leo656]

Well, you kinda hit the nail square on the head. "We know..." because most of "We" have seen a million versions of TMNT and we're familiar with Raph and his personality. The movie itself barely goes does anything to illustrate any of those things, so if you're not already familiar with the characters, it kind of doesn't work. Loses a little bit of the impact. A brand-new viewer would listen to that speech and be like, "Huh, I don't remember any of that, what's this guy talking about?"

Not everybody agrees on this, but I count it as a flaw when any movie expects you to be overly familiar with the characters/story/premise from somewhere else to fully enjoy it. It's just a little off-balance that way. I get what they were trying to do, but it would have been better if they'd Shown us instead of Told us.

[Davetello]

Well, you kinda hit the nail square on the head. "We know..." because most of "We" have seen a million versions of TMNT and we're familiar with Raph and his personality. The movie itself barely goes does anything to illustrate any of those things, so if you're not already familiar with the characters, it kind of doesn't work. Loses a little bit of the impact. A brand-new viewer would listen to that speech and be like, "Huh, I don't remember any of that, what's this guy talking about?"

Not everybody agrees on this, but I count it as a flaw when any movie expects you to be overly familiar with the characters/story/premise from somewhere else to fully enjoy it. It's just a little off-balance that way. I get what they were trying to do, but it would have been better if they'd Shown us instead of Told us.

That's a very good point, actually. As a self-contained film it doesn't work - you have to have some background knowledge.

Funnily enough, a friend of mine scored pretty highly on a recent assignment, but he asked me to look at his tutor's comments as he wasn't entirely sure what was being said. It looked like the tutor was saying that his essay was far too 'academic' and aimed at people who are experts in the subject and hence are able to appreciate the technical language he was using. I (and his tutor presumably) think it would be better if he would write a self-contained essay aimed at someone who has no prior knowledge of the subject. The aim after reading the essay is to have learned more about the subject and have understood the themes.

I guess that's pretty analogous to the film. It's mainly aimed at people who aren't familiar with the turtles (wrongly imo, but that's another debate) so they should either be making their personalities clear early on, or not trying to shoehorn things in late on in order to get something of everything in there.

For us TMNT fans, though, Raph's speech was heartfelt and great.

[IndigoErth]

Not everybody agrees on this, but I count it as a flaw when any movie expects you to be overly familiar with the characters/story/premise from somewhere else to fully enjoy it.
All while on the other hand it's been labeled so much as a "kids movie" aimed at "a new generation" (*pout*) who...prob aren't terribly familiar with TMNT quite yet. They need to make up their blinkin' minds.

[Shark_Blade]

1. Mikey
2. Raph
3. Leo
4. Don (some of the techy nerdy talk is too cliche for me..but other than that he's cool)

[Leo656]

All while on the other hand it's been labeled so much as a "kids movie" aimed at "a new generation" (*pout*) who...prob aren't terribly familiar with TMNT quite yet. They need to make up their blinkin' minds.

That's one of the biggest problems, the movie is entirely schizophrenic. It doesn't know exactly what it wants to be. They didn't know what kind of movie they were making until it was finished. They've even admitted that. That's just Not Good. That's not how you do it.

[Ramboraph4life aka Matt]

It was nice to see Raph having to go save his brothers and be a badass instead of being captured like SOTO and the crap kicked out of him 90's movie

Except he didn't save his brothers. April & Vern did...they're the ones who got the Turtles out with the adrenaline. So Raph didn't save his brothers.

And then you bring that stuff up about past films (which at least Raph got to beat up more Foot Soldiers in those films)...but how was Raph a badass when he got totally annihilated by Shredder in a Non-Fight (a fight would actually have each one getting some successful punches/kicks that actually connected...this was a 100% One-Sided Fight from beginning to End)? And Shredder even stepped on/was cracking Raph's shell. How was he a bad ass in that? (He wasn't much of a bad ass in the rest of the flick either).

So being captured in SOTO & 'crap kicked out of him in the 90's movie' was one thing...but Raph being totally annihilated by the Shredder without even connecting with One successful punch/kick and on top of that being stepped on/hearing his Shell Crack Open is totally Fine?

Turtle Liked Most? The Pet Raphael Turtle in the old video when April was a kid.
Turtle Liked Least? All 4 of the Super CHUD's Who Were Formally Known As Turtles.

[Leo656]

RamboRaph: I too have noticed the movie people seem to be talking about/defending and the movie people actually saw are pretty different, based on how they describe it. Wonder what kind of hypnosis gimmick they rigged into those 3D glasses.

[IndigoErth]

Yeah...April saves lab turtles and rat, April saves captured mutant Turtles, April ultimately saves city with a little help...

Although to Raph's credit he did without any hesitation go diving off the building (tower?) after April when she had to go and try to fall, with the rest right behind to grab hold of each other. And the Leo scene I mentioned, and I guess they all saved the people in the subway. But April still had more saves than any of them individually.

[Leo656]

To be fair, in the first instance she didn't so much "save" 'em as "basically flushed 'em."

Seriously, someone call the ASPCA on this chick.

[Candy Kappa]

Yeah, she just sat there after placing them in th drain, and watched them fall. Creepy kid.

Guess she was the kind that plucks wings off flies.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

That's one of the biggest problems, the movie is entirely schizophrenic. It doesn't know exactly what it wants to be. They didn't know what kind of movie they were making until it was finished. They've even admitted that. That's just Not Good. That's not how you do it.

Exactly! That was my main problem with the movie! Also, can you show me a link to where they admitted that? I want to know the reason for this.

[aliena]

Raph
Donnie
Mikey
Leo


Leo has always been my favorite turtle, until this movie. I felt he was a jerk most of this movie, with nothing to do really. I think it had to do with his voice by Knoxville. He tells Raph to back off of April, but then he's really menacing and scary acting towards her as if he's going to kill her or something.

That's not Leo. The Leo I know would have put his weapons away and approached her in a serious, but friendly manner and explained that they had to erase the photos to keep his brothers safe. Instead, he gets all in her face and threatens her more than Raph did. And his bullying of Mikey was just bad. He didn't win too many fights either. I hated that.

As for Raph, he was my favorite part of the movie and his interaction with Donnie was the strongest it's ever been before. I love how Raph is tough, but he has a good heart. I was surprised by his speech at the end and it made my eyes water! I never thought a day would come when Raph made me tear up.

As for Donnie, I loved everything about him. Everything. He was the best part of the movie for me. I loved it when he told Raph to let him be the bad ass for once and then looked a bit unsure of himself. He was amazing.

Mikey, man, that was super creepy and weird. I would be freaked out if I was April and he said all he did in front of me. He actually asked the guys if they should kill her?? Then added with flowers and kindness like he was trying to backtrack a bit. Then his shell tightened when he saw how hot she was. Even Raph felt that was wrong of him to admit out loud in front of her.
Then admitting she was his girlfriend and hitting on her so many times. I would be seriously sticking closer to Raph while around Mikey for fear he'd try something with me. I never saw Mikey like that before. It was horrible.

[IndigoErth]

I would be seriously sticking closer to Raph while around Mikey for fear he'd try something with me.
Have this mental image of someone meeting Raph and kind of freaking out... then Mikey crawls out from under where ever he's been 'creeping' and it quickly changes to "Oh, sorry about that! Save me Raph!" :lol:

I'll stick by Leo... But just, yeah... hand over mouth, "Shhh, don't speak... it's ok, we'll just pretend Knoxville never happened." lol

Seriously though, glad I'm not the only one that came away with that feeling that he made Leo sound kinda mean sometimes. (And even creepy once. :tsad:) Left me with a bit of a hallow sensation in my gut over that. There are shots of him that, thanks to Pete's fine acting, completely betray the tone Knoxville gave him...

[aliena]

Have this mental image of someone meeting Raph and kind of freaking out... then Mikey crawls out from under where ever he's been 'creeping' and it quickly changes to "Oh, sorry about that! Save me Raph!" :lol:

I'll stick by Leo... But just, yeah... hand over mouth, "Shhh, don't speak... it's ok, we'll just pretend Knoxville never happened." lol

Seriously though, glad I'm not the only one that came away with that feeling that he made Leo sound kinda mean sometimes. (And even creepy once. :tsad:) Left me with a bit of a hallow sensation in my gut over that. There are shots of him that, thanks to Pete's fine acting, completely betray the tone Knoxville gave him...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way. I don't know why they didn't use Pete's voice, he sounded fine to me. Knoxville was off kilter in places, it really took away from Leo and I really hope they ditch him for the next movie.

I'm curious as to what the creepy moment was for you. I'd like to see if it's the same one I am thinking of. I even muted the volume and played the scene where he meets April in closed captioning and it made it easier to watch.

I really can't get over how they keep ruining Leo's voice with the wrong actors. In the Nick show, they had Jason Biggs and he was great, now with Seth Green, not so great. Well, for me anyway. You may like Seth as Leo. His voice was okay in the 90 movie and the Next Mutation, but so far Biggs was the best. It's weird that I never minded the other turtles voices, but for some reason, Leo's is the one I'm always worried about. :)

[IndigoErth]

I'm curious as to what the creepy moment was for you. I'd like to see if it's the same one I am thinking of. I even muted the volume and played the scene where he meets April in closed captioning and it made it easier to watch.
The creepy one to me is when he puts his arm around April and is like "Heeeeey, glad you could make it."

Seriously, when a Turtles movie in that moment made me want to tell frikking annoying April Fox to just RUN... from my fave... Died a little inside that day.

Yeah, this poor guy has had such voice issues this year. :ohwell: (Seth... working on accepting, will be used to it at some point I guess. Knoxville...arg! Never again. Please.)

[Cipher]

Leo has always been my favorite turtle, until this movie. I felt he was a jerk most of this movie, with nothing to do really. I think it had to do with his voice by Knoxville. He tells Raph to back off of April, but then he's really menacing and scary acting towards her as if he's going to kill her or something.

That's not Leo. The Leo I know would have put his weapons away and approached her in a serious, but friendly manner and explained that they had to erase the photos to keep his brothers safe. Instead, he gets all in her face and threatens her more than Raph did.
I still haven't seen this movie, but I have seen the above-mentioned scenes with Leo. And, actually, I kind of liked them.

So, by default of not being any of the Turtles in this movie and that scene being kind of okay, I give this to Leo.

Also, I kind of dig Knoxville's voice on him. Sorry.