Pros/Cons of the new film
 

What are your pros and cons of the film? What did you like? What did you hate?

From another thread where I basically did this:

PROS:

- The personalities of Raph/Leo/Don.
- The voices of the turtles, specifically Knoxville as Leo.
- The turtle designs.
- The fight scenes.
- Splinter using his tail offensively.
- The Shredder (out of costume).
- The montage of growing up in the sewers.
- Megan Fox, actually. She did well with what she had.
- "Who put you in charge?" "You know who did."

CONS

- Sacks' plan makes no sense
- The film feels heavily edited
- Some of Mikey. He's either fine, or one of the most annoying interpretations of him.
- The exclusion of Yoshi and Saki.
- Buck buck.
- The scene where Raph flexes and all of the bullets pop out of his skin.
- April causes most of the problems for the Turtles, and they're all friends in the end.
- The mention of saying Cowabunga when they were kids, even though there was no set up for it.
- Raph's speech at the end feels unearned.
- Raphael needs almost no convincing from Splinter to leave him.
- Raph's shell is cracked, but that doesn't really matter outside of a throwaway line.
- Splinter learning/teaching Ninjutsu from an instructional book.
- The effects were very video game-y
- Splinter using his tail to hold up Raph by the throat. Felt uncharacteristic.
- Shaloub is generic and boring as Splinter.
- Sacks' plan starts up again the moment he finds out the turtles are alive. It's as if the lab fire never happened.
- Sacks' plan is not very well thought out. The cloud of gas was being released above his building.
- The Shredder's magnetic rocket blades.
- The Shredder looked like Megatron.
- The opening credits that seem like a cartoon opening and don't add anything to the film.
- Splinter's vendetta is unexplained.
- It isn't explained how the mutagen works outside of having "regenerative" properties. No explanation for the intellect/growth of the turtles and Splinter.
- The goddamn product placement. The billboard for Project Almanac made me groan out loud.

I'm sure there are more here.

Wow. Where to start.

OK.
Pros:
The Turtles personalities and the voices.
I liked their heights (6'+) Always preferred them to be taller than they are in canon.
I liked Megan Fox just fine.
The snow scene, was attention grabbing.
Raph's "do-rag"
Seeing snippets of Leo without the mask.
Glad they took out Leo twerking.
They finally decided to make a PG-13 TMNT movie.


Cons:
Shaky cam/ quick and rushed edits. Hated it with a passion. Made the fight scenes look horrible. Really, why couldn't we get a camera that stood still, and let the stunt actors show their sh!t instead of hiding it with shaky cam. I never understood this fad that has taken over the action movie industry. Nobody likes it.

Vernon. Guy was just a waste of space for me.

The taking out the Turtle's origins to Ninjitsu. The whole learning from a book and the omission of Splinter was just so cheap. The sad thing is, they still could have used their main plot, and easily stuck in Yoshi. Simple, Yoshi is part of Shredder's Foot clan, and he forms a friendship with Mr O Niel, and when they learn what the Shredder is going to do, they go ahead and destroy the lab. Sach's men find out, rush in to stop it. Yoshi helps little April get all of the animals out of their cages, the animal he touches the most are the lab rats, and then, that's when a fight breaks out between Yoshi and the Foot, and Yoshi gets the last vile of ooze spilled on him. He turns into a mutated rat, and then rushes to get April and the Turtles out of there. He takes the Turtles and tells April to go to the police, and then he fades away into the sewers. But there, easy fix, you got Yoshi, the Shredder rivalry, and Yoshi not losing his master, but a good friend of his.

I just can't buy these Turtles are 15, they look like they are more 17-18.

Karai was just so underused. No character development at all.

The Turtles, lack of quality development time. The Nick toon is guilty of this too alot, it's like, they are filming the Turtles with the thought that people with ADD are the majority who are watching, and if the Turtles don't consist of a scene that is action packed, rush through it as quickly as possible. Sorry, but in the 1990 movie, scenes where Donny talks to Mikey about Splinter passing away, Splinter's heart to heart talk with Raph, Leo and Raph's fights and make-ups, overall brother bonding time, moments like that are what makes the action scenes more intense. Sure, they had the personalities, but I still feel like I didn't know these Turtles.

The designs. While I actually prefer the Turtles tall, Leo, Donny and Mikey were OK in the muscle department, I just thought Raph was too damn big. I also thought the shells were too cumbersome. And I still can't get over how effing ugly they got Mikey.

The action scenes, I still feel like I didn't get much weapon use in this. Is this always going to be the case, a movie featuring Ninja Turtles, is going to be as sparse as possible in showing the Ninja aspect? Eh, who knows, maybe they did use them more than I saw, like I said in my first complaint. The shaky cam was real bad in this. And while there were a lot of action scenes, the fight scenes I thought were too short, and kind of sucked.

And, what's with all of these scenes that were cut? Really? Is this something that occurs when studios meddle in with projects like this. We know they like the kids stuff to be short as possible, and hey, if they are going to cut stuff out, lets cut out the stuff that's going to incorporate more expensive CGI, like Raph seeing Dora.

Films like this, leave one so disappointed, because you know that something way better could have been produced.

The Ooze being used to cure illness is actually in the IDW comics.

Pros:
-Logical
-Faithfulness
-Cinematography
-Action
-Special effects
-Acting
-Humor working at times
-Drama
-Range of emotion
-Delivery of dialog
-The tone wasn't moderately cheesy
-Pacing of the movie wasn't too bad
-Had a degree of realism
-There was a sense of continuity
-Intelligence
-Had unpredictable bits
-The main characters were likable in terms of personality
-The designs of shredder, the turtles, and splinter
-Pay offs being present
-The sound effects didn't sound bad at all
-Editing

So....not one con?

I had issues with the movie, but I touched on what I thought were cons in the review thread. Man, I am not feeling this "shredder is transformerish" issue at all. That's like reaching, the transformers are bigger and are made out of a **** load of parts, shredder, you could make him out cause he wasn't ridiculously heavily designed.

It is! Interesting. So the origin is just a poor representation of IDW's origin.

A lot of the "changes" are pulled from IDW.

They really missed an opportunity here by letting Michael Bay touch this movie. They could have made it a badass trilogy like Nolan's Batman. Why can't they ever make an origins movie? In the 1990 movie and this one they have scenes where they elude to their backstory. I would like to see a trilogy where they set it up with one movie (the backstory) which would allow for great character development. The second movie would be a face-off between their enemies the foot clan/Karai/Shredder and the third would be the climax where Shredder makes Bebop and Rocksteady and they have a huge action-packed battle to end all battles.

Oh god, not more of this it should be like nolan crap. **** nolan, I don't want him touching a comic book movie ever again. Any who, moving on, I must confess that I liked it better when Eric's last name was spelt sachs.

Why does no one mention How to Train Your Dragon! That trilogy is amazing. It is a movie for all ages and doesn't shy away from taking itself seriously or showing death and it uses natural light. Natural light! Tired of artificially, well lit sewers.

How To Train Your Dragon trilogy?

I didn't mean it should be like Nolan's films but I like the idea of having a trilogy that features an origin story and comes full circle in the final movie. All TMNT movies are the same, they go nowhere (except the first one).

Oops, not trilogy. I meant the How To Train Your Dragon 1 & 2. Very good movie that I think TMNT should look to for some notes. Such as natural light and confidence to explore dark themes creatively.

You could count the series, I guess. That is if it's the same tone as the films.

Here's a con to the 1990 movie and the new movie...why does Leo need to cut the pizza? What pizza place doesn't slice the pizza before delivery?

Exactly this :lol:

I agree with most of the pros that others have said as well as most of the cons. It still added up to a win for me. But now that it's looking like a hit, let's hope part two gets the "Empire" treatment.

He must have done it cause it wasn't pre-cut.

I wanna say that you can request it not to be sliced before hand.

Speaking of pizza, anyone notice how freaking large that piece of Pizza was in Mikey's hand during th Hashi scene?

I heard Splinter dishes out some discipline at some point. Uhh, what did Raph do to earn being picked up by the throat?!

Eh, he's a big boy. He can handle it.

The scenes with the turtles were the most enjoyable of the whole movie. However, like with The Transformers movies, the Turtles are Secondary characters in their own movie.

Pros

-The turtles were handled well. For the most part, they came across as the characters brought to life.

-The avalanche sequence really stood out. A good action sequence is one where you not only feel like a spectator, but a participant and there were times where you felt like you were there sliding with the turtles.

-Brian Tyler's score was awesome.

-The humor, for the most part, was well-placed, funny, and wasn't counter-productive to the pace (i.e. they didn't stop the movie for a funny joke).

-The animated main titles and end titles.


Cons

-The Shredder. Sure, he is Saki, but that doesn't make this version of the character any thing close to resembling a character. The bulk of his part just feels like a hollow special effect, and that's not a criticism of his design or the CG used to bring it to life, but more that you get a sense the person in that armor. (Shredder feels like an "it," not a "he.")

-The handling of the plot was kinda "me'h." In fact, by the end of the movie, it feels like the plot is inside Shredder's armor, not Saki.

-Not really a criticism, but I wish the final battle were at nighttime.

-On the other hand, this is a criticism. The final battle was actually kinda boring.

-The scene where the turtles get stuck together and one of them farts. Yeah, this is the joke in the movie that felt gag-ish, like something out of the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies.

???
 

Agree to disagree. That's how we are going to get traction in this thread.

Maybe the Turtles get pizza from the same franchise as Walter White?

http://38.media.tumblr.com/825beb749...4o7_r1_500.gif

Isn't Kevin Eastman one of the main collaborators of the IDW comics? And a consultant for the movie?

I still have to cut my pizza whenever I get one. They may have gave it an outline of a cut, but still, it's not all the way through. So it's not a con, but what happens in real life dude.

I hated Splinter in this. I did not feel no father and son chemistry in this. Except for the Turtle's personalities, the movie sucked. Even the fight scenes were crap.

Can You please leave forums now as you served your purpose ? These guys sent here to promote the films should get auto bans especially for suggestions like this, leave the forums watch some porn and never come back.:roll:
You should be banned for name alone.

Great kids movie. Was anyone expecting this movie to win oscar awards?! Lol idiots

Pros:

Action scenes
Turtles personalities


Cons:

Splinter's greasy, plastic looking fur.
Movie teaches that you can learn how to be Asian from a book.

Pros: Nothing
Cons: Everything

Pros: It ends. It's not TMNT III.

I wish I had more to say. But I don't.

LOL! Touche! That made me really laugh.

Also, I was just saying that tongue in cheek about the slicing. I've watched the 1990 movie a thousand times, but for some reason never realized it until I saw the new one.

Also, The 99 cheese pizza was pre-sliced...If this was IMDB I would be claiming it's a plot hole!

Pros:
The camaraderie between the brothers.
How each of the turtles fighting styles is complimented by the others. (I.E. how Donnie and Leo's fighting forms compliment each other)
The montage of the Turtles as infants and kids
Donnie:Let me be the bad ass for once.
Raph's Monologue at the end.
Subtle nods and references and Nods to other incarnations including IDW, Nick, and OT.
Hints at a sequel

Cons:
Asian Shredder felt tacked on
Vernon Fenwick (Will Arnett), and Bernice Thompson (Whoopie Goldburg) were forgettable.
Weapons Origin shown, but we only see Leo receiving his weapons.
Action scenes went by too quickly.
Mutagen having alien origin, no explanation beyond that.
Splinter and Shredder inexplicably are able to recognize one another even though this is the first time they have actually physically met.

Pros
The elevator scene. I laughed so hard I cried, and I was expecting to hate it.
The snow scene.
Basically every time the Turtles are on screen
The personalities/interactions were charming, albeit underdeveloped
The action sequences were amazing.
Megan Fox was really not that bad except when she yelled "RAPHAEL! DONNIE! SHREDDER!!!!!" I also did not think it was her movie. It could have used a bit more Turtles screentime, but it was cool to actually have April have some focus and importance.
Mikey was pretty hilarious
The designs--I actually liked them as huge.
The CGI
The voice acting
Mikey and Raph having some interaction.
The Turtles as TODDLERS!
William Fitchner is the best, not that he had that much to work with.
Splinter's punishment of the Turtles in the dojo or whatever it was called.
The Turtles song, although I could have done without Mikey singing.
Didn't mind April's childhood interaction with the Turtles.
Splinter was a badass jerk but I actually liked it.
Raph didn't go it alone for very long.
I kind of liked April saving the day.
The score was good, but a bit too dramatic.
The adrenaline scene.
Whoopi Goldberg = automatic win. I hope she's in the sequel more?

Cons
Pretty week character development which made me think...
Raph's emotional speech fell flat. I laughed awkwardly. And also...
Leo and Raph's relationship was not established. In fact I feel Leo was barely in it.
Will Arnett's creepiness and his general pointless lines.
Mikey's creepiness.
Don's glasses.
The plot and the lack of Japanese influence--not that the series has not always been full of appropriation, and not that I love Mirage's convoluted backstory, but this was too complicated and appropriatey and weird.
The Turtles started out a vigilantes with no buildup or angst.
Buck buck
Karai hardly in it--was not a necessary inclusion.
Shredder didn't do much either.
Fart joke. It wasn't that bad though.
It actually made me sad that they destroyed Vernon's car.
Splinter never named the Turtles one-by-one. :(

sorry double post

Im gonna be detailed about this a bit so....
Pros, yeah there was just one , when turtles are attacked then mikey does jump kick and takes 3 guys down and thats the only good thing about this film, rest of the film is total disrespectful racist distaster, why?

- Turtles are OG's !!! YEah they walk and act like gangstas but actually not random gangstas, they act BLACK yeah im not racist but this is pathetic and this kind of portrayal of TMNT was never shown before and im shocked to see this, even raph's lips look like black guy's lips and way he talks and moves, this is so weird and racist , they didnt want them white or japanese or whatever else or GREEN no no no!!!! they wanted them green and black wow its so pathetic, why didnt left them alone normal no racial crap instead of being racist like that and trying to make them green but also black, acting like stupid teenagers gangsters wannabes.

- Turtles are junkies !!!! YEAh you didnt know right?" they dont do meth tho,m they dont even do THC, they had dose of adrenaline in lab and they were HIIIGHHHH yeah these scenes were assembled like they got high on drugs and were stronger, you see turtles are cool they ALMOST do drugs like all other teenagers this is so great !!! fantastic!!! I LOVE WRITERS OF THIS FILM !!!:teek:

- Origins are totally crapped over, looks like april owned turtles before they were mutated :lol: woooowwwwwwwwwww amazing connection and wait heres more, aprils father knew sachs who is mix of baxter stockman and wants to poison new york and then save it by using turtles blood as cure to biological waeapon wooow amazing plot!!! And first person april told about turtles that believed her was sacks!! Great tright? amazing coincidence just everything on planet evolves around megan i mean april.
I didnt really bought megan fox as april, for me she's just too overexposed to feel comfortable with her playing april and then playing in transformers, it didnt worked, but i guess there will be some horny teenagers pausing her most "hot" takes, there are some shots like that, for no other reason than to show off her looks and thats just plain dumb, everytime movie does this i know that producers said lets go this film is a failure anyway go ahead with hidden sexual themes for small kids we hook them up.

- Splinter looks so dumb and he picked up martial arts from some scrapped kungfu book in sewers :lol: and he learned it himself just like that and got all the moves.He looks like some italian cook, i really hate his look and never got used to it.He was also totally opposite of everything we knew , he acutally punished turtles physically and was acting like terrible teacher, i dont know if he even calls himself master? master of what? foundf kung fu scrapped book? HEs a joke in this film.

- it really is what i thought will be from beginning, its like NEXT MUTATION with bigger budget , same lame turtles jokes, wannabe pseudo cool lines, but in next mutations costumes werent so terribly designed, i really hope this film will be forgotten very very quickly.There was no reason to crap on origins like that and make april like center of the world everythin evolves around her and she lost her job cause whoopi didnt believed in big turtles ooooh do i supposed to feel sorry for her cause i didnt?:tcry:

- Shredder design came to life like this - hey heres 3 blades on each of his hands, cool huh? yeaah but you know what would be even more awsum ? look we give him like 10 blades from like swiss knives and that means 10x more coooooooooooooool right ? This is genius fans are gonna love this everyone love more more more blades doesnt matter if he looks like walking swiss knife something.

- fights are pathetic especially tmnt with shredder, they dont really stand a chance and hes using just brute force whenever he wants , there is no choreography here, he just throws them over there over here and thats how fights look like in film.

- There is one pathetic scene , typical "OOH THEYARE ALL GONNADIE SCENE" where raph says some stupid crap, it was so forced and random, i felt embarassed listening to this, actually i felt embarassment many times during the film especially when turtles talked with each other, they were idiots wannabe gangsters.
Sorry this is not tmnt i know, i want to forget about this film.I hope it bombs so bad and ruins all people involved especially writers of the film and designers of turtles.
There was no music in this film, in first one we had catchy theme immediately when title appeared and we all loved it , i loved it when i heard it for first time and other songs where turtles fight with shredder , (suite track). New film had none of this feeling, it was total waste of my time .

ITs obvious now that you was sent here to market the film and got paid for it, leave the forums now your job is over, you are not welcomed here and you arent fan.

I think I can categorize my feelings about this film pretty well. All in all I think it was somewhat of a train wreck, but not without it's positive qualities.

Themes:
I feel as if most turtles incarnations need to have two themes represented: family and rivalry. The family aspect was represented fairly well, so I guess that's a pro. I don't think it was fleshed out very deeply, but they mentioned it and that's at least something. Rivalry between shredder and splinter was left out completely. Very lame. The two had no reason to hate each other at all. Shredder needed the turtles' blood (and splinter's too right? why didnt he capture him?) and was hostile to them. That was the only conflict between them.

Characterization:
The turtles trademark personalities WERE represented, so that's definitely a pro. That being said, I'm afraid I have to agree with the two dimensional personalities part. Mikey said very little that wasn't a silly joke. Leo said very little that wasn't stoic and responsible. Etc. Raph's anger was there, but there was no motivation behind it at all. His end monologue made no sense. When did he EVER "push" them? All he did was threaten to leave, and never really explain why. That end monologue seemed more like a set up for the joke of them being saved than anything.

These were my main two areas of concern. I feel like both areas had promise and DID have pros, but the cons were much more profound.