Ways the new "film" could have been moderately acceptable
 

I say moderately acceptable and not "Good," because that's simply not possible as a continuation of the world of the "film" that preceded it. That said, how could it have been at least moderately acceptable? Well, it would kind of need to need to mend the massive damage of the last one first and foremost, not just gloss it over or hope that people won't care as long as the nostalgia junkies see Bebop and Rocksteady in it (which is pretty much what's happening, and what they're counting on). It would need to...

1. Flesh out the background of the Shredder, Oroku Saki, and retroactively create a connection with Splinter (i.e., a reason they hate each other) so as to better explain their animosity toward one another in the last one. This is pretty pivotal.

2. Feature Eric Sachs to at least some degree, if only to justify his motivations in the last movie and give him a true purpose. And then kill him off, whatever. Maybe he is actually a envoy for the Foot in Japan, or just a businessman who Oroku Saki has been shadowing to co-opt his resources for the Foot. Or an Utrom/Kraang.

3. This kind of ties into 1 and 2. The mural from the first one that apparently belongs to Sachs that seems to feature Utroms or Kraangs crawling around Feudal Japan... uh, this needs to be explained. They really, really want Dimension X and Krang and all of that rubbish? Then fine, here is your way. Reveal Sachs as an Utrom or Kraang in a skinsuit, and in this new movie he reveals this to Saki and, with the help of Baxter, opens the gate to Dimension X to bring in his boss, Krang (his attempted gas attack on NYC in the first movie? maybe he wanted to "clear the area" for Krang's arrival). And then Saki kills Sachs because his use to him is done after the gate is open and he pledges loyalty to Krang. Or something.

4. Explain the Foot Clan's "Phase 2," in shifting from a military-style motif to a more traditional ninja one. This could be as simple as Saki giving a speech to the Foot after the events of the first movie, declaring, "Hey. We're gonna stop f***ing around now, the old ways are best!" and they start passing out traditional Foot dogis and weapons. Something, anything.

5. Explain the de-powering of the Turtles. You know, bullets were bouncing of their skin in the first one and now they're terrified of guns. A throwaway reference to when Sachs drained their blood in the first one left them somewhat weaker now would work. Or hell, could even explain them shrinking a bit if they wanted to shrink them to less-than-Hulk sizes (but they don't).

All of these items addressed, and the new movie would have at least marshaled enough of an effort to moderately pull the new Turtle movie franchise out of the crapper (albeit, while still remaining essentially creatively bankrupt). But it doesn't sound like it even addresses a single one of them, just glosses over all of it to steamroll their way to Bebop, Rocksteady and vehicles and toys which all the marketing seems to revolve around.

Wait wait wait...am I taking this to mean you've SEEN the new movie?

It is OK.

You may not like it, but that's your misfortune.

Why waste our time elaborating on stuff from the first movie when the time span simply doesn't call for it?

This is just glorified fanfiction disguised as criticism and needs to be dumped in the appropriate section.

There are a lot of things that could have made this movie better, like not having the plot rely on Shredder trusting Krang like a dumbass.

But isn't that the point of the whole FW cartoon?

He had no reason not to trust him, Krang's weapons gave him a forboding force in Rocksteady and Bebop that proved effective against the Turtles and in retrieving what was needed to summon the Technodrome, things went his way pretty much the whole film until Krang showed his hand.

Nice try but no, even if it would have been a good idea to do what the strange alien told him to, he still should have set up precautions if a betrayal would happen. Instead he just gets frozen like an idiot.

COMPETENT WRITING.

It is that simple.

Don't mind Andrew NDB, He's only into the mirage comics, and never got into latter stuff.

Don't take his comments seriously.

^ This x 10,000

Why we couldn't have gotten a competent crew to work on these films is beyond me.

It had to be said.
Though...I should point out my immediate bias: I haven't seen the second one.
(I wonder if I still have that 5th of vodka left over from trying to watch the first one....)

Heaven forbid we take seriously someone who has actually produced Ninja Turtles comics with the original creative teams (Erik Larsen, Gary Carlson, Jim Lawson, et al).

If it comes down to a choice between the Tasteless Manchild and the Mirage Purist, I'm Team Andrew all day long.

Oh look, petty labelling, how mature. You sure showed us.

Unless the film is "dark'n'edgy", the MIRAGE purists wash their hands of any version that comes along and denies the waking world their sacred vision.

I'd rather have people of all ages enjoy the Turtles than some niche group that live for one vision, all of the time.

As one person said, "There are different lenses with which to see the world"

That's bull sh*t Zarius. Andrew is basically the only Mirage purist around here, plenty of us like various versions of TMNT. I love everything from the OT, to the Nick show, & pretty much everything else.

It doesn't take a genius to see that Platinum Dunes just plain doesn't understand TMNT. Or care enough to simply produce an ineligible script.

I see you missed the point completely, Zarri. You sure showed us.

The only thing I'd disagree with is the notion that a Mirage Purist can't find entertainment in other versions, because...I do and am one.

By that, I just meant "Mirage-only" fans.

Ahhh. Gotcha.

I haven't seen this movie yet so I have no idea what Shredder and Krang are like in it, but in the original cartoon they were friends and essentially an old married couple. Sure sometimes Shredder or Krang would try to go against each others backs but they always made up in the end.