TMNT 2 to Shoot in Albany

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Bry

Oh, totally. But the same "it's for kids!" mindset probably helped them answer all of those problems/questions with "who cares?". Odds are they just didn't think it mattered. Which is a lousy attitude no matter who your audience is - it sells the audience short and assumes they don't care or won't want anything better or more. Lousy, cynical filmmaking.

Agreed. Honestly, of all the comic book movies in the last decade (since they exploded onto screen), 2014 TMNT has to be the worst ever. So much potential, and yet nobody running it bothered to give a frak.

I've hated my share of current movies (IM3 for the "Mandarin", Thor 1&2 for being meh, Man of Steel for carnage/destruction overload), but that's been on creative choices or playing it safe. TMNT was just... damn.

Originally Posted by Bry

So basically - you need enough time to let the story breathe and give the characters some depth, but you also need actual good writing and directing to make it work at all.

That said... the 1990 movie was only 93 minutes long and it managed to do right by (most of) the characters and make you care about them and their story. So the latter part's definitely the most important one.

(I know the 1990 movie gets brought up a lot here, but I think it's a good example of using runtime and action/character balance effectively.)

I need to watch it again, it's been years (a recently purchased DVD is sitting on my shelf and waiting for me)... but it's AMAZING how much they crammed into that 1.5 hour movie without it feeling overblown.

Faithful adaptations of Raph meeting Casey Jones, Shredder, the Northampton retreat, plus managing to balance many characters (Splinter, TMNT, Shredder, Casey, April, and some new characters I never cared about). I don't think the movie aged well in some parts (those baby turtle Muppets are atrocious) and the final fight was cheesy when Shredder's standing around flexing waiting for them to attack... but wow. So much heart in its production! So many people giving a frak!