Ways the new "film" could have been moderately acceptable

[Andrew NDB]

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.