Alan Ritchson talks about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

[Slap-Happy]

It's good that they're going for something new. What's the point of making the movie if they're just going to do what's been done countless times before?

Everyone should calm down about this movie being sh*t before they've even seen it.

[TrickOrTreater]

Originally Posted by Slap-Happy

It's good that they're going for something new. What's the point of making the movie if they're just going to do what's been done countless times before?

Everyone should calm down about this movie being sh*t before they've even seen it.

There's a difference between putting the characters into new situations and/or stories and making **** up out of whole cloth because they didn't have respect for the source material and slapping the name on it for brand recognition.

There are certain things about the Turtles and supporting cast/villains that must be present for them to be recognizable as the Turtles/etc. at all.

Look at the 2007 movie. The Turtles were still all the Turtles. Still looked, acted, and sounded like they should have. Their origins weren't changed for some dumb reason. But they were in a new, different situation that we hadn't seen them in many times, if at all, before.

THAT'S how you do it.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by TrickOrTreater

There's a difference between putting the characters into new situations and/or stories and making **** up out of whole cloth because they didn't have respect for the source material and slapping the name on it for brand recognition.

There are certain things about the Turtles and supporting cast/villains that must be present for them to be recognizable as the Turtles/etc. at all.

Look at the 2007 movie. The Turtles were still all the Turtles. Still looked, acted, and sounded like they should have. Their origins weren't changed for some dumb reason. But they were in a new, different situation that we hadn't seen them in many times, if at all, before.

THAT'S how you do it.

It's a reboot/re-imagining. It should be different. Bay & his team have both the name & budget that allow them to take risks & do something new. Even if it ends up sucking I can't knock them for trying to do something different. Aside from certain decisions that have pissed off the masses (which may very well be explained in a way that satisfies our fanboyisms), they're doing things in a way that they feel will make the turtles larger than life & have a newfound badassery/mass appeal. The unique designs we're sure to get come as no surprise, radical interpretations of the TMNT on Deviantart are the most popular pieces on there. It's what a loooooot of folks wanna see. Weird, "realistic", bulky, each unique, etc.

This movie has: April, Splinter, Shredder, some sort of Foot Clan, the TMNT, a turtle van, & more. What's missing that makes it less recognizable as TMNT, exactly?

TMNT (2007) sucked. Yeah, so the turtles looked like they normally would, and the voices were good, but it sucked. Their personalities were over exaggerated & melodramatic, at least Raph's & Leos were. Donnie & Mikey got virtually no screen time. At the end of the day, the origin doesn't mean much. The turtles are of value to fans for their character, not for the means they came to being.

At the end of the day, it's fair to bitch about casting choices, or that the film seems to pull mostly from the OT, we have enough information about those things to make somewhat fair opinions. But as for everything else? You really can't say crap until it's released...

[ObiWanFan4life]

Yeah, I think it's fair to say that there hasn't been a solid (official) TMNT Movie made. Sure, the '90 Film is semi-decent, but it's still has problems of its own. Secret of the Ooze makes for a fun, but flawed movie. The third movie is on par with Highlander 2. And The GGI movie is alright.

[Powder]

& who's saying that? If you don't think the first movie is solid or better, you should be institutionalized.

[AquaParade]

I feel sorry for tmnt fans who don't dig the first movie. I can understand why, but to me it is one of the great gifts to die-hard tmnt fans. It just totally captures the urban style, brotherhood dynamics, comedy("Ninja kick the damn rabbit!"), and ninja excitement that I love about this franchise. It had real heart and the sequel's let it down.

Also looking forward to the new tmnt film. I am hoping it to see it capture the bombastic, sci-fi elements of the franchise, while still mixing in those great family/relationship elements. Alien "brains"! robot ninja's! Triceratons! A lot of possibilities for this film and trilogy. Hell, even pizza monsters. I'm totally down for the trilogy to capture some of these ridiculous elements if done well.
I think I owe part of my open-minded approach to this 2014 film to the fact that Steve Baron just really hit the sweet spot for me with that first tmnt movie, and I'll always have that.

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by Powder

It's a reboot/re-imagining. It should be different. Bay & his team have both the name & budget that allow them to take risks & do something new. Even if it ends up sucking I can't knock them for trying to do something different. Aside from certain decisions that have pissed off the masses (which may very well be explained in a way that satisfies our fanboyisms), they're doing things in a way that they feel will make the turtles larger than life & have a newfound badassery/mass appeal. The unique designs we're sure to get come as no surprise, radical interpretations of the TMNT on Deviantart are the most popular pieces on there. It's what a loooooot of folks wanna see. Weird, "realistic", bulky, each unique, etc.

Budget? Hasn't the budget for this movie been repeatedly slashed? A very big sign that the powers that be lost faith that they had a good product on their hand but too late to stop the wheels in motion.

Of course a reboot is expected to be different but not to the point were it only vaguely resembles previous versions.

I would argue most reboots provide a new "slant" while keeping the main story and characters the same. Think of Amazing Spider-Man which gave a more darker styled and teen inspired coating to what otherwise seemed like something the Raimi movies would have done in a brightly coloured way. Or the Nolan Batman movies which took a notion of "realism" and applied it to several plots inspired directly from the comics.

That of course brings me to another trope of reboots and that is going back to basics after the series have seen to have lost their way. Again think of the Amazing Spider-Man movie and the Dark Knight movies. This movie is certainly NOT going back to basics...even the argument it's going back to the basics of the version that was the most well known doesn't really stick either as it leaves out several important elements of the Fred Wolf show the ones that are in there seemed to be drastically changed.

Talking of the designs while I'm not opposed to the idea of the turtles wearing actual ninja or martial arts gear it does seem like a something that could potentially look very ugly if not done "right" and considering that the basic turtle design has worked well in multiple iterations was their any need for such a drastic change?

Same with the overly bulky "realistic" designs. I'm not opposed to a bit of that but fan art is very different to something which is supposed to have mass appeal and work within a story.

This movie has: April, Splinter, Shredder, some sort of Foot Clan, the TMNT, a turtle van, & more. What's missing that makes it less recognizable as TMNT, exactly?

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation had the majority of that stuff and it was terrible.

Not to mention it too had a new twist to the turtles origin and bulky and differently garbed "badass" turtle designs both of which were panned.

TMNT (2007) sucked. Yeah, so the turtles looked like they normally would, and the voices were good, but it sucked. Their personalities were over exaggerated & melodramatic, at least Raph's & Leos were. Donnie & Mikey got virtually no screen time. At the end of the day, the origin doesn't mean much. The turtles are of value to fans for their character, not for the means they came to being.

The reason a lot of comic/cartoon characters come into being is generally very important to their characters. It's not just how they do they do but often why they do what they do and even how their characterized while doing it.

With TMNT it's perhaps even more important than most. Yoshi's feud with Saki is very much at the core of the story especially when it involves Shredder and the Foot. Take that away and it just isn't the same

Their mutation origin is very much part of their appeal. Also if they are made aliens (even in a round about way) that pine over their fallen race then it's a significant change to their personalities.

I'm not sure if I'd agree the Imagi movie is overblown compared to most TMNT adaptions and while I don't advocate them being one note characters were only Don can use technical know-how or Mike can make a joke and so on I'd take that over what the Raphael actor seems to hinting at that they all act more or less the same bar a moment here or there to remind us that Leo's the leader and Raphs the hothead etc.

At the end of the day, it's fair to bitch about casting choices, or that the film seems to pull mostly from the OT, we have enough information about those things to make somewhat fair opinions. But as for everything else? You really can't say crap until it's released...

I'd say there's enough out there to make informed guesses.

[NinjaPug]

Originally Posted by Galactus

Budget? Hasn't the budget for this movie been repeatedly slashed? A very big sign that the powers that be lost faith that they had a good product on their hand but too late to stop the wheels in motion.

This is the first thing I've seen mentioning the budget was slashed. Where did you see this?

[ObiWanFan4life]

Originally Posted by Powder

& who's saying that? If you don't think the first movie is solid or better, you should be institutionalized.

Ok, what I meant is, I like that It's mostly faithful to the Mirage Comics, I like some of the hidden in jokes, & I think it's a good movie. However, at the end of the day, it's not really the turtles' movie. It's Shredder' s, Splinters' s and Casey's.

Sure, the turtles are the protagonists and they are proactive. But, it's Casey who rescues Splinter from the foot clan, and it's Splinter (and Casey) who defeats Shredder.

[mb1025]

Originally Posted by Davetello

So what? Are you suggesting that they might as well not bother doing some research because plenty of others have made a hash of it after learning about things?

This guy is being paid well (I assume) to portray a character. The least he can do is learn about said character. For me it displays a lack of professionalism.

Everyone here knows this film will blow but that isn't the point. The point is that it would suck less if they put some effort into it. They should be reading and watching everything they can; being influenced by various universes.

I never said that. I never said he shouldn't learn how to play the character.

What I am saying is everyone that is involved with the film doesn't need to know the source material from when they were children. They don't have to be TMNT fans. Hell if they didn't know what the TMNT franchise was it wouldn't bother me.

Because at the end of the day none of that is guaranteed to translate into a good film. If you have good writers, cast, directors, and a vision you get a good film. Regardless if they knew splinter was a rat or dog before signing onto the film.

[Xav]

Originally Posted by NinjaPug

This is the first thing I've seen mentioning the budget was slashed. Where did you see this?

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/para...es-start-date/

[NinjaPug]

Originally Posted by Xav

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/para...es-start-date/

Thanks. I missed this when this news broke. $125 million is still a decent budget.