Thoughts on the new movie!

[tinlunlau]

Originally Posted by CJStyles

You wouldnt by any chance live in Baton Rouge do you.... lol

no i'm in toronto.

[Ralphmacchio]

As a Buffalo Sabres fan after tonights game, I have to feel sorry for your Leafs.

[tinlunlau]

would you believe there's a canadian who doesn't give a hoot about hockey?

[Time Mistress]

The kids in the theater were all shouting stuff like "It's Leo! That's Leo!" Or "That's Don" etc. whenever each Turtle first showed up on the screen. There was a lot of laughing too, especially during what my best friend dubbed the "Gizmo (from Gremlins) on steroids" attacks Raph scene.

As for hockey, I'm just relieved the Pens are staying in Pittsburgh where they belong!

[Buslady]

My 2c on the movie

I’m a terrible reviewer but I’ll try.

Tone of the movie: PERFECT. Nothing needs to be said about how it looks. It’s dark. Just the way it needs to be.
Settings, the city, etc: NYC never looked so fine in CGI.
Weather & details: The rain in the big fight piece was excellent. You really forget they’re computer images. I know water is one of the hardest things to animate, they did a fantastic job with the drops landing on Leo or Raph’s face and streaking down the side of their faces, it was so real. And the red lighting from the neon sign added to it.
I loved the little details they included, such as the flying insects in Central America, it’s really like that. Bugs are everywhere in rain forests. And the shot of Ape’s machete, the blade stops right in front of the camera shot you see the manufacturer inscriptions on the blade!! That is attention to detail! OMG and the close-ups! You get a good look at Mike’s hand when he’s snoozing, you see veins and skin texture and little wrinkles at the joints on his fingers…then the close-ups of Leo & Raph’s faces in the fight and, brows furrowing, and expressions were so right on. Minor things that I think suck is the covering lower areas and butt with what to me look like a thong made of shell, and they need tails. That’s just me, turtles need tails. Oh and fingernails! Turtles have claws, where’d their nails go? But those are extremely MINOR, all the details they put into them are excellent. The aircraft was even identifiable as looking like an L10-11.
Movement was so fluid and so natural it’s insane. Are we sure they’re CGI and not real?? HAHA! Yes their plastron is supposed to be stiff like a normal turtles, they mutated…it can be both firm and flexible at the same time. So that didn’t bother me. And YAY none of that stupid head dropping into the shell!
Our Heros:
• Leonardo: I’m glad my previous thoughts of him being OOC was removed by the movie. He IS in character and was portrayed well. His reputation in the forest is pretty cool, he’s like a spectre that protects the villagers. He is a bit smug, when fighting Raph when he was still hidden by his helmet, “You call that an attack?” Voice work, excellent.
• Mikey: Needs more development. We all know how goofy and fun loving dear little brother is, but there’s more to him. He mostly fools around and you don’t get to know him much. Voice work, good, but sounds too young when they’re supposedly around 17ish?
• Donatello: Like Mike, not enough. He DOES get to be good ol smart Donnie with some stuff. I thought it was a kick he was doing tech support. But we don’t get to know him as much either. Well done voice work.
• Raphael: I save the best for the last. This is a Raph movie, with a good dose of Leo for conflict. Many know I’m biased, he’s my hero, I love Raph, and I REALLLLLY love this Raph. He’s TMNT1 Raph reinvented, and with CGI he can do craploads more than live action. (I do want to see more of Don & Mike believe it or not!!) This is a brilliant, freaking brilliant portrayal of Raph. He is intense, angry, aggressive, frustrated, of course a hot head and impulsive. He looks awesome in his Nightwatcher gig, you first see him with this hard rock theme playing and he looks up, and that shot will make ANY Raph nut swoon he looks so freaking H. O. T. I swear they did that on purpose. Voice work? *drool* Nolan is a good choice for Raph, he’s got the inflection and intensity that is Raph.
• Splinter: I REALLY like Mako’s Splinter. I wish Make was still with us to see the finish product. He was really good. Splinter was portrayed well, you see both father and sensei here. None of the stupid handshakes that’s been in the cartoon lately! He hugged Leo when he returned from CA; you see DAD. They call him father. That is what I wanted to hear and see, not just yes master, no master, this master that master…I wanted to see and hear the father side of Splinty. I got used to his new look, very different than the usual.
• Weapons Use: WOOHOO!!!!!!!! CORRECT SAI USE! YAY! Raph locks those blades and snaps them, just as the sai were designed to do! (That scene was intense, loved it) I was damn freaking happy to see correct use of sai with of course some of Raph’s own creativity with them but mainly they were used right. Leo had some great moves with his blades. I don’t know a whole lot about them but I assumed they were also used correctly. We don’t see enough of Mike to see him use his babies, you see maybe a total of 4 seconds if that of nunchaku…that sucked. You see a little of Donnie and the stick…but not enough.
• April & Casey: One thing that I’m so-so on are the humans. Ape’s just way to skinny, (as was Karai) that just I dunno…looks way funny. She was fine in the movie, I liked the early scene with Leo, that was cool. She didn’t stand out to me. Her YELLOW outfit, ugh…okay lady we’re going ninja here, yellow is a flag that says KILL ME. Casey was cool he was more like the 2K3 series Casey. He’s a little clumsy. He is as always Raph’s bud, sidekick to his Nightwatcher persona too. Wish they did more with Case & NW fighting though.
• Karai: Not enough to really know her, I suspect in the next we will get to know her more. She kicks butt, totally. Ziyi Zhang is a good voice for her, I hope she returns for the next one. Brilliant scene where the turtles try to help the Foot take down a monster (the skunk ape?) she sees Leo and starts going after him! Like she knew he had something to do with Shredder’s death.

Stand out Scenes:
For me all the Raph stuff of course. I loved the breakfast scene. They had to get Leo & Raph calling each other names, it’s classic. And Splinter coming in all cheery, humming a tune and greeting his sons...loved it!! Then he’s all into his soaps…
The big Leo/Raph fight of course is great. I wanted it longer though, more moves…they did so well on choreographing the fight it looked very real and the weapon use was right. I was craving more of the fight scene, hopefully there’s more on the DVD when it comes out. The big battle was too short too, we needed more! Gimme some more glamour shots of Raph fighting. It was a really unusual way they did this part, we follow one turtle, then to another, then we follow sensei…it’s weird and neat at the same time. I wanted to see more like that with the fight. One of the best and funniest was Raph trying to give little Jersey Devil a butt kickin, but he got it instead! Hilarious!!
The scene after the big fight, Raph runs in and speaks with Splinter…all of that was great, but when he pulls out the broken blades you see a really pissed sensei but he keeps it cool and collected, you see him dealing with it visually! It was great!!

Music:
Well done! Raph’s Nightwatcher theme when we first see him is so perfect. As Ape is telling Leo what each brother is up to, they have a sort of theme tune with each segment I thought fit. They had a nice score that fit in with the scenes, I felt nothing was out of place with it.

The bad guys, well, they were run of the mill…okay stuff. The most important to me was the turtles and how their story becoming a close knit family again worked out.
All in all, I enjoyed it a lot. We watched it 2x today …taking my nephew & son tomorrow, that’ll be 3x for me opening w/e. Never done that before!!!!! I’ll see it a few more times before its finished it’s run. And like my TMNT1 DVD, I’ll wear out a copy of this movie’s DVD when that comes out!

[Jester]

You forgot Raph's "apology" to Splinter where Splinter tells Raphael that he is "strong, passionate, and loyal to a fault, all traits of a leader as well, when tempered with compassion and humility."

[Masked Ninja]

Just got back from my local showing.

Overall, on this scale, I'd give it a B. Maybe 7.5/10 overall, but with time and rewatchings it'll probably go up to an 8.

And here's the breakdown:

STORY:
Honestly, the monster story felt tacked on to me... the movie could have functioned quite well without it. That said, they handled it better than I expected... so kudos. I also noticed the error with the 13th monster... it actually would have allowed for an entertaining struggle if they'd had to bring in what I thought was the 13th monster. Ah well.

It was the family story that sealed the deal for me. Once this story kicked off, the pit in my stomach caused by my early impression of the animation (see below) cleared. The arguments especially were well written and acted, I thought... and the two rival Turtles were shown to have both flaws and strengths. Which I loved - Leo was my favorite turtle at one point (before I stopped being able to favor only one ) and I like to see him just at fault for tension as Raph. He's the sort that argues, but in a quieter, more biting way. And when he crossed the line on the rooftop... whoa.

ANIMATION:
Honestly, I spent the first 20-30 minutes of the movie soundly unimpressed. The lipsync was not very well done, a lot of things moved a little too "CGI" and not enough "natural"... I was like "aww, MAN... don't tell me I'm in for a cruddy movie..." But the lipsync improved over the course of the movie. I wonder if it was because the Hong Kong animators had less of a feel for how to sync English? Who knows... but generally the ACTION part of the animation (running, fighting, etc.) was good, while the lipsync and the more subtle ACTING part of the animation (like, choosing what to do with hands/gestures) was good at times but extremely weak, even clunky, in others.

But that fight... hoooooo man. Worth the $5.50 I paid for the ticket by itself.

Spoiler:

One of my friends who came with me to see the movie is a HUGE Raph fan, and after he got Leo on the ground, I leaned over and said "10 points for your boy." I also loved how he was practically sobbing as he took off over the rooftops... nice work there. Emotional. I loved it.

TEXTURES/LIGHTING/CINEMATOGRAPHY:
In a word, fantastic. What was subpar in the animation department was balanced by the sheer look of the film. The textures are amazingly detailed, lighting is great, and cinemetography also quite awesome. This was the part my animation buddies were most impressed with. One specifically pointed out the rain during the fight scene. It was indeed phenominal, and kudos to Imagi for that.

VOICE ACTING:
Also phenominal. ESPECIALLY whenever Leo and Raph were arguing... none of it sounded forced to me. Even Raph's "NOOOOO" wasn't too bad - of course, the fact that he threw down his sai while he did it made him seem distraught enough for it to be plausible. Though I suppose a wordless "AAAAAAUUUURGH" may have been better. I'm used to Mako because of Avatar, so I loved him too. The lipsync would throw off his voice a bit, though. Some of those mouth shapes reminded me of Don Bluth's work. X)

SCRIPT:
At least in terms of the lines said, generally good. I'll mention the Leo/Raph verbal fights again and say that nothing felt out of place there. Mikey had some painful lines, though at least some were obviously supposed to be that way. I think the weakest dialogue in the film were the one-liners. Some hit, some missed, some missed by a mile. I don't mind that they were there, but I would have liked some better ones.

As for the opening narration... yeah. Pretty bad. Though as he got into the backstory, I stopped noticing as much. Not sure whether that was due to me being drawn into the story or him just getting better. Too much drama for a story like this, I think.

And the "name" actors did pretty well.

Spoiler:

Even April's pausy "explain the legend of Yaotl" lines at least made a little sense in context.

MUSIC:
I'll be brief here and just say I liked it. The score, at least. My main complaint is I just wanted to hear a few more themes. Good thing the Nightwatcher theme is a good one that I didn't get tired of.

THEATER EXPERIENCE:
Positive. It warmed my heart to hear the audience cheer and applaud as that green flame appeared on the screen when the movie started. There was also scattered applause for each Turtle's introduction, and more applause when the end credits hit. Didn't notice too much audience reaction throughout the movie (though some one-liners got some decent laughs) but the beginning and ending... aaah. Good time to be a Turtle fan. I wore my shirt that I made last night (may have to post a photo) and my animation guys commented on it.

FINAL WORDS:
Maybe Peter Laird likes monster/alien stories, but I honestly prefer the Turtles in their home city, fighting ninjas or street gangs. Yet, this film did OK for what it was. Perhaps aiming for "all ages" was a mistake, as I heard several people commenting about the film "not knowing who it was directed at" as we all left. Though I thought it really did feel aimed for the old-school in-their-twenties-fans, especially with the family tension.

There's talk of a possible sequel. And of course, Karai's parting words left plenty of room for one... and, dare I say, one that could adapt a certain well-loved story from the comics. With the practice they had on this film, I'd love to see what Imagi could do with a second Turtles movie. This one just has to do well enough at the box office and maybe they'll consider it. Though I for one would definitely want them to push the boundary and make any sequel PG13. Then maybe we can see some sweet nunchuck action from Michelangelo.

[Buslady]

Originally Posted by Jester

You forgot Raph's "apology" to Splinter where Splinter tells Raphael that he is "strong, passionate, and loyal to a fault, all traits of a leader as well, when tempered with compassion and humility."

oh yeah, i did. I'm still thinking of alot of stuff to add to my comments. But yeah your right, that whole bit he runs in there like he did, Splinter tells him all that but what I really liked now that you remind me...when he shows Splinter the broken blades, and Splinter's there practically simmering but he keeps calm even though you KNOW he's pissed.

[Dragnskull]

ok, im still on my natural high from all this, so forgive me if im kinda jumping around in waht i say.

night started with my friend coming and picking me up, me and my best friend Doug [not a huge tmnt fan, but DOES like them] to watch the movie

we get up to the mall, and when we get there i noticed it was actually pretty packed [even for a friday night.] we went inside, and i noticed, yes its packed, but its a different crowd this time...its not all thugs and grown ups, it was kids my age [20 +/-] and moms with kids...and the atmosphere felt different somehow

well, when we get to the movies, i noticed the lines were HUGE. normal for a friday, but once again, no thugs or grown ups, all kids my age. well, with my connections since i worked at the theaters for years, i walk past the line and go get 2 tickets for my friends (i never buy tickets anymore since i have connections, but i happily shelled out [Pun Intended] 18 bucks for them tonight)

we walk around for a while (we had 45 minutes to waste) and we notice more and more [especially when we went into the theater] both kids and people my age walking in with bandanas on, groups of 4 wearing one of each of the colors, people with TMNT shirts on, people running around singing the TMNT oldschool theme song, kids singing the new toon song, people talking about the original movies...it was awsome. needless to say i was jumping into conversations left and right with total strangers ^ ^;;

i still say my true Soul mate was at the movies somewheres today lol...

anyways, i realized the movie was in theater 12, which surprised me, because 12 and 7 are the 2 biggest theaters they have, seating 800 people in each one. and bothw ere dedicated to the TMNT tonight. and guess what? both of them SOLD OUT. awsomeness.

throughout the entire movie people are loving it, u can hear laughter on every joke, u can hear comments behind us "dude this is so cool" "omg its like being 8 again" etc etc

at the end of the movie, people actually applauded. im talking bigger applauds than 300 the other day [yes, thats a surprise i know.] LOUD applauding.

it was great, tonight a group of people gathered that havent shown themselves for years. tonight, every 20 year old that came to the movies was 8 again. it was fun to relive my childhood days, even if it was just for 3 hours, ive waited nearly 10 years for this day, and i can truely say that i am uber happy that it finally happened. the TMNT are back. it almost brings tears of joy to my eyes...

i love being a turtle...

[iris]

Originally Posted by Masked Ninja

JThere's talk of a possible sequel. And of course, Karai's parting words left plenty of room for one...

It was quite devious the way they planted that seed of expectation in the audience!

I also gave it a rating of 7.5/10... in some thread, somewhere... lol. (Kinda feel sorry for the mods having a thousand new threads to deal with... yikes! But it's for a good cause!)

[Jester]

Ok...question: What did you think of the Turtle's name appearing on screen when they were introduced?

[Time Mistress]

Great review! I couldn't agree more about how awesome Raph was in this movie!

[Masked Ninja]

I guess the yellow-clad April was there to please the old 'toon fans. Though I loved the little scene where she modeled it for Casey and he was awestruck, hah!

Gotta agree, I loved Raph in this movie too. Like TMNT1, it was mainly about him, but the difference was that in this movie Leo was a worthy foil (none of that "well YOU act like a JERK sometimes!" wishy-washy Leo ) And I thought that same thing when he broke Leo's swords! "Hey... that's part of what sai are MEANT for, isn't it?!"

Before this movie, if you'd pressed me to name a least favorite Turtle, I probably would have said Raph. I just don't identify very much with him. But between my rewatching of TMNT1 and this... dangit, why must they make them so hard to rank?! Probably a good sign that I should stop trying.

I also noticed Splinter's "OK, count to 10, count to 10" moment after Raph confessed what he'd done. I thought that while overall the subtle acting in the animation could have been MUCH better, that at least was well-handled. Splinter is also not infallible. He even admitted that Raph was not on top of his student list... but that he considered him just a worthy son. Every time a Turtle called Splinter "father" my heart went gooey.

[twopinacoladas]

Same here, smaller theater but, people clapped and cheered at the end. Not sold out but pretty close, wide range of age groups as well.

[Rooish]

I actually really liked it. I wanted to burst into applause or laughter (happy laughter) when it happened.

[Rooish]

No one cheered at my theatre. They seemed underwhelmed.

[Wes]

I picked the C rating in the poll because I did like the older ones better (excluding the awful TMNT III, of course), but I'd give it somewhere around a B-/C+ rating (or two stars even). The Leo/Raph fight scene was great, but I thought everything else was incredibly lackluster -- particularly the plot and the characterization of the villains, who got almost none at all. The generals and Karai barely got mentioned by name! And I knew that April was going to be all ninja and hardcore, but that they suddenly thrust her in that role with no explanation was disappointing (and no, I don't think that I should have to shell out more money for a prequel comic to explain that development).

The writing and direction was also fairly subpar. There was a lot of jumping around between scenes -- for example, a fight is only as cool as the setup, but it suddenly went from Casey doing the Cowabunga Carl distraction to them battling the Foot in the scene everyone had already seen -- and a lot of the dialogue seemed oddly forced. Like I said, the Leo/Raph fight was great, but the dialogue that served as the intermission was really out of place -- Leo floors Raph with an uppercut, and then suddenly the dynamic of the scene abruptly switches and Raph starts going on about how smug Leo is. Then Leo criticizes Raph for "dressing up like it's Halloween." Even when I saw that scene in the clip, I was thinking, "Er... would a mutant Turtle say something like that? When one is a humanoid turtle creature, dressing up is probably a pretty good idea..."

Anyway, I could go on, but my point is that while I think it had its moments, I thought that the film was something of a letdown. But then, everything about the buildup had led me to expect "the best TMNT movie yet" -- and I have a very high opinion of the first film. Oh well, maybe next time.

[Warhorse]

I gave it an A. Because this movie needs much improvement, but I blame that on the studios and their stubborness to handicap the film by demanding a kiddie friendly PG instead of a PG-13 (which I think we need, start writing petitions people, it's the only way we can get the Turtles to really use their weapons.

I loved the action, the CGI animation, the voices, the character interaction, and some of the visuals were quite stunning. I especially loved it when Raph and Casey were looking down the roof top to the thing that had just flown over them, and the screen seemed to rotate above and around them. Too cool for words.

I loved the scores used in the movie. Everything fit in nicely. I especially loved the Raph vs Jersey Devil scene, everything in that was hilarious, and had the whole audience laughing their a$$es off!

Things I didn't like, or what I would have liked to see.

I wanted to see Leo kick that fat ass to kingdom come in Brazil, bad. I don't like this where you see them draw their weapons, and then CUT! To another scene. That annoys me.

Movie was rushed, but i again, blame the studio for forcing Kevin to do this. Pisses me off royally that they could sabotage what could have been an awesome movie into a good movie, for whatever reasons I cannot fathom.

I still didn't like the human CGI. The faces were great, as well as their expressions, but the bodies were too skinny and funky.

Not enough weapon use, but again, studio's fault for not granting a PG-13.

One thing I worry though. The studios want this to make 100 million domestic to warrant a sequel. While the theater I was in was packed, it was a small theater, seating only maybe 108. They had two movies going at the same time, but when the Hills Have Eyes is playing next door in the 600 maximum capacity theater, and having more show times than the Turtles, I wonder how many other theaters will do this, and if TMNT will have a chance at box office gold? I honestly don't expect this to be number one. It will probably be number two, behind The Hills Have Eyes, unfortunately.

But there were way more adults that went to see TMNT than the kids. Hint hint to the studios!

[Splinter's Iroonna]

I completely enjoyed this movie! I saw it twice! I have NO complaints, and as for anyone else's, well, they can have their opinions I guess.

But for ME this was the best movie I've seen in a long time-- sometimes (and especially the legendary fight scene) I forgot I was watching an "animated" film. I enjoyed ALL the voice actors (Mako was fantastic!), and I truly think that Kevin's having the four Turtles in the same recording area, working together, made their scenes together even better!

And now-- off to bed!

[Head Spinnin' Bebop]

If I were to have one complaint, aside from wanting it longer, it was the lack in Karai's role. But, cue movie 2/5...