Thoughts on the new movie!

[ThemanthatwouldbeRaphael]

I thought Splinter had a monolouge in the opening of the movie. What happend to it?

[tekninja]

Just got back and oh boy. I can't even write my thoughts right now but it was unbelievable. animation was amazing.... everything was amazing. UNREAL

[Nightwatcher]

My theater wasn't sold out, but I went to a mid afternoon show. I think i was the other person who was 20 something in the crowd. Mostly kids with their parents. The kids seemed to really enjoy it but no applauding.

I love how you said:

"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..."

I was seriously unable to wipe the smile from my face when the movie started, eventually I did and then the turtles were introduced and I was grinning like an idiot all over again. It was almost overwhelming.

[tekninja]

one more thing... i don't know if anywone has wrote this or noticed, but i thought the guy in the diner reading his paper... is a animated version of kevin munroe. you get a quick glimpse when he puts down the paper. i believe it looked like him in the animated world. just my opinion

[longbowhunter]

Howdy folks-longtime TMNT fan,lurker and first time poster. I wanted to wait and make my debut here on the forums after I saw the film. I gave it a B-parts of it were really really good and the only flaws it had were the studios fault. I LOVED the characters....its obvious that all involved love and know the turtles and their supporting cast. I really loved how they handled Casey and April in this film. It was a blast to see the whole gang back on the big screen but the story could have used some work....the villians all seemed like saturday morning cartoon cannon fodder and the whole thing with the monsters didnt really have much of a TMNT vibe...I would have rather seen them fighting Utoms of Triceratons or any of the past comic characters. Not to beat a dead horse,but I really dont understand why the studio wanted this to be a PG film....had it been PG-13 we might have gotten to see more ninja action and maybe a more serious tone for the story. All the Spiderman and X-Men movies have been PG-13 as well as Warner Bros. own recent Harry Potter flicks and the rating has only helped to attract kids and families to those films. I also feel that a LOT was cut out of this version...hopefully we will get an unrated DVD with all the deleted scenes put back in...although knowing WB,I doubt it. The voice cast was pretty good with Mako and Patrick Stewart being the standouts. SMG and Chris Evans did well with April and Casey,but did the studio really need to pay for stars like them? I doubt many Buffy fans were running out to the theatre just because SMG did a voice in it. If the studio HAD to have a name for those two characters I would have rather heard Paige Turroco and Elias Koteas reprise their roles. And Laurence Fishburne? He had a monologue...tops. God only knows how much THAT took out of the budget...and it would have made more sense for Patrick Stewart tp do that part anyway. I really did like the film and it goes great with the first one...I really hope it gets a sequel and I really hope that its a PG-13 version of City At War. But I give it a 9....9.95!

[Rooish]

Originally Posted by tmntman

I'd disagree about a few minor things. I didn't like the voice work for Splinter. The actor has a very full robust voice. It doesn't suit Splinter well. His frame is too slim to produce that type of voice. I also thought that Patrick Stewart's voice work was rather lifeless and flat.

The other thing I noticed is that I didn't think the initial narration matched the style of the movie very well. But since it only lasts for a minute or two, that wasn't a big deal.

What confused me about Splinter's voice is that sometimes it had a strong accent, and sometimes it didn't.

I LOVED it whenever he called them "boys," though.

[Head Spinnin' Bebop]

Originally Posted by Putrescent

THE CHARACTERS, VOICE TALENT, & DESIGN
THE STONE WARRIORS
I must say I don't believe the female one spoke at all though which was rather disappointing as well.
Like I said great designs just not used enough in the movie.

No, she spoke. I was waiting for it for a while, but at the end when they approached Max, she was talking for a little while to him. They were one of my fav parts of the movie, they were awesome. I wish they did do more too actually.

Movie needed to be longer, but I hope the DVD has a lot of extras. Wanted to see more fight sense with them.

[mikey2007]

ok, well i had all these people come up to me this week and ask if i was goin, and how they thought it looked awesome....so me and a few of friends just invited a bunch of people to the movies after our trackmeet(i coach track) and so we had to go to the late show.....9oclock

-7:30:....we go to a restuarant (about 8 of us) all order pizza(which actually had boxes that kinda looked like the ones in the movie), and have a great time

-8:15: we have a couch in the back of a pickup and sit outside the theature and listen to music and talk about stuff

-8:45: we go in, i'm the first in line of course. we pile into the movie theature, after all of the people i invited showed up, we had about 25 to 30 people show up, it made me really happy, haha i walked around and shook everyone's hands and thanked them for being able to experience this with me *yes i'm a nerd, but i was giddy*, people were sittin around, one guy started singin the ninja turtle song so i busted out the cellphone so i could play my ninja turtle ringer with him

-9:00 the movie starts, everyone start applauding!!! and i have a huge grin on my face and a warm feeling inside. lol i about cried during this movie once, i'm man enough to admit that

-10:30 the movie gets over and i am very satisfied, everyone's feedback i got said they liked it but wished that the raph-leo fight would have been longer and the final fight would have been longer.

"i said it before and i'll say it again, God i love being a turtle"

[Dragnskull]

Originally Posted by mikey2007

-9:00 the movie starts, everyone start applauding!!! and i have a huge grin on my face and a warm feeling inside. lol i about cried during this movie once, i'm man enough to admit that

i know exactly what you mean, after i got home and after typing that i relaxed and thought about the fact that i had just watched, after all this time, the TMNT on the big screen again...and i actually did shed a tear ...it was truely a great day today.

[LogicDonny]

<-- Loves hockey..

Casey jones loves hockey.

[Revan]

I had to drive an hour to find a theatre showing it because it was not showing in my town. Today was the best day I can remember for a long time. Did anyone else have to drive to find a theatre? I would guess not since I'm from a small town. I literally cannot wait for the dvd release!!!!

[Nightwatcher]

Originally Posted by Neutrino

I had to drive an hour to find a theatre showing it because it was not showing in my town. Today was the best day I can remember for a long time. Did anyone else have to drive to find a theatre? I would guess not since I'm from a small town. I literally cannot wait for the dvd release!!!!

I had to drive to find a theater. For some stupid reason the theater in the mall in downtown Indianapolis was not showing the movie so I had to drive to a suburb near where I used to live. Worth every drop of gas though.

[jeff the cheff]

Whalers!

[Revan]

Originally Posted by Night Owl

I had to drive to find a theater. For some stupid reason the theater in the mall in downtown Indianapolis was not showing the movie so I had to drive to a suburb near where I used to live. Worth every drop of gas though.

Nice, thats what I like to hear. I'll be interested to find out how much it makes on opening weekend.

[blue_angel99]

This was a great movie! It was definitely worth the $7.

[Head Spinnin' Bebop]

My theater had about 20 people at 2:30 this afternoon, pretty quiet, some slight cheers at a couple parts I think. Though when I saw the title, I thought it was about people being so glad it was finally over they were cherring lol, yikes...

Originally Posted by tinlunlau

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

+1, I'm with ya there bro!

[Wes]

Originally Posted by ThemanthatwouldbeRaphael

Wow, great review. I too felt the 13 monster thing was a little rushed, but your right, Karai's comment saved it.

Karai's comment frustrated the heck out of me. I mean, she basically said, "The next time we meet... it will be in a better and more interesting movie." But why couldn't this movie have been better and more interesting? Bah.

[Fledermaus]

Overall, I think this movie was at least as good as the 1990 TMNT movie, though for its own, unique way. I somehow... somehow, prefer this approach to that used in the first movie, but I think that's just because I tend to be a little "special" myself, so I'm told. (Animator's insanity. We all have it. ) The movie felt , more than anything, like it was lifted directly out of an actual classic TMNT comic -- complete with a ridiculous over-the top main plot, rich, meaty family dynamics, and great action scenes.

My feelings as I walked out of the theater with a huge smile attacking my face: "My God, that was totally awesome!" The other thought: "How the ****in hell did that work??? I demand answers!! NOW!!!!!!"

It really shouldn't have held together so well. It had no right to. This is everything your film critics and your teachers tell you you shouldn't do when you fit a movie together. It was insane. Completely insane. No, I take that back. There were insane elements dispersed throughout the film, though they were by no means the utter core. They did not overwhelm the tone, but rather added to it.

Spoiler:

I note the opening sequence: it basically kicked you in the face with it being completely "off its rocker," and the opening narration and the SHOTS were so overtly cliche, the scale so over-the-top I can't imagine how it wasn't aware of its absurdity. I was laughing so hard by the end of that beginning sequence there were tears coming out of my eyes and I'd developed a six-pack.

There were these absolutely crazy elements that were somehow balanced out by slower, quieter, scenes. For example,

Spoiler:

I think of Leo and April sitting around the fire. That was the first huge breather from all we'd seen before. And there was humor: though it was quite different from the humor of the first film, it was good. The theater laughed many times at the intended comedy, some not-intended. (Mostly the irony that naturally arises from this sort of plot.) I really liked the turtles at breakfast. That scene was just brimming of great voice acting, comedic TIMING (and timing is everything...), animation, and dialog. Every character was involved, yet it was so simple.

For reasons like this, I dare not dismiss the film or try to sum it up in one simple package. It's not.

Okay... other aspects. Oh yes: I actually agree with one particular reviewer who described the movie as being "Totally out of its freaking mind" -- though he overlooked the parts where the movie took itself very seriously and concluded that it was "awful." But at the same time, it had... drama, beauty, and most importantly, it took itself seriously. I remember director Brad Bird talking about the importance of a movie that isn't a comedy to take itself seriously, no matter how absurd things get. Irony -- including comedic irony -- is a secondary result of this approach, and this movie gave that to us in wonderful doses.

Spoiler:

But you can't just blindly dismiss the movie as crazy. It's also -- well just look at the family dynamics and the fight between Leo and Raph. There is so much intensity, a deep sense of self that gives energy to this strange, strange concoction.

The infuriating thing about this movie is that, I think, it is extremely difficult to define. You can't just pinpoint something and call it the rest of the movie. It isn't constructed like a typical movie, despite it's seemingly "cliche" plot. It doesn't resolve in the conventional way, in my opinion. The unorthodox continuity and story progression is both "weakness" in that it alienates viewers who expect something to unfold in a particular way... and it's a unique strength in that it is more truly itself... Oh man,

Spoiler:

I know you're all probably like Raph right now falling asleep when Casey fumbles over explaining strange feelings.

The logical part of me loathes saying this because I can't explain it yet in painstaking detail: This movie does its own thing. It does not lend itself well to definition and that is why it really bothers some people.

Though I have to say -- I haven't met anyone at my college who thought the movie was bad. I've heard from most people a similar reaction: it was very strangely a good movie. Everyone in the auditorium applauded at the end, yet it was one of the strangest... I'm running out of ways to say this. I talked with my friends afterwards over a midnight pizza. We were all very surprised at how wonderful the film was -- not because it was TMNT, but because there was no way we could see it coming. It's similar to the feeling I got, actually, when watching Pirates for the first time. It's just really good fun.

I'm still of the opinion that, at this point, if word of mouth gets around, and if other forces come into play, TMNT could turn into one of the most beloved films of the franchise. Excellent job, Kevin. You've crafted a film true to the comic book roots of the turtles. Sorry for the erratically written review, but if I spend any longer trying define this movie, I'll go nuts.

[invictus1002]

i would have to say that i am not fond of the direction they went with the galaxy aligning...they could have done so much more things relevant to NY like purple dragons more foot clan ...more karai and came out with a product just as good if not better. but for the direction that they did go in i think that the movie was good. a few quarrells here and there but i am glad that they kept it pretty serious and mikeys humor was very appropriate in terms of timing and content. to me it is one of they better movies of the year so far and very comparable to a lot of releases in 07 and that is saying a lot for a a movie that is only pg and cgi

[iris]

Oh, WORD. I'm not going to quote Fled's whole post, but I totally agree.

I think, this movie was a little too much at once, and for some viewers it was way over their heads. Extremely fast-paced, together with some unexpected features. I also saw that review that said it was "totally out of its freaking mind," and I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment!

Now, I'm won't say that this movie was a work of high art but I'd compare the professional critic reactons to someone reading a classic novel and not understanding why it's a classic novel. But they have to write an essay about it, so they do their best, and just miss the whole point.

I'm a major fan, I know the characters extremely well, and yet there are still plenty of things people have pointed out in their reviews that I just didn't get while watching the movie. I'm really happy I'll be able to see it again over the weekend, because I'm sure I'll get a better picture.

ETA:

It just occurred to me: THIS IS A KEVIN MUNROE-PACED MOVIE. You know how fast that guy talks in an interview? REALLY FAST. And thats how fast he tells the story in TMNT.