WHY?! Explanations of why you defend or are repulsed by the designs

[Eiko]

Kind of a bit tired of the same threads all the time what is wrong with posting how you feel about em in one of those other threads

[Candy Kappa]

I'll play along. Since I haven't done an individual line-up of each design, I'll do it here.

So here is why I don't care all that much for the new movies designs and why I think they fail on a pure design level and as the public mainstream blockbuster movie level.

And this is based off what we've seen so far as of the date of my post indicates = the pictures of the Maquettes, the Halloween children's costume, the leaked Poster, the 12 inch toys, the pictures of Shredder and the amateur photos of the Foot Soldiers.

Foot Soldier.
The Foot have always been very recognizable in the TMNT history. The bug eyed ninja masks are very unique compared to the usual Ninja designs throughout the pop culture franchises.

This design is just generic Hollywood black ops military guys with laughable masks on their faces. not very comic/pop culture ninja, it feels almost like a lot of the early 2000's superhero movies being ashamed of being comic book movies, thus changing the costumes to something of lather and biker suits.

The Shredder.
Oroku Saki have been a victim of the racist backwards way of whitewashing, with roles for POC

Spoiler:

Because white isn't a color (even thought black isn't a color either, but I don't make up PC words)

being of shortage, naturally we'll change the race of the established character to white in the movie adaptation. Not racist or insensitive at all.

Anyway. Eric Sachs, a gentleman and a leader of the Foot Soldiers. We've seen pictures of his Shredder outfit, instead of the tradition and iconic Ninja garb with added armor pieces, he now wears a exoskeleton jacked up with a chainmail like cape with knives around the borders, his mask have a stylised skullface with red evil eyes. You can see the Shredder arms covers over Eric's arms and are secured around his arms, no gloves.

it all looks like the people designing him watched some anime or played Metal Gear Rising and thought cyborg-exoskeletons are cool. Maybe Eric dons The Shredder and The Shredder is the name of some prototype exoskeleton suit he got his hands on due to his military connections, maybe even Shredder is an acronym?

Spoiler:

Stealth
Humanoid
Recon
Exoskeleton
Defensive
Demolition
Elimination
Robot

It's too heavy looking, too loud and too messy looking. he looks like he's going to have a hard time moving quickly enough to fight four master martial arts warriors skilled in stealth and deception. The Shredder suit looks like it belongs in one of the Transformers movies and not on a Ninja master, or even on a Military leader using a prototype exoskeleton.

Leonardo.
I did not care much for Leonardo's design, and the more I look at it and studies it the more I loathes it.

First up the turtle itself, the body:
His shell is huge, really freaking big. it really takes away the Turtle aspect and makes him look more like a Tortoise which for me is a huge deal, I love turtles, Ninja and non-Ninja. A fair representation is important to me, a tortoise have a big domed shell and do not fit the mutant Ninja aspect as most turtles have a more aerodynamic shell which looks aesthetically better for a humanoid Chelonian.

And Box Turtles wouldn't fit the TMNT either, sure they are turtles and not tortoises even thought they are terrestrials, their shells are just like a tortoise. leo's shell just looks too big and clunky, similar issue I had with the 4kids cartoon, but in a live-action movie, this should be taken into consideration on how a humanoid turtle can walk upright and do martial arts without being top heavy. This is of course pseudo-physics and Pseudo-Science, turtles can't be bipedal, not with a Plastron and Carapace, since it it is a part of their spine and ribcage, real turtles can't bend their spine as humans can. It's the same principal as Centaurs live under, Centaurs are a physical impossibility, you can not have a creature like that in real life without it topples over by too much weight in the front, but you still design it to look plausible, same with Dragons.

Leonardo's face:
His face isn't the worst of the four, hid facial structure is pretty decent, but the main factor is the very eye catching lips. Although they look intense on the poster, the Maquette, it isn't that a bother since the textures isn't that intense. But they are still distracting. His nose is fine, it's not as professionally defined and modeled as the turtles are in the video game Out of the Shadows, but it's okay, just not as good as the game. Which shows that the OotS designers knows a bit more what they are doing.

Leonardo's clothes:
The costume is atrocious, that Leonardo is the "Samurai Warrior" is not really all that presented. As a person with a slightly more then just a casual interest of feudal Japan and the Samurai culture, I find Leo's attire as a insult, it is down right insulting to say that it's supposed to be Samurai-like.

He have some bits and pieces cobbled together in a incoherent mess. The chest armor is just a bamboo mat from shush rolling which have seen better days, this is not a proper cuirass and is downright useless. and it's connected with ropes that ends under his shell? Maybe Leo have drilled some metal hoops under his outer Carapace scutes to attach things on? I've heard of owners piercing their pet turtles outer scutes to attach a leash on their turtle.

I have on several occasions complained about Leonardo's shoulder plates. they are not connected to anything, maybe that tapering he have holds the shoulder plates on if the plates have some hooks under, but that's still a weak explanation. I have worn shoulder plates, the right way and the wrong way. And I tell you this, if they aren't properly attached to your armor's shoulder area they will move and wiggle around and eventually slip off your shoulder, hindering proper movement. The way the look like now is beyond idiotic and it makes Leo look like a gigantic moron, and those Shoulder plates are not looking like traditional Samurai shoulder plates.

Donatello.
Donnie suffers the same as Leo's body, huge tortoise shell, face okay (the best in my opinion) and he does not have the lips issue as the other turtles. But he looks so sickly skinny when compared to the other turtles, give the poor guy some UVB's and a pack of cuttle bones before a bro hug from Raph kills the poor guy.

Donatello's Clothes.
Neeeerd!! Well, strangely enough Donnie's leg clothes makes him look more like a Samurai then Leonardo ever will, not a fan of the metal looking Bo, a Bo is made of wood, it's in it's very name: Bo = Wood. the goggles are a nice addition, but I think the AVGN wants the nerd glasses back. The glasses are seriously silly looking, I don't mind Donnie popping up glasses when he's reading something small, but those glasses with the tape are a bit too much.

The proton pack on his back... Is is glued on, strapped on or surgically attached? can't tell, but it looks ridiculous.

it does look like Don is having the one-shoulder plate, just a shoulder plate on one shoulder. yet he have no shield or armor cover over the arm. but it does (by the grainy pictures and toy) looks like it is secured to something unlike Leo's shoulder plates.

[Candy Kappa]

Part 2

Raphael.
Raphael is big, clearly he is the bruiser of the group, the tank, the Hulk. Do you get it yet or shall I continue?

... The thing, the Ram-Man...

Raphael's body:
Rapahel's body is ridiculously big compared to the other turtles, now both 2007 movie and the new Nick cartoon and the OotS game had different body types for the green team and Raph was the muscle guy, not the tallest but certainly the biggest. And they certainly kept that here, and maxed it to the max. Nothing subtle about it, Raph is the token strong guy.

His face. His face is terrible, the worst of the four. His nose is big and extruding, looking like the nose of a gorilla or a chimpanzee. There's too much primate/human in his face, and his lips suffering the same issues as Leonardo. They are very distracting, not as much as the nose, but still his face looks just so wrong.

Raphael's clothes:
His clothes are not very urban looking, as he seems to be coming straight out of a Hyborian age adventure with that loincloth thing he have going on. There's some wrappings on his limbs, but I really don't like the asymmetry among his limbs accessories. One red knee pad and one white knee pad, different tapering/wrapping. it looks less appealing and more cluttered even though he is the least dressed turtle.

Michelangelo.
We saw Mikey's design first on the child costume, and it was bad. looked really bad. And when we saw the Maquettes and the rest, the design is still terrible. But, in my opinion. Mikey is among the better lookers when it comes to his costume. But he still suffers the same issues as Raph does in his face.

Mikey's body:
Mikey's body is on the same level as with Leo, they all have that shell issue. His body physique is fine as Leo's body, not overly muscular and not too skinny. his face is a problem, he does have the same nose issue Raph is having. The primate nose of Mikey isn't as prominent as Raph is dealing with, but it's still very extruding and more primate then a classic iconic turtle snout. And he got dem lips, they are as Leo and Raph very eye catching distracting.

Mikey's costume:
his costume is the most urban of the four, and is the second least bugging one for me. I wish they could settle in either long legs or short legs on his pants, as they are they look dumb and kinda silly. His Puka beads are fine, nothing wrong with them, although two necklaces? Seems kinda dangerous to wear jewelry in a fisticuffs fight. not a fan of his shoes, why wear shoes of you don't fit them? His toes are poking out, it must be tiresome not getting a proper grip with those shoes. The waist hoodie looks rather silly, but he can't wear it normally I guess. The hand and wrist wrappings are fine.

And that is my go through of the designs, i find them very flawed and troublesome, minor neat things in there but over all a messy unprofessional design that shouldn't be in a comeback movie.

[Coola Yagami]

That's the kind of post we needed. As for mikey he really stands out and contradicts the group. If that's his regular chill out clothes does that mean the other wear all that bulky crap in their downtime too? And if that's his fight gear why is he the only one not dressed to fight? It's like everyone got their ninja batman armor stuff going on and he's just walking in with a regular shirt and jeans. Like mr Joe average walking alongside the avengers.

[sgtfbomb]

I'm not really a fan of the Turtle designs. They're not what I would want to see but compared to the "lets get anybody and everybody who'll say 'Yes!'" casting and the insanity that is going on with Shredder's design, the fact that Mikey's wearing a sweatshirt would seem to be the least of the film's problems at this point.

[1984TMNT]

Originally Posted by turtlefanforever

The whole point of this thread is to explain why you think it's good or bad

We don't need another thread for this. Sheeeeeeesh.

[CyberCubed]

And people wonder why we complain about the casuals.

[Toby Barrett]

I tend to see more complaining about YOU, Cybercubed.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

What is this, the 5th thread for this?

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Toby Barrett

I tend to see more complaining about YOU, Cybercubed.

But at least I am not a casual.

[Candy Kappa]

Yes... At least you're not a "casual"...

[CyberCubed]

I hope you guys enjoy the influx of new users coming here around the time the movie hits. I bet they'll all be from youtube too.

[sgtfbomb]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

And people wonder why we complain about the casuals.

I genuinely believed that anybody who used the term "casuals" needs to lighten up or get a life. But not any more....

..Now I believe that anybody who uses that terminology is completely bonkers, on top of being completely childish.

I have you to thank you for that.

(I'm sure the people who coined that term to genuinely describe "fans" who think Raph is "Ralph" absolutely love the fact that you're throwing it around so loosely all of a sudden.)

[Toby Barrett]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I hope you guys enjoy the influx of new users coming here around the time the movie hits. I bet they'll all be from youtube too.

It's preferable to your inane bull ****.

[electric_sheep]

Let's all create the same Thread with the variations in the name, But we all need to put that we acknowledge that it's the same thread so it will be okay...

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I hope you guys enjoy the influx of new users coming here around the time the movie hits. I bet they'll all be from youtube too.

I will gladly welcome them. The more tmnt fans the better.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

I will gladly welcome them. The more tmnt fans the better.

They won't be TMNT fans though. They'll be casuals looking at this random 80's property they are not familiar with beyond word of mouth.

[Gabriel GP]

Well, you like it or not, the movie will bring a lot(maybe I'm exaggerating here) of new fans for the franchise. And I see no problem on that. Myself for example, was only become a true fan after watching the 2007's movie . And even that this movie wasn't not even close criticized as this one has been now, we all know that it wasn't great at all.

So I have to say, the more the merrier, after all, if someone start to like of tmnt by watching this movie, he sure can search for more material related to the franchise and see that tmnt is more than a (good/bad/disgusting/as you prefer) movie.

[Leofan26]

I think we have about thousands of threads on this topic, why so many

Look, I just am so used to the 80s ones and what they look like in the shows, though I admit Leo's looks the best out of the bunch but still.

Guess I'll wait for the teaser or trailer before I give my final say on this.

[snake]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

They won't be TMNT fans though. They'll be casuals looking at this random 80's property they are not familiar with beyond word of mouth.

I have to agree with you. I don't want the same people who bashed the nick series coming here to "See mah chi1dh00d on the bigscr33n agan!1!11"