Writing Point of View of the 2014 TMNT Movie's Script

[Coola Yagami]

The script was awful and sloppily put together, but people seem to keep forgetting that it was always going to be this way. Yes, they went back and changed stuff here and there due to fan backlash, but everyone saying 'they should have just stuck to their guns' are forgetting how messed up things would have been if they did. Either alien Turtles or Sachs as Schroeder or Shredder. It still would have been bad. Perhaps the re-writes made the movie worse or or even a little better, but the end result is still a bad script. It was just a bad script and they had no idea what they were doing.

[TrickOrTreater]

Originally Posted by Gunpowder

Been a few months since I've seen the movie, so I can't recall many specifics at the moment...but I think most of us here can agree the script was (predictably) shallow. And I guess it's for the better that it underwent all those rewrites...but they should have had a better writing team in the first place.
http://i58.tinypic.com/rtht0i.jpg

But, come on. When you're dealing with an idiotic plot, how much help can the writing really be? If anything, they suit each other, in that they're both laughable. This thing was all about visuals.

Which were also bad. No weight to them and all the action scenes were messy and disjointed and ugly.

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

Another thing that bothered me, which is more the sound department then the writing, I guess. But the turtles where loud, way too loud. Not just vocally, but during their Batman Begins moment in the shipping container yard.

The scene was relatively cool, up until the shipping container was thrown at the Foot. But the sound effects of the turtles "stealth running" around was way to loud, and really not ideal at all for sneaking sfx.n

Seriously. They were about as stealthy as a baby elephant in a glass figurine shop. Even the joke of them sneaking back into the lair and Mikey making noise was completely ruined because THEY WERE ALL MAKING NOISE.

The one time even one of them managed to be completely silent and stealthy and it was used for a joke scene. Then...no more after that.

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by TrickOrTreater

The one time even one of them managed to be completely silent and stealthy and it was used for a joke scene. Then...no more after that.

Yeah, and the joke would have been much better delivered if the turtles actually was stealthy to begin with, both me and my partner thought it was a very off-character moment for Raph the big hulking brute to suddenly act like a ninja.

The Victoria Secret scene was relatively stealthy as well, at least in comparison to the movie, but that scene wa also a joke moment and not even a part of the movie's narrative...

[TrickOrTreater]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

Yeah, and the joke would have been much better delivered if the turtles actually was stealthy to begin with, both me and my partner thought it was a very off-character moment for Raph the big hulking brute to suddenly act like a ninja.

The Victoria Secret scene was relatively stealthy as well, at least in comparison to the movie, but that scene wa also a joke moment and not even a part of the movie's narrative...

"Lol ninjas are dumb, all quiet and stealthy and sh*t. It's hilarious and stupid. Big hulking monsters that WRECK SH*T UP BRO are so much cooler and hip." -People involved in this movie.

[Leo656]

Well, they were basing the entire thing on what little kids find entertaining, so in that respect they hit the nail right on the head.

That being the case, I nominate that we just eliminate the restrictions on voting age, too. F*ck it. Some kid with a load in his pants can dictate the course of a million-dollar movie or a billion-dollar industry, but he can't pick the President? What sense does that make? Just dumb everything down so any kid who can take his finger out of his nose long enough gets to nominate Ronald McDonald as a write-in candidate in 2016. Why not?

If you're going to spend hundreds of million dollars appeasing children instead of, y'know, People, then take it all the way, I say.

[J.J.Sav]

First of all I really did enjoy the movie regardless of all the plotholes. My problem with the story is this.

Sach's plan was to gas the city, making everyone sick while he holds the cure. He injected the mutigen into 4 turtles and a rat so that they would mutate and he could later use their blood to create more of the cure (Sorry, if I'm messing this part up a bit). But, due to a fire he believed the turtles, rat, all of his data, everything he needed, was lost. The plan is scrapt.

15 years go by and because April opened her mouth to him and told him that the turtles were still alive (I understand that she didn't know he was a bad guy at the time) the plan is suddenly back on. A tower on top of the Sach's building is still fully functional and there are four glass cages all ready and set up to drain the turtles blood. There was a lot of high tech equipment made for specimens he believed were killed years ago.

The thing is if April hadn't said anything, Sach's plan to gas the city would've remained mute and there would no longer have been a movie or least the rest of the movie from that moment on. Up until that point, what was Sach's plan? Get 'stupid rich' by using the Foot Clan to rob every one?

[Coola Yagami]

The biggest plot hole on top of what you mentiond is that the Mutagen was the cure.... and of course it was tested on lab animals, in this case the turtles and splinter. But like dude.... this cure turned them into 6 foot tall talking monsters. That's one HELL of a side effect for something originally meant to cure a disease. Turning a normal turtle into a giant talking mutant is more of a side effect than just 'might cause drowsiness'. And yet Sachs just kind of ignored this and was still going to use Mutagen on human, including himself if necessary to cure anyone infected by the plague?


And you brought up a good point, the plan was scrapped for years and yet he still had all the equipment lying around anyways. He had no idea this miracle drug would turn normal animals into giant monsters and yet he had 4 big-ass cages designed to contain giant animal monsters. The more I think about it the less it makes sense.

[Leo656]

I'd wager anything that equipment, cages etc. were all hold-overs from when the previously scripted plan was for Sachs/Shredder to be using the Mutagen to create super-powered Foot soldiers. That actually seems to make a ton more sense than what they ended up with. It's still kind of cliche', but it's not AS bad. If anything it would still better explain why they still had all that stuff handy.

They must have had too much footage where Sachs was Shredder and heavily involved in the scenes to salvage any of it into the actual movie, is my guess.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I'd wager anything that equipment, cages etc. were all hold-overs from when the previously scripted plan was for Sachs/Shredder to be using the Mutagen to create super-powered Foot soldiers. That actually seems to make a ton more sense than what they ended up with. It's still kind of cliche', but it's not AS bad. If anything it would still better explain why they still had all that stuff handy.

They must have had too much footage where Sachs was Shredder and heavily involved in the scenes to salvage any of it into the actual movie, is my guess.

One can only imagine the amount of money and effort saved if they had only tried to film a Ninja Turtle movie instead.

[Gunpowder]

Originally Posted by TrickOrTreater

Which were also bad. No weight to them and all the action scenes were messy and disjointed and ugly.

Eh, I have to disagree. I thought the visuals were one of the movie's strong points; it wasn't 100% sh!t. The action was a bit clunky, yeah. But, detail-wise, I thought the Turtles looked great. (Splinter, though? Not so much.)

[Jester]

Spoiler:

[TrickOrTreater]

Originally Posted by Gunpowder

Eh, I have to disagree. I thought the visuals were one of the movie's strong points; it wasn't 100% sh!t. The action was a bit clunky, yeah. But, detail-wise, I thought the Turtles looked great. (Splinter, though? Not so much.)

The action was more *CAMERA WON'T STOP MOVING AROUND* than a bit clunky. When *SHOT OF VERNON STARING AT MEGAN'S ASS WHILE ENDANGERING THEIR LIVES* I wasn't completely bored *ANOTHER GODDAMN SLO MO SHOT THAT SHOULD HAVE OBLITERATED A TURTLE* I could barely tell what was going on.

Originally Posted by Jester

Spoiler:

http://cdn.meme.am/instances/55190052.jpg

If only I had somebody heckling the movie for me.

Really wish Rifftrax would release a commentary for it.

[jenna]

Plot issues and characterisation aside.... There is a principle in writing of 'show, don't tell'. Seeing something happen is much more engaging than being told that it has happened.

For example....

1. April and Vern open the film with a discussion about April wanting to be a serious reporter. This is 'tell'. Had the writers elected simply to let us realise this for ourselves by seeing April's interactions with the dude at the docks and in the news room, this would have been more interesting.

2. Raphael tells his brothers "I'm going out on my own". Again, this is 'tell'. This point could have easily been made if it was just Raphael who was fighting at the docks, or at least show him doing something on his own. This would have 'shown' us that his inclination was to operate solo.

3. "Mikey, remember the thing you used to say as kids?", "You made me promise never to say it again!" This is 'tell'. It would have been much more engaging to have had Mikey say 'Cowabunga' in the flashback sequence, maybe during buck-buck and Raphael getting stroppy about it. Then this line would have had some purpose other than 'telling' us that Mikey used to say 'Cowabunga'.

These are just a few examples where the writers have used 'tell' rather than 'show'. In fact there are loads more examples. Tell isn't necessary bad writing, just lazy writing.

So no, I don't think the script was well-written. It had its moments, but broadly, writers of this calibre are capable of a lot better.

[Jester]

Originally Posted by jenna

2. Raphael tells his brothers "I'm going out on my own". Again, this is 'tell'. This point could have easily been made if it was just Raphael who was fighting at the docks, or at least show him doing something on his own. This would have 'shown' us that his inclination was to operate solo.

And this is also why it didn't work...because all they did was tell us this....that one time... Very little of Raph's actual motivation is shown in the movie. It also makes whole "I love you guys!!!" bit at the end ring false, because there's little about Raph to make us wonder if he does actually love his bros.

[Machias Banshee]

I'd kinda like to see if some of the writer types here on the forums could get their hands on a copy of the script and do their own rewrite, just to see what other people could come up with...

[Leo656]

Too much of it relied on pre-existing knowledge of the characters and their personalities/history.

[Jester]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Too much of it relied on pre-existing knowledge of the characters and their personalities/history.

When I was discussing the movie with Powder on FB that's exactly what I said. The feeling I had during the lair scene where Splinter is beaten by Shredder while the Turtles watch brokenheartedly wasn't "earned". I felt for the characters because I've been a fan for almost 30 years.

[IndigoErth]

Yeah, pre-existing knowledge...and then turned around and changed some things within the foundation of the entire franchise as if we had no prior knowledge at all and would go unnoticeable.


I don't write too often (and I don't really do fanfic stuff either), but on the occasion I feel inspired to I'm often rereading back a bit from where I left off before. You know, just to refresh the memory of where I'd left off and what was going had recently been going on in the storyline. Some of this movie makes me feel as if no one ever reread anything. Do scripts get editors like books? They really aught to consider one...

[neatoman]

I would actually have to read the script to tell if it was bad, but it probably was. The problems of this movie seems to stem more from the clusterf*ck editing caused by fan uproar and the general behind the scenes meddling. However, yeah the script was probably bad...

[Splint'r]

Originally Posted by jenna

Plot issues and characterisation aside.... There is a principle in writing of 'show, don't tell'. Seeing something happen is much more engaging than being told that it has happened.

For example....

1. April and Vern open the film with a discussion about April wanting to be a serious reporter. This is 'tell'. Had the writers elected simply to let us realise this for ourselves by seeing April's interactions with the dude at the docks and in the news room, this would have been more interesting.

2. Raphael tells his brothers "I'm going out on my own". Again, this is 'tell'. This point could have easily been made if it was just Raphael who was fighting at the docks, or at least show him doing something on his own. This would have 'shown' us that his inclination was to operate solo.

3. "Mikey, remember the thing you used to say as kids?", "You made me promise never to say it again!" This is 'tell'. It would have been much more engaging to have had Mikey say 'Cowabunga' in the flashback sequence, maybe during buck-buck and Raphael getting stroppy about it. Then this line would have had some purpose other than 'telling' us that Mikey used to say 'Cowabunga'.

These are just a few examples where the writers have used 'tell' rather than 'show'. In fact there are loads more examples. Tell isn't necessary bad writing, just lazy writing.

So no, I don't think the script was well-written. It had its moments, but broadly, writers of this calibre are capable of a lot better.

I couldn't have said it any better. All of this. It deserves a Shredder icon.