Pros/Cons of the new film

[Slap-Happy]

What are your pros and cons of the film? What did you like? What did you hate?

[tmntpower2k14]

From another thread where I basically did this:

Originally Posted by tmntpower2k14

SMH @ people acting like Splinter teaching himself ninjitsu post mutation (enhanced abilities / intelligence) is less plausible than a pre-mutated normal rat mimicking a ninja master's moves from a cage.

The movie had flaws. Sevaral in fact. As an adult movie fan, it isn't very good. As a nostalgic turtle fan, it's not that bad, actually pretty good at times. Definitely better than everything else in the series apart from the 1990 original.

For people saying the turtles personalities were one dimensional? We see dimension to them we didn't even in other films. Leo is a leader, who almost feels guilty he's been given the reigns by Splinter. Not a soft leader like the '90 film, and not a total douche like the 2007 animated movie. He's stoic, but he also acts like one of the guys from time to time showing personality. Like when he's dancing.

Raph is the rebel, rude, quick to anger one. Not so much the eager fighter he was in 1990, but he has a soft side underneath his bad ass exterior with his monologue towards the end. That doesn't make him a "softie" that makes him gasp, dimensional. Which the character very much is in the best iterations of the story.

Don is the prototypical dork, but he's able to be comedic as with the pop tarts line on their potential fall to their death. He serves his purpose as the brains in this one better than he did in the Barron film.

The problems I had?

- The edited to death script. One second they call the ooze of alien origin, next it was made for finding cures to illnesses. No longer were they intentionally trying to create super warrior soldiers in the guise of Kappa, which the scroll on Sack's wall originally implied but instead just test subjects? April's dad burned the lab but was also shot to death? What? There was more instances of this through out the movie.
- The over focus on April or humans to start the film. Took too long to see the title characters.
- Didn't mind the militia / terrorist Foot Soldiers. But they were useless in the movie. Karai too.
- It was a quiet movie, with a totally forgettable score. Where was the Skrillex dub step "Reptile" song from the trailers to enhance actions cenes?
- Not enough martial arts scenes for the turtles. They looked cool when we did see them doing it though.
- Shamless plugs for products: Pizza Hut, Crush, etc.
- HATED the turtle van. Reeked of toy selling. And for a movie where they pretty much set these guys in reality. Why would they need it? They're 6'5 with super strength jumping from roof top to roof top. And where would they drive it to and from? How did they get it? Why paint it bright green / yellow with turtle patterns? Plus that big ass missle? IDK ... just couldn't suspend my disbelief.
- NEEDED more time with the turtles themselves. Probably too expensive, but that's why practical suits and dark lighting allowed for more of that in the original. When it's just them on screen they are fantastic.
- Some of the physics in that avalanche scene is ridiculous, even given the nature of the matieral.


Things I liked?
- Love that they were shadowy vigilantes doing good before being discovered.
- References to the 1990 film. Pizza on Splinter, Raph getting ass kicked.
- Japanese Shredder. Who was tall, and even in an over the top modernized Samurai transformer suit was shown to be a really skilled fighter. The scene he's introduced was cool.
- I liked April's connection to the turtles being her former pets, even if contrived.
- The turtles personalities are more individualized than the 1990 film. Particularly Donatello.
- Knockville was surprisingly decent as Leo. I heard Leo, not the guy from Jackass. As did my g/f. Midway through the movie she asked me which one was him.
- Megan Fox was servicable as April. Arnette was actually not as funny as I hoped.
- The humor. Mikey was stand out. I liked his horny teenager shtick in this version. Never understood why the turtles have never been sexual as teenagers in other incarnations.
- The ninja action we did get to see was cool. Splinter was shockingly bad ass. Like Yoda.
- The use of their weapons.
- Turtles themselves looked great. Don't get the CGI complaints.
- Loved the referencing to Batman, Superman, X-Men, just as the original concept of TMNT was intending to mock.
- The climax of the turtles, and April coming together to defeat the Shredder while not being bailed out by Master Splinter was 10x better than the climax of the original.
- Raph's speech was heart warming, and well delivered. Even if the things he said weren't really shown in the movie or earned.
- Turtle kids were cute.
- "MC Mikey ..." hopefully on the Blu Ray we get the extended even goofier dancing.

This film is getting unnecessary piling on from haters. No it isn't TDK trilogy, or Iron Man, or Superman, Avengers or Captain America WS. But it's a pretty entertaining late summer blockbuster. It definitely could've been better, or gone full bore with more intelligent or interesting aspects to the mythos they were portraying. Hell they could've indulged more on the ninja action.

It's a kid film. Not a great one, but a good one. The audience I was with seemed to enjoy themselves both times.

Let me put it this way. TMNT 2014 isn't 20% rotten bad, and Guardians isn't even close to 92% fresh. Both films had charming characters, a true sense of brotherhood. Both suffer from an over the top, corny, cliched, nonsensical down right stupid plot at times. Yet, in this case Marvel Studios can do no wrong.

I've seen it twice now, here's how I'd rank:

1990: 9/10
2014: 8/10
SOTO: 6/10
2007: 5/10
III: 5/10

What they do well, is great. What they do bad, is putrid. BTW, hello. New to the boards. Hope everyone enjoys seeing this in theaters this weekend. Love reading everyone's thoughts.

[Slap-Happy]

PROS:

- The personalities of Raph/Leo/Don.
- The voices of the turtles, specifically Knoxville as Leo.
- The turtle designs.
- The fight scenes.
- Splinter using his tail offensively.
- The Shredder (out of costume).
- The montage of growing up in the sewers.
- Megan Fox, actually. She did well with what she had.
- "Who put you in charge?" "You know who did."

CONS

- Sacks' plan makes no sense
- The film feels heavily edited
- Some of Mikey. He's either fine, or one of the most annoying interpretations of him.
- The exclusion of Yoshi and Saki.
- Buck buck.
- The scene where Raph flexes and all of the bullets pop out of his skin.
- April causes most of the problems for the Turtles, and they're all friends in the end.
- The mention of saying Cowabunga when they were kids, even though there was no set up for it.
- Raph's speech at the end feels unearned.
- Raphael needs almost no convincing from Splinter to leave him.
- Raph's shell is cracked, but that doesn't really matter outside of a throwaway line.
- Splinter learning/teaching Ninjutsu from an instructional book.
- The effects were very video game-y
- Splinter using his tail to hold up Raph by the throat. Felt uncharacteristic.
- Shaloub is generic and boring as Splinter.
- Sacks' plan starts up again the moment he finds out the turtles are alive. It's as if the lab fire never happened.
- Sacks' plan is not very well thought out. The cloud of gas was being released above his building.
- The Shredder's magnetic rocket blades.
- The Shredder looked like Megatron.
- The opening credits that seem like a cartoon opening and don't add anything to the film.
- Splinter's vendetta is unexplained.
- It isn't explained how the mutagen works outside of having "regenerative" properties. No explanation for the intellect/growth of the turtles and Splinter.
- The goddamn product placement. The billboard for Project Almanac made me groan out loud.

I'm sure there are more here.

[Warhorse]

Wow. Where to start.

OK.
Pros:
The Turtles personalities and the voices.
I liked their heights (6'+) Always preferred them to be taller than they are in canon.
I liked Megan Fox just fine.
The snow scene, was attention grabbing.
Raph's "do-rag"
Seeing snippets of Leo without the mask.
Glad they took out Leo twerking.
They finally decided to make a PG-13 TMNT movie.


Cons:
Shaky cam/ quick and rushed edits. Hated it with a passion. Made the fight scenes look horrible. Really, why couldn't we get a camera that stood still, and let the stunt actors show their sh!t instead of hiding it with shaky cam. I never understood this fad that has taken over the action movie industry. Nobody likes it.

Vernon. Guy was just a waste of space for me.

The taking out the Turtle's origins to Ninjitsu. The whole learning from a book and the omission of Splinter was just so cheap. The sad thing is, they still could have used their main plot, and easily stuck in Yoshi. Simple, Yoshi is part of Shredder's Foot clan, and he forms a friendship with Mr O Niel, and when they learn what the Shredder is going to do, they go ahead and destroy the lab. Sach's men find out, rush in to stop it. Yoshi helps little April get all of the animals out of their cages, the animal he touches the most are the lab rats, and then, that's when a fight breaks out between Yoshi and the Foot, and Yoshi gets the last vile of ooze spilled on him. He turns into a mutated rat, and then rushes to get April and the Turtles out of there. He takes the Turtles and tells April to go to the police, and then he fades away into the sewers. But there, easy fix, you got Yoshi, the Shredder rivalry, and Yoshi not losing his master, but a good friend of his.

I just can't buy these Turtles are 15, they look like they are more 17-18.

Karai was just so underused. No character development at all.

The Turtles, lack of quality development time. The Nick toon is guilty of this too alot, it's like, they are filming the Turtles with the thought that people with ADD are the majority who are watching, and if the Turtles don't consist of a scene that is action packed, rush through it as quickly as possible. Sorry, but in the 1990 movie, scenes where Donny talks to Mikey about Splinter passing away, Splinter's heart to heart talk with Raph, Leo and Raph's fights and make-ups, overall brother bonding time, moments like that are what makes the action scenes more intense. Sure, they had the personalities, but I still feel like I didn't know these Turtles.

The designs. While I actually prefer the Turtles tall, Leo, Donny and Mikey were OK in the muscle department, I just thought Raph was too damn big. I also thought the shells were too cumbersome. And I still can't get over how effing ugly they got Mikey.

The action scenes, I still feel like I didn't get much weapon use in this. Is this always going to be the case, a movie featuring Ninja Turtles, is going to be as sparse as possible in showing the Ninja aspect? Eh, who knows, maybe they did use them more than I saw, like I said in my first complaint. The shaky cam was real bad in this. And while there were a lot of action scenes, the fight scenes I thought were too short, and kind of sucked.

And, what's with all of these scenes that were cut? Really? Is this something that occurs when studios meddle in with projects like this. We know they like the kids stuff to be short as possible, and hey, if they are going to cut stuff out, lets cut out the stuff that's going to incorporate more expensive CGI, like Raph seeing Dora.

Films like this, leave one so disappointed, because you know that something way better could have been produced.

[TigerClaw]

The Ooze being used to cure illness is actually in the IDW comics.

[ScrewtheMirageTMNT]

Pros:
-Logical
-Faithfulness
-Cinematography
-Action
-Special effects
-Acting
-Humor working at times
-Drama
-Range of emotion
-Delivery of dialog
-The tone wasn't moderately cheesy
-Pacing of the movie wasn't too bad
-Had a degree of realism
-There was a sense of continuity
-Intelligence
-Had unpredictable bits
-The main characters were likable in terms of personality
-The designs of shredder, the turtles, and splinter
-Pay offs being present
-The sound effects didn't sound bad at all
-Editing

[Jester]

Originally Posted by ScrewtheMirageTMNT

Pros:
-Logical
-Faithfulness
-Cinematography
-Action
-Special effects
-Acting
-Humor working at times
-Drama
-Range of emotion
-Delivery of dialog
-The tone wasn't moderately cheesy
-Pacing of the movie wasn't too bad
-Had degree of realism
-There was a sense of continuity
-Intelligence
-Had unpredictable bits
-The main characters were likable

So....not one con?

[ScrewtheMirageTMNT]

Originally Posted by Jester

So....not one con?

I had issues with the movie, but I touched on what I thought were cons in the review thread. Man, I am not feeling this "shredder is transformerish" issue at all. That's like reaching, the transformers are bigger and are made out of a **** load of parts, shredder, you could make him out cause he wasn't ridiculously heavily designed.

[Werecat]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

The Ooze being used to cure illness is actually in the IDW comics.

It is! Interesting. So the origin is just a poor representation of IDW's origin.

[Jester]

Originally Posted by Werecat

It is! Interesting. So the origin is just a poor representation of IDW's origin.

A lot of the "changes" are pulled from IDW.

[CombatColdCuts]

They really missed an opportunity here by letting Michael Bay touch this movie. They could have made it a badass trilogy like Nolan's Batman. Why can't they ever make an origins movie? In the 1990 movie and this one they have scenes where they elude to their backstory. I would like to see a trilogy where they set it up with one movie (the backstory) which would allow for great character development. The second movie would be a face-off between their enemies the foot clan/Karai/Shredder and the third would be the climax where Shredder makes Bebop and Rocksteady and they have a huge action-packed battle to end all battles.

[ScrewtheMirageTMNT]

Oh god, not more of this it should be like nolan crap. **** nolan, I don't want him touching a comic book movie ever again. Any who, moving on, I must confess that I liked it better when Eric's last name was spelt sachs.

[Werecat]

Why does no one mention How to Train Your Dragon! That trilogy is amazing. It is a movie for all ages and doesn't shy away from taking itself seriously or showing death and it uses natural light. Natural light! Tired of artificially, well lit sewers.

[Jester]

How To Train Your Dragon trilogy?

[CombatColdCuts]

Originally Posted by ScrewtheMirageTMNT

Oh god, not more of this it should be like nolan crap. **** nolan, I don't want him touching a comic book movie ever again. Any who, moving on, I must confess that I liked it better when Eric's last name was spelt sachs.

I didn't mean it should be like Nolan's films but I like the idea of having a trilogy that features an origin story and comes full circle in the final movie. All TMNT movies are the same, they go nowhere (except the first one).

[Werecat]

Originally Posted by Jester

How To Train Your Dragon trilogy?

Oops, not trilogy. I meant the How To Train Your Dragon 1 & 2. Very good movie that I think TMNT should look to for some notes. Such as natural light and confidence to explore dark themes creatively.

[Jester]

You could count the series, I guess. That is if it's the same tone as the films.

[Purse Grabbin Puke]

Here's a con to the 1990 movie and the new movie...why does Leo need to cut the pizza? What pizza place doesn't slice the pizza before delivery?

[FakeBritishAccent]

Originally Posted by floydbanks7

Here's a con to the 1990 movie and the new movie...why does Leo need to cut the pizza? What pizza place doesn't slice the pizza before delivery?

Exactly this

I agree with most of the pros that others have said as well as most of the cons. It still added up to a win for me. But now that it's looking like a hit, let's hope part two gets the "Empire" treatment.

[ScrewtheMirageTMNT]

Originally Posted by floydbanks7

Here's a con to the 1990 movie and the new movie...why does Leo need to cut the pizza? What pizza place doesn't slice the pizza before delivery?

He must have done it cause it wasn't pre-cut.