Post by RedTom on Sept 25, 2014 6:59:20 GMT -5
As one of the original fans of this film/show franchise, I think I should go ahead and give my views on not only the most recent release, but the Ninja Turtle collection as a whole.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Ah, yes, the film that started the turtles on their live-action run. While it didn't exactly break cinema bounds or help revamp the economy, it still brought about an idea that had seldom seen the light of day: A child's film that was made for both adults and kids, brought about in a serious manner. If you look at Masters of the Universe or My Little Pony, you will see that the same respect was never even thought about for them. The film makers were able to translate a ridiculous cartoon idea and put it on the big screen in such a way that not only was it watchable, it was very easy to suspend your disbelieve. You could seriously see all of this happening. The puppet suits were so unbelievably masterful, that even Jim Henson could not believe how amazingly they turned out. The conflict between four turtles, their rat teacher, against a man who dresses in a razorblade suit was so well fleshed out that you found yourself wanting more. Like I said before, though, it was not perfect, there were some deadspaces here and there, and some of the plot convenience walked a razor's edge of Deus Ex Machina. Still, it could have turned out much worse.
Ninja Turtles 2: Secret of the Ooze (1991)
The sequel was so hastily put together in a single year, I am honestly impressed at how well it turned out. Believe me, I know how odd that sounds. It was full of camp, childish humor, crappy one-liners, and cop-outs rehashed from the first movie. Then they had the gal to include a ridiculous dance sequence at the end with world-famous HACK Vanilla Ice. However, as any Turtles fan will tell you, that's half the fun. It was not nearly as terrible as a lot of people made it out to be. If you're willing to dull down your intelligence just a little, you can easily enjoy it, and even find a lot of laughs out of it. Even with the anti-climactic ending, it is still a wonderful viewing if you really would like it to be. It certainly is better than what came next...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 (1993)
One of the very worst things to happen to the franchise, no matter how you look at it. The cheesy one-liners become grating to the senses, the characters are dumbed down into meaningless stereotypes of stereotypes, the plot makes NO sense and is not even written like a real Ninja Turtles movie. Everything about this movie is just insulting to the movie-going public, let alone true-green turtles fans. It features no other characters than your main cast (even Casey Jones makes a return after skipping the second movie, and is given nothing to do) and does not even feature the original Turtle suits from the previous two films, now they look like cheap knockoffs that couldn't emote to save their lives. I could go on and on about how terrible this movie was, but I will just sum it up by saying that it was probably a good thing that this movie killed the film franchise for so many years, if they were this far out of ideas, I would hate to see what came of a fourth installment in this series.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
21 years later, they FINALLY get their wits together and decide to reboot the franchise with another live-action movie. I am going to be truthful, with as much hype and dismay that was wrapped around this movie, I did not have a single idea of what to expect. I came into that theater expecting the very worst that Hollywood had to throw at me. While I was not thrilled to see April O'Neil played by famed premadana, Megan Fox, even she had some dignity to add to this film. They put my mind at ease when we really started to meet our four stars of the show, and how they interacted with each other and in an outward way. Yes, I was very impressed with how well it turned out, but no it was not perfect.
I did not like how they handled Donny's character. Making him far-sighted, giving him extreme-nerd tendencies and making that pretty much the only side to his character was a little distracting every single time you saw him. Mikey stole the entire show, and as my favorite of the turtles, that is really fitting. Once the second act kicked up there he was still cracking the jokes and kicking major ass along with it. Raphael even had his time to shine, and he did so with great gusto. Leo, as usual, is not given much to work with, but still manages to pull off his own part.
There were other elements that they left out, but all of that is forgiven, at least in my eyes. It could have turned out ten times worse than it did and I am extremely grateful for what we received. It is indeed worth seeing in the theaters, and worth purchasing to add to your turtle film collection for all of you true-green fans. Their new look may take some warming up to, but that shouldn't be hard, they are still our green friends that we know and love.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Ah, yes, the film that started the turtles on their live-action run. While it didn't exactly break cinema bounds or help revamp the economy, it still brought about an idea that had seldom seen the light of day: A child's film that was made for both adults and kids, brought about in a serious manner. If you look at Masters of the Universe or My Little Pony, you will see that the same respect was never even thought about for them. The film makers were able to translate a ridiculous cartoon idea and put it on the big screen in such a way that not only was it watchable, it was very easy to suspend your disbelieve. You could seriously see all of this happening. The puppet suits were so unbelievably masterful, that even Jim Henson could not believe how amazingly they turned out. The conflict between four turtles, their rat teacher, against a man who dresses in a razorblade suit was so well fleshed out that you found yourself wanting more. Like I said before, though, it was not perfect, there were some deadspaces here and there, and some of the plot convenience walked a razor's edge of Deus Ex Machina. Still, it could have turned out much worse.
Ninja Turtles 2: Secret of the Ooze (1991)
The sequel was so hastily put together in a single year, I am honestly impressed at how well it turned out. Believe me, I know how odd that sounds. It was full of camp, childish humor, crappy one-liners, and cop-outs rehashed from the first movie. Then they had the gal to include a ridiculous dance sequence at the end with world-famous HACK Vanilla Ice. However, as any Turtles fan will tell you, that's half the fun. It was not nearly as terrible as a lot of people made it out to be. If you're willing to dull down your intelligence just a little, you can easily enjoy it, and even find a lot of laughs out of it. Even with the anti-climactic ending, it is still a wonderful viewing if you really would like it to be. It certainly is better than what came next...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 (1993)
One of the very worst things to happen to the franchise, no matter how you look at it. The cheesy one-liners become grating to the senses, the characters are dumbed down into meaningless stereotypes of stereotypes, the plot makes NO sense and is not even written like a real Ninja Turtles movie. Everything about this movie is just insulting to the movie-going public, let alone true-green turtles fans. It features no other characters than your main cast (even Casey Jones makes a return after skipping the second movie, and is given nothing to do) and does not even feature the original Turtle suits from the previous two films, now they look like cheap knockoffs that couldn't emote to save their lives. I could go on and on about how terrible this movie was, but I will just sum it up by saying that it was probably a good thing that this movie killed the film franchise for so many years, if they were this far out of ideas, I would hate to see what came of a fourth installment in this series.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
21 years later, they FINALLY get their wits together and decide to reboot the franchise with another live-action movie. I am going to be truthful, with as much hype and dismay that was wrapped around this movie, I did not have a single idea of what to expect. I came into that theater expecting the very worst that Hollywood had to throw at me. While I was not thrilled to see April O'Neil played by famed premadana, Megan Fox, even she had some dignity to add to this film. They put my mind at ease when we really started to meet our four stars of the show, and how they interacted with each other and in an outward way. Yes, I was very impressed with how well it turned out, but no it was not perfect.
I did not like how they handled Donny's character. Making him far-sighted, giving him extreme-nerd tendencies and making that pretty much the only side to his character was a little distracting every single time you saw him. Mikey stole the entire show, and as my favorite of the turtles, that is really fitting. Once the second act kicked up there he was still cracking the jokes and kicking major ass along with it. Raphael even had his time to shine, and he did so with great gusto. Leo, as usual, is not given much to work with, but still manages to pull off his own part.
There were other elements that they left out, but all of that is forgiven, at least in my eyes. It could have turned out ten times worse than it did and I am extremely grateful for what we received. It is indeed worth seeing in the theaters, and worth purchasing to add to your turtle film collection for all of you true-green fans. Their new look may take some warming up to, but that shouldn't be hard, they are still our green friends that we know and love.