Hey Scott,
With the new Ninja Turtles trailer recently out, I was curious if you (or the BODers) had any interest in the franchise in general and/or the upcoming film. I'm a proud Turtle fan (can't be any more embarrassing than being a wrestling fan, I suppose), and I don't know about anyone else but I'm more than excited for the new film. I have a love/hate relationship with Michael Bay, but here he seems to have something interesting going.
I'm currently reading through the Ultimate Visual History book than just came out, and I encourage any Turtle fan to pick it up.
I'm not really in the right demographic to be super-nostalgic about the Turtles, as I was a bit too old for the movies and a bit too young to get into the original comics. My daughter really likes the TMNT movie from a few years back, though.
That said my review of Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark on Xbox One should be coming soon.
ReplyDeleteLoved the Turtles as a kid, no real interest in the franchise moving forward. I'm more interested in the new MMPR movie reboot than this.
ReplyDeleteThe Ninja Rap from TMNT II really taught me a lot about being a better man.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Now we get another line of whiny assholes claiming "Michael Bay is raping my childhood".
ReplyDeleteSo long as William Fichtner and Will Arnett are allowed to carry the new Turtles movie, it would be a great movie, but I doubt that would be the case. Still gonna watch though as I'm a huge Turtles mark, but nothing will ever top Turtles Forever.
ReplyDeleteIf Kevin Nash isn't playing Shredder, no thanks.
ReplyDeleteLoved the cartoon and the arcade game. Haven't cared since. Saw one of the movies from back in the day and wasn't overly impressed. Don't have an interest in this but hope you guys enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteWill Arnett is the most overrated POS, ever. The only things he's ever been good in are 30 Rock and Arrested Development, which no surprise have great casts and mask his weaknesses as an actor.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not a fan of the Turtles franchise I can understand you not caring, but if you're a fan, how can you hate the movie?
ReplyDeleteI agree AD is his best work and his other sitcoms have been pretty bad, but I think that's mostly the fault of the script writers. Arnett has a certain charm that can make bad scripts tolerable and when he's given something good, that's where he really shines.
ReplyDeleteThe 2007 movie was pretty bad, don't judge the franchise reboot on that please. The first couple of seasons of the 2003 series were pretty good and I've only watched parts of the new 2012 series, but from what I've seen, it looks even better.
ReplyDeleteFichtner > Nash and this is coming from a Nash fan.
ReplyDeleteBecause it treated the 87 Turtles like a complete joke. Yes I realize the show was goofy but to me it almost felt mean spirited in how they were handled and how the 03 versions were just so much cooler and competent. The only part I liked besides the 84 versions showing up was the 87 Splinter scene because, GASP!, they treated him with care and reverence.
ReplyDeleteAnd 87 Shredder threatening them with a tickle gun? Relly?
Funny thing is Shredder now looks 8 feet tall in the new version.
ReplyDeleteNever watched the 2003 show, but from what I've seen of the new show, I like it.
ReplyDeleteI can sort of understand your point, but they also made fun of the 03 versions too and the original comic book versions were treated with the most respect in the movie. Plus don't forget, it was Bebop and Rocksteady that saved the day in the end so it's not like they totally bured the 87 series.
ReplyDeleteShredder looks cgi. I hope that's not the case.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Haven't really thought about TMNT for 20 years aside from various Turtles songs (the cartoon theme song and some sort of rap - NOT the Vanilla Ice version) still being stuck in my head and my parents asking what I want to do with a bunch of old toys. Live action just looks weird to me.
ReplyDeleteI just did not like how mostly out of character the 87 versions were besides Krang and Splinter but to each their own.
ReplyDeleteBeen a fan of the Turtles mythos for quite a long time. I don't think the original cartoons have aged well, but I still love the first two live action films and the original comics. I liked parts of the 2003 revived series, though I thought it got too silly after awhile.
ReplyDeleteI REALLY like the new series that Nickelodeon has been doing. It's a great mix of the sillier stuff from the 80s cartoons, a bit of the live action mythos, and a bit of the 2003 mythos and STILL manages to do its on thing on top of all that. There's a lot to like in the current cartoon, honestly, and as a long-time Turtles fan, I recommend it.
On the other hand, I have absolutely no interest in the upcoming movie. They lost my interest with both Michael Bay and Megan Fox.
Maybe all that hardware is for making coleslaw?
ReplyDeleteLOVED the hell out of Turtles Forever. The only thing missing from it was the original voice actors for the 80s Turtles. Which is funny, because the Nickelodeon movie did something kind of similar and actually DID get all four original actors. One out of three was easy, since the original voice for Raphael does Donatello in the new series.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I didn't like was them not getting Uncle Phil to do the voice over for Shredder.
ReplyDeleteGet out.
ReplyDeleteI liked the TMNT animated movie that the Weinstein Company put out a few years ago. I thought it was pretty clever and did some creative things and didn't rely on Shredder, which was interesting.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, you know which episode that was? Gonna have to watch that.
ReplyDeleteThe finale for the second season. Honestly, the whole series has been worth a watch so far.
ReplyDeleteI make my case below and stand by my opinions.
ReplyDeleteAlso the AVGN guy does a fantastic retrospective over at cinemassacre.com
ReplyDeleteI don't know why people are worried about Bay's involvement in the new movie, since he's just a producer and not the director.
ReplyDeleteEh, I don't know if I entirely agree. I think they treated the 87 Turtles with just as much respect. They were goofier than their modern counterparts and relied more on beating enemies with anything but their weapons, which was par for the course in the original show (moreso later episodes, due to censorships and parent groups).
ReplyDeleteI actually loved that Shredder and Krang were bumbling buffoons in comparison to the uber-badass Utron Shredder.
Have you ever looked at the director's IMDB page? It doesn't exactly fill me with any confidence. At least Bay has done a couple of decent or great movies like The Rock or Pain & Gain.
ReplyDeleteTNMT isnt exactly high art. Michael Bay is the exact guy you hire for a movie like this.
ReplyDeleteNeither is Transformers, but those have been TERRIBLE. They're not even fun in a simplistic way like Pacific Rim.
ReplyDeleteI was an insanely big fan of the cartoon, and I liked the first couple of movies well enough. I actually thought the movie from several years back was okayish, although I guess I'm in the minority on that. I'll probably see this at some point, either in theatre or on DVD.
ReplyDeleteHavent watched any of the Transformers, so I wouldn't know.
ReplyDeleteI would have preferred if the 87 Shredder was treated with a little more respect just so they could do a big fight scene with the 2 Shredders, which would have been pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteYou're better off, believe me. Though to be fair, they do have their moments.
ReplyDelete1 was okay, but ran WAY too long with far too many subplots and side characters (like hackers and the military guys). If they'd focused the story on just the boy and his robot, it might've been slightly better.
3 ran too long, but the action in the last 30-45 minutes are great.
2 is an abomination of cinema and should've been nuked from orbit just to be sure.
That's fair, but you can't argue that the 87 Shredder really was a buffoon for the most part. He was a badass at first, yeah, but as the series went on, he became more and more a joke.
ReplyDeleteI mean, yeah, he threatened them with a tickle guy, but he also opened up his own Ninja Pizza place to get at the Turtles. He had plenty of stupid plans in the original show, too.
Yeah that's the problem wth Shredder, not just with the 87 version but the 03 one too. The longer he sticks around and the more of his plans end up being foiled the more credibility he loses.
ReplyDeleteDid you know Eastman & Laird didn't even intend or want him to be a recurring villain? Hell, the Turtles kill him off in the very first issue of the comic. They never intended to bring him back. But then the rights were bought, the cartoon got huge, so they brought him back.
ReplyDeleteMegan Fox as April O'Neil is the worst miscasting since the time Ridley Scott directed a romantic comedy starring Russell Crowe. She is as far as an April should look, unless you're referring to the porn star. That alone killed all interest, although the deranged-looking Turtles (are they trying to out-strange Michael Keaton's Jack Frost decable?) could've done it as well.
ReplyDeleteThe 1990 movie is enough as a Turtles movie as I'll ever need, although I enjoyed bits of the 2007 film, esp. the Leo/Raph fight.
I never read the original comics but did hear how they killed him off in the first issue. But forget about merchandise reasoning, Turtles need Shredder because he's like the only cool villain they have. They tried pushing Shredder's daughter and Agent Bishop as the new main villains, but just didn't work.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna stick my neck out and say I actually enjoyed the Transformers movies. I pretty much got what I expected out of them.
ReplyDeleteMotion sickness? That's what I got just trying to follow the action. It was like they filmed two blobs of unidentifiable metals with a camera strapped to the back of a rabid dog having a seizure.
ReplyDeleteI might actually check that out on my Kindle. Although I still need to read the second Dresden Files, Words of Radience, and American Gods novel.
ReplyDeleteDoes it help if I say that if you like the Dresden Files, you'll like this? *grin*
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, even I'd pick Jim Butcher and Neil Gaiman over my stuff. Take you time.
I never saw or cared about the Transformers growing up but the movies are horrific.
ReplyDeleteTo quote Roger Ebert, "There's still a difference between a good popcorn movie and a bad popcorn movie." A film does not get a pass because of its source material or its aim, but how entertaining it is, and summer filler can still fall short of a mindless entertainment ("Green Lantern"). The source material doesn't have to be the greatest, but there's enough there to make a fun film out of (the 1990 TMNT movie), but Bay's Transformers are overly long and focuses too much on lame, annoying human characters (165 MINUTE RUN TIME, PEOPLE) when it should be a brisk 100-minute rollercoaster of Autobots vs. Decepticons. Before anything was announced, I kept an open mind, then Megan Fox was announced as April -- a complete antithesis to the character in every way -- and yeah, "rape my childhood" is hyperbole, but it is not to simply say it just looks like a plain unappealing movie.
ReplyDeleteI'm tired of people trying to give movies like the TF series a pass because "they're not teaching life lessons" or whatever, because there's still basics to filmmaking that are needed to make an entertaining movie, regardless of what its origins are, who's behind it, etc. I know Michael Bay is capable of a good thrill ride -- "The Rock" is still a superior action-thriller -- but his overlong, crass, intolerable films that sit out the Transformers as supporting players until the final half hour just makes 2.5 hours of dullness. And as a moviegoer, that's not out of bounds to say "no" to that, regardless of its aims.
You know what I expect? Just a movie that keeps my interest for a while. And these films can't even clear that (Transformers 2 remains the only film where I've fallen asleep in the theater).
No prob. I'll probably read your book before WoR because it's like 1000 pages long and Brandon Sanderson isn't a fan of editing.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness I liked Way of Kings and so far WoR.
Real Steel also kicked the shit of TF. I had more fun with the last 20ish minutes than that than any of the 500+ minutes of TF (not even counting the fourth movie in that runtime total, holy shit).
ReplyDeleteI only watched secret of the ooze or whatever it's called. Have had zero desire to see the rest. It's one of those things I grew out of and never looked back.
ReplyDeleteI can't get with live action either. Smurfs, G.I. Joe, Transformers and what ever else has come out. Just doesn't move me.
ReplyDeleteYou're good people.
ReplyDeleteI'm almost 30, so the right age to be swept up in the original TMNT mania. I liked Turtles Forever as an homage to the entire franchise.
ReplyDeleteThe Nick cartoon is really well done, with a nice mix of action and humor. I'm TBD on the Bay movie.
Having just joined the rest of the developed world in watching AD, I thought that exact same thing. I hadn't seen him in anything I enjoyed, but his work on Arrested is fucking amazing. I think I hate Blades of Glory even more now.
ReplyDelete