I cannot take it anymore. No, I'm not referring to Michael Bay. I have no issues with him. He was nothing but a co-producer. What I can't take is how lovers of this movie can't see what was wrong with it. I'm a long time turtles fan. Born in the 80s, grew up on the TV show, seen all movies and series, and had many action-figures. This movie was disappointing. I'm not saying it's terrible and normally I don't really agree with critics, but this time, I'm inclined to. It simply wasn't that great. Here are the reasons why:
1 - This is the biggest mistake of the movie of which I still can't understand how they didn't realize it. The back-story/history between Yamato Yoshi and Shredder. There was no mention of Yoshi. Splinter was nothing but a NYC rat, experimented on with the 4 turtles. They escaped a fire and found themselves in the sewer. Why does Splinter have a Japanese style moustache and know everything about the shredder? Sacks mentioned a bit about Shredders rival clan back in Japan never went into details nor gave any indication that the rat was there or would've known anything about it. This rivalry is one of the main plot points in the history of TMNT and they took it out.
2 - The Ninja turtles are the main characters in TMNT, not Megan Fox. She had way more face time than any of the turtles. I can't even think if Leo of Donnie had more than 10 lines.
3 - Yes 3D is neat, but it's been years since we've developed it. Watching the massive overuse of close-ups and slow motion 3D was almost as painful as the slow motion action scenes in the last resident evil movies. I read one critic review mention around 800 close-up shots of Megan fox's lips. He could be right.
4 - The plot was completely generic and unoriginal. Evil man wants to release Bio chemical weapon so he can be the hero by selling the cure, making billions of dollars. Yeah, that's never been done before.
5 - Mutagen is the cure for everything? Let's pretend I buy that. Why does Donnie require eye glasses? Along with Donnie's glasses, a list of other things that made little sense. Splinter teaching himself Ninjutsu from some dirty book he finds in the sewer, somehow becomes some ninja master capable of fighting the Shredder, because remember, he's not Yamato Yoshi like he's supposed to be, nor did he have him train him as a pet rat, like the old 1990 movie did. The amount of times Shredder threatens to kill them, the amount of chances he had, yet he does not. Shooting blades from his X-men style silver samurai armour(that fly back and reattach by the way) while fighting splinter. Then just punch-stabs him once and tosses him down. Later fighting Raf, threatening to kill him. Just cracks his shell and walks away. The ridiculous fight scene, consisting of a semi being drive down an extremely steep, snowy mountain side. Not once coming close to losing its balance or crashing. With the turtles sliding down the mountain on their shells, keeping up with the speeding vehicles and staying ahead of the avalanche they cause. April trying to convince her boss of these human-sized ninja turtle teenagers. She actually has a decent photograph but doesn't show her and gets fired. Tracking Aprils GPS deep into the sewer. Normally many cell phones lose service just by being in a basement, let alone 50 feet below the surface. Wireless signals don't go through solid objects so well, especially the ground and dozens of feet of concrete. The ninja turtles are invincible now too. Bullets don't even penetrate.
6 - The sexual objectification of Megan Fox. The many close ups, although nice to some, not really ideal for a PG13 audience.
7 - The time-line. The movie was rushed, short intro, abrupt ending, with the simple and generic plot.
8 - Choice of actors. Arnett was the best choice for his role compared to others. He gave the little bit of comic-relief that was believable of an April O'Neil camera man. The turtles voices were okay, although I don't know how they came up with Knoxville as Leo. Megan Fox, I gave the benefit of the doubt, but didn't seem like an April to me. I found out that Anna Kendrick and Jane Levy had tried out for the role. Either one would've been a better choice.
9 - My last point is Hollywood in general. They seem more concerned about finding ways to maximize profit as opposed actually making really decent or epic movies. It just seems like they chose to do TMNT knowing how popular it already was anyways, then not really care how good of a job they did. In the end, it will likely make half a billion over a year anyways. Many movies lately are nothing but big names, product placement, and the mention of famous producers/directors. My dislike of this movie had nothing to do with BAY as the lovers of the movie seem to think. There's 5 other producers and 4 executive producers. People should realize that someone can like/ dislike movies for simply being what they are and have nothing to do with who's in it or who made it. I gave a 6 because it's still slightly entertaining but I couldn't bring myself to giving it a 7. That would require at least a good solid movie with nowhere near as many mistakes.
1 - This is the biggest mistake of the movie of which I still can't understand how they didn't realize it. The back-story/history between Yamato Yoshi and Shredder. There was no mention of Yoshi. Splinter was nothing but a NYC rat, experimented on with the 4 turtles. They escaped a fire and found themselves in the sewer. Why does Splinter have a Japanese style moustache and know everything about the shredder? Sacks mentioned a bit about Shredders rival clan back in Japan never went into details nor gave any indication that the rat was there or would've known anything about it. This rivalry is one of the main plot points in the history of TMNT and they took it out.
2 - The Ninja turtles are the main characters in TMNT, not Megan Fox. She had way more face time than any of the turtles. I can't even think if Leo of Donnie had more than 10 lines.
3 - Yes 3D is neat, but it's been years since we've developed it. Watching the massive overuse of close-ups and slow motion 3D was almost as painful as the slow motion action scenes in the last resident evil movies. I read one critic review mention around 800 close-up shots of Megan fox's lips. He could be right.
4 - The plot was completely generic and unoriginal. Evil man wants to release Bio chemical weapon so he can be the hero by selling the cure, making billions of dollars. Yeah, that's never been done before.
5 - Mutagen is the cure for everything? Let's pretend I buy that. Why does Donnie require eye glasses? Along with Donnie's glasses, a list of other things that made little sense. Splinter teaching himself Ninjutsu from some dirty book he finds in the sewer, somehow becomes some ninja master capable of fighting the Shredder, because remember, he's not Yamato Yoshi like he's supposed to be, nor did he have him train him as a pet rat, like the old 1990 movie did. The amount of times Shredder threatens to kill them, the amount of chances he had, yet he does not. Shooting blades from his X-men style silver samurai armour(that fly back and reattach by the way) while fighting splinter. Then just punch-stabs him once and tosses him down. Later fighting Raf, threatening to kill him. Just cracks his shell and walks away. The ridiculous fight scene, consisting of a semi being drive down an extremely steep, snowy mountain side. Not once coming close to losing its balance or crashing. With the turtles sliding down the mountain on their shells, keeping up with the speeding vehicles and staying ahead of the avalanche they cause. April trying to convince her boss of these human-sized ninja turtle teenagers. She actually has a decent photograph but doesn't show her and gets fired. Tracking Aprils GPS deep into the sewer. Normally many cell phones lose service just by being in a basement, let alone 50 feet below the surface. Wireless signals don't go through solid objects so well, especially the ground and dozens of feet of concrete. The ninja turtles are invincible now too. Bullets don't even penetrate.
6 - The sexual objectification of Megan Fox. The many close ups, although nice to some, not really ideal for a PG13 audience.
7 - The time-line. The movie was rushed, short intro, abrupt ending, with the simple and generic plot.
8 - Choice of actors. Arnett was the best choice for his role compared to others. He gave the little bit of comic-relief that was believable of an April O'Neil camera man. The turtles voices were okay, although I don't know how they came up with Knoxville as Leo. Megan Fox, I gave the benefit of the doubt, but didn't seem like an April to me. I found out that Anna Kendrick and Jane Levy had tried out for the role. Either one would've been a better choice.
9 - My last point is Hollywood in general. They seem more concerned about finding ways to maximize profit as opposed actually making really decent or epic movies. It just seems like they chose to do TMNT knowing how popular it already was anyways, then not really care how good of a job they did. In the end, it will likely make half a billion over a year anyways. Many movies lately are nothing but big names, product placement, and the mention of famous producers/directors. My dislike of this movie had nothing to do with BAY as the lovers of the movie seem to think. There's 5 other producers and 4 executive producers. People should realize that someone can like/ dislike movies for simply being what they are and have nothing to do with who's in it or who made it. I gave a 6 because it's still slightly entertaining but I couldn't bring myself to giving it a 7. That would require at least a good solid movie with nowhere near as many mistakes.