But, after a little more than a year since the announcement that production is under way, we finally have our first look at the movie. And...
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Wait for it...
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It doesn't look that bad...
From the first look, we can already see it has it's set of problems: subtlety has pretty much gone out the window, cookie-cutter Transformers-style chaos fills almost the entire scene, unnecessary lens flares, unnecessary origin change (anytime I think about combating crime, I know my first thought is purposely exposing reptiles to toxic waste), the fact that Megan Fox is April and so much more.
But the turtles themselves seem pretty intact. Their personalities are there (at least, Mikey's is) and they look pretty damn good. I really like the look of the "raggy" headbands; after all, they are sewer mutants, so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that their headbands would be made of torn-up recycled tshirts.
Of course, ignorant media outlets with no real insight into the franchise have to chime in. The Hollywood Reporter referred to the trailer as "what we'd expect from a regular superhero movie", and went onto say this might actually be a "good turtles movie", insinuating that one has never existed.
First off, we already have a "good turtles movie"; it was made in 1990 and it's still amazing even today. Secondly, the turtles were never "regular" superheroes in the first place, but by trying to portray them as such, most of the magic that made the turtles unique in the first place is taken away. Remember in TMNT '90 when April was about to be attacked by The Foot in the subway? It wasn't the first reveal of the turtles in the movie, but it helped play a big part of their build-up in the trailer. Remember how you felt when you saw Raphael slowly pick up the sai off the ground? It was like, "Oh shit, that's Raf! It's about to go down!" There didn't need to be mass panic and shit flying everywhere to convey the build-up. But now, that's what's there; violent flashes blasting the screen with Megan Fox's stupid face filling the frame as she tries to poorly convey an amazed and curious expression in the loudest way possible. Like I said: subtlety is out the window, and it's a damn shame.
Then again, it is being produced by Michael Bay (and producer is higher than director, in case you wanna argue that point).
Anyway, it was only about a minute and a half, and while we still have to wait (and pray) to see if things get better, that small clip still spoke volumes. While working on the awesome designs, they should have at least tried working on a closer-to-property story.
And if they still turn out to be aliens, so help me God...
What did you guys think? Did it look at all promising, or have you already tapped out and given up hope?
I maintain that Shredder was talking about the ooze and not creating the turtles themselves. Maybe he wanted to create mutant heroes and one of the canisters fell into the sewer by accident, which is not too far from lore considering Shredder dumped the ooze on Yoshi in the cartoon.
ReplyDeleteI'll argue you this, producer was filming his own movie (TF4) half way across the nation at the same time of this film's filming and infact both films were slated by paramount to come out the same month....
ReplyDeleteAlso never a judge a trailer as how the film will go, because everything I repeat EVERYTHING you said that's usually in a bay film trailer is in (Marvel's) the Avengers very first trailer( slow mo as uneeded explosions happen, city scape shot, action scene where you can't really tell what's going on and gives you quick glimpses of fights) and is the style ALOT of Hollywood blockbusters.
Also they did stick pretty close to something similar to the IDW series (which is awesome and is ALSO BEING SUPERVISED BY KEVIN EASTMAN, which should hint that maybe the script may be taking from that.) where Splinter is being expriemented on and the turtles are due for the same treatment until foot ninjas try to break in and steal research that leads to the rat and four turtles getting accidently exposed to mutagen.
I suspect we'll see more IDW elements namely that Eric Sachs is Oroku Saki reincarnated ala IDW's Splinter and the turtles being Hamoto Yoshi and his sons who were executed by Shredder(who was revived to his youthful state in the modern day through magic by his grand Daughter Oroku Karai) .
Also I tend to look at the actual finished product over the pieces that come out, I will be vocal about my dislike, however I am someone who doesn't mind differences in origins as LONG AS IT'S DONE WELL. Say what you will about the script you saw (which I haven't seen and don't care to), it isn't the script that was shot even if it's the same writers. which if show shows how much their talent is all over the place (as the leading two writers who were brought in on june 2011 were the guys behind M:I4 and the TV series ALIAS) , so quality could have dramatically risen between drafts. I am of the wait and see approach mainly because I expected Man of steel to suck way more than it did but Synder managed to do his best with the mess of the script given (David S. Goyer is a writer you need to get on about quality of script)
ReplyDeletesorry made an error meant to say "Which if it is, shows how much their talent is all over the place."
DeleteAlso additional information: TF4 filmed from May to October, with additional doing in "early 2014" . TMNT filmed from March to August and just like TF4 Reshoots were confirmed to be happening between January and early April with Megan Fox returning to set after giving birth on April first(humor is not lost on me).
Film was shit, no character development, poor camera work on the action and bad acting
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