Good evening,
I don't usually leave reviews but I felt impelled to after seeing this film.
I'm a big turtles fan, I was a kid during turtlemania. Team Mikey personally. However, where The TV series seem to be able to do it the films just don't.
But this one, sigh...this one looked like it might just be amazing. 'Written by fans' always fills me with hope, and it's by no means an awful film, but there are too many bits that grated.
In no particular order:
The turtle brothers' personalities aren't as clearly defined in this version, in my opinion. To be fair I thought Leo was pretty well done, a bit more mature than the others, level headed. And Raph, hot head, fists firsts, decent. Mike and D though...Donatello liked anime...Mikey liked improv......I thought this aspect of the writing was lazy, especially since the characters were already written for them!!
Splinter...Not Japanese, not a ninja master (or the pet rat of a ninja master)...seemingly a Chinese rat who taught the turtles ninja skills off of YouTube or summat! I get it, it's a tongue in cheek version of summat that itself was a tongue in cheek version of something else. But still...being a ninja is more than just the fighting, and personally I prefer the wisdom of the usual Splinter. Just another change that doesn't need to exist...in some ways it's a distraction in the story that needs explaining.
Bebop and Rocksteady are friendly mutants...I'll just leave that there...
There was other stuff, but for me these are basics. Turtles already has a solid foundation, just a bit more imagination and they could've been put in a great story,,,and dare I say a bit more effort and it could've been a better script, not as funny or clever as I'd hoped it would be.
Good bits...thought it was cast well, particularly the turtles. Good camaraderie. Paul Rudd always delivers.
The animation was fantastic. I'm a bit of an animation nerd and this was right up my street. Shout out to spiderverse too which is an example of some groundbreaking animation but spiderverse also nailed it on story and character and everything really.
The fight scene against the baddies who stole April's bike was brilliant, in fact a lot of the action scenes were pretty great, there just weren't enough of them.
Now...I've been quite dour about it...and like I say, it's OK, just not good enough in my opinion. However, I got straight on the internet when I got home to check if there was a sequel and apparently there is. There'll be a TV series which acts as a bridge between this film and the sequel. So, without the benefit of future hindsight or present foresight, there's a chance all this can be saved, maybe this film is just a warm-up to some fantastic ideas down the road. Maybe the turtles have little to no recognisable personality because why would they having grown up alone together...maybe when they go through the TV show, where apparently they go their own separate ways (a change I'm open to, along with the fact they're in high school, as long as it's done well), they become more like their older versions...maybe Donatello does machines later on, as well as watching anime...who knows...so I live in perpetual hope that someone somewhere nails a TMNT film...apparently some of the guys involved in Turtles TV series 2012 are involved in this later stuff and I thought that TV series was brilliant...
In the meantime I should write my own eh, and stop whining about a kids' film in my late 30s......
Peace.
I don't usually leave reviews but I felt impelled to after seeing this film.
I'm a big turtles fan, I was a kid during turtlemania. Team Mikey personally. However, where The TV series seem to be able to do it the films just don't.
But this one, sigh...this one looked like it might just be amazing. 'Written by fans' always fills me with hope, and it's by no means an awful film, but there are too many bits that grated.
In no particular order:
The turtle brothers' personalities aren't as clearly defined in this version, in my opinion. To be fair I thought Leo was pretty well done, a bit more mature than the others, level headed. And Raph, hot head, fists firsts, decent. Mike and D though...Donatello liked anime...Mikey liked improv......I thought this aspect of the writing was lazy, especially since the characters were already written for them!!
Splinter...Not Japanese, not a ninja master (or the pet rat of a ninja master)...seemingly a Chinese rat who taught the turtles ninja skills off of YouTube or summat! I get it, it's a tongue in cheek version of summat that itself was a tongue in cheek version of something else. But still...being a ninja is more than just the fighting, and personally I prefer the wisdom of the usual Splinter. Just another change that doesn't need to exist...in some ways it's a distraction in the story that needs explaining.
Bebop and Rocksteady are friendly mutants...I'll just leave that there...
There was other stuff, but for me these are basics. Turtles already has a solid foundation, just a bit more imagination and they could've been put in a great story,,,and dare I say a bit more effort and it could've been a better script, not as funny or clever as I'd hoped it would be.
Good bits...thought it was cast well, particularly the turtles. Good camaraderie. Paul Rudd always delivers.
The animation was fantastic. I'm a bit of an animation nerd and this was right up my street. Shout out to spiderverse too which is an example of some groundbreaking animation but spiderverse also nailed it on story and character and everything really.
The fight scene against the baddies who stole April's bike was brilliant, in fact a lot of the action scenes were pretty great, there just weren't enough of them.
Now...I've been quite dour about it...and like I say, it's OK, just not good enough in my opinion. However, I got straight on the internet when I got home to check if there was a sequel and apparently there is. There'll be a TV series which acts as a bridge between this film and the sequel. So, without the benefit of future hindsight or present foresight, there's a chance all this can be saved, maybe this film is just a warm-up to some fantastic ideas down the road. Maybe the turtles have little to no recognisable personality because why would they having grown up alone together...maybe when they go through the TV show, where apparently they go their own separate ways (a change I'm open to, along with the fact they're in high school, as long as it's done well), they become more like their older versions...maybe Donatello does machines later on, as well as watching anime...who knows...so I live in perpetual hope that someone somewhere nails a TMNT film...apparently some of the guys involved in Turtles TV series 2012 are involved in this later stuff and I thought that TV series was brilliant...
In the meantime I should write my own eh, and stop whining about a kids' film in my late 30s......
Peace.