I agree with you regarding the quality of the '80s cartoon, and your thoughts on the new movie/s is pretty much what I was afraid of. Like the first, I'll check it out eventually on DVD, but no cinema trip for me.
Spoilers Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows - Grading & Discussion
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the movie so much as pointing out that it felt like the end product was exactly what they wanted. In that sense, they didn't mess up.
I saw a bit of the cartoon a few years ago and found it a little too silly for my tastes but I did like it when I was younger and remember it as having some heart as well as memorable and well developed characters. Can't comment on it further so I'll take your assessment for now. I did re-watch the Transformers cartoon though and thought it was mostly bad. Made me think that when people speak well of it or say that it's better than the Bay movies, they're just remembering their childhoods more than anything.
Haven't seen the movie yet. I will see it later.
When I first saw Casey Jones, he was just an action figure on the toy shelf with the turtles. From the box, he is an ally of the turtles and fight with baseball bats and hockey sticks. I thought it was a great idea. Another human friend with a cool sports theme. My brother and I couldn't wait to see what he is like when he'll eventually show up in the cartoon. Well, it was a complete disappointment. An idiotic, psychopath that seems more of a villain than an ally. I thought it was a wasted opportunity. When the 1990 movie came out, the film version of Casey was exactly what I imagined he would be. And the 2000's cartoon have him pretty much the same. But it looks like this current version of Casey is different from the others. From what I read, he's not as good as the one in the first film, but at least better than the one in the 80's cartoon.
When I first saw Casey Jones, he was just an action figure on the toy shelf with the turtles. From the box, he is an ally of the turtles and fight with baseball bats and hockey sticks. I thought it was a great idea. Another human friend with a cool sports theme. My brother and I couldn't wait to see what he is like when he'll eventually show up in the cartoon. Well, it was a complete disappointment. An idiotic, psychopath that seems more of a villain than an ally. I thought it was a wasted opportunity. When the 1990 movie came out, the film version of Casey was exactly what I imagined he would be. And the 2000's cartoon have him pretty much the same. But it looks like this current version of Casey is different from the others. From what I read, he's not as good as the one in the first film, but at least better than the one in the 80's cartoon.
Amell is my least favorite version of Casey Jones. He's pretty much Casey in name only.
Too me, Megan Fox's April O'Neil is April in name only. At least they are consistence.
^ She's even more so in this movie.
This was a terrible movie in a lot of ways, but as a child of the 80s I absolutely loved it. I only have the vaguest memories now, but as a kid I was completely obsessed with the Turtles and this hit my nostalgia button in all the right ways. Bebop and Rocksteady! Casey Jones! Krang! Baxter Stockman! The Technodrone! I can forgive every stupid, insane, ridiculous, hyper-active bit about the movie just for those things.
Except for the part where they say that humans have ancestral warthog and rhino DNA in our systems.
Or when Donny is able to hack into the advanced alien technology of the Technodrone the second it appears in the skies.
Or... I need to stop myself. Focus on the positive
Except for the part where they say that humans have ancestral warthog and rhino DNA in our systems.
Or when Donny is able to hack into the advanced alien technology of the Technodrone the second it appears in the skies.
Or... I need to stop myself. Focus on the positive
Thinking of this movie, I'm reminded of a quote from an episode of MST3K. I don't recall specifically what the subject movie was but Servo says, "This is more of a movie-loaf" and Mike adds to it with, "Yeah, it's made of movie parts, chunked and formed."
That's kind of what this is, as I said in my review up thread there's pieces of a movie here but there seems to be stuff missing. Things happen and occur without any real explanation or reason. As said up thread, Donatello is able to hack into the Technodrome in order to stop it/figure out how to stop it moments after it appears which means not only does his tecno-pack have remarkable range and connectivity but that the pieces of the Technodrome are Bluetooth capable.
Brad Jones of The Cinema Snob and Allison Preger of Obscurus Lupa/Movie Nights did the Midnight Screening review of the movie here and they both hated it and they make a lot of good point on the problems I had with this movie. Although I didn't really hate it. I came out, "meh" and sort of still feeling that more could have been done here and the movie really feels like it's missing parts of it.
As Allison says, at one point Krang kidnaps Shredder and enlists him to get the parts for the teleporter to bring his Technodrome into our dimension. But the audience is never told what a Technodrome is or what it does, the movie almost depends on its audience to already know these things. It's also bizarre to me the Techndrome came into our dimension in pieces that assembled themselves (I guess it's made out of Transformerinium or whatever) and it's built to be hollow instead of a large structure with numerous interior rooms.
Parts of this movie are just so... off. Like at the end of Krang's first scene there's an extended bit where his prosthetic body has to smash/punch Krang into the interior chamber of it. What?! Was this something we needed?
And, aren't fart jokes the bottom of humor jokes? I mean.. isn't this a known cliche by now that if your write a fart joke into your screenplay you're pretty much out of ideas?
Ugh. Again, I didn't really *hate* this movie, nor did I really even dislike it. I didn't like it either though, it was just there. Still not nearly as bad as it could be, but the story and screenplay just feels really, really off and hacked together here. I feel like there's a two-hour cut somewhere that gives us more story.
I dunno, I'm not as passionate about TMNT as I am with, say, Superman and how he's mishandled in movies but it seems like there's plenty of ways to do TMNT seriously but still have a family/kid friendly atmosphere to it just like it's possible to do Superman and have him be a fun, light hearted-good natured hero who still has his struggles and complications.
The latest versions of the cartoons/animated shows have done a good job with the Turtles in finding a balance between them being serious heroes and the kiddy-stuff they're known for from the '80s cartoon. The CGI movie from a few years ago did a decent job with it as well, finding that balance between taking it seriously but making it approachable for kids and families.
But, screw it. Let these 6-foot-tall Turtles who likely way several hundred pounds be virtually indestructible and able to movie with lightning speed, flip and run around with a pizza box and not have it end up being a wadded-up, mushy, mess when they arrive back at their lair.
There is moments of "good" in this movie, I liked the ending scene with the Turtles being given their keys to the city as Splinter looks on, proudly, from the wharf area and the Police Chief woman treats the Turtles fairly and equally, saying how they can be accepted if people knew what they did. So there's some nice moments like that. The continuing conflict between Raph and Leo is fairly stale but there's some good moments with it here centered around the anti-mutagen or whatever secrecy and Raph finding out about it.
But then there's the nonsense in the middle of the good.
And, yeah, this is the worst version of Casey Jones in any incarnation, and I wasn't a fan of his cartoon series version who WS treated as more of a villain than a ally. The version we see in the 1990 movie is really the best version of the character. I've no idea what they were going for her other than Chris O'Donnel's Robin.
That's kind of what this is, as I said in my review up thread there's pieces of a movie here but there seems to be stuff missing. Things happen and occur without any real explanation or reason. As said up thread, Donatello is able to hack into the Technodrome in order to stop it/figure out how to stop it moments after it appears which means not only does his tecno-pack have remarkable range and connectivity but that the pieces of the Technodrome are Bluetooth capable.
Brad Jones of The Cinema Snob and Allison Preger of Obscurus Lupa/Movie Nights did the Midnight Screening review of the movie here and they both hated it and they make a lot of good point on the problems I had with this movie. Although I didn't really hate it. I came out, "meh" and sort of still feeling that more could have been done here and the movie really feels like it's missing parts of it.
As Allison says, at one point Krang kidnaps Shredder and enlists him to get the parts for the teleporter to bring his Technodrome into our dimension. But the audience is never told what a Technodrome is or what it does, the movie almost depends on its audience to already know these things. It's also bizarre to me the Techndrome came into our dimension in pieces that assembled themselves (I guess it's made out of Transformerinium or whatever) and it's built to be hollow instead of a large structure with numerous interior rooms.
Parts of this movie are just so... off. Like at the end of Krang's first scene there's an extended bit where his prosthetic body has to smash/punch Krang into the interior chamber of it. What?! Was this something we needed?
And, aren't fart jokes the bottom of humor jokes? I mean.. isn't this a known cliche by now that if your write a fart joke into your screenplay you're pretty much out of ideas?
Ugh. Again, I didn't really *hate* this movie, nor did I really even dislike it. I didn't like it either though, it was just there. Still not nearly as bad as it could be, but the story and screenplay just feels really, really off and hacked together here. I feel like there's a two-hour cut somewhere that gives us more story.
I dunno, I'm not as passionate about TMNT as I am with, say, Superman and how he's mishandled in movies but it seems like there's plenty of ways to do TMNT seriously but still have a family/kid friendly atmosphere to it just like it's possible to do Superman and have him be a fun, light hearted-good natured hero who still has his struggles and complications.
The latest versions of the cartoons/animated shows have done a good job with the Turtles in finding a balance between them being serious heroes and the kiddy-stuff they're known for from the '80s cartoon. The CGI movie from a few years ago did a decent job with it as well, finding that balance between taking it seriously but making it approachable for kids and families.
But, screw it. Let these 6-foot-tall Turtles who likely way several hundred pounds be virtually indestructible and able to movie with lightning speed, flip and run around with a pizza box and not have it end up being a wadded-up, mushy, mess when they arrive back at their lair.
There is moments of "good" in this movie, I liked the ending scene with the Turtles being given their keys to the city as Splinter looks on, proudly, from the wharf area and the Police Chief woman treats the Turtles fairly and equally, saying how they can be accepted if people knew what they did. So there's some nice moments like that. The continuing conflict between Raph and Leo is fairly stale but there's some good moments with it here centered around the anti-mutagen or whatever secrecy and Raph finding out about it.
But then there's the nonsense in the middle of the good.
And, yeah, this is the worst version of Casey Jones in any incarnation, and I wasn't a fan of his cartoon series version who WS treated as more of a villain than a ally. The version we see in the 1990 movie is really the best version of the character. I've no idea what they were going for her other than Chris O'Donnel's Robin.
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One of the funniest scenes in movie history is basically a 90-second fart joke, so ... no.
I don't know what, specifically you're talking about, but I'll take your word for it. It may be possible to do a "funny" fart-joke but I'd say it's a delicate thing that's going to be hit-or-miss. And for it to hit it's got to be more than "smell this" and then fart. Or just a fart. I mean you've got to try to make a fart joke hit and work.
It's got to be more than
CHARACTER-A farts
CHARACTER-B
(laughs)
That's kind of what I thought as I thought it over. Which, okay. Fart jokes can be done "right" and in a funny manner but it takes delicacy and talent. It's got to be more than "a character farts, another character reacts."
Yeah, it doesn't make nearly any sense, it's all just messed up. He's just sort of, "Yeah whatever."