Trailer Watch: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles official trailer
Thursday, March 27th, 2014
Jonathan Liebesman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hits theaters on August 8, 2014.
I kind of like the Turtle designs… although I seem to be in the minority there. Speaking of minorities, though, William Fichtner is Shredder. What.
P.S. Don’t forget that I sell TMNT-style Michael Bay is the Devil T-shirts!
Tags: action, Alan Ritchson, Danny Woodburn, Jeremy Howard, Jonathan Liebesman, Megan Fox, Noel Fisher, Pete Ploszek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, TMNT, Whoopi Goldberg, Will Arnett, William Fichtner
This entry was posted
on Thursday, March 27th, 2014 at 10:53am and is filed under Trailer Watch.
Yep. Looks like a Michael Bay movie. Really, really bad.
This feels just like the Amazing Spider-man trailer, but with turtles.
And Danny Woodburn is Splinter. I was really gung ho about seeing this movie until I heard about that part.
Michael Bay found out my weakness: William Fichtner as the villain.
I’m quite sure we can all agree this was the inspiration for their fugly mugs… http://i.imgur.com/lKAxdLT.jpg
Michael Bay: Still the Devil. Even with Turtles.
I noticed a distinctive lack of “cowabunga” in the trailer. That was disappointing.
They’re not the 80’s Turtles. And you know what? Thank goodness for that.
Yeah, I’ll be buying the shirt with my next paycheck. I don’t know what that was, but that’s not my Turtles.
That’s what the fans of the original comics said when they first saw the original cartoon.
Yup. But the first live-action movie was pretty great and appealed well to fans of both.
Absolutely. That first movie was able to straddle both sets of fans fairly effectively. But fans of the comics had to get over the whole “It’s different, so it must suck!” notion before they were able to discover that on their own.
It’s not that it’s different. It’s that it’s TOO different and it’s too Michael Bay-y.
It seems best to simply hold off any full opinions until the movie comes out. As long as Micheal Bay (Demonic Ruler Of Zombies) keeps true to the spirit of the turtles, I’m cool.
My first exposure to the Green Teens was the 80’s cartoon. I know it had very little to do with the original Eastman and Laird comics. I know the Archie comics series followed more the 80’s cartoon. I watched all three of the 90s live-action movies in the theater and own them on DVD and used them as the origin story for my own fanfiction because it was concise and I could add in the elements I liked from the comics and the cartoon. I watched and bought the 2007 CGI animated TMNT and adored it. I haven’t followed the newer cartoon series because I don’t watch all that much TV any more. I’m not a fan who gets into a snit because they dared change things. Everything has been turned upside down and right side out for the Turtles at least once a decade.
That’s not a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I don’t really know what it is. Where’s the ninja action? Where’s the Foot Clan? What the hell is that white American guy doing pretending to be the Shredder? Why are buildings blowing up? What the hell is up with the helicopter and Hummers that the Turtles can’t afford and ninjas shouldn’t be using anyway? And you have Megan Fox as April and you aren’t going with yellow jumpsuit sex kitten look or dye her hair red? Katanas, nunchucks, sais, and bo; where are my martial arts weapons in use not just carried by the green giants? By the time the trailer reached the Turtles design, I have used up all my WTF.
The voice actor nailed Michaelangelo; that’s the only positive I can think of.
So I’ll accept this is the point where I drop the microphone, ignore anything new done to the franchise, and write my fanfics. If that makes me a wailing fanboy, oh well. I’ll buy the T-shirt to advertise that.
I did all of that, too, along with playing the hell out of the video games. (I’ve held onto my SNES primarily just to go back to Turtles in Time.) But in looking back on all of that, you must note the lack of ninja action of time in both the films and the cartoons. (Even to the point where Michaelangelo used a grappling hook more often than a nunchuck.) Things change.
I just like to challenge fans to at least check things out before decrying something. Sometimes you might be surprised. I’m not sure if this film in particular will surprise you, but you never know until you see it.
I’m supposed to trust Michael Bay after the mess of racist/penile humor that was supposed to be Transformers 2? Sweetie, the only way I’ll see this movie is if you tie me up a la Clockwork Orange. And give them money to reward past, present, and future messes of film? LOL! Uwe Boll got me once, Michael Bay got me twice (because my sister forced me to watch Armaggedon and I firmly disliked it by the end). There are too many good movies that I want to see to waste my time and money on incoherent messes. That goes triple for incoherent messes that think they know better than I do what I want from my fandom movie.
You know that Bay’s not the director, right? Although Bay is producing and undoubtedly will have shaped the script and tone substantially, Jonathan Liebesman is directing, not Bay.
It’s also worth pointing out that… half the stuff you’ve complained about, you can’t possibly know: The Foot is in it. There will be ninja stuff. They will use their weapons. The Hummer is probably not the Turtles’ (how would they fit in it?). The helicopter almost certainly isn’t.
I’ll give you William Fichtner as Shredder, obviously, since I already mentioned that in the post.
Maybe I’m not being fair to Liebesman, but the trailer hits the Michael Bay highlight reel feel for me: military guys and hardware along with exploding buildings. Perhaps that was a deliberate choice to target the Michael Bay fans, because other than Michaelangelo’s gag with the mask and April fainting, putting a yellow leather jacket on April, and the ooze, they didn’t offer anything for the TMNT fans. Maybe the next trailer will be cut differently and offer more.
But when this creative team announced they wanted the mutants to be aliens and reversed course after the fan yelling, I gave up on this movie. That trick just showed that they didn’t respect the franchise or the core story. This trailer was the chance to change my mind and they didn’t. They so didn’t I want to give you money. :)
And the total disrespect of not casting a Japanese actor as the Shredder, gah! I like William Fichtner and could buy him as another villian or the voice actor if they had gone the animated route, but that’s just another signal that they don’t respect the core story.
There is a certain irony to your saying that “they don’t respect the core story,” when your source for “core story” is the 80’s cartoon. Anyway, don’t put this on them. They’re not disrespecting anything. They’re making their own version of the property. Your feelings for this film lie solely with you.
By the way, as a fellow fan, I have to say you don’t speak for all of us. They are offering us plenty, like a big budget movie featuring the Turtles and a new direction for the series. These may be things you don’t want to see, but some of us have seen enough different takes on the turtles that we know it doesn’t diminish what we’ve already seen. Heck, I’ve seen a previously established character get white-washed already, but I’ll let that take be its own thing. Maybe they’ll turn this white-washed character into a fly as well?
Dude, I don’t recall ever telling you not to see it in any of my comments. I didn’t have high hopes from previous commentary about the movie, the trailer didn’t change my mind, and I promised Gordon I’ll buy a T-shirt because I support the opinion the T-shirt says.
Your first comment basically called me out for not giving a new version a chance, otherwise known as giving into fanboy wank (that is what I infered from your comment plus what you commented to Gordon). I outlined just how much media I have consumed happily in the TMNT fandom and tried to outline what from the trailer set-off my do-not-want feelings. You continue to tell me I must see this movie.
So I try to explain more why I feel I shouldn’t. Again, I never said what you should do with your money. Go see it as many times as you want.
But yes there is a core story: mutated turtles trained in the art of ninjitsu by their mutated father-figure rat who when they are teenagers fight another ninja group that has ties to their father-figure’s past in Japan. Yes, you can alter details beyond that–making Splinter and Yoshi the same character (since you keep going back to the 80’s cartoon) doesn’t change the core story–and I never said they couldn’t. In my opinion, white-washing the Shredder doesn’t bode well for my enjoyment of this film and makes me question did anyone know what they were making a movie of. That coupled with a director/producer already on my do-not-watch list means I won’t watch it. I won’t be watching Transformers 4 when it is released either.
I hope I’m wrong and there is lots for a TMNT fan to enjoy.
Looks interesting. I don’t like Fichtner as the Shredder AND the creator of the Turtles, but that isn’t enough to convince me to not give it a fair shot.