Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Franchise

[Silver Nemesis]

She certainly is. And in real life she's married to Jason O'Mara, who voices Batman in Justice League: War and the upcoming Son of Batman.



The original April, Judith Hoag, has also aged beautifully.



I've seen Hoag and Turco in a number of things recently, and I think they're both very underrated actresses. Which is more than I can say for Megan Fox.

Anyway, here's another random Turtles video. The gal who plays April in this has certainly got the right look.

[The Joker]

The original April, Judith Hoag, has also aged beautifully.

I don't remember being bothered that Paige Turco replaced Judith Hoag as April when I first watched TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze waaay back when, nor was I disappointed by her performances in the Turtle movies, but over the years I've taken more of a liking to Judith's April. Nothing against Paige's April, but I can only imagine how Judith Hoag reprising the role would have helped lessen, to some degree, the other glaring changes that 2 implemented (lighter cartoony tone, different voice actors, Casey Jones disappearance) which in turn, kinda made the film feel like a pseudo-sequel rather than remaining on course for a *true* sequel to the 1990 flick...

[Cobblepot4Mayor]

The sudden disappearance of Casey Jones, although strange, also never bothered me. It's the equivalent of the cartoon show for me. Characters came and went like Irma, Burne and Vernon. In some episodes, sometimes not in them at all. You can't exploit them all the time. I was more stunned by the abscence of Corey Feldman. It's hilarious to discover the reason he missed the sequel was because he was apparently in rehab at the time. Go Donatello! lol

I never realised for years Judith Hoag appears in Armageddon. Playing the estranged wife of one of the oil drillers turned astronauts. And of course that is a Michael Bay film. I was hoping a cameo in the latest Turtle film would be a possibility therefore! And here's another Turtle connection to Bruce Willis' asteroid destroying vehicle I spotted the other day. You know that little guy who plays Niles, Walker's little "Tatsu-like" sidekick in Turtles III? He too appears in Armageddon as a NASA psychiatrist unimpressed with the oil drillers mentality for handling space travel. It seems the seeds of the Turtles future with dear old Michael were sown way back when lol

But I believe Judith Hoag was disappointed with the finished movie. According to her it had lost it's original heart. I have to respectfully disagree with her. The film was just fine as we all know and a huge success (which she has acknowledged). I felt it had a lot of heart and this is why we're all still talking about it to this day. Never forgotten that incredible camp fire scene with John Du Prez's stunning and moving music. It was shocking to see that emotion at the time, something the cartoon show never could do. And you must remember we're watching walking, talking Turtles here at the end of the day. I thought it was a superb achievement.

[The Joker]

Well, TMNT 2014's advertising has been in full swing as of late. It will be interesting to see how the film competes with Guardians of the Galaxy in Aug, but from what I can tell from the trailers, and various tv spots, this new Turtles film should please fans of the 2012 Nickelodeon toon, the '87 toon, and maybe even the fans of the 2003 toon as well. As far as the film pleasing fans of the original Eastman and Laird Mirage comic book source material? Not so much I'm sure. Especially since it's clearly evident that the film is gravitating more towards the toons than, say, how the 1990 approached things right at the height of the Turtles popularity, though this decision may not be a "bad" approach when one considers that any of the various toons are arguably more familiar to the general public than the Mirage books ('87 toon with adults, 2012 toon with kids).

However, atleast the die hard fans were thrown a bone in the form of a long awaited documentary! 

Being that I love watching documentaries, I sincerely cannot wait for the DVD.

[riddler]

So I guess I'll be the first one to make the review;

Definitely wasn't as good as the original 1990 film. I don't think any parts were bad but it was a typical Michael Bay film, it basically felt like transformers with turtles. I liked that it was more faithful to the source material than I thought it would be (they even make a joke about the initial idea to have them as aliens). Unlike the original trilogy it does take a few cues from the cartoon.

Now I did think the plot was a little more coherent, they tied April and all the main characters in closer. It's definitely better than TMNT III, probably on par with the second film.

On the downside while the turtles were true to their characters, they weren't fleshed out as much as they could have been. Also I kind of felt that Will Arnett was wasted. He is one of the best modern comedians but he was underutilized and not given enough to work with.

[Cobblepot4Mayor]

Since I live in the UK I will not be able to see the new one until October but it looks fine to me far as I can see. I don't think there is a problem with Will Arnett's character. Verne has always been the comic relief and that's pretty much why we remember him and love him. I'm not looking at all for character depth and development from him so that is no problem for me. What I am looking for is seeing that character lifted from animation and onto live action movie screens. And, apart from his camp pink shirt, it would seem they have done that. Is Irma in there too?

But I am so very disappointed with the new Raphael's voice. Gone is the cool Brooklyn accent of the first film's (which was great for it's comedy usage as well as his toughness), in comes another gruff Christian Bale Batman voice. Michaelangelo on the other hand remains, as he was in the 1990 film, unaffected once again in how we wish to see his character and hear him. Which is great. I think it's a shame no voice artist was offered an opportunity to return on the new one. I'd have loved Corey Feldman to come back or perhaps Kevin Clash as Splinter much more so.

I have seen the elevator scene "MC Mikey!" (is that a reference to MC Hammer's inclusion on the original movie's soundtrack???). Thank goodness the Turtles do say Cowabunga still. Unfortunately the scene falls victim to the Chris Nolan school of "explain why it's used" and "make fun out of it to make it less dated and dumb". Which sooo many movies based on comics or whatever do endlessly these days. So here we have Cowabunga be an embarrassing saying the Turtles used as kids and blah blah blah. It's needless exposition and not at all clever.

At any point in the new one do they use either Partners in Kryme's "Turtle Power" song or even the original animated series theme song?

[riddler]

The music is very lacking, the theme music is a few cords replayed several times. I wont spoil the ending but the last shot of the turtles is a nod to the TV show with some music playing.

It's not that Vernon Fenwick was handled badly but Will Arnett is one of the funniest supporting actors in hollywood (he doesn't carry his own films well but he's had many great roles). I just felt they could have let him do his thing but they didn't.

Megan Fox holds her own. She doesn't impress the way some maligned actors do and make us all feel stupid for questioning the casting choice but she doesn't ruin the movie. They didn't give her too tough of a role, her character is not a genius but she's not a scream queen either. She spends most of the film trying to convince people that there's a vigilante in town fighting the foot (she doesn't realize there are multiple turtles until later).

I wavered on whether the elevator scene was a nod to the vanilla ice rap. It doesn't drag on too long but all the turtles do get into it.

The cowabunga thing wasn't a slam at the old school turtles; the context is that Raph asks Mikey about that word he told him never to use. If they wanted to trash it they'd have all the turtles make fun of it. And they do say it a few more times implying it might become retro again. I did give them credit because they put in a joke about how ludicrous it would be if the turtles were aliens.

I actually thought Raphael was voiced by Nick Stahl. None of the voices were great but I wouldn't compare them to Bale; you can understand what they are saying and they aren't irritating.

[The Dark Knight]

Not surprised to see this getting mixed to average reviews.

[Silver Nemesis]

All of the Turtles movies have been trashed by critics. But even by those standards, the new one is taking quite a mauling. Here are the Rotten Tomatoes scores for all five Turtles films:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) – 40%
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) – 32%
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) – 21%
TMNT (2007) – 34%
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) – 19%

Considering this franchise is as critic proof as the Transformers or Friday the 13th series, I doubt the poor response will dampen its box office performance.

[riddler]

I maintain that it's not great but Michael Bay's name alone will get any film he touches weak reviews. And as usual the critics are out to lunch; it's not nearly as bad as the third film.