The first real footage of Jonathan Liebesman's
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has finally gone public, so I thought I'd grab some screenshots, and share just some of my thoughts on what we've seen.
On the whole, it looks basically how I expected, neither good, nor bad, but clearly trying to fit right in with the rest of the superhero franchises in the market. And as such, there's almost a generic quality to this teaser trailer, with a lot of it lacking a sense of style for something easy to throw right at general audiences. However, given the overwhelming venom this production has taken from fanboys, I'd say even a handful of "This looks pretty good" comments marks a huge success for the filmmakers. Changing minds can be tough. To their credit, its not the train-wreck I feared it would be.
But I want to dig in on some key things.
The Japanese influence seems to still be there. Perhaps new villain Eric Sachs is a sort of ‘collector of antiquities’ with a personal affinity for Feudal Japan in particular. Details are obviously scarce, but this villain's role in the story is not only the most drastic change so far, but seems to have a major effect on all of the plot and origin of the movie. Actor William Fitchner has confirmed he is indeed The Shredder, so it will be interesting to see how or if Oroku Saki plays a role in this at all. At least the armor kicks ass.
The Turtles are huge!
The traditional depiction of the guys normally has them either average-height, or slightly shorter at around 5ft tall, but it looks like the boys will tower over April and others with their size, which kinda freaks me out! Not that they look bad. The CGI/live-action hybrid proved to be a good choice, and the motion capture so far, looks great.
Leonardo especially looks like a boss. But I question the logistics of things like the turtles being able to be stealthy or hide anywhere at such a large size. I guess we can forget about them using trench coats and fedoras to walk among the people. Or to even fit through manholes…
Been hearing a lot of "They're ugly!" True, the lips and noses are...different, but for me, the complaint of ‘ugly’ doesn't’ apply. The TMNT have never been known for being “pretty”. . Just look at the initial reaction to the Nickelodeon toon, and things like Donnie’s gap teeth. Every new iteration of the ninja turtles takes some getting used to.
"Heroes are not born, they are created. That's what your father and I were trying to do."
At the relief of fans everywhere, it looks like the alien origins of the turtles have been dropped or re-written completely, to be more suitable to the lore we all know and love. We’ve got our lab, and we’ve got our mutagen, we've got TCRI. But we may be getting even more than that. According to the trailer, Sachs may be directly involved with the creation of the turtles, something that seems like it was intentional instead of an accident. This along with a mystery thread involving April O’Niel’s father also working on the project, reeks a little of
The Amazing Spider-Man reboot, so I’m not going to be too enthusiastic about this reinvention if that is the case.
This ain’t your daddy’s foot clan.
In some brief clips, what I thought was an ordinary gang of hoodlums, looks like will be this movie’s version of the Foot Clan. It looks like they’re packing automatics- One of a slew of modernized liberties this film is attempting. The masks are interesting, but they remind me a little bit of the Immortals from
300, and could be another example (read: Red Flag) of the movie borrowing from other things, not having some style of its own. An army of these guys terrorizing the public, and police barricades, and giant structures being destroyed, this trailer is very familiar, and very evocative of too many things I’ve seen before like
Transformers and even
The Dark Knight Rises. I do appreciate the scale of the movie, which looks like it’s going to go for a bigger scope than we’ve seen in a turtle movie. I just hope this isn't a case of the film being a bunch of ripped off stuff, and the only original ideas are the terrible ones.
April O'Neil looks fine (Megan Fox always does) and there may be plenty of nods to past turtles iconography, from her yellow jacket, to a subway station rescue, and even the presence of cartoon creations like Will Arnett's Vernon. Not quite sure what the turtles are doing out of the city and up in the snowy mountains, but that's what seeing the movie is for. So take all my opinions with a grain of salt. We'll see how the final product shakes out of course. But so far, I remain cautiously optimistic.