We had seen the action figures, we'd heard about the changes to certain major characters, and we'd even had a full breakdown of the trailer before we saw it yesterday morning -- but still, that first teaser for the Michael Bay produced
TMNT reboot seemed to leave many fans a bit shell-shocked.
Of course a brief teaser isn't much to judge anything on, but here are the things that seem to have irked fans the most: Shredder (a white dude named Erich Sachs) infers that he, along with April O'Neil's father, was responsible for the creation of the Turtles. Honestly, we don't know for certain that's what he meant. We know that previous incarnations of the Shredder (with the help of some mutagen) created various mutant henchmen such as Bebop and Rocksteady -- perhaps this is what he was referring to? We know those characters aren't in the movie but what I'm saying is he needn't have been talking about the Turtles specifically. But IF he is, then yeah that's a pretty major alteration. I mean where does Splinter come in? We know he's in the movie, but all of this points to a cigar chomping Brooklyn sewer rat comic relief sidekick type...can you imagine?
The other big gripe is the designs of the turtles themselves. To be blunt, they're [frick]ing huge. Raph, Donny, Mikey and Leo are usually portrayed as being slightly shorter than a human, and definitely less bulky and imposing looking. This does help when you're, ya know, a ninja! Also, their faces are just...weird looking. I'm not sure if it's the nostrils or the too-human eyes, but something looks off.
Now obviously if you're not too bothered about changes to canon then none of that will phase you; so let's look at some of the positives that can be taken from the trailer. Tonally, it's not bad. The '80s cartoon was pretty light and fluffy, but don't forget that the original comics were considerable more serious and a whole lot darker so it's only right that we should see a bit of that reflected here. Plus as corny as the mask gag at the end is, well, that IS pure Michelangelo! Can we assume that they've at least nailed the distinct personalities of the awesome foursome?
Like I said, a brief teaser isn't much to go on but based on that alone, what do you think? Vote away, then leave your thoughts in the usual place.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.