This is my first article so please don't crucify me.
This horrible trend Michael Bay has started must be stopped now before this man decides to ruin yet another franchise. As you all may have heard Bay is producing the new Turtles film, and it seems as though he has been up to his old tricks again. I know there are those out there who feel this isn't Bay's movie, but one can not ignore all the news that has surfaced regarding this film.
First off, we had the horrible news that Megan Fox was to portray April O'Neil. This is a woman who has done nothing but paint herself as a lost woman her whole career. This is who they grab to play their lead female role. Ok, Not going to dig into her too hard. She isn't the main problem here.
The main problem is the changing of the Japanese characters races. For those who don't know the story of Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki, they are two rivals born in Japan. Long story short, Saki betrays Yoshi and makes Yoshi's pet rat his enemy for life. This is where the problems I have for this film arise. The two main characters who this story is built around are being changed for no good reason in this Bay produced garbage. The theme of this movie is something that is rooted in Japanese culture. The shinobi (or ninjas) are Japanese assassins...not military or gangsters. How Bay missed this is beyond me. There should be no way those two characters should be changed. The argument has come up that they have been doing this a lot in Hollywood (let's take Fury as an example). While I am not a fan of changing any characters race there are times where they make it work. Fury is our prime candidate. His skin color has not changed who Fury is...a rough, gruff, and secretive secret agent. Now when we change Oroku Saki into Eric Sachs we completely lose all that made Shredder who he is. Not to mention they have also changed Splinters voice actor into a white man.
Again, the rat of a Japanese male will now be some sewer rat from NY. That destroys what made Splinter cool in the first place. Everything exotic about this franchise is being thrown to the floor...replaced by the same old crap you see in every film. Bay and company have stripped away everything that made this franchise special and unique, in order to inject it with his twisted sense of what people want to see.
I have heard some users say, "well if they are changing things this much why even call it TMNT?". I have asked myself this question on many an occasion. I guess my reason for writing this is because we have the power to change things. No longer can we sit by and watch things crumble around us. We have to raise our voices until these execs can hear us clean across the United States! The ball is in our court...Michael Bay must be stopped....no matter the cost.