Like a lot of kids of the 80's and 90's, I was really into the Turtles, from the original cartoon, the movies, as well as the live action Next Mutation series (which crossed over with Power Rangers in Space).
As kids do though, I kind of outgrew the Turtles, at least for awhile. I barely remember the TV shows, and while the first two movies don't really hold up for me like they used to, they do still have rewatch value and I respect their place and impact in the franchise.
I never really watched the 2003 cartoon, but I did go see the 2007 computer generated movie.
I liked this movie when it came out, and I still think it's one of the best Turtle movies.
My outright love for the Turtles was revived though thanks to the 2012 animated series, which in my opinion is the definitive version of the franchise.
Well balanced wacky comedic moments with emotional and dramatic storylines. Stellar animation that makes for high stakes action scenes. Brilliant characterizations with iconic voice acting to match. In short...
It was definitely a show that was made for adults as much as children. In one regard, there are a lot of homages to old school pop culture, from classic cartoons like Voltron and Thundarr, to horror franchises like Alien and Friday the 13th. But more importantly, the show featured a lot of imagery and moments that I'm surprised Nickelodeon allowed through. Seriously, some of the mutants are either truly scary or just really hard to look at.
I loved this version of the Turtles so much, I even collected the complete series on DVD.
Admittedly, it takes up a lot of space since seasons three through five were collected in separate volumes compared to the complete sets for seasons one and two. I'm halfway expecting them to announce a complete series box set on Blu-Ray now that I've actually bought the whole series. Seriously, if you are or have ever been a Ninja Turtles fan, the 2012 series is a must-watch. (And just to throw it out there, the series is also on Hulu in its entirety.)
The series ended in 2017 in what I felt was an epic finale with the "Mutant Apocalypse" three-parter. Which made its replacement series, "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" even more disappointing.
Needless to say, it's heartbreaking to see the franchise succumb to what I call the "Teen Titans Go!" effect. This is when a beloved show is rebooted in a manner that strips away what made it special, suffering from little effort, poor animation and pandering to a young audience; other victims of the "Go!" effect include Powerpuff Girls, Total Drama, and soon enough, ThunderCats. In short, the less said about "Rise", the better.
As for the live action reboot films from Michael Bay, I honestly thought the first one in 2014 was trash.
The Turtles' designs alone were meme worthy.
Besides that, I'm just going to list out some of my more egregious problems with the movie in no particular order:
* Any of Michael Bay's usual tropes.
* Megan Fox as April, basically being there for eye candy rather than character, which is bad considering she gets more focus than the actual Turtles; though to be fair, she seemed more invested in the first one compared to the sequel, mostly because the second one was actually about the Turtles.
* The lack of actual ninja-ing, from the Foot being criminals who use guns to the Turtles, who turn out to be bullet-proof, basically making them Hulks with shells.
* Mikey acting like a creepy Jonah Hill character and basically saying he had a boner for April. That is something nobody should ever have to hear from a Ninja Turtles story.
* Donnie having taped up glasses just because he's the nerd of the group.
* The villains wanting to infect the city with an airborne biological attack is ripped off from the Lizard's plan in the first Amazing Spider-Man film.
Its sequel, "Out of the Shadows", was a far better outing. While still suffering from similar problems of the first one, it felt more like a Ninja Turtles movie by comparison and I actually found myself enjoying it, especially seeing villains like Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang. Of the 21st century TMNT films, this is actually my second favorite behind the 2007 one.
No comments:
Post a Comment