TMNT (2007)

[r2vq]

[color=#007520]With Pirates 3, Spider-man 3, Transformers, and finally TMNT next year will be a great one for movie nerds. TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) is the one that I'll be nerd drooling over today.

So far all that's out is the teaser trailer, which is full CG and has the familiar dark, almost scary atmosphere. Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael are all present and accounted along with some some pretty impressive ninja rooftop action.

Interestingly enough, it never actually says "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" anywhere in the Teaser, but it shows "TMNT" on the manhole cover at the end. This could imply that the movie will be referred to by its initials. I think this is a good move since it will make it easier to say, type, and distinguish from the Ninja Turtle movies from the nineties.

If anyone has seen the trailer, please comment. I know they have to have some sort of audience with the members at OB. If you have seen the trailer yet, check [url=http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/teenagemutantninjaturtles/][b]here[/b][/url] for the QT versions. [SIZE=1]QuickTime (or some sort of QuickTime Alternative) is required to view the videos.[/SIZE]

-r2[/color]

[Your Mother]

[SIZE=1]I've got a beef with this movie. I'd rather have real actors in turtle suits, playing the roles, than CG animation. It just gives it a more realistic quality.....you know, makes the Turtles look real and not fake. The first three movies were great (especially the second) and one of the best parts was the human-like qualities and behavior of the turtles.

[/nerd rant][/SIZE]

[Box Hoy]

[QUOTE=Your Mother][SIZE=1]I've got a beef with this movie. I'd rather have real actors in turtle suits, playing the roles, than CG animation. It just gives it a more realistic quality.....you know, makes the Turtles look real and not fake. The first three movies were great (especially the second) and one of the best parts was the human-like qualities and behavior of the turtles.

[/nerd rant][/SIZE][/QUOTE]

[size=1]I don't think this is a sequal to the three that were live action.
In my opinion it looks awesome. I just hope this deals with Shredder and not all the other weird stuff. Especially not the crap from the new series with the dinosaur people or whatever.[/size]

[TheShinje]

[color=crimson] Familliar... dark atmosphere? The movies were almost scary owing to those wacky rubber suits that the Turtles were. I thought the series in itself was pretty light-hearted and tounge-in-cheek as opposed to being downright serious. I mean, come on, a talking brain for crying out loud!

As you can see, I'm a product of the 80's series and films, not the crappy remake which siphoned the fun out of the series. I hope that this movie takes the original, more light hearted angle, but I feel it wont. Instead of a cool Shredder we'll get the crappy "Oh, I've got to be spawned from hell and look real evil looking and looking real evil looking isn't good enough arrgh!!1" The abscence of BeBop and Rocksteady, Vanilla Ice too, would be the only plus in this scenario.

~Who's up for some anchovie-laden pizza?[/color]

[Papa Smurf]

I think the big question here is will this TMNT movie have the same impact as the original? By that I mean, even though the actual day of release is identical to the original (March 30th), do we really expect to see lines of kids strung around the block at local theatres, all giddy and bouncy, with their parents looking absolutely tired of seeing the same movie for a third time in a row?

Maybe I'm cynical, but I honestly can't see that kind of magic and wonder being re-captured here. Hell, I don't even know if those types of local theatres are still around. The only ones I see these days is the United Artists, Loew's, etc.

In terms of the movie itself, though I guess you can kind of pick up on my feelings already, I'm ambivalent. On one hand, there's some nice stuff they can do with CG, provided they do it well, but on the other hand, I think the turtle designs look too much like bobble-heads.

I'm hoping we get the Shredder, and maybe a few hints of Krang, because Krang is just awesome.

I don't know if they're looking to "re-invent" the film series here, like Nolan did with Batman Begins, but either way, I'm still ambivalent.

I'd like to see a really disturbing re-working of characters made more humorous in the films, like Tokka and Rahzar, and even Baxter Stockman.

The skin color doesn't really matter to me; all I care about is seeing him transform into the horrid fly creature thing...if they work in elements of David Cronenberg's The Fly, that'll be awesome. Maybe not the gore so much as the walking on walls, the hobbling, the "I'll hurt you if you stay" kind of vibe. Hell, make Baxter a sympathetic character, even.

So...yeah. heh

[Box Hoy]

[size=1]Well here's the plot summary.

[quote name='IMDB.com']Strange events are occurring in New York City, and the Turtles are needed more than ever, but Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo have become lost and directionless. With the city at stake, it's up to Leonardo and Zen Master Splinter to restore unity and ninja discipline to the Turtles.[/quote]

And here's another plot line.

[quote name='MoveWeb.com']After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei, Master Splinter, becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City. Tech-industrialist Max Winters is amassing an army of ancient monsters to apparently take over the world. And only one super-ninja fighting team can stop them -- those heroes in a half shell -- Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael! With the help of old allies April O?Neil and Casey Jones, the Turtles are in for the fight of their lives as they once again must face the mysterious Foot Clan, who have put their own ninja skills behind Winters? endeavors. Making this new incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles truly cutting-edge, the film will be created entirely with state-of-the-art CG animation, giving them a completely new look for the 21st century.[/quote]

To me this seems more like the plot line to a single episode or maybe a few episodes. Not a movie.
I can't quite be sure of the authenticity of either site's plot lines. I'm definetly going to go see this now if Casey Jones is in it. [/size]

[JCBaggee]

[color=darkred][size=1]I don't really mind the CGI take on the series. The animation on the Turtles themselves looks really awesome, and it'll be great to hear some actual dialogue and see if they sound as good as they look.

The sad news is Mako died!! He was scheduled to voice Splinter, which would have been awesome, but now I have no idea who they're going to use! Hopefully they'll knock the ball out of the park with this movie though. I'm really looking forward to forgetting TMNT3.

--Chris[/color][/size]

[visualkei]

Whoa.

I didn't see this coming at all. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie, thanks for spreading the word!

One of the posts said something about how this movie will probably not have as big an impact as the originals, and I agree. It seems like the turtles have been sleeping for the past decade, and I'm looking forward to see if they'll make a comback with the new movie.

[Nomad]

[SIZE=1][FONT=Verdana]What's this? A new TMNT movie? My first thought is "All right, I love the Turtles, I can't wait for the new movie"....

I don't mind the CG, I mean, in some cases, the CG people have failed horribly in doing their job, and it looks a bit [B]too[/B] unrealistic, even for a movie (i.e; the Final Fantasy movie). But this looks great. I loved the live-action turtles, but this gives you a feel of the older cartoon mixed with newer technology. I'm a product of the old Turtles. The good show. Not this dinosaur crap, and this female turtle stuff they had a while back. I mean it's all good and well to try and revive a classic, and might I say, one of the best, old cartoons, but to make foolish moves like space travel with dinosaurs and the like is rediculous (although, the original cartoon did have multidemensional devices and whatnot, but that was ok, lmao).

I was hoping to see maybe Shredder with his two henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady (not that snapping turtle and wolf), and to have April and all the gang back, but seeing the possible plot outlines given above, I'm sad and happy about the plot. They're brining in a new plot which may be able to fill a movie, and a couple possible sequeals and maybe even a series about it, but I have my doubts about the makers doing it correctly (with the Turtles' history and the like).

I'm excited to see Casey Jones brought into the story line too, that's a big plus because I've always loved that character, especially in the live-action movies. But well have to wait and see how well they do next year, and you bet I'll be in line to see that on the date of it's release.

...my final thoughts on it are "All right, I love the Turtles, I can't wait for the new movie".... :animesmil [/FONT][/SIZE]

[Retribution]

[size=1]I was a fanatical follower of TMNT back in the 90s. However I, like many others, have grown up quite a bit, and that zealous fanbase is no more. TMNT's fanbase has degraded to apathetic children who casually watch it on Saturday mornings, and change channels halfway through to catch the rest of the 9th version of Pokemon.

I think it'll have alot of people going to see it out of nostalgia (myself included), which is where I expect to see most of the films money being made.[/size]

[Nomad]

[QUOTE=Retribution][size=1]I was a fanatical follower of TMNT back in the 90s. However I, like many others, have grown up quite a bit, and that zealous fanbase is no more. TMNT's fanbase has degraded to apathetic children who casually watch it on Saturday mornings, and change channels halfway through to catch the rest of the 9th version of Pokemon.

I think it'll have alot of people going to see it out of nostalgia (myself included), which is where I expect to see most of the films money being made.[/size][/QUOTE]
[FONT=Verdana][SIZE=1]I think what you'll see at the theaters is this;

Those people who are around 18+ age range who will be seeing it as they have grown up with the turtles (the good ones) and those very few who are younger than that who had access to the older TMNT before they saw the newer ones.

Then you'll have those kids who will be expecting to see dinosaurs and all this stuff, and when they hear talk about Bebop and Rocksteady, in any way shape or form, they'll not have the slightest idea what is being talked about (or anything from the older TMNT, I just used them because I found them wacky, lol).

However, this is just a broad generalization to it all, there will be some who bypass these ideas all together and who will be seeing the Turtles for the first time. We'll just have to wait and see how things will turn out, yeah?[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Andy]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=DarkRed]Well, I never saw the old live-action series, you know, the one where they're all dressed up in those weird turtle get-ups. Anyways, I did see the animated series which I thought was pretty good, so i'm looking forward to this new TMNT movie. So, until next time everybody.*falls off stage* [/COLOR][/SIZE]

[SaiyanPrincessX]

[SIZE=1]I don't know about this. I loved the turtles back in the day, not the new show. I can't stand the new one. The cg, for me doesn't really work for the turtles. Its to crisp and clean I guess, which is the feel the newer tv show gives me. However, I'll see it anyway.[/SIZE]

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]Interesting, most interesting.

Well seeing as the 80s series of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles is on every morning before I go to school I've recently become addicted to the series again. The old Mutant Turtles movies were some of the earliest movies I saw in the cinema and I still have nostalgic memories, though given that I haven't seen the movies since then is probably a good thing as I'm a fairly harsh critic when it comes to movies.

In terms of CG, really I prefer CG as the guys in the suits always looked, how shall I put this delicately... amateurish. The last fully CG film I saw was Advent Children, and if they can transfer that standard of quality to TNMT then I'd be very pleased, plus they could bring back James Avery, the original voice of Shredder. ^_^' [/SIZE]

[Ellerby]

[COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Tahoma]Screw it. After seeing the movie a couple days ago I can safely say that making it in CG was a good move. I freaking loved it.

As far as resembling the cartoons go, it matches the first one more than it does the new one. The humor is very similar to how it was in the comics (Michelangelo has a very Surfer (as apposed to Skater) personality again) but it doesn't really work as well as it did back then. However it still had its funny moments. Man, I love Michelangelo. lol

As far as the four turtles sharing the spotlight goes, Leo and Raph kind of overshadow Don and Mikey but only to a certain extent. You still see that ninja family theme portrayed pretty well.

If I were you I would wait until it comes out on DVD to see it. However, if you love the turtles like I do, see it now. It's so great. :][/FONT][/COLOR]

[Jakehammaren]

Honestly, I'm far too tired to read the rest of the posts, so I don't know what everyone has been saying, but I for one will say that it was absolutely [I]horrible[/I]. There's no way around it, TMNT sucked. Perhaps I'll explain tomorrow. Perhaps not. It was an awful movie, which sucks, because I grew up on the Teenage Mutant Nija Turtles and it's sad to see the latest was such an abomination.

[Ellerby]

[quote name='Jakehammaren]Honestly, I'm far too tired to read the rest of the posts, so I don't know what everyone has been saying, but I for one will say that it was absolutely [I]horrible[/I']. There's no way around it, TMNT sucked. Perhaps I'll explain tomorrow. Perhaps not. It was an awful movie, which sucks, because I grew up on the Teenage Mutant Nija Turtles and it's sad to see the latest was such an abomination.[/quote]
[COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Tahoma]Well, I don't know what you were expecting. I mean, before anything else it's a [b]kids[/b] movie. It's not going to have some deep, intense plot. It won't be a 3 hour long adventure like LotR. Kids will fall asleep.

I don't mean to single you out or anything, I'm just curious about [i]why[/i] you think it was such a disaster.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Jakehammaren]

[QUOTE=White][COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Tahoma]Well, I don't know what you were expecting. I mean, before anything else it's a [b]kids[/b] movie. It's not going to have some deep, intense plot. It won't be a 3 hour long adventure like LotR. Kids will fall asleep.

I don't mean to single you out or anything, I'm just curious about [i]why[/i] you think it was such a disaster.[/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

I know it was a kids movie. But look, there are some excellent children's movies out there (Shrek, Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.).

As for why it was a disaster: the voice acting was terrible, the one-liners were at a record low, the animation was even iffy at spots... I'm just saying that for such a legendary children's series, they could've done it far more justice.

[James]

[font=arial]I really think the writers/director really hit the nail on the head with this one.

First of all, it's important to note that a) the live-action films had pretty lame plots (even when compared to the cartoon series) and b) dialogue was never this franchise's strong point.

As far as this movie goes, I really think it achieves everything it sets out to do. The dialogue is probably the best I've seen with this franchise ever - yes it's cheesy and lame at times, but that's the point. The characterization is flawless - the writers absolutely nailed each of the turtles' respective personalities. And the story, while not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, was certainly reasonable - and probably better than much of what we've seen in the past from this franchise (at the very least, it was on the same level that TMNT fans would come to expect).

There were a couple of things I didn't like. One thing was Splinter's voice (bad choice there in my view) and the style was, at times, a bit jarring.

However, the animation was absolutely ideal for the format - finally we can see real choreography and the fluidity of the turtles' movements, something that the live action turtle-suits and cartoons never provided. CG is really an ideal format now that I think about it. No other format - not 2D animation nor live action - was able to truly capture the grace and complexity of the turtles' movements. This film finally achieves that.

I have to say, I was really pleasantly surprised. Having watched one of the live action films recently (and being someone who grew up on the turtles), I was disappointed to find that not only had it not aged well...but it really wasn't as good as I'd thought to begin with. Nostalgia had kind of filled in the gaps.

TMNT was obviously crafted lovingly and really does justice to the legend. I just hope that a few of the rough spots are looked at next time - and it will still take a bit of time to get used to the actual designs that were chosen.

But yeah, overall, pretty impressive. It's not going to be earth-shattering for anyone, but it's absolutely ninja turtles right down to the ground.[/font]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I ended up seeing TMNT on opening day with a friend. (I just didn't get around to posting until now.) After having grown up watching the cartoons and live-action movies, as well as playing the games (mainly Turtles in Time on the SNES -- good beat 'em up), this one was basically what I expected. It wasn't amazing, it [i]was[/i] cheesy, the story wasn't anything special, but it was the same Turtles as ever. So I can't really say I'm disappointed.

My main complaint is that most of the movie, until near the end, seemed really slow. There were some minor scuffles here and there but overall there was a big lack of *** kicking until the [spoiler]Leo vs Raph[/spoiler] fight. Or maybe I've just been spoiled by FFVII: Advent Children. . . . Either way, it seemed a shame that there were so few all-out fight scenes when the ones that [i]were[/i] there were so awesome.[/color]

[Treble]

[size=2]I have not been to the movie theaters in a while, but since this was the return of the Ninja Turtles, my inner-child urged me to go check it out. There were a few things in the movie that I was not to satisfy with. As White have mentioned earlier, I felt that Donny and Michelangelo did not have much screen time besides a few one liners here and there. Casey Jones seems to have been tone down to a much softer character, which I did not like. Also, for some reason, the villains in the movie did not appeal to me at all. I expected a lot of fun mindless fighting scenes, but there were only a few short fighting scenes throughout the movie. [/size]

[size=2]However, the raining fight between [/size][spoiler]Ralph and Leo[/spoiler] [size=2]was pretty awesome, and I always enjoyed the little rivalry they tend to have with each other. Overall, I enjoyed the movie, mostly just for how well they portrayed the four turtles.[/size]

[Kei]

[color=darkblue][size=1]I saw TMNT with some friends last weekend and I went into it expecting the worst. Needless to say, the movie exceeded my expectations.

As with others, there were some aspects of the movie that I didn't like, namely Splinter's replacement voice actor (although I always thought Mako did good work before he died last year) and the slowness of movie at the beginning. As far as Don and Mikey's lack of screentime, I felt that was going to be the case when the movie brought up what had been going with the Turtles since Shredder's demise.[/color][/size] [spoiler][size=1]Raph and Leo have had their tiff going on for God knows how long and it was nice to see it finally come to a head, so to speak. I also liked how they actually had Raph win, for once. As far as I can remember, Leo always won their spars when they fought at the base.[/spoiler][/size]

[color=darkblue][size=1]Overall, I really liked the film and thought it was a good throwback to the good old days of the franchise.[/color][/size] [spoiler][size=1]And since Karai's last line to the team left plenty of room for a sequel, they have a chance to push it further next time.[/spoiler][/size]

[Dragonboym2]

[COLOR=Blue]I REALLY enjoyed this movie. The diolouge was great, and the CGI was top notch. Foru stars!
It was kind of dark for a kids movie. But TMNT was ogrinally NOT FOR KIDS!
It was dark, grim, violent, and strange at times. When the cartoon came out, they got rid of the dark stuff, and made it more kid freindly. When I found hte orginal comics, I liked them much better than the show, and a few of the comics were inspired for the first film. As well as the new TV show, too.
Unlike most of the media I've seen with TMNT, it wasn't as two-dimetion with characters. They got their characters dwon no problem at all.
As for the story, it made alot of sense to me. It was a story on the bonds between family, and how important family is.
I do have one complaint about this movie. Sarah Mechille Geller. She STILL can't act.
But besides that, this movie gets a "A" in my book.
All we need now is an "Usagi Yojimbo" movie.

"KAMEHAMEHA!"

Dragonboym2[/COLOR]