I guess the original TMNT, in all of its forms but mailing cartoon and movies, were VERY popculture sentric (Vanilla Ice, enough said). So I guess in a way it makes sense to have it be dark, and have dubstep, and all that jazz, but as you are saying they still could have done it better. And while Bay isn't directing Bay tends to have a big influence in the look and feel of the end product, similar to Jerry Bruckheimer and his movies I feel. And I will eat my softball pants if there are no explosions in this movie. calling it now.
Sad thing is, I heard 2 teenagers talking about this movie earlier, saying how badass it looks, and how great transformers was. This is why Bay is attached to these movies. Teenage boys who don't know any better.
Sad thing is, I heard 2 teenagers talking about this movie earlier, saying how badass it looks, and how great transformers was. This is why Bay is attached to these movies. Teenage boys who don't know any better.
It seems like this trailer shifted opinions to be pretty 50/50 from the general populace, judging on the general internet reactions and comments on said articles.
Hey, I've been on this production's side since Megan Fox's involvement was announced day one.
EDIT: Also --
X said:
... and the Russian trailer with booty-bait April taking more pictures with her cell phone makes me not take her seriously if she's supposed to be a reporter) ...
I think it's that I'm extra critical of design work, (especially since they're turtles, let alone the TMNT) which is why the Turtles having certain poorly conceived design elements executed in excruciating levels of detail really, REALLY bothers me. Concept art and design are a really big deal to me, so I tend to get really annoyed when it's poorly done, and I think I'd probably have been more forgiving if I didn't see the character posters before watching the trailer, because they just set me off. I'm gonna link about a half a billion spoiler-tagged images, and then just lay into it to get it all off my chest.
Ok, so the first thing that people notice is the weird flat faces, with the too-human mouths (extremely visible lips in Mikey's case). The issue here is surprisingly not entirely the lack of having snouts like the Dave Rapoza artwork & classic turtles look. It's that the naso-labial lines are really heavily visible, which in addition to being a sign of aging (they're TEENAGE MNT's), it's also limiting their mouth space to something to something that's more human, and tossing it towards the uncanny valley in addition to not matching the other inhuman elements of their skull structure. The 2014 image edits (notably the in-between image of Leo) shows that they still look really odd with smaller mouths. The TMNT: OotS designs show that you can pull off a decidedly Turtles-like look without the snouts, so long as they have wider mouths that emote the way that we're used to seeing the Ninja Turtles emote -- and even then, a lot of people were weirded out by those designs for dialing it back that far.
The other thing that is REALLY grinding my gears is the fucking shells. Now, the CGI TMNT 2012 series does an EXCELLENT job of this, showing that the front & back shells are actually a single, interconnected piece of 'armor.' Now the 2003 series and the '80s turtles didn't demonstrate this as clearly insofar as I can tell on a quick search (most images have their arms obscuring this area), but as you can see on the 2014 Donatello Poster, they're clearly not this way in the new film. That alone is mildly annoying, but what exacerbates it to something that absolutely drives me fucking INSANE is how they look like the shells are pushed up on their shoulder blades and they're HUGE. One, it makes it visually SUPER obvious that they're not at all connected to the armored plates on their chest (which the 80's/'03 turtles avoid because of the design). On top of that, the sheer size of the Raphael & Donatello Posters are the most visually noticeable. There's absolutely NO anatomical configuration that would put a huge lump like that on their backs (turtles' spines run just under their shells). Not to mention that there's a HUGE empty gap where it just stretches up behind their heads REALLY awkwardly because it's so improperly positioned. It's even worse because that's ALL the fault of whoever the fuck designed them, because the mo-cap suits look CORRECT for the shell placement.
lkhsfglwDSAHJGNWARKkhzfdba
- and THAT'S what really grinds my gears right now.
I think it's because it makes her just seem like a teenager running around with a cell phone, when she's supposed to be some sort of professional. It's hard to take her seriously as some sort of journalist just using something exceptionally civilian to document everything she does (also because we don't see her in a professional environment or being taken seriously by her peers even once). I mean hell, even paparazzi use professional recording equipment, and bloggers & youtube gamers use proper microphones and cameras for doing their recordings, so seeing her rocking a cellphone to record events like a parent in some cellphone advert just makes me cringe.
Your sentiments are spot-on with everything but the phone gripe. There you couldn't be more off base.
Most journalists are starving artist-types, which is why I am no longer trying to make it in that field. It would be presumptuous to assume every journalist has even taken a photography class, much less that they can afford to brandish the latest and greatest device from Sony. Most are going to use their cell phone for pictures unless photography is a specialty for them. They'll probably use it to record interviews too, unless they're not given permission and have to just go off their notes (or memory; even note taking makes some people uncomfortable).
Remember, the reporter who called in JFK's assassination (and won a Pulitzer) had no fancy gadgetry, took no picture and had no personal phone. He was, in fact, being savagely beaten by another reporter who was trying to get the phone away from him.
Your sentiments are spot-on with everything but the phone gripe. There you couldn't be more off base.
Most journalists are starving artist-types, which is why I am no longer trying to make it in that field. It would be presumptuous to assume every journalist has even taken a photography class, much less that they can afford to brandish the latest and greatest device from Sony. Most are going to use their cell phone for pictures unless photography is a specialty for them. They'll probably use it to record interviews too, unless they're not given permission and have to just go off their notes (or memory; even note taking makes some people uncomfortable).
Remember, the reporter who called in JFK's assassination (and won a Pulitzer) had no fancy gadgetry, took no picture and had no personal phone. He was, in fact, being savagely beaten by another reporter who was trying to get the phone away from him.
See, I totally think of that being the case for freelance work: i.e. the Peter Parker-type, but insofar as I can tell with all the '80s Turtles inspiration, April's supposed to already be directly working for whatever news company, which (to me) always means that they'd be expected to use some level of recording equipment that's dedicated for that purpose when they're out getting stories, and doing interviews, etc.
All my friends/acquaintances who did any interviews or anything directly FOR ComicCon - either for the venue itself or the official blog sites, etc. last year were all using real cameras the whole time, and the non-professionals were always on phones. If they were personal blogs, I could see it, but not when they're a part of the larger organization that's expected to put out professional-looking content.
I guess that MIGHT make sense if she's more the interviewer-type, but everything shown makes it seem like she's more the person sneaking around taking pictures, which is why I'm expecting her to actually have a real dedicated piece of equipment for it, especially because no one takes her seriously in person and she's fainting (which pushes away at the interviewer cred).
I'm honestly hoping they're going for more of a "bottom rung"-level kind of journalist with this April. It would annoy me if she's supposed to be a local celebrity rather than someone more relatable.
I enjoy this tv spot quite more than any previous look at the film. Still not sold, but a less pure hatred and a bit more enjoyable. Probably 'cause it focuses in on the Turtles, & shows them in a few different stages that make their design seem a tiny bit less jarring. Still have the issues from earlier about them, but nonetheless.
More Turtles with a spotlight on the four brothers.
I'm at the point where I feel like I can gladly swallow my issues with the designs and feel like I'm going to give myself a fair chance to really enjoy this without being heavily judgmental. It could still suck, but if it's relatively good, I won't let my negative feelings overshadow it.
Seeing the VFX people who were responsible for making everything and the people putting things together helps me a lot.
Also, apparently Raph is literally bullet proof, and is that Karai at 16:46?! Still curious about the voice recast for Leo. Some minor spoilers, but nothing I'm even remotely bothered by/you couldn't pick up from the trailers.
Main plot seemed a bit convenient/rushed. Splinter still creeps me out. The initial humor fell kinda flat, but I actually enjoyed the Turtles a LOT more than I expected to, and their origin was a lot like the ongoing IDW comic. There're a lot of Easter Eggs in the dialog and background that was rad. Overall, I enjoyed it a great deal more than I thought I would. No ides how I'd rank it, but it wasn't the unmitigated train wreck I thought it'd be.
The turtles characterizations were fine, but still seemed pretty dull. Donnies percentage talk got annoying, Leo had barely any presence, Raph was tough angry guy, and Mikey by far had the most lines, most were pretty good and the VA did a good job, but his whole crushing on April thing got old after awhile.
It got the characteristics of the turtles, but they're extremely broad.
The fights are by far the highlight, even if the turtles are freakishly strong (Raph shatters a huge piece of concrete with a punch). The camera's pulled back for most of it with few cuts so you can actually see whats happening, and the choreography is pretty good. Splinter has a pretty damn good fight.
Megan Fox. Yeah. She has trouble pulling off the line "your words really resonated with me". The way she said it made it seem like she had no idea what resonated meant, it sounded so awkward.
Story was pretty meh. Took alot from the amazing spider-man. Like, ALOT. Id be interested in seeing a side-by-side just to see how similar all the beats were, with a few exceptions.
The easter eggs X talked about felt pretty forced to me. 2 examples are one thing Shredder says thats a famous line from the 80s cartoon, but this shredder would never say that, especially given his plan for them.
The second being a line where Vern says "So they're aliens?" and April replies "No. That's stupid." Get it?
Alot of goofs too, you could tell it was rushed. I swear there was a part where April runs up to a place where Donnie is, but he's clearly not in the picture, but when the camera cuts he's there. Like they didn't have the time to put him in and make it convincing so they decided to just not put in him there and hope it cut away before anyone realized.
It was ok. Don't regret seeing it, but I don't really have any urge to see it again.
EDIT: Also, how the hell did Splinter know so much about Shredder?
Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
