Before any of
you starts to spill your inner most disgust towards Michael Bay’s handling of
the Transformers franchise, let me tell you this… I think that his version of TMNT
did hit some right notes among hardcore fans of the franchise. The first movie
was kinda *ok/meh/so-so* but still I enjoyed it to a certain extent. Out of the
Shadows (OOTS) however did invoke some childhood memories which would make even
the most hardcore fan of the original cartoon series weep with joy. Even though
Michael Bay no longer helms the director seat (David Green now does), you can’t
help but notice that his influence still lingered on throughout the movie.
I’m way past
complaining how the new Bay-Turtles now look. I guess in the real world, the character
design from the classic cartoon series just doesn’t work. Just like how Michael
Bay rationalized how the red blocky Peterbilt truck design won’t work for the
on-screen Optimus Prime. The new character designs are starting to build on me
and I love how they differ in sizes to denote the age gaps between the four
brothers.
There are still
many elements lifted from the new Nickelodeon TMNT series but fans of the
original 80s cartoon series may still jump for joy for there were many nods and
cues taken off the classic TV series. More on that later. Let me just start
with the obvious ones. Both Baxter Stockman and Casey Jones were clearly from
the new Nick TMNT series but I wasn’t too concerned on them. My son was
disappointed that Casey spent just minutes in his supposedly signature hockey
mask for the entire movie. The little guy loved the original 1990 TMNT motion
picture so he was a bit gutted that the new Casey Jones weren’t as crude as the
one played by Elias Koteas.
My favorite
character from Bay’s Turtles flicks is STILL Vernon Fenwick by the excellent
Will Arnett. His performance as the ‘Falcon’ (that packing of the Falcon breath
scene is darn hilarious!) totally did it for me! In the 80s cartoon series,
Vern was a reluctant ally of the Turtles and it’s good to see that they
maintained his character yet developed him into someone more narcissistic in
the new movies.
Master Splinter
is back to mentor the Turtles; April O’Neill continued her exploits as the
nosey reporter for Channel 6; Shredder is also back to exact his revenge…. so I
guess everyone’s accounted for…right? Well, actually no. OOTS introduced three
fan favorite characters from the classic 80s series and that fact alone shall
make many fanboy squeal in delight. Frankly I was super hyped up to see how
Rocksteady, Bebop and Krang (dang it! It’s KRANGGGG finally!!) turned out on
the big screen and I can tell you they didn’t disappoint.
Both Rock and
Beebs turned out great even though you just know that it’s the CGI doin’ most
of the work. Krang however was the best of them all. I am really glad that they
went with the classic character design & back story instead of
Nickelodeon’s. And that Technodrome…..I was lost for words. The last act of the
film just screamed ‘80s goodness’ to me.
Well, I can
understand that many of you may have different opinion about OOTS but to each
his own eh? I personally like the movie so much so I am willing to cast aside
my doubts and prejudice towards Michael Bay’s direction for the new Turtles.
‘Nuff said.
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