Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Brothers become legends.
- Turtles bring the laughs - not super serious dark 'n gritty Batman Begins type movie.
- CG is pretty dang detailed and very well done.
- Megan Fox is still a total babe even after having kids.
- Acting is pretty legit.
- Shredder's suit is very sexy, outside of arm-swords (see negatives).
- New cosmetic additions help easily identify the turtles even during hectic scenes.
- Fights are very well choreographed.
- Suprise! - effectively done 'saw it coming' jump scare.
- Pacing isn't bad, never feels like its dragging or overstaying it's welcome.
- Splinter.
- Shredder feels like a complete and total threat.
- "Tonight I dine on Turtle Soup!"
- Slow-mo metal scraping metal has to be the third worst annoying sound in the world.
- Turtle noses.
- No Casey Jones.
- Foot clan masks look dumb (opinion, of course), are less ninjas and more just armed thugs.
- Shredder's swiss-knife arms look pretty goofy when all out.
- Shredder's suit seems too high tech compared to everything else in the movie.
- April doesn't make a move that would cause her to seem a lot less crazy to her boss at one point. I mean, whatever, it works for the plot, but it seems like they should have done at least a quick brush off of it or something.
Of all the Michael Bay does your childhood movies, this is the one I did not feel bad about spending money on. The overall plot of the movie can be pretty serious, but the turtles themselves do a wonderful job of bringing humor to situations, and there's more than a few times the crowd at the theater was laughing. Add to that some cool fight scenes, a drop-dead gorgeous Shredder suit, and a bunch of little details like lines said and it comes off to be a rather enjoyable experience.
For opinions on the Old movies versus the New, read the next bit. I'd do it versus comics, but I have not read those, and quite honestly my memory of the old cartoon is much too foggy to be used for any comparison purposes. Let's just leave it at: I feel they did a pretty good job at capturing what could be considered the feel of Ninja Turtles as I remember it.
Old Trilogy
- More Campy
- Practical Effects
- Not-so-scary Shredder
- Ninja Foot soldiers
- Crime wave of kids stealing
- April initial focus, Turtles later
- Casey Jones
- Awkward April/Casey romance
2014
- More serious but with jokes
- Well done CG effects
- Intimidating Shredder
- Soldier Foot soldiers
- Crime wave of armed foot
- April initial focus, Turtles later
- Vern, reporter sidekick
- Hilarious Mickey attempting to romance April