Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2014 review

Genre: Action, Comedy, Comic, Science Fiction.
Starring: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Pete Ploszek, Johhny Knoxville, Jeremy Howard, Danny Woodburn, Tony Shalhoub, William Fichtner, Tohoru Masamune, Whoopi Goldberg.
Year Of Release: 2014
Certificate: 12A (UK)
Runtime: 101 Minutes
Director: Jonathan Liebesman

Synopsis: "When a kingpin threatens New York City, a news reporter find a quad of mutants which makes an alliance to unravel Shredder's plan as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." IMDB

Finally got to watch it, over two months after release in the US, us UK fans finally got to feast our eyes on the reboot that 99% were worried about or didn't want I for one was split right down the middle. 

The film opens up with April O'Neil (Fox) a news reporter who is struggling to make a name for herself in the news world, that is until one day she witnesses a vigilante take down gang members of a the local crime syndicate known as "The Foot Clan". Finding it nearly impossible to get anybody to believe her story (with good reason), her constant work on this project and digging deep gets her face-to-face with the members of the titular TMNT Leonardo (Knoxville & Ploszek), Raphael (Ritchson), Michelangelo (Fisher) and Donatello (Howard).

Due to her constant digging April fins herself reconnecting with the old scientist friend and partner of her dead father Sacks (Fichtner) who seems to have some very sinister reasons in wanting to find the Turtles for himself. He wants the Turtles back so he can extract the mutagen from them which made them mutate into the Mutant Ninja Turtles we all know and love today in order to set in motion his less than legitimate plans he has with sinister Shredder.

Overall, the film for me personally was absolutely incredible, I have been a fan for over two decades and inside was insanely excited for the film if a bit apprehensive due to Bay's record of "if it exists I will blow the shit out of it". With Bay serving as producer some of his overly used tropes still stand but they work in the film due it being a pure action flick.

One of the huge complaints I seem to see going around is that "they changed to much", but come on, you can't get in a mood over the fact that they didn't use the story that we were already given in the original animated series. However, for me changing it up didn't really matter that much, while it was different if fitted in nicely wit a newly revived film franchise made this world they are creating if you will a whole lot better. They even added a new twist that includes April having a more important role in the Turtles becoming the Turtles, which for me was a great addition to the back story, made them so much more of a "family" with April in a way serving as their parent along with Splinter.

They also changed how Splinter now learnt his ninjutsu ways from book he found in the sewer, the book dons the authors name Hamato Yoshi's in the original origin Splinter is an incarnation of Hamato Yoshi. However, in this reboot Yoshi is completely written out the story allowing I guess Splinter to be his own character. They still did keep Yoshi's name in the story to pay homage to the beautiful origin of the franchise I have loved since I was a toddler.

The film is full on Action ride, while the story is less than you get in the 2 hour plus runtime Dramas, you still get everything you need from the story. The characters are absolutely brilliant, as always Mikey steals so many scenes with his perfectly timed idiotic remarks, nonsensical gibberish and unrequited love for pizza specifically an unheard of 99 cheese pizza!

After watching the film I am SUPER pumped for the sequel however many there will be, especially excited for the inclusion of Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang and Casey Jones. Can you believe these guys are coming to this world? My mind is blown! I can HIGHLY recommend you check this out, the film is full of Action, laughs, Turtle badassery, martial artistic scenes and my childhood being revived! If I did have to pick a complaint or two I would have to say that Shredder looked like he was ripped from a Transformers film and Megan Fox being so blatantly untalented and only cast for her looks was a let down. Other than that I will be buying this film on day of release and watching for many years to come.

8/10

TMNT 2014 Rocksteady, Bebop and Krang concept art

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot done a lot better than some people expected, it made a fair amount of money against its budget resulting in it being given a sequel to come out in 2016. I personally have not seen the film as of yet, due to it not releasing until later this week here (UK) a whole two months later than the US market which I find annoying to say the least.

However, I do know that two of my all time favourite characters from anything did not make an appearance allowing them to come into it later, now we have some concept art for said characters including Krang. Here is the concept art for Rocksteady, Bebop and Krang.

Rocksteady and Bebop have a realistic vibe to their look, making them look this way would have been a great addition to the film given how dim and animalistic they can be at times. Krang looks like he would really suit this kind of humanised world that they are creating for the TMNT franchise, I would happily see these three conceptual ideas on the big screen, maybe in the 2016 sequel? Who knows.

New version of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" trailer is here

As you guys are well aware I am a huge fan of TMNT and part of me is insanely excited while the other part is insanely nervous. In this new trailer for the upcoming movie we finally get to see all four of the Turtles and a first look at Shredder too.

Finally it's here "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" trailer!!!

So here it is, finally we get to see a trailer for the highly anticipated reboot "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". You guys will know I am a HUGE fan of TMNT, have been for as long as I can remember so I was beyond excited when I seen this was online. Safe to say I am still on the fence about it, will always think Fichtner and Fox are awful casting decisions, plus I am not sure about the whole "created" route they seem to be taking feels like an extremely cheap way to tie the characters together. Check it out below an let me know what you think.

"Ninja Turtles" poster gives us a new look at the Turtles!

Last night a new teaser poster titled "Ninja Turtles" made its way online, the poster debuted on Reddit which proves all the recent talk and image leaks of the Turtles are correct. The poster shows off Leo's bamboo armour, Raph's sunglasses, Mich's puka shell necklace and Donnie's scientific looking goggles/glasses. I like how they aren't all identical they have their own look, not just their accessories.

A HUGE thing that jumps out on the poster, is the top right "Ninja Turtles"which you guys will remember was Bay rumoured new title for the film when they planned on making the Turtles more alien opposed to mutant. Now it looks like this rumours is confirmed, again, let's hope that they will still avoid the alien approach.

A few people have been complaining that they have "human lips", my guess is so that when we see them speaking on screen it will have a more natural looking aesthetic opposed to how The Muppets look when they talk. Plus people have also said that the Halloween costume design looked too childish, I hope this poster puts that mind frame to bed, this poster and the other on set mock-ups clearly show a more dark/adult version of the Turtles that we are not used too.

Finally we see the Turtles??? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles update

Is it true, FINALLY get to see Michael Bays depiction of our beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I can not say with 100% certainty that these pictures are real, however I would bet anything on that these pictures are legitimate. It is safe to say, that I am surprisingly happy with how these guys look!

Along with the pictures of how the Turtles are going to look, we have our first look at the main antagonist Shredder played by William Fichtner and I will say he looks VERY evil and bad ass! Check out the pics below and let me know what you guys think.

William Fitchner talks Shredder TMNT

Recently William Fitchner has been talking with The Hollywood News about his role of Shredder in the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot pegged for Summer 2014 release.

"What I read about Eric Sachs in the script was great, and then how the character has been moulded and changed when we started filming has become something really quite remarkable in terms of what we’ve seen before of the character."

Fichtner also thinks that fans will be blown away by the new turtles in the film, saying: “They are some messed up mutant turtles!”

Unfortunately Fitchner also confirmed that two of the greatest villains of all time will not be in the movie, Bebeop and Rocksteady will NOT be joining the film. This is very upsetting for me, I always had that part of my brain that kept saying "don't worry, they'll show up". Here's hoping they make an appearance in the sequel if the film gets one. 

Plus is anybody else still a bit bothered that they have taken away Oroku Saki and made him into Eric Sachs, they didn't have to Americanise him in my opinion. There is probably hundreds of Japanese actors out there that could have played the role perfectly.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot update

So here we go, we have a lot of pictures coming your way including pre CGI pictures of the Turtles themselves, a look at Fox as April plus maybe Will Arnett's character revealed? Some of you might see this as a SPOILER if so I advised leaving the page now, if not scroll down. We have also seen that the incredible actor William Fitchner has been cast in a pretty iconic role, he is set to play a character described as "iconic stature" no other information than that. From what I know an remember from the Comics and Cartoon is that a character like that can be the one and only Shredder!

So here we go, here are a few pictures of the Turtles pre-CGI. They are a little hard to look at if you love the Turtles but let's keep our hopes up an see if Bay makes these look good.

 The Turtles are looking pretty weird in the pictures, but they still look kinda cool. So here it is, have SuperheroHype worked out who that Will Arnett is going to be playing Vernon Fenwick, Aprils cameraman!?

Also we have got some set photos that show off Megan Fox as April, a casting decision I still can't accept she just isn't good enough for me.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles casts its Splinter

Deadline are reporting that former "Seinfeld" star Danny Woodburn has signed on to play Master Splinter in the Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles revival.

We have our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

On Friday it was announced that Alan Ritchson was signing on to play Raphael in the upcoming "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" reboot. According to reports by Deadline we now how the names of the other three actors that are joining the quartet. Jeremy Howard is set to star as Donatello, Pete Ploszek will play Leonardo and Noel Fisher is playing Michelangelo. The turtles are going to be captured using motion capture technology an will be joined on screen by Megan Fox who has already been casted in the role of April O'Neil. So here are our Turtles;

 Alan Ritchson is going to play Raphael. He has previously been in "Smallville" in which he featured as superhero Aquaman plus he was also in starred in "Blue Mountain State" before it was cancelled.

 Jeremy Howard is going to play Donatello. He has previously been in many TV Shows including "Scrubs", "Entourage" and "My Name Is Earl".

 Noel Fisher is set to play Michelangelo. He has previously been in "Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2" as Vladimir and also was the voice of Toad in "X-Men Evolution" back in the early 2000's.

 Pete Ploszek is set to play Leonardo, my personal favourite Turtle. He has previously been in "Parks And Recreation" and "Shameless" the U.S version.

Kevin Eastman talks Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot

If you are not familiar with the name Kevin Eastman, well you should be he is the co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles along with Peter Laird. Despite disagreeing with Laird on what the upcoming TMNT film will be like Eastman believes we are all jumping the gun and misjudging the film.
In his recent release he spoke about Joss Whedon and "The Avengers" which is always a good sign, I loved the Ninja Turtles growing up even have my original Turtles from the last 1980's.

"One of the things that’s awesome about the relationship I’ve had with Platinum Dunes and Michael Bay and Jonathan Liebesman and some of the producers, Scott Mednick and Galen Walker on the series, is that It’s probably amusing to a lot of people what the press puts out there and what they say people behind the scenes really want to do with the movie, but [Platinum Dunes'] main goal is actually to make the best possible “Turtles” movie with respect to the fans and the core audience as possible. We’ve learned from movies like “The Avengers,” which to me was a superhero movie so good to me personally that I practically wept. It was perfect, you know what I mean? That’s the stuff that I grew up on. Joss Whedon just knocked it out of the park, the whole team did, and that includes choreographing all the interlocking movies. From everything that I’ve seen in the ["TMNT"] script and the development and everything they’ve asked my input on specifically, it’s gonna be an awesome, familiar, solid “Turtles” movie. It’ll have everything that fans are gonna want and then some."

Megan Fox joins "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" reboot

Rumours have been circulating for a few days now saying that production on the film will start this April, it now looks like the film has its first cast member. Michael Bay himself posted on his personal website  

"TMNT: We are bringing Megan Fox back into the family"

I found the news a little bit shocking if I'm honest, I thought she was kicked out of "Transformers" due to bad blood between her and Michael Bay. It seems like we we're all lied to, or maybe they have just put the past behind them an Bay has forgiven her.

Although Fox's role is unspecific right now, it is more than likely that she will play April O'Neil the reporter and friend to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Bay used the acronym "TMNT" does that mean he has dropped the title "Ninja Turtles"? He did get a lot of bad press from fans when he released information about the possible alien connection, has he had a change of heart an gone for a more "traditional" Turtles film? Let's all hope so!

Michael Bay to produce "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" reboot

I didn't plan on blogging about this reboot because in all honesty it angered me to my core, what on earth are they rebooting something so incredible for? The worst thing about the reboot is than none other than Michael Bay, the big budget man which more than likely means the film will cost about $150-200 million an will be a movie flop like "Transformers 2" & "Transformers 3". I'm not going to completely write this movie off until I see some footage or stills of the film, I personally haven't seen "TMNT" from 2007 but know that it was 100% CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) which is the road I will guess Bay will take when making his version. Since it made its way online that Bay was to produce the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" reboot, the has been mostly negative remarks about the film. These negative remarks were at an all time high when Bay was set to be making the Turtles into aliens, yes you read that correct aliens.  
"Bay announced over the weekend at the Nickelodeon Upfront in New York that origin story for everyone’s favourite heroes in a half shell is going to be modified somewhat. And by “modified somewhat,” I mean changed entirely because it popped into Bay’s head one day and so why not? Trucks from space punching each other somehow made sense to film viewers, so why not turtles that know martial arts? Bay stated that “when you see this movie, kids are going to believe, one day, that these turtles actually do exist when we are done with this movie. These turtles are from an alien race and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely lovable."
The negative remarks must have hit Bay hard when he heard them, not long after his alien announcement he was making another press statement;
"Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world. 

Michael"