Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-8864605-20140426190319/@comment-995426-20150902230754

Jadepalacetrainee wrote: RodimusPhil wrote: I got it (to a point) when people were hating on the idea of the Turtles being aliens, but now that that concept has been abandoned and an undeniably cool trailer has come out, shouldn't fans be changing their tune by now? Or is Michael Bay just so hated that any movie that bears his name, even if he's just let his house be used as a set, becomes troll-fodder? I have always been a fan of Michael Bay, and I am proud to say that he has brought my favorite cartoon characters to life in a way that only strengthens my love for the turtles. They look so realistic and kickass and attractive in a way that only extreme TMNT fangirls will understand. (Donnie and his nerd glasses OMG) My only complaint is that Megan Fox seemed to hog the spotlight a little bit and I would like the next films to focus more on the turtles and less on April O'Neil. Your first sentence already establishes the different way we think about TMNT. I don't think of TMNT as "cartoon characters". To me they are "indy comic book characters", originally in black & white. It was always annoying enough when film adaptations of TMNT aspired to be more like the cartoons than like the comics. But it's even more annoying when the people demanding they be like the cartoons, are themselves now in their 30s, and still barely aware the comics ever existed. When it comes to cartoons, I only really bonded to the first two seasons of the 2012 TV series. When I was a preteen, my interest in the 1987 TV series was only brief, and evaporated away as soon as I was given Mirage comics as a gift. I remember thinking, "Why isn't everyone reading these?" I never watched The Next Mutation, and I only saw some of the 2003 TV series in recent years.

I'd like a good serious film (or perhaps miniseries or multi-part film) adaptation of the Mirage version of the City at War arc someday. It was so good at capturing characters' sense of uncertainty, desperation, hopelessness, discord and even boredom, later contrasted with birth and renewal, and made me appreciate the characters even more. April, Casey, Donnie, Gabrielle, Karai, Leo, Rat King, Splinter&mdash;all of them. Even the otherwise irrelevant Mr. Buscheyev who lived above that sex shop when it was blown up and spent the entire arc slowly recovering from his injuries. The climax involved morally grey but necessary choices along with some impressive ninjutsu with improvised weapons in non-ideal circumstances. At the end, there was no perfect happy ending, because people earned their own happy endings, and there was still sadness and melancholy. But it was still a good ending.

Unfortunately, Hollywood is not really in the business of making good films. They make obscenely-heavily-funded, market-driven blockbusters that appeal to the lowest common denominator with one-dimensional catchphrases and toilet jokes, which is why most TMNT films have done very little to leave a lasting impression in the minds of anyone older than 12. I'd rather have a really good film that risks bombing at the box office than a vapid blockbuster film. Perhaps someday there will be more good TMNT indy films made with heart and substance, even if they don't have high budgets. But I don't expect them to come from Paramount or Michael Bay.