Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-8864605-20140426190319/@comment-25033214-20140607021840

There are different camps of complaint... Most of the stuff people are complaining about don't bother me - Bay, Fox, other casting decisions (well, skeptical of Knoxville), what the Turtles are wearing... don't care. Only one that does bother me is the character design, mostly from the neck up. My apologizes to the designers, I'm sure they worked very hard, but really now. If this was some other smaller budget movie in some other year, fine, whatever. But to make such a big, unappealing change to the point they really aren't quickly - or even slowly - recognizable... Maybe they're only fictional but I feel rather insulted for these guys and feel they deserved better representation in something marking their 30th year.

Some like it *shrug* that's up to them, they are allowed to, just as some are allowed to not like some elements of it, or the entire thing. I'm not out there claiming my childhood is destroyed, I have no vendetta against the makers, etc etc.. I just feel rather badly for TMNT. Textures play a large role in realism, not just the shape of the model. That they don't even feel recognizable kind of kills it for me. If I knew nothing of the film and was just shown a headshot of a character, I doubt I'd have been easily able to guess what or who I was even looking at. Because of that it just feels as if 'the guys' were replaced in their own movie. (Perhaps with the sons of Swamp Thing and a goat.)

I assume those who don't get why some are so sorely disappointed don't for possibly the same reason I didn't get why people were so upset over Transformers. I was a fan of that a cartoon as a kid, but I wasn't a BIG HUGE fan, just a moderate one... (At this point I can't even immediately recall anything from that series other than when Optimus Prime died.) And for that reason I don't think I cared, Transformer's movie didn't bother me at all. But I find that to be a large failure when you fail the people a movie like Transformers or TMNT is most important to.

But that said - getting long winded, sorry, habit - I am not concerned over my childhood being ruined or any of that nonsense some haters of the criticizers like to accuse. Not here to cry or argue over it. I just purely feel a rather badly for TMNT themselves. That fan edit of Leo is incredible. Realistic textures and movement would go a long way and it's unfortunate that we don't get to see, and may never see, an appealing and easily recognizable Leo (who looks rather imposing and badass imo, in the fan edit) get to be portrayed in an epic way in a film with a big enough of a budget and talent to do him and his brothers so much justice.

But those who like it.. enjoy. I figure I'll catch it someday, but probably only on tv. And then when he's turned away from the camera I'll try to pretend Leo looks like the edited version...