No, it did not.
My score? 7/10 and at parts of the film 8/10. It was a great film for kids (PG-13 people, PG-13), an excellent film for the franchise name, and a pretty good film generally but not amazing of course. Definitely deserving the score - A good time for some mindless childish fun. Seriously, the old ones were shameful by comparison.
I will quickly address the simple points of this film, based in an answer form at parts as well to conversations I have had and opinions out there on the film.
1) Splinter is a chastising mean old rat as opposed to a lovable father.
Well, chastising is Japanese tradition, and thus Splinter was awesome. A teacher, strict, loving, caring, smart, and also as a damn rat mutant paranoid with good reason, its all there. Now of-course with this origin story there is absolutely no reason for this to actually have any Japanese routes at all, but seriously now, it is a film about Mutated Turtles that are Ninjas. I don't think any sense of logic and realism is needed, especially for a comic/cartoon that started out as a parody.
2) No character evolution at all, like Raph. We don't see him truly being against his brothers making his speech at the end pointless and out the window.
Nobody needs to know their past to get Raphs speech so it's not out the window. Its a cliche teenager speech that can be dropped anywhere and in any film to simply reveal/complete the backstory of characters (most films don't show you the back story, they can reveal it to you with such dialogue were people go "oh, so he was a douche then" or what not) but apart from that, the film did indicate Raphs tendacy to be always annoyed with his brothers and had made claims of leaving them as well. What, nobody noticed that? But they did notice the Micheal Bay explosions through a different director.
This brings us to-
3) TMNT does not need a build-up explanation, it drops you into the thick of it like a cartoon and simply shows you what is what and you start to learn what is what if you don't already know, just like the 80's and 90's. We weren't that stupid to need explanations and backstories to understand a film. A conversation like that was all that was needed at times however as I already said Ralph is pretty much against them all the time and his speech of "I'm leaving" and the "you always say that" response to it revealed enough.
Whoever didn't get it was simply not paying attention and thinking about Bay rather than connect and enjoy the film. There wasn't much plot in the film at all really, so how can one miss that?
5) The film was a PG-13 flick. What depth did it need? It's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It had more than enough depth for what it was.
6) The turtles were awesome, and so was Oneils' part to the story. Not shoehorned at all, though however a little overplayed it was ok since I distinctly remember Oneil being a big part of many episodes in the comics as well. This is what always added a connection to it all on the human side of things and made us relate.
7) Do I need to talk about the 90's versions? This is far beyond a better adaptation. As it also sets the stage for something so much better to come (hopefully) and it does the TMNT franchise justice. Ok, I loved the old ones but because I was young and they were simply TMNT. Still love them for nostalgia reasons, but do we really need to say the obvious in how bad they were? Much less compare them to this?
8) Shredder was not fun at all, I admit. I really disliked the adaptation of Shredder. Arnett was also mild to cold at best. I love him but he is always croaking his lines as cheesy as they where. I thought Batman was incomprehensible. The cheesiness of this film was at times ridiculous. And even after seeing it I still wasn't that much into Don's looks (but who cares, its Don, I always thought he was the lesser turtle of them all. The other three were my favourite, with Ralph on top of the list then Leo then Mike.) It had its problems for sure, especially from a mature side of things. As a children's film some of those problems were too obvious for an adult to accept, others not that bad, and some completely unnoticeable.
So was it a great film? No. Was it a bad film? No again.
It had its bads, especially for a grown-up, but quite bearable if you keep in mind its a TMNT PG-13 film (as it should be) and as a fan it has a lot of fun moments in it. The turtle chemistry was also spot on and it all resulted into a nice mindless mix of pop-corn fun to watch. Easily a film you can leave playing whilst doing other things as well. (p.s I love ambiance films, makes working easier at times, whereas really good films end up simply distracting you because they are so great).
It had the kind of content one should expect in such a film and at such a viewers rating (PG-13, I am tired of repeating that part). Expecting something else and thus being disappointed is simply neither here nor there.
Micheal Bayisms
What happened to the days when we simply went and saw a film without knowing who directed it, or who wrote it, or anything for that matter, and we simply passed unbiased judgement on what we saw? What, they have to be nobodies for people to do this nowadays? Or people need to be children to do this?
They are famous in a good way? The hype and expectation ruins a film.
They are famous in a bad way? The biased mindset ruins the film.
Its a lose lose scenario.
And it falls into every aspect after that.
They make a cheesy childish film? People complain and whine.
They make a realistic and serious adaptation? People call it Nolified and dark (when half the time they are not, as I explain in my article Man of Steel, Small - Large Steps on the Path to Superman).
Lets not mention the new Power Rangers fan film from producer Adi Shankar, people again whining and hating because it was too mature, hence not childish.
Now we have Michael Bay hate wagons. Yes, the humour is numb and he has explosions! And? Does anybody even look at a films target market or do they just waltz right in expecting the production to be a personal adaptation for their own special little selves?
I say, simply, !@#$ the haters, they bloat our minds with biased doubts and we end up ourselves entering a theatre with all this clutter in our minds barely letting us enjoy a film for what it is. At which point, if we end up seeing a Micheal Bay film with only one explosion in it we will still whine and say "dude, you couldn't resist could you". It is a little ridiculous.
Again, same thing with the Hobbit. "They are milking it to a trilogy and blaaaah"...
I had doubts for each Hobbit film thanks to all the whining out there, and each Hobbit film amazed me. Yet it was never as fun I admit at the beginning and the haters do get in the back of your head at times. For example: "Cumberbatch does the voice of the Dragon!!! Wooaaaahhhh!!!"
Thanks for that guys. Now instead of thinking its a faceless dragon I am noticing the voice and paying attention to things I should not be paying attention to, getting distracted from experiencing the film 100% and noticing what Cumberbatch sounds like more than actually getting into the feel of the Dragon. In all honesty, I cannot feel that dragon at all anymore. Everytime I hear it I hear Benedict. Thank you for ruining the experience for us once more people.
A world of bitching, whining, hate wagons, fanboys, steam-blowers, spoilers, hype, and a whole lot more. Aren't you all tired of all this already? I know I am.
End of the day, the Hobbit was as good if not better in many ways than TLOR although much different and for obvious reasons as it was based on much different foundations. Having the new trilogy end left an empty sense of wanting more. I simply don't want it to end. So the haters can hate, but the Hobbit Trilogy was simply amazing.
Did I skip an article here? Oh yeah, right, I was talking about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
TNMT
So it used the Spiderman 2 ending scene. And the Spiderman 2 story as well. Who cares? Did it work in the film? It did. And it felt as comical and TMNT as anything before it. Looking for originality in a childish reboot on a childish franchise? That must be a new low.
Get over the details on such films which are clearly meant as blockbuster pop-corn films and are doing a great job at that as well, jump off the hate wagons, take off the nostalgia goggles, redeem the biased mindset, forget about directors and writers and studios, and watch a damn movie people the way a child would see it, for what it is!
Your intellect and maturity should not change this experience, intellect and maturity should only change the themes and complex stories and theories and feelings you can understand, relate to and analyse in a given artwork.
Something else on the look of the Turtles.
They were simply, badass!
And no, we do not want the turtles shorter than they are now. They are awesome like this. Finally they look good in a live action film.
Shredder was not appealing, but don't fix him with ruining something else (making the turtles smaller that is to compensate for Shredders' simple armour with regards to origins).
TMNT - II Secret of the Ooze?
What I personally would have done to fix all this (again, aimed at a childs film) I would simply make Shredder part mutant as well (hence not needing the robot suit) and as a human with the mutation from the ooze, which is what he was trying to get his hands on all this time, one can hope he would remain a human in form, and simply have superhuman strength to battle the turtles.
And on a side note, this is what they are probably going for. Shredder doesn't die that we know of, and the cheesy hand on the spilled ooze as if pointing to it could might as well be him finally getting a hold on it.
At which point, it will be a perfect kick-off for a sequel. Shredder has the ooze make him almost invincible, the armour changes to something more like the originals (so he can actually fight like a normal warrior as well, since he is a traditional samurai and would definitely prefer less armour on him and not a damn Transformer suit) at which point if this is indeed the direction they go in then this film was the perfect set up for it and Shredders first appearance as a normal villain. Something sketchy and a great pre-intro to the Shredder we know. Thus making the film ultimately in the end simply a film for "the birth of Shredder". Talking about sequels, will that make TMNT 2 bear a title "The Secret of the Ooze" again? That would be funny.
Chances of them going this way are a lot (I hope). They seem to truly want to make sense in a lot of stuff in it and keep to the lore, and they also had one of the original creators of the TMNT work on this as well, so stop whining about a kids films for kids and start enjoying guys.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a cheesy, mindless, immature, pop-corn blockbuster for kids and well done to it. 7/10 from me guys, you deserved it.
(That scene in the Elevator had me. Meanwhile that entire action sequence in the snow? Hmm... That was badass! Well done).
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