Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie review: The 1990 movie vs. The remake

This year I bought a DVD containing the remake and the three movies of the 1990s, and I have to be frank about the changes. At first I thought the remake was okay; now I think it is inferior to the original. Yet before buying this DVD I had expressed overwhelming disdain towards this remake for various changes to the appearance of the turtles: many called the turtles a lookalike to Wayne Rooney, and I personally compared them to middle-aged men rather than teenagers. Even the currently running TV series on Nickelodeon gives a better description of the turtles than the movie—and this movie is produced by Nickelodeon Movies.

 

So what has caused so much hype compared to the original? The original 1990 version stays true to the Mirage Comics and the 1980s series airing at the time in terms of the origin of the turtles and Master Splinter. Whether it was Splinter who was a pet rat to Master Yoshi or Master Yoshi turned to a rat named Splinter, Yoshi was (and is) the lowest common denominator. However, in this remake, there has been no mention of Master Yoshi, who has always been the reason for Splinter’s responsibility as a sensei (and a father) to the turtles.

 

Who named the turtles?
Again, both sources (the 1990 movie and the 1980s cartoon) make mention of Splinter’s devotion to reading a book based on the Renaissance artists from whom he derived the names. This 2014 movie, on the other hand, shows that a young girl named April O’Neill is the one who named the turtles that way, even if she had not even read such books.



The relationship among the turtles
Even in the earlier aforementioned versions always give room to turtles bonding with each other as brothers. We know very well of their personalities and expected them to be as they were in the earlier movie, but do not see much of that in this modern version. If you remember in the 1990 movie, we witnessed moments where Michelangelo and Donatello made jokes (one-liners) with each other, meditated on Splinter’s teaching; and also where Raphael and Leonardo argued over Splinter’s abduction and disagreements over handling the situation. I can recall how April narrated on the turtles’ approach to coping with their loss.



The Shredder
I’m not sure if Oroku Saki was ever mentioned in this movie, but the Shredder in this 2014 movie resembled a combination of Megatron from Michael Bay’s Transformers movie series and the Predator from the eponymous movies franchise. Since there has been no mention of the Utroms from the Mirage Comics, or of Kraang from the cartoon, this technology of the suit looks way too unrealistically advance for a human to handle. I think it is because the writers wanted to redesign the Shredder to intimidating imagery.



The Foot Clan
What happened to the band of ninja thieves from Japan? It’s apparently unforgivable to have the Foot Clan pose as terrorists instead of ninjas. The first movie stuck to the comics, so why not this movie?



Master Splinter has a prehensile tail; the turtles are bulky and sport more than just ninja gear; the action scenes are just too uninspiring. Also to mention, the origin stories are preposterous; the plot is laughable; and the writing is flat. Yet a sequel is in the works. This 2014 reboot fails to replicate the success of the 1990 movie, which still touches the hearts of the children of the 1990s.

Hancock (2008)

 

Will Smith stars as a superhero that everybody loves to hate. He is a parody of Superman who curbs crime but causes more costly damage than the criminals themselves. So many citizens of Los Angeles detest this guy because he just shows no regard for his own actions. So what is up with him?

This movie starts off with Hancock lying down on a public bench; a kid awakens him to stop a highway chase; Hancock repels the kid who then calls him "Asshole". I just want to be frank that I have watched an old film RoboCop 2 and can recall panning the movie for having kids use foul language. In fact this movie makes an overly repetitive use of the word "asshole" to the point that it completely loses its meaning. Plus for Hancock to be drinking in the presence of a minor, is completely abnormal.

 

So this guy Hancock saves this PR agent from a level crossing when his car is stuck in a traffic jam. He is heckled by the crowd for his usual act of damage but is praised by that PR campaigner, who believes he can turn his life around.

 

This movie goes through the length from comedy to drama. In fact, the first half of the film is comical; the second half turns to drama. The moment Hancock turns into a savior marks the moment where we can laugh no more. In my opinion, this movie starts off fresh but soon turns sour when Hancock finds himself in a feud with a woman also born with the same powers.

 

Again in this day and age, this movie has employed heavy special effects, some of which are reminiscent of X-Men and The Day After Tomorrow, where during what I call the "clash of the titans" tornadoes gather for no apparent reason; with the two tearing through buildings and ripping up roads over something I think is completely trivial.

 

Other than that, there have been shots where the computer graphics were poorly rendered, such as Hancock crashing into the roads. Plus I do recall several camera angles looking tilted or unsteady as the cameraman was losing control of the harness. And there have been several shots where the camera is held behind an actor so that a blurred, opaque figure obscures the screen. It is constantly distracting.

I duly think this movie suffers from a lack of coherence: the plot is somewhat loose, and the genre is slippery--from comedy to drama. In fact, Charlize Theron is the woman whose character turns this whole film upside-down. As if her role as the Queen in Snow White And The Huntsman wasn't daunting enough, we have to watch her character in this flick ruin the whole humor and drain it from this movie. This movie is not bad, but it does lose its appeal when the plot is not at all solid.