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.