I've too have been watching the new Turtles series that chaos talked about few posts up and it's good and keeps getting better and better.
The action scenes are cool and some are even quite impressive. Humor is hit or miss, scenes of Michelangelo being stupid and naive rarely work that well, but Splinter gives out more than enough comedy gold to balance it out, while being awesome old master character at the same time.
I've too have been watching the new Turtles series that chaos talked about few posts up and it's good and keeps getting better and better.
The action scenes are cool and some are even quite impressive. Humor is hit or miss, scenes of Michelangelo being stupid and naive rarely work that well, but Splinter gives out more than enough comedy gold to balance it out, while being awesome old master character at the same time.
Indeed. Nickelodeon is doing a good job so far, and I have to say this is the best characterization of Donatello I have seen so far, though his crush on April is a bit creepy.
I think its still a step behind the 2003 series (at least the first five seasons of it), but it's leaps and bounds ahead of the 1987 series.
I REALLY don't like the guy who they have voicing Michelangelo. Even with the age of the turtles, it feels too juvenile and that VA already is not impressing me.
Just to add a level of credibility, Rob Paulsen (the original Raphael) is back in this one as Donatello.
It's cool that he's back, but he's using the exact same voice for Donatello that he used for Raphael and it is distracting as can be for me. He's a good voice actor, a great one, even, but I can't for the life of me understand why they wouldn't use him as Raph or ask him to use a different voice.
It's cool that he's back, but he's using the exact same voice for Donatello that he used for Raphael and it is distracting as can be for me. He's a good voice actor, a great one, even, but I can't for the life of me understand why they wouldn't use him as Raph or ask him to use a different voice.
I'm the exact opposite. I actually watched a couple of episodes of the original series recently, (though quote honestly, I has trouble making it through them), and I think that Paulson works a lot better as Donatello than as Raphael. Maybe it's the less fleshed out characterization in the '87 series, or the fact that I didn't watch it in english as a kid, but I think Raph's actor is a much better cast for the character in both the 2003 and the 2012 series. Maybe that's me enforcing pidgeonholing characters, but I would much rather expect a more rough and deeper voice for a no-nonsense, grumpy character like Raphael. I just think Paulson's voice that he used in the '87 series simply doesn't fit Raphael's character.
So they released a trailer for the new live action movie:
Do not like those character designs. They are just super-bulky and they look kind of odd as taller than humans. It makes sense in context though, as they seem to be in this universe to be the result of research for a super-soldier serum.
Other than that the trailer actually doesn't look that bad. Somewhat mediocre, but about what we could expect.
Just watched the 2014 Ninja Turtles film. It's pretty much as mediocre as I feared it would be. Some notes I made throughout the film:
* Movie opens with an exposition dump. This is a dumb technique of telling and not showing despite basically all the details easily conveyable in the main story. It had some nice comic-booky imagery there with some little animation, but that wasn't enough to overshadow the glaring mistake. Particularly considering that there are two more distinct exposition breaks in the film itself.
* April is an Idiot who talks to her boss about unbelievable claims without evidence after having been explicitly asked provide evidence previously.
* Her proximity to the origin of the turtles is unbelievable, which is odd because it's similar to the origin in the most recent comic series by IDW. What makes it unbelievable is that it is told in flashbacks, rather as part of the story itself. This makes it appear as something produced out of convenience, rather than allowing the audience to accept it piece-by-piece
* The turtles are way too tall. That is perhaps a bit nitpicky, but they simply don't fit properly. They are way too bulky to be believable as stealthy. Their character design is also not that great in this. They're way too cluttered with Tchotchkes which would be in the way when fighting and really don't necessarily help in distinguishing them because it's hard to keep track off or care which Tchotchke belongs to which turtle. The design is distracting that way, plus superfluous because the turtles are already color-coded.
* Technology in this film is ridiculous. It's in the uncanny valley of not being sci-fi enough to allow the suspension of disbelief while being too ridiculous to actually appear plausible. Also completely unsure still why Donatello carries around a backpack of technology crap which is never useful at any point.
* No clue why the Foot didn't take Splinter with them, or the presumed corpse of Raphael when the Foot captured the turtles halfway through the movie. Or how Splinter came to be under the rubble. Presumably they could have learned more about the mutagen that way, and drained Raph first, allowing them to study the turtles further.
* Sliding down a mountain range should totally be a set-piece action scene in a movie that is set in New York City for every scene of the film except that one.
* At the end of the movie Raphael has a big "I'm sorry. My behavior is just an act to cover for my insecurities" speech, which is okay for the character but it barely makes sense for the movie because his "loner" status is barely established throughout the movie.
Comments
I also started reading the new comic book series by IDW publishing in their trades, which is actually pretty good.
The action scenes are cool and some are even quite impressive. Humor is hit or miss, scenes of Michelangelo being stupid and naive rarely work that well, but Splinter gives out more than enough comedy gold to balance it out, while being awesome old master character at the same time.
I think its still a step behind the 2003 series (at least the first five seasons of it), but it's leaps and bounds ahead of the 1987 series.
Do not like those character designs. They are just super-bulky and they look kind of odd as taller than humans. It makes sense in context though, as they seem to be in this universe to be the result of research for a super-soldier serum.
Other than that the trailer actually doesn't look that bad. Somewhat mediocre, but about what we could expect.
* Movie opens with an exposition dump. This is a dumb technique of telling and not showing despite basically all the details easily conveyable in the main story. It had some nice comic-booky imagery there with some little animation, but that wasn't enough to overshadow the glaring mistake. Particularly considering that there are two more distinct exposition breaks in the film itself.
* April is an Idiot who talks to her boss about unbelievable claims without evidence after having been explicitly asked provide evidence previously.
* Her proximity to the origin of the turtles is unbelievable, which is odd because it's similar to the origin in the most recent comic series by IDW. What makes it unbelievable is that it is told in flashbacks, rather as part of the story itself. This makes it appear as something produced out of convenience, rather than allowing the audience to accept it piece-by-piece
* The turtles are way too tall. That is perhaps a bit nitpicky, but they simply don't fit properly. They are way too bulky to be believable as stealthy. Their character design is also not that great in this. They're way too cluttered with Tchotchkes which would be in the way when fighting and really don't necessarily help in distinguishing them because it's hard to keep track off or care which Tchotchke belongs to which turtle. The design is distracting that way, plus superfluous because the turtles are already color-coded.
* Technology in this film is ridiculous. It's in the uncanny valley of not being sci-fi enough to allow the suspension of disbelief while being too ridiculous to actually appear plausible. Also completely unsure still why Donatello carries around a backpack of technology crap which is never useful at any point.
* No clue why the Foot didn't take Splinter with them, or the presumed corpse of Raphael when the Foot captured the turtles halfway through the movie. Or how Splinter came to be under the rubble. Presumably they could have learned more about the mutagen that way, and drained Raph first, allowing them to study the turtles further.
* Sliding down a mountain range should totally be a set-piece action scene in a movie that is set in New York City for every scene of the film except that one.
* At the end of the movie Raphael has a big "I'm sorry. My behavior is just an act to cover for my insecurities" speech, which is okay for the character but it barely makes sense for the movie because his "loner" status is barely established throughout the movie.
* Worst Product Placement I've seen in a while.