Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This film has without a doubt definitely split the fanbase, you either like it or you hate it. I'm going to try and give my best reasons as to why this film was just not very good, if you don't agree with them i understand, but just try to take some of my points into consideration instead of ridiculing me, calling me a non-fan, calling me a hater, or any other childish response. 1. To start off, the plot is incredibly generic and basically rips off part of the plot of The Amazing Spider-man. The plot also holds very little motive for both the heroes and villains actions(more on that further down, see #3 and #4). The foot clan just inhabits New York city's underground, it's never really explained why they and Shredder are even there, but every now and then they steal stuff for generic evil mega rich business man Eric Sacks, who is secretly a member of their clan. The second they find out that there are these mutated turtles still alive from a genetic experiment thought lost in a lab fire a decade or so ago with mutagen in their blood, they ditch whatever they were doing to catch these creatures. Throw out decades of established story elements and character traits-- add in an hour of generic action movie special effects and lots of destruction-- leave an opening for a potentially even more generic sequel-- roll credits---That's the plot of Jonathan Liebesman TMNT in a nutshell. 2. During the pre-production there were reports that they were having major script issues, and it shows. The films story is such a huge mess that you could just tell it had been through quite a few rewrites. It's obvious that Eric Sacks was originally ment to be shredder, but a last minute rewrite changed that, and a mysterious Japanese guy named "Shredder" became Shredder, but the script writers still left in a few of the building blocks that indicated to Eric Sacks becoming Shredder. The dialogue is also horrendously bad at times; hears a good example: "We will drain every last ounce of their blood, even if it kills them."---if you don't see a problem with that line then there is no helping you. 3. I went into this film with a positive attitude thinking that if they could get the characters and the turtles right, stay true to Kevin Eastman's and Peter Laird's vision, that i would be ok with this movie, no mater how much mindless nothingness it contained, but for me they didn't. This is the part of my review where some of you will likely have some opinions that differ from mine, keep in mind that this is just my personal take on the characters and how i feel they compare to previous incarnations, so i don't expect others to agree. Hear are what I feel are some of the biggest character problems: Tony Shalhoub as the voice of Splinter comes off relatively weak and just does not do the character justice, also Splinter's CGI design is downright terrible, and i don't much care for the turtles looks either, way too big. Whats the point of being ninjas if you're the size of a small vehicle and basically bullet proof? They're essentially tanks with ninja weapons. Then there's Shredder, who is literally the most underdeveloped villain ever seen in a movie. You don't hear anything about Hamato Yoshi, or Oroku Saki, they essentially don't exist; Shredder just...IS, no real backstory, he just exists to kill the turtles with his very convenient battle suit. It's like the movies Producer(Michael Bay) plucked a generic Decepticon right out of one of his pitiful Transformer movies, called it Shredder, and just has him beat-up the turtles for a little while, no motive at all. The voice actors chosen for the turtles weren't all that bad, but Johnny Knoxville's voice as Leonardo didn't work, it just sounded like i was listening to Johnny Knoxville the whole time. Donatello was alright, i thought the whole tech geek approach to his character was interesting, and he could have probably really shined if only they would have given his personality a little more growth, given him more creative things to do with all that stuff he carries; think along the lines of "Data" from "The Goonies". Then there's Raphael and Leonardo who's personality's are somewhat weak, as there isn't enough time given to the development of their characters, and what development there is at times feels forced, example: That whole emotional scene near the end with Raphael spilling his emotions to the other turtles as they tumbled to the ground, tho it was a somewhat touching scene, there was virtually no buildup to that moment at all. I believe only in one scene earlier in the film did Raphael make a quick comment(that happened so fast that if you weren't paying close attention you'd likely have missed it) about wanting to leave the other turtles and strike out on his own. So that whole spat between Raphael/Leonardo and the subsequent scene with Raphael towards the end really felt like it was not given the time to properly develop. Michelangelo is really the only turtle that is somewhat entertaining, but his jokes/one-liners are more cheesy than a fresh baked Pizza, and some have to do with his very unnatural and just plain weird attraction towards April. 4. Another change that should have the fans annoyed, and annoyed they should be, has to do with how the turtles learned Ninjutsu/their origin. Simply put, Splinter as a mutated rat in the sewers finds a Ninjutsu instructional book, and he learns from that and teaches the turtles. Seriously? The extent of Japanese culture they've really ever known of came from an instructional book? Words cannot justly express how much this bastardizes everything that Splinter and the Turtles are. Can somebody, anybody, tell me why they didn't just stick with Splinter and the turtles original origins? For those who don't know or can't remember, hear is verbatim their original origin story: "In the original comic book version (TMNT vol. 1 issue 1 (May 1984), Hamato Yoshi was a high-ranking member of the Foot Clan in Japan. He owned a rat named Splinter, who copied his movements as he practiced ninjutsu. He was romantically involved with a woman named Tang Shen. However, their relationship attracted the jealousy of Oroku Nagi, who also loved Shen. When Nagi was rejected by her, he became enraged and violently beat her. Shortly after, Yoshi arrived and, in his fit of anger, murdered Nagi. He was dishonored for having killed another member of the Clan and forced to choose between death or exile to the United States. He chose the latter, and left with Shen and Splinter. Years later, Nagi's brother Oroku Saki climbed the ranks of the Foot to become assigned the leader of its New York branch. He followed the two lovers to New York City and killed them both in vengeance of Nagi. However, the rat Splinter escaped to the sewers and mutated along with the Turtles. He then proceeded to teach ninjutsu to the Turtles as he himself had learned it from Yoshi, in order to have them avenge his owner's death." Isn't that just a mighty fine origin story? It links all the characters(good and bad)together and gives them the driving force to make them who and what they are. Simply put, it's just better than a mutated rat and 4 turtles acting like ninjas and using Japanese phrases all because they found a book about Ninjutsu, while having no connection to their enemy's. I'm always open minded towards change, when it makes sense, or improves upon what is already there, but this change is a major part of what kills this film. 5. Eric Sacks is the dumbest evil guy to ever exist. He helps create the mutagen that creates the TMNT for the sole purpose of selling it to the good citizens of New York right after he poisons them with another biological agent (the mutagen being the cure, somehow), probably the stupidest most pointless idea EVER, given that he's already filthy rich and the biological agent kills people almost instantly, so who is he going to sell the mutagen to? I'm not really sure how he was planning on getting away with this plan, as later in the movie he begins to release the deadly biological agent into the air from the spire at the top of his own companies building. The agent is a deep shade of red and it's broad daylight outside, everybody in New York would have to be incredibly stupid to not noticed red "death" causing gas coming out of Sacks industries tower. 6. Megan Fox is a horrible actress, there is nothing redeemable in her performance. Is this her worst performance? Probably not, but she's nothing more than substanceless T&A. Seriously, she has a close up butt shot, a deliberate close up bent over butt shot in what is supposed to be a kids film. Kids will probably not notice or care about most of these issues, so they will probably still find some enjoyment in this film, but as for you adults, or long time fans of the comics, original movies, TV shows, games, or any other form of the TMNT mythos, you will likely think this is one of the most punishingly lackluster movies you've ever seen depicting your favorite bipedal turtles. It hurts me to no end to say such negative things about a TMNT movie like this, i've been a fan my whole life, you see? The TMNT mean something to me. To those who are saying that the people leaving negative reviews are "just haters", "not true fans", or giving excuses like "it's just a kids movie, calm down", you're missing the point. We are not haters. We are true fans. Being "just a kids movie" is not justification for it to be half-assed. There are 30 years worth of TMNT fans in the world now, and they all want to see a great TMNT film, but this is not that film.