Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014 film) - Analysis and Review

Shellshocked

That's what a lot of TMNT fans were feeling when they learned that this film was being produced by Michael Bay. And the long road to getting filmed was one filled with drama. Does it put all the naysayers to rest? Let's look at the Plot first.

The Plot

When special interests reporter April O'Neil (Megan Fox) sees an opportunity to move up the broadcast food chain, she finds herself caught in a secret war waged between the Foot Clan and... TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES.

Analysis

There's a lot to be put into consideration about the creation of this film. First, Michael Bay was responsible for bringing this franchise back into the minds of movie executives. And why not? It is one of the most beloved franchises of the 90s and definitely has a huge following. From its origins as a dark and gritty comic that was a satire on superheroes to the big screen with rubber suits to the animated shows that are still around today, the Turtles have been in the lives of a generation. A generation that has now grown and still remember the pizza loving, skateboarding, mischievous yet heroic foursome that the Turtles are. I am from that generation. And yet. I'm not a fan.

That doesn't mean I don't like them. I still watched them and know enough about them to have nice conversations with friends of mine who are fans. But I was never one of those hardcore die-hard fans.  I was a huge fan of Transformers and other things, but never a big fan of the Turtles.

So when it was announced that Michael Bay was producing the latest big screen iteration... I could care less. I didn't think anything of it. Even when it was announced that the title was just going to be called Ninja Turtles and they were going to be aliens instead of mutants, I didn't mind it. I did feel some sympathy for the fans who were outraged about hearing this. For me, I was at that point in my life when being faithful to the source material didn't mattered to me. What mattered was making a good movie. And given Michael Bay's track record, although his movies aren't good he knows how to make entertainment. Except for Age of Extinction, that was like watching someone live smear shit on the big screen. 

However people seem to be forgetting that Michael Bay is producing not directing. Those are two very different things. But from what can be seen about the final product, it can easily be mistaken for a Michael Bay film. So how was it?

Review

It needs to be made clear that this film was directed by Jonathan Liebesman. NOT Michael Bay. Jonathan Liebesman. NOT MICHAEL BAY! Having said that, this looks like a current Michael Bay movie. Everything from the high color saturation, to the lens flares, to even some of the camera movements. Liebesman has a specific handheld camera style that was shown in Battle: Los Angeles and Wrath of the Titans, that really starts to appear like a weak Michael Bay rip off here. His style in the film seems to have morphed into how Michael Bay would shoot the film, but luckily it didn't include the Michael Bay-ism of having overly sexualized women and toilet humor that goes too far. This is a more kid friendly Michael Bay, if it was directed by Michael Bay. But it isn't. Which helps this movie more so than one might think.

The story does play out a little bit similar to Michael Bay's first Transformers film in that the focus of the story is on the human characters before shifting to the non-human ones. Megan Fox rejoins the Michael Bay train as April O'Neil, the iconic reporter from TMNT lore. The story revolves around her struggles of working her way up the news food chain to discovering that she may be connected to the creation of the turtles. Given that so much of it is focused on her, this is where we really see Fox's acting chops get put to the test. And she does... well? It is a passable performance, but is very obvious that a much talented actress could've handled this character better. And given that most of the movie focuses on her, it really doesn't help that we have a barely okay performance as the lead to a very predictable story.

Then there is Will Arnett as April's cameraman, Vernon Fenwick. His character seems to have been written as a potential love interest for April. However the fact that Arnett looks a lot older than Fox, and it makes him look more like a creep than a love sick puppy, it probably would've been better if they casted a younger actor for the part. Arnett does fine with what he's given, but it is obvious that this role was definitely not meant for him.

But what about the ones the audience pays to see? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! How are they? Well, to be quite honest. They were...almost perfect. I say almost mainly because of Johnny Knoxville as the voice of Leonardo, the leader of the turtles. Pete Ploszek did the motion capture for Leonardo while filming, but it is Knoxville's voice that we hear in the final cut. And it really isn't suitable for someone who is suppose to be the leader. I wonder what the reason for this change is, seeing as how the other mo-cap actors get to keep their voices in the finished film.

Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher and Jeremy Howard are the ones who have that privelage, and I'm glad they did because they are actually perfect in their roles. They play Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello respectively and perfectly. Each of them brings out the personalities fans will know and love so well that it is a shame we don't get to see them as the primary focus of the film. Ritchson's Raphael gets more screen time than the others, probably because he's the badass of the group, but it is indeed fan favorite Michelangelo who steals the show. Fisher does an excellent job playing the lovable Ninja Turtle and has the character down to a tee. Howard's performance as Donatello is admirable as the geeky one of the group, yet given his lack of screen time we can't exactly get a grasp of him. But from what little is shown, he does it perfect.

Of course there is Master Splinter, the overgrown rat that teaches his "sons" ninjutsu...from a discarded book. Yeah, suspension of disbelief. He is voiced by Tony Shaloub, who does an okay job at it, but lacks the kind of gravitas one would expect from Splinter. It is still a nice interpretation, it just lacks gravitas.

And as for the villains, it was misleadingly promoted that Will Fichtner was going to be the iconic samurai villain, Shredder. Well, he's not. Instead we have a Japanese actor who has his face concealed the whole time in the shadows playing the Shredder. This gives Turtle fans a sigh of relief knowing that Shredder is played by a Japanese actor. However, most of the time Shredder is a CGI robot samurai that resembles a smaller version of Megatron from Transformers. Given that this is a Michael Bay produced film, it should be obvious. Even though Fichtner is the primary antagonist of the film, Shredder still comes off as the main threat. He is definitely everything I'd want from a villain. Mysterious and almost unstoppable. In all the action scenes involving him facing off against the heroes, he dominates the fight. Almost too much, but since he's too powerful, it makes defeating him feel like an even greater victory. And its that over powered nature that makes him feel like a genuine threat. Something that Marvel Films seem to lack with their bad guys.

The story is pretty straight forward and predictable, with an ending that copies The Amazing Spider-Man's finale. However given its length of being only 90 minutes, the plot doesn't drag and is a little bit more compact. Would it have benefited with more? Yes. But I'm actually happy with the length that it is. It says what it needs to say, even though it is predictable, yet it is highly entertaining. And fans of the source may feel outrage for the slight tweak that is made to their origins. No, they are not aliens. They kept part of the original origin story, but have it tie in with April O'Neil. It still doesn't detract from the overall film, just hardcore fans will find it detracting.

Final Thoughts

Seeing the 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes makes no sense to me. Yes, this movie is not that great, but it is on the same level as other movies such as Lucy and Hercules yet it gets torn apart viciously. I don't believe it deserves all the extreme negativity that it does, because this is a genuinely entertaining film that is more appropriate for kids than the Transformers films. I think it is mainly because of the name Michael Bay, that keeps people from seeing the genuinely fun and competent storytelling being shown here. It is not a bad movie and it is not a good movie. But it is a genuinely entertaining one.

SCORE: 6.5/10 - Kids are going to love it, and maybe if you look past the Michael Bay name, you might enjoy it too

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Analysis and Review

When the Hate started coming in... and Rightfully So

The hotly anticipated sequel to the 2007 unexpected (though not really if one were to think about) smash hit goes for bigger and broader in scope. And the expectations of many were so high for the cast and crew to improve on the very fixable mistakes that were made in the first one as well as enhance what was good in the first one. Does it do that? Well...

The Plot

When Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) triggers a map to a new source of power that gets embedded in his mind, he is once again thrusted into the war between the noble Autobots and evil Decepticons. With his girlfriend, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox), and his college roommate, Leo Spitz (Ramon Rodriguez), they must trek across the globe to not only find this source of power before the Decepticons do but also hope that it may save the life of Autobot leader: Optimus Prime.

Analysis

It is actually amazing how much watching a movie on the day of release with a massive audience can make one's perception of a movie very murky. I remember it very clearly that while my group of 14 friends and I showed up really early to our screening we still wound up being stuck in the front row. It got crowded really quick, to the point where some people were willing to sit on the steps. Of course that didn't fly well for the ushers, but some refused to move.

But back to my point. I remember having an incredibly fun movie going experience watching this movie. The crow was laughing and cheering and just full of this overwhelming excitement that was intoxicating. My friends and I were caught up in all this energy that it just made the experience a thousand times more enjoyable.

However when we walked out of the theater and had dinner at the sushi establishment across the street...we never talked about whether or not we liked the movie. Which was weird because that is something we always do after seeing a movie. 

It wasn't until I bought the movie on special edition DVD (damn you blu-ray for ruining my chances of having a complete special edition DVD set) that I discovered why we didn't talk about the movie.

But it does show a lot of just how powerful the theater going experience is. Watching this movie alone is not fun. Watching this movie during matinee would not be fun either. Watching it with a crowd of people who loves this movie no matter what? That is truly something magical. 

But now that the magic doesn't follow me to home viewing, lets talk about this piece of ****.

Review

There was a lot going on in this movie. And I do mean a lot. First there is LaBeouf's Sam having to deal with college and being away from his girlfriend. Then there's the horny conspiracy theory roommate who serves one purpose in the movie: being the conspiracy theorist. Then of course the villain from the first movie is brought back to life to kill the number one reason why people want to see this movie (Optimus Prime) so that it would really tie in to another plot of the movie. Then there's the globe trotting to get to the climax and the third act of the film. Okay that doesn't sound like a lot is going on, in fact it all goes together quite nicely on paper. The problem is a good idea on paper may not look good on screen.

As I mentioned the plot seems to be about bringing Optimus Prime back to life after getting killed by a revived Megatron. Oh, is that a spoiler? Well with all out honesty the plot of the film is marketed as an ancient Decepticon wants to harvest the sun's energy....because he wants to harvest the sun's energy. The title Revenge of the Fallen suggests that the titular Fallen (the ancient Decepticon voiced by Tony Todd) wants revenge on someone. Though as the opening prologue states: the ones he wants revenge on have been dead for thousands of years. So...there really is no revenge factor. If anyone should be getting revenge it should be Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving) because he was killed in the first movie. The title would've fit perfectly if that was the case because he has indeed fallen and come back to life. But no he does not seek to kill Optimus for revenge, he seeks to kill Optimus because his master The Fallen can only be killed by someone with Prime in their name. So in a sense the character who should get revenge doesn't actually get revenge on the character who would give cause for revenge but instead does things because he was told to do so. Makes sense?

Anyway this film could've gone a lot differently had it been marketed as what it is: we need to bring Optimus Prime back to life. That is the plot of the movie. But the problem is they had to make it so complex yet at the same time so convenient that a world ending device could also be the key to bringing Optimus back to life. So many moving parts for something that should really just be straight forward. Yet that plot gets mixed in with other plots that get dragged out unnecessarily. Especially with the nonexistent presence of this new villain because although he shows off that he is powerful he doesn't really do much to justify his place in the movie. Let alone justify why his name should be in the title.

The acting was just over the top. I'm not going to name names specifically because lets face it everyone was acting over the top in this movie. Even in the emotional scenes it seemed too heightened for what it should be. The one who I was paying attention to was Isabel Lucas who plays the robot disguised as a human named Alice. The reason was mainly due to her being pointed as the next big thing, and a fine actress. Unfortunately the role she was given in this movie was not a really nice display of her acting range. Which is sad because I've seen her in The Pacific and she's great. 

And the action of seeing robots fight other robots is completely ruined by not knowing who is fighting who. A lot of new hero robots are introduced, including female robots, and a lot of new villain robots are introduced, but in the end unless one is really paying attention very very very carefully (like me) you would have no idea who is who or who is fighting what. This was a minor problem in the previous one but at least there were multiple times when the fights were clear. In this one the only fight that was clear and well done was the one with Optimus battling Megatron and two other Decepticons at the same time. Other than that one part, all the other action in the movie is terrible. And this is suppose to be coming from action auteur, Michael Bay.

I should probably talk about those two idiot robots in the movie but I'm not going to waste internet space for that.

Final Thoughts

I wish I can relive that movie theater experience of seeing this movie with a crowd of blind excited fans because the movie I remembered seeing on the big screen was not the same one I saw when I watched it at home alone. And after seeing the third one that's when it dawned on me that seeing a Transformers movie with a crowd of Transformer movie fans is the best way to see the movie. You will get lost in the energy and feel like it is the greatest movie ever! But sadly it is not.

SCORE: 4/10 - A movie to enjoy only at a midnight screening with hardcore fans of the series

For a review of the previous film, CLICK HERE
For a review of the next film, CLICK HERE

Transformers - Analysis and Review

The One that Started it All

I grew up playing with Transformers and watching the Beast Wars animated series as well as some of the G1 cartoons. So when this movie was announced back in 2007, a fond High School memory becomes solidified.

The Plot

When Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) gets a "piece of crap Camaro" as his first car, he unwillingly becomes embroiled in a secret galactic war between alien robots that can transform into vehicles. One of them being the very car that he purchased in hopes of impressing his crush, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox). With an alien war on the verge to begin, Sam and Mikaela are thrown into a battle where the fate of the world may hang int the balance.

Analysis

You may notice from that plot synopsis that I came up with for this movie that I do not mention Optimus Prime or Megatron. Well to put it simply, they were supporting roles and the main attraction of the movie. When writing the plot synopsis for Jurassic Park I wouldn't put the T-Rex in a starring role even though he is in the movie a lot. He is the main attraction. Just as the Transformers in this movie called Transformers are the main attraction. And that's something I want to point out.

Having studied filmmaking and having a degree in it you learn a thing or two about why some movies are made the way they are. While this is the most loved of Michael Bay's Transformers franchise it still gets flack for being "not about the Transformers." Let's put it this way.

A lot of people were happy with the announcement of a live action Transformers movie only to be disappointed by the lack of Transformers as the main characters. However let me talk about my favorite scene from the sequel, Revenge of the Fallen. It is the scene where Megatron is talking to The Fallen in the Nemesis spaceship. That scene was entirely animated and photorealistic. Like many I thought why can't the whole movie be about the drama of the robots rather than the humans? You know, like the cartoons? But then that is when it hits me. If they do make a live action movie just centered on the robots then does it really still count as a live action movie? Because lets face it all the robots are animated, with the exception of Bumblebee in this film, who has once scene as a life-size practical effect animatronic. So in a sense, wouldn't it just be a photo realistic animated movie instead of a live action movie? Sure one can argue that they can have the settings be live action, but wouldn't it be more easier just to CGI everything at that point?

Where I'm getting at here is that creating photorealistic creatures and settings is hard and it costs money. I usually get mad at people who call it lazy CGI without knowing how difficult and time consuming it is to make high class CGI for big studio movies. Plus the live action elements are there so that CGI doesn't have to dominate the whole movie and most of the money funneled into making that CGI look realistic is to enhance what little scenes require them.

That's just my take on why I understand there has to be a human story from a production stand point. Of course the other one is that most people are not Transformers fans and don't care about the robots so there has to be some human element for those audiences to watch.

Review

This is the best of the original trilogy in my opinion and I will lay out why. The story is pretty much a teenage version of E.T. If E.T. is about a boy becoming friends with a lost alien, then this film is about a teenage boy becoming friends with an alien robot. And because this film is for teenage boys who want everything to be violent with explosions and hot girls or in this case just one hot girl, it needs to have all that. So yes, this is pretty much a teenage boy's dream come true. And having watched this when I was still in High School, it definitely did resonated with me. While I may not have the same taste in movies as I did then that I do now, I still find the same enjoyment I did when I was that age.

Shia LaBeouf does an excellent job as Sam Witwicky, who is a character that exists in the cartoon but not many people seem to remember that. While the character of Sam was a supporting character in the cartoon, here he is front and center as the audiences eyes into this intergalactic war. He is everything the stereotypical loser teenage boy would be in a movie and that works for his character. His comedic timing is excellent and really helps him be likable for the audience.

Megan Fox was someone I've known about before her big screen debut due to my mother watching the Kelly Ripa show Hope and Grace where she plays Ripa's niece. She does well in comedy, and since then seems to have discovered that genre is probably where she belongs. But let's get back to her performance in this film. It was just enough to convince the audience she is worth remembering. Though that is not due to her acting but more about the way director Michael Bay chose to shoot her. She's gorgeous and the camera and lighting reminds us of that fact the whole time she's on screen. The problem is she does come off as a bit shallow even though she's suppose to have this interesting development of becoming less shallow as the story goes on. Sorry, but even with that development for her character, her acting still makes her look like a shallow girl.

Of course the supporting cast does a decent job. Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson are believable as well as funny as the military men who first discover the presence of alien robots. Rachel Taylor and Anthony Anderson offer some good comic relief and exposition speakers as the hackers in the movie. Jon Voight was just perfect casting to play the Secretary of Defense. And then there's John Turturro as Agent Simmons....funny secret agent...cool. In other words everyone does well with what they're suppose to do. But seeing as how I can't remember most of their names it often questions just how important they are to the plot other than exposition? Oh well, they do decent jobs.

Now lets talk about the robots. ILM deserves all the praise they get for pulling off bringing these complex robotic creatures to the big screen. The biggest boost to them is having cartoon voice legend Peter Cullen voicing the live action version of the character that made him legendary: Optimus Prime. It was his casting that got G1 fans excited, and it sure as hell made me excited. Hearing his voice come out of the gigantic robot king will send shivers down the spine of even the most harshest critic of this film. He was definitely the best part of the movie. And then there's Hugo Weaving as Optimus' famed nemesis, Megatron. Being known for playing villains, Weaving does excellent as the gigantic robot tyrant. For what little screen time the villain gets (yes that is disappointing) Weaving makes your remember Megatron.

The action in the movie is fine, though it could benefit by being a little bit more clear as to who is fighting who. This is not too much of a problem as there are only 6 Autobots (good transformers) battling 5 Decepticons (bad transformers) in the movie so it becomes clear later on. The resolution of the required final battle in the third act is lackluster but in the end it is still a good movie.

Final Thoughts

This is definitely a film worth seeing. It is not as great as I thought it was when I saw it in High School, but by no means do I think it is horrible. This is definitely the best film of the original trilogy because it feels like the most complete film. It is also the shortest of the Transformers which is why it works. It is compact and straight forward instead of drawn out. It is understandable that this may not be everyone's cup of tea, but if one were to ask what would be a cool fun sci-fi action film to watch but doesn't require too much thinking, I'd gladly point to this film. It's just a good time.

SCORE: 7.5/10 - Just a real good time and a fine toy/car commercial

For a review of the next film, CLICK HERE