Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Shell Shock

This coming summer has many blockbuster titles arriving on the silver screen. One such blockbuster sees the return of everyone's favorite pizza-loving, butt-kicking adolescent amphibians. That's right, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming to theaters this summer in a Michael Bay directed reboot to the film franchise.

It has been a little over twenty years since audiences have seen Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael in a live-action adaption. Thanks to changes in film technology there won't be any cheesy rubber suits, this time the turtles will be receiving the CGI treatment. Real actors in motion capture suits will portray the turtles actions, but other actors will be voicing the turtles. So far, only Jackass star Johnny Knoxville has been confirmed as a voice actor, lending his voice to the turtle's leader Leonardo. Monk star Tony Shalhoub has been cast as the voice of the turtle's rat mentor Splinter.

Megan Fox has been cast the female lead April O'Neil. This is the first time since Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that Fox and Bay have worked together after a public falling out. William Fichtner from Bay's Armageddon has been cast as the turtles arch-nemesis the Shredder.

The first teaser trailer for the film dropped on March 27. I caught up with two of my friends to get their reactions to the trailer.
My friend Tyson has some skepticism for the film, but a small glimmer of eager anticipation hides underneath the skeptical exterior. “I don't really like how they look. It almost makes me miss the old suits” said Tyson. He likened Michelangelo's appearance to Shrek when Michelangelo took off his mask at the end of the trailer. Tyson went on to say, “I'll probably catch it when it comes on TV or maybe even bootleg it, but I won't pay to go see it.”

My other friend Matt did not hold back at expressing his displeasure with the film. “This looks stupid. I swear, summer movies don't break the format enough and this is no exception”, said Matt. He was not impressed with the trailer and went on to express his feeling that the new movie is going to be just like every other summer blockbuster. Matt said the only way to get him to go see it involved someone else buying his ticket and the promise of whiskey in his near future. Matt also said, “At least Michael Bay knows how to cast a babe, and you don't get any better than Megan Fox”.


With this mixed to negative reaction to the trailer, audiences will have to wait until August 8th to see if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film will be a true summer blockbuster, or just another failed reboot. 

No comments:

Post a Comment