Perhaps the main reason these first four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Paramount; 8/8) posters is because of the pathetic fan outcry over the appearance of the turtles in the film’s first teaser trailer. I say pathetic because if the filmmakers actually did something to change the turtles’ appearance in the final film it would be a sign of exactly what we don’t want to have happen with our movies. We don’t want fans that haven’t seen the film, read the screenplay or had anything to do with the film affecting its final outcome.
I don’t care if they look or don’t look how you pictured them or how they looked in the cartoons, video games, comics or whatever the hell else you remember them from your childhood or your days spent in front of Nickelodeon. Yes, sometimes we all have an image of what things will look like when it comes to adaptations of some of our favorite books, comics, characters, etc. However, the filmmakers, for whatever reason, make decisions on what they best see fit for their film and to change it based on a mob of people that had no involvement in that decision is wrong artistically. It’s akin to focus group testing and studio exec meddling. It has no place in filmmaking.
Of course, people will still complain, and yes, you have the right to do so, but it’s the “up in arms” vitriol I see that becomes most grating. After seeing the final product, if the complaints remain, I think they are entirely valid, but let’s look at this realistically. They are MUTANT TURTLES, is there really a specific way they are supposed to look?
Directed by Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans), the film will feature the “heroes in a half-shell” on screen for the first time since 1993. In this live-action version, utilizing motion-capture technology a la Avatar and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Leonardo will be played by Pete Ploszek, Donatello by Jeremy Howard, Noel Fisher will play Michaelangelo and Alan Ritchson will play Raphael with Megan Fox as journalist and friend of the Turtles, April O’Neil, Will Arnett as Vernon Fenwick and William Fichtner as The Shredder.
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