I love being a turtle
Once upon a time around March 2007
Kudos to Big Louie for getting into at Michigan to further his education- one of the smartest people I know although unfortunately one day we shall tremble at his feet as he is one day destined to conquer the world and force us to listen to his rantings and Rage Against The Machine (who were forced to reunite just by his glares at Zach).
I tried to avoid talking about this, but it creeps into my mind like a virus. The British have launched Skynet.
Sarah Connor has failed!
And to add more to the mix, the question has been brought up regarding granting robots rights. Which is cool and all, especially if they ever gain sentience, but please don’t look like a Duracell.
Seriously, though both scenarios listed above were found on news sites the past couple of weeks or so and not at a Blockbuster.
The post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi waste land is upon us and the machines are the future.
TMNT REVIEW:
Turtle power indeed. I am not sure if this is considered a SXSW film or not but I am considering it one. Because I can. Deal with it. What it was is one of those www.aintitcool.com screenings that they hold here it town every now and then and is definitely one of the perks of living in Austin. The catch, of course, is getting your name on the list to get into the screenings. So far I have been to two free ones including this one (the other was Corpse Bride-totally awesome) and one that the wife and I paid to attend (a Veronica Mars one). So, thanks, Harry, for putting my name on your website so everyone can now hate me. The line starts to the right.
Anyway, back to the Turtles and the short of it is this: this movie made me feel like a kid again. If you were a Turtles fan growing up and loved that first movie- you would love this movie as well as it is better executed. There is a little more of a fantasy spin to the story, but the theme of brotherhood aspect is the heart of this story. The theme is a little forced but it does its job to bring together our old friends together again as well as the bad guys.
It is a short, tightly plotted movie (about 90 minutes or so) that leaves no filler and to talk more about the story will just spoil it. Suffice to say, I enjoyed it as a mid-level fan (enjoyed the original toon as a kid, cannot watch it now, love the first movie, loved the original comics that I could find and like the current toon).
So specifics:
The animation: The human characters reminded me of Ken and Barbie dolls that bugged me the first few minutes they were on but as you get into more of the story you forget about it. The turtles and other creatures look great though. Jeff Matsuda is a god amongst character designers. The Hong Kong based animation company did a great job overall and I am happy to hear that they have other projects coming up. I think the last time a CGI movie that was more action based was made was the Final fantasy film and Square Pictures was never heard of again.
The action: Intense for a PG rated movie (I had no idea of the rating going in). The much talked about Leo-Raph fight is cool as reported although in my opinion they pulled in too much at times and did not let the audience see the moves the two masters made.
The Turtles: Old friends you are happy to see again.
The ninjas: I want some of my own to command. The set up for the City of War makes me want the sequel now!
The voice acting: The wife said it best when she mentioned to me that the actors were allowed to be just themselves and not be too over the top like you hear from the Shrek and Shrek wannabe movies. Zhang Ziyi is just sexy. And I applaud the choice to not use name actors to voice the Turtles. I did not miss Corey Feldman but it might have cool to hear a cameo from Ernie Reyes, Jr.
MAKO: Taken too soon. A grandfather figure for all Asian Americans, I almost met him at Dragonfest a couple of years back but held back because I did not know what to say to him. Instead my friends and I just joked amongst ourselves about how or Grandpa probably gets more chicks than us. I loved his deliveries in the movie and especially his toot-toot-toot song. It was also nice to see Splinter get into the action as well. My favourite of the supporting characters, he is just too cool.
Story: The story was b-movie stuff, but the good kind of B-movie. Kinda like Big Trouble in Little China and Ghostbusters. The movie’s tale actually feels like it could have been thought up in the eighties. And best of all, to me this movie felt like an eighties movie in the vein of the two previously mentioned.
The Presentation: I love it when Aint-it-Cool does things like this. I actually got a question in at the Q&A (partly because the wife is from Hong Kong and wanted to know how a HK company got picked to do the animation. The tale that Kevin Munroe spewed is one of those Only-in-Hong-Kong tales of a guy whose father owns 60% of the Christmas tree business in the world and how he did not want to inherit his father’s business). But the questions really got thin as people began asking the guy esoteric questions about the TMNT comic book.
Overall: A Minus. Awesome to fans of the Turtles, Newbies might enjoy it as well especially if all they are expecting is stuff to entertain the kids for an hour or so. It is not perfect, but the imperfections may just be part of the charm of this movie.
________________________________________________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/catterpillarboy
http://catterpillarboy.blogspot.com/
http://catterpillarboy.livejournal.com
Kudos to Big Louie for getting into at Michigan to further his education- one of the smartest people I know although unfortunately one day we shall tremble at his feet as he is one day destined to conquer the world and force us to listen to his rantings and Rage Against The Machine (who were forced to reunite just by his glares at Zach).
I tried to avoid talking about this, but it creeps into my mind like a virus. The British have launched Skynet.
Sarah Connor has failed!
And to add more to the mix, the question has been brought up regarding granting robots rights. Which is cool and all, especially if they ever gain sentience, but please don’t look like a Duracell.
Seriously, though both scenarios listed above were found on news sites the past couple of weeks or so and not at a Blockbuster.
The post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi waste land is upon us and the machines are the future.
TMNT REVIEW:
Turtle power indeed. I am not sure if this is considered a SXSW film or not but I am considering it one. Because I can. Deal with it. What it was is one of those www.aintitcool.com screenings that they hold here it town every now and then and is definitely one of the perks of living in Austin. The catch, of course, is getting your name on the list to get into the screenings. So far I have been to two free ones including this one (the other was Corpse Bride-totally awesome) and one that the wife and I paid to attend (a Veronica Mars one). So, thanks, Harry, for putting my name on your website so everyone can now hate me. The line starts to the right.
Anyway, back to the Turtles and the short of it is this: this movie made me feel like a kid again. If you were a Turtles fan growing up and loved that first movie- you would love this movie as well as it is better executed. There is a little more of a fantasy spin to the story, but the theme of brotherhood aspect is the heart of this story. The theme is a little forced but it does its job to bring together our old friends together again as well as the bad guys.
It is a short, tightly plotted movie (about 90 minutes or so) that leaves no filler and to talk more about the story will just spoil it. Suffice to say, I enjoyed it as a mid-level fan (enjoyed the original toon as a kid, cannot watch it now, love the first movie, loved the original comics that I could find and like the current toon).
So specifics:
The animation: The human characters reminded me of Ken and Barbie dolls that bugged me the first few minutes they were on but as you get into more of the story you forget about it. The turtles and other creatures look great though. Jeff Matsuda is a god amongst character designers. The Hong Kong based animation company did a great job overall and I am happy to hear that they have other projects coming up. I think the last time a CGI movie that was more action based was made was the Final fantasy film and Square Pictures was never heard of again.
The action: Intense for a PG rated movie (I had no idea of the rating going in). The much talked about Leo-Raph fight is cool as reported although in my opinion they pulled in too much at times and did not let the audience see the moves the two masters made.
The Turtles: Old friends you are happy to see again.
The ninjas: I want some of my own to command. The set up for the City of War makes me want the sequel now!
The voice acting: The wife said it best when she mentioned to me that the actors were allowed to be just themselves and not be too over the top like you hear from the Shrek and Shrek wannabe movies. Zhang Ziyi is just sexy. And I applaud the choice to not use name actors to voice the Turtles. I did not miss Corey Feldman but it might have cool to hear a cameo from Ernie Reyes, Jr.
MAKO: Taken too soon. A grandfather figure for all Asian Americans, I almost met him at Dragonfest a couple of years back but held back because I did not know what to say to him. Instead my friends and I just joked amongst ourselves about how or Grandpa probably gets more chicks than us. I loved his deliveries in the movie and especially his toot-toot-toot song. It was also nice to see Splinter get into the action as well. My favourite of the supporting characters, he is just too cool.
Story: The story was b-movie stuff, but the good kind of B-movie. Kinda like Big Trouble in Little China and Ghostbusters. The movie’s tale actually feels like it could have been thought up in the eighties. And best of all, to me this movie felt like an eighties movie in the vein of the two previously mentioned.
The Presentation: I love it when Aint-it-Cool does things like this. I actually got a question in at the Q&A (partly because the wife is from Hong Kong and wanted to know how a HK company got picked to do the animation. The tale that Kevin Munroe spewed is one of those Only-in-Hong-Kong tales of a guy whose father owns 60% of the Christmas tree business in the world and how he did not want to inherit his father’s business). But the questions really got thin as people began asking the guy esoteric questions about the TMNT comic book.
Overall: A Minus. Awesome to fans of the Turtles, Newbies might enjoy it as well especially if all they are expecting is stuff to entertain the kids for an hour or so. It is not perfect, but the imperfections may just be part of the charm of this movie.
________________________________________________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/catterpillarboy
http://catterpillarboy.blogspot.com/
http://catterpillarboy.livejournal.com
posted by Catterpillarboy at 6:15 AM
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