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zwolanerd

I guess I just like liking things

tmnt2014I didn’t think it would come to this, and I’m sorry to disappoint so many who had hoped for so much, but…

I enjoyed the new Ninja Turtles movie.

I know! I can’t believe it, either! I don’t really know how to process this. I feel like I need to do a lot of soul-searching and self discovery, maybe take some time to fully realize who I’ve become.

This is all so weird, folks. I went into this movie knowing exactly what to expect, already hip to the things I was going to be angry about:

  • “The Turtles all have weird lips!”
  • “And noses! It’s too creepy!”
  • “They changed the origin story!”

Turns out, two of those things did bug me. Weirdly enough, the tweak to the origin story didn’t bother me as much as I wanted it to. Again, I don’t get it, either.

Honestly, the thing I disliked the most was the choice for April. I kept imagining how perfect Emma Stone or Anna Kendrick would have been, I just didn’t care for the way the character was done here. And since a lot of the focus was on April, that just magnified it for me — and was also the other big problem for me: too much Turtleless time. The bits we got to see of the Turtles and Splinter were honestly a lot of fun. There just should have been more.

Raphael’s voice was perfect, but I kept wishing Donatello’s was still Corey Feldman. His current voice never seemed right to me.

For the record, I will never be comfortable with any of the Turtles (Michelangelo in this movie) hitting on April.

So that all seems like a lot of griping. What all did I actually like?

  • Splinter fights and it is awesome. Remember how you always wanted to see Yoda fight in Star Wars and then when you did you thought it was cool, but later when you thought about it it wasn’t as cool? Splinter’s fight will still be cool later.
  • The relationships between the Turtles – there were a lot of little character moments that felt perfect
  • The fights in general were great. No shaky cam, just some hard-hitting visible smackdowns.
  • Wil Arnett, though he wasn’t as smart-alecky as you might want him to be.

So, yeah, I liked it. I’m sorry. It’s way better than Secrets of the Ooze and III, and might be better than the animated TMNT, but I’d have to watch that one again.

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