TMNT 2007 Review

Hello, this is Cinema Geeks and I am one of your

Cinema Geeks, Optimus Solo, and joining me again

today is Movie Revolt Dan. Hello. Hello. And

we are here to continue our trek through the

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise. So, you've

already seen us do the original three live -action

films, and today we're going to turn our attention

to the first theatrical CGI or animated version

of The Turtles. That's right, this is TMNT from

2007. So, Dan, before we get into the actual

movie itself, I know we briefly touched on it

last episode, but remind folks what your experience

was with this movie before watching it most recently,

and kind of set the stage for us a little bit.

I'll be brief because I had no previous history.

This was the first time that I watched this.

I thought maybe I watched it, you know, sometimes

there's movies that you watch and you forget

you did. But once it started, I'm like, no, I

don't remember this at all. Everything was brand

new to me. So, yeah, it was a... Brand -new experience

and it was interesting because it was not at

all what I expected going into it Yeah, I think

I may have seen this one time before and that

was definitely it because there was a lot of

stuff that I didn't remember But there was enough

familiarity where I knew I had sort of seen it

once But I don't know if I was paying close enough

attention the first time I watched it or not

Because there was some stuff that I was like,

I don't remember this at all Did you watch this

alone or did you have anybody watch it with you?

This was I watched mostly by myself. I to be

honest watched it a lot on my phone because I'm

the kids The kids uh by myself this uh this weekend

So I was like i'm gonna i'll put it on let them

watch their stuff on the tv and i'll watch it

but honestly like In a way that makes me more

focused on something because I don't have my

phone distracting me since i'm watching it on

my phone There you go. Yeah, so that's the trick.

Yeah, but it's not that you know No one makes

me be thinking somebody's gonna watch this on

their phone one day, but you know That was that's

what he did. How about yourself? That wasn't

the vision? That wasn't the vision? No, Christopher

Nolan would be like rolling over. Not in his

grave. He doesn't have a grave, but like manifesto

of movie making. Right, right. So this one is

a 2007 release. It was directed and written by

Kevin Monroe, and it is starring a whole bunch

of people that we'll get to as far as the voices

go. We'll probably break that down a little bit.

I was thrown off immediately, Dan, because it

was just like plastering the Weinstein company

up. Like the logos and everything and I'm like,

oh you might want to redo that so But it's a

Warner Brothers slash Weinstein company slash

a man a medji animation studios I don't know

if I'm saying that last one a hundred percent.

Correct It was a very short -lived studio out

of Hong Kong that did literally two movies and

then went bankrupt So here you go They did this

one, the TMNT 2007, and then they did the Astro

Boy in 2009. Oh, I like that movie. But the problem

is, is the Turtles one actually, I think, at

least made their money back. But the Astro Boy

did not do well. Like, I think they lost over

20 or 30 million on that. Yeah, I could see that.

It's not. But that was a good movie. I enjoy

that movie. So after that, they went out of business.

They were. Kind of tossing around doing a sequel

to this one. There was some unplanned or unrealized

talk of a Legend of Zelda movie a gotcha man

movie some other things, but Unfortunately, they

went out of business. So we never got any of

that So and it was released in March and made

about almost just shy of a hundred million on

a 34 million budget So it did pretty good. I

know it said it opened it up At number one at

the box office, I believe the week it came out.

It'd be three hundred three. I mean, three hundred

was like in his third week. But right. Interesting.

One comic book movie beats another comic book

movie. Yeah and interesting because of the animated

aspect I think and being turtles because this

is something that had not been tried yet at this

point like obviously a lot of animated animated

movies especially Disney Pixar etc do very well

in theaters but we hadn't seen something quite

like this so it's always a question on how that's

gonna do and how that's because a lot of movies

that were made off of especially cartoon series

from the 80s 90s don't do well So it was, you

know, obviously we had had the three live action

films to kind of set a little bit of the stage,

I guess. And they all had various levels of success.

But this is kind of the first time we've seen

this. So it was good that it made some money.

And it's kind of debated, I guess, between Kevin

Monroe, who, like I said, is the writer director

and then Peter Laird on if this is connected

to the live action films or not. Laird says that

it's a completely different. Universe and different

continuity but Monroe seems to want to try to

Connected a little bit here and there and there's

some sequences and some things that you can see

in it that seem like they're at least homages

But I don't think that's really consequential

either way whether it's connected or not for

the turtles It seems like they can just do their

own thing standalone or it can be a new version

and I think that's More than some franchises,

but I transformers does it a lot turtles does

it? And obviously there's various success varying

success levels to that But I think when you have

all this different stuff to pull from whether

it be the animated series the comic books You

know takes on the live -action movies you kind

of can do a whole bunch of different things What's

your thought on how much it should be either

connected to any of those other properties? Yeah,

I wasn't sure like on it like watching it It

definitely feels like a movie that's connected

to something because it you know obviously takes

place You know the turtles are disbanded There's

talk with a foot like it felt like a tv movie

like a movie to a tv show Cartoon that didn't

exist in a way like I didn't know we there's

a turtles in time or something like that It felt

something akin to that because the world felt

like really lived in already Uh, you had you

had the foot in the leader of the foot who was

a character I don't like I didn't place her no,

but it felt like we're supposed to know who she

was uh, right Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I didn't but

it didn't feel like it was connected to the live

action films to me like The way the characters

were especially like Casey Jones like he felt

I mean obviously characters mature in April I

don't know like I wondered that at the time like

obviously mentioned some references like they

had You know the two minutes were high -sticking

and like some jokes like that But it definitely

felt like in partially because it's animated

and it's you know, it does not to me Feel like

part of the same universe as the live -action

films, especially the first and third one Yeah,

I agree with that I didn't really feel too much

of a connection and the stuff that that you see

I think there's some stuff you see within the

animation towards the end. There's something

I don't know if it was in their layer or Where

that's like visual cues to something that would

be in the live -action film I can't remember

exactly what it was, but there's like something

that appears So I mean, but you could say that

that's just an homage It doesn't necessarily

mean that the universes are connected so to speak

I don't know. I guess it's up for somebody that's

way more intelligent when it comes to turning

Teenage Mutant Turtle franchise than I am. Yeah,

it's not that debate. It's not impossible. It's

not like there's anything that count is contradictory

to the previous films. I just don't feel of the

same world in the sense of like how they're so

impartially just because the anime it's animated

and the actions very different. But yeah, and

also like in the write up, it's saying that the

reason that the turtles have grown apart is because

of a defeat from Shredder. And that to me wouldn't

connect with the live action films. No, they

defeated Shredder. I mean, yeah, I mean, technically,

but by default, the second time he kind of defeated

himself. Yeah, for sure. So I just have to read

the plot for this one and then we can get more

into some of the characters. How much time do

we got? Because I just want to read a couple

of lines just. I feel like if I say it out loud,

maybe something will click with me, but. So the

plot says in ancient times warlord I'm gonna

say his name wrong yaddle. Is that how they say

it in the movie yodel? It sounds not yodel, but

yaddle opens a portal into a parallel universe

that grants him immortality and petrifies his

four generals But the portal also releases 13

immortal monsters that are gonna destroy his

army and his enemies while becoming famous mythical

monsters as centuries pass and Then if you skip

ahead a little bit Sorry Basically like I love

the the explanation for this so we have cry we

have shredder foot clan etc kind of we don't

see shredder, but his Quote -unquote second command

is cry and the foot clan are part of this so

they're searching the city for these 13 monsters

before the portal opens again Winters who we

find out is actually yodel yaddle whatever spoiler

alert reanimates his four stone generals and

How well use technology created by his company?

Yeah, so we basically have this guy who's playing

a dual role Winters and it's very obvious that

he's also the guy like if you don't realize that

like from Immediately, I don't I don't think

you can spoil that so you have that person and

then you have these four generals who were once

Obviously on the side now. They're kind of not

so sure because he's trying to get these 13 monsters

Before this portal opens, which is going to make

everybody mortal again so they can all die at

some point and. They can be human. I guess and

the turtles are worked in here so. So yeah, you

know this was when Lord of the Rings was really

big and around that time I think and it feels

very influenced by something like that. It does

not feel like a turtles plot like when it opens

up. That's when I'm like I definitely have not

seen this before because this was in not what

all at all what I expected. And I would say that

is probably the the. The weakest element of the

movie is the plot, which is sometimes, you know,

not not a good sign, but it's a bit laborious

like with just how many pieces there are. It

falls in line with a lot of tropes like with

the stars and lining and there is that running

gag for a long time. To be fair, this was early

in that run where you had all those movies that

had the shining light in the sky. You know this

Avengers and obviously just came beforehand,

but. There was a lot of things it was hitting

along those lines. But yeah, that that piece

was like a little much for me. It was hard to

kind of keep track of it. I wasn't sure why all

the monsters were in New York. I don't know if

I missed something, but like opening it up and

watching it say this. It's a little overwhelming

to start with when you have this big prologue

about all these monsters and immortality. It

feels like a lot of different pieces from different

scripts kind of brought into. One and then like,

all right, let's add the turtles on top of that.

Right. Which was a bit weird. But it, you know,

it was probably my least favorite part of the

movie was like when it kind of dealt with that

stuff. But it wasn't it didn't tear it down completely

for me. It's I think the word that comes to mind

for me, like if I want to sum up the plot is

just convoluted. Like, yes, just like because

you can honestly just take this Max Winters slash.

Yodel I'm gonna call him yodel cuz I like it

you could you could literally take that character

and he's battling these generals Because they

both want different things and then I guess you

could even have the 13 monsters involved because

that's how he's gonna Set everybody back to being

human and mortal like that is a story in and

of itself I guess whether you like it whether

you like it or not I mean, I still probably wouldn't

be a big fan of that actual plot, but that could

be in of itself But then we have the turtles

and then we have cry in the foot And then we

have Casey Jones and I know it's just becomes

very weird to me and I agree with you the plot

is my least favorite part about this movie if

you just did the stuff with the turtles and You

focused on that I might have been fine because

there's a lot of other stuff that I'm fine with

But it just you keep getting thrown into these

like random weird monsters and things of that

nature Like one of them is called vampire sucker

burr suck sucky bore second war and I think the

main thing with me that Kind of throws me off

and I've kind of mentioned this a little bit

with any franchise like this It's like you have

again all of these characters to draw from and

it's not just that you're not drawing from one

of the characters I know from a preview like

the TV series or the comics or something Although

cry is from that but she's not really that important

to this plot, but It's not just that you're not

drawing one of those characters. It's it's when

you have these like almost nameless faceless

Characters and that kind of like the the monsters

and even to a point the generals are very nondescript

generic Bland just characters. I'm gonna get

you get like the Winters as the kind of the main

guy even though he's somewhat good in the end,

but I don't know I just don't like where you

just have these are random antagonists that don't

really have a personality don't have a name don't

have an identity and that was the kind of my

biggest drawback within that also convoluted

plot yeah they're more of like a natural disaster

they're trying to stop the right characters to

spoil at the end when they're trying to when

he when winter's changes his mind or I guess

he doesn't change his mind but you find out that

oh no he's actually trying to get rid of the

monsters I think the reason like that doesn't

work that well Because like they almost made

those monsters seem one either comedic or sympathetic

like I didn't they didn't seem like this threat

that had to be You know gotten rid of like obviously

they're crazy looking monsters, but it seemed

like they weren't really bothering anybody So

and where have they been where yeah been for

all of these decades? And well, I mean it's been

what like it's been a long time like we're talking

hundreds of years. I'm assuming It seemed like

this was a plot that was better designed for

a miniseries or like his first season of a TV

show Then then a movie because of all the moving

pieces and stuff like that was there So but like

you have to you either have to explain where

these 13 monsters have been for the last Whatever

it is hundreds of years. Yeah, or why they haven't

been wreaking havoc everywhere Yeah, I can't

just buy that they're just out and about and

we just I don't know And all in New York and

all in like, you know easy to find a very very

easy to catch. Yes Like it's one, you know like

something about How there there were the mess

come from you know that we have and i guess that's

what they're trying to lean out with someone

and stuff like that one of them is called bigfoot

yeah so. Those things weren't really my favorite

thing but i don't want we actually got the elements

with the turtles first of all i think the biggest

thing with this i was worried about it because

this is an animated film like you said from a.

An animated company doing like its first really

big movie from 2007 It's like how how bad is

this gonna look like, you know not seeing coming

in with fresh eyes CGI animation doesn't always

hold up unless it's like Pixar But I thought

like it legitimately, you know, I don't know

if it's because I had low expectations I thought

it looked really good. I thought the action was

pretty solid Especially like there's some really

good sequences the one with Raphael and Leonardo

in the rain. I thought that was great There's

really some great -looking shots on a technical

standpoint the long takes as well and they didn't

like they didn't you know use any shortcuts when

it came the animation the action i thought was

crisp and fun and especially i don't know because

like the last we saw was a team in t3 which you

know the action was not the strong suit that

i was just like taken back by how great it was

in this but like when we had the turtles there

i was excited i was happy was i thought like

their dynamic even though it felt like it was

treading the same ground of rafael being rebellious

one his jealousy with leonardo at least it made

sense and maybe because everything else was so

convoluted having something that was simple and

straightforward was welcoming but i thought as

a tmnt movie it succeeded for me but as like

those pieces is where when i tried to be something

else that's where it kind of got got a little

bit lost It actually got nominated for any for

outstanding storyboarding in the future production

and i agree i think the look was fine like i

was not thrown off by the look i didn't have

any negative reaction to it i thought the turtles

look good i thought like you said the action

look good. It's just one of those it's like a

conundrum of a film for me because there's aspects

of it that i enjoyed there's aspects of it that

i respect or like and then there's just like

this. Terrible plot that it's all wrapped up

in and it's just hard to forget but. Let's get

into a little bit of the characters voicing etc

whether it's talking about the actual performances

or whether it's talking about the characters

within the movies we can get a little bit more

into that because we've talked a little bit during

the live action. Topics about how the turtles

are portrayed. You know the characteristics of

the fit kind of the classic what were you doing

things of that nature so just going down the

voice cast a little bit we have. It's interesting

because we have some very very experienced voice

actors involved here. We have some lesser Experienced

voice actors and then we have like the celebrities

So it's a it's an interesting mixture of kind

of all of that It doesn't get much more iconic

in the voice acting world, especially in the

last probably 25 to 30 years than Nolan North

and James Arnold Taylor and that's who is playing

Raphael and Leonardo so they are just Legends

in the voice acting business so obviously they

have a lot of experience and then some of the

generals and some of the side characters like

the The leader of the South American bandits

is John DiMaggio Kevin Michael Richardson is

one of the generals Fred task to task your he

is one of the other generals so you have like

just a Substantial amount of just really good

voice actors Then you have some lesser -known

voice actors in Mikey Kelly and Mitchell Whitfield

as Michelangelo and Donatello And some of them

have done a little bit of live -action work as

well So a little bit less experience with Michelangelo

and Donatello. I thought Mikey Kelly is Michelangelo

sounded as close to The same actor has they had

for some of the live -action Films as you could

get like or at least got that same kind of feel

for me and then from the celebrity standpoint

We have Chris Evans as Casey Jones Sarah Michelle

Geller April O 'Neil and Patrick Stewart as one

of the most Bizarre castings that I can ever

think of as Max Winters who is a businessman

I get that that the warlord guy is like Ancient

yeah, but this but this Max Winters guy is like

a middle -aged man and Patrick Stewart is not

Yeah, I think Patrick Stewart just has one of

those voices That it's just like it just it's

just Patrick Stewart. So you kind of recognize

it right away I had no idea it was Chris Evans

when I was watching it because I didn't look

at this level listening access until I was over

and it's funny like that ever gets caught up.

People always talk about how he was, you know,

of course, you know, Captain America as well

as the Game and Torch, but also Casey Jones.

That's right. Quite an array of comic book characters

he's played. But yeah, I didn't think Patrick

Stewart was bad. It just was distracting. Yeah,

that was my. Yeah, that was my problem like his

performance is fine. He does a great job I just

needed them to match the design of the character

to what I'm gonna think of when I hear Patrick

Stewart I mean, it doesn't have to look exactly

like him, but I can't see somebody that is half

of his age Not half his age, but you know way

younger It just kind of was very distracting

to me and especially he looks like mr. Incredible

with but like in shape. So right, right And then

we had a kind of a cameo from Kevin Smith. He

plays a cook in a diner. And then we had this

is Mako Iwamatsu, his last role. They basically

announced that he was Splinter at like, I don't

know if it was San Diego Comic Con or one of

the comic cons. And then he unfortunately like

passed away the next day. So he he is part of

Splinter's role. And then they brought in Greg

Baldwin, who's a voice actor, to kind of fill

in all the gaps and to You know make it so they

could complete it. So this is Mako's last role.

Obviously, and he's very famous Japanese American

actor obviously, so you know, I can't forget

that we had Laurence Fishburne as the narrator

So that was interesting right from the beginning.

I'm like, oh they brought in the big guns for

the narration here It's like Morgan Freeman and

Laurence Fishburne. I don't they're like neck

and neck for me And i'm not gonna try to pronounce

the actress's name that did cry she did crouching

tiger hidden dragon. She's like one of the most

well -known chinese actresses of that time like

I think they said something about like Forbes

or somebody does like a top 100 like most Notable

or most powerful or something like that and they

do it for both They did it for like for china

specifically and I think she was in the top five

like 10 years in a row Or something like that.

So very well known there. I've only seen her

in crouching tiger hidden dragon i don't know

if you've seen her in anything else but but any

thoughts on any of the characters whether it

be the performance or just kind of how they were

depicted in this film that worked or didn't work

for you i thought it got the characters pretty

well like uh i when it came like looking at all

the four this is our fourth film it came to like

feeling like i'm Seeing each character each turtle

well defined within their personality. I feel

like this one was probably the best so far Obviously,

it's mostly, you know, Leonardo Raphael story

like they are the focus for the majority of it

like that Yeah, but even like little bits that

Donnie gets and Michelangelo gets I thought you

know They balance out. Well, I love voice cast

overall was pretty strong Casey Jones I thought

we could get a little bit more of but again,

there's a lot going on here But at least he was

in it. We actually got to do some stuff, you

know compared to right beyond last film We were

just comic relief I like that they kept I like

that they kept Casey Jones and Raphael both kind

of is like these crime fighters on the side Yeah,

yeah that worked for me. I do like the relationship

and they kind of touch That's like where that's

where it did feel like the first film see their

kinship felt like it was coming from that first

movie And very similarly compared to what we

got before but yeah I thought the character was

like the characters that we got regarding like,

you know besides the the villains that we talked

about which were kind of lackluster The main

cast, the main character, especially the turtles,

even Splinter, I thought was... Splinter's like

this enigma though, like they can't seem to do

Splinter the same way twice, ever. I don't get

why he was so against them going to the service

world. It seemed like that was just contrived

to cause some conflict. I'm going to be interested

as we make our way through the rest of these,

if they ever... What depiction of splinter is

the most common when we're all done with this

because i feel like he has moved around the most

out of all of the characters donatello obviously

in the beginning we didn't really get a whole

bunch with the first live action film of his

geekiness and his kind of tech savviness and

it seems like since then though they kind of

course corrected and. And they hit that every

time like he definitely is very much in that

lane in this film michael angelo very much the

the carefree him to in the birthday entertainment

stuff was i thought was clever i like that. And

then like you said there's some you know not

just casey jones and rafael's relationship is

akin to what we saw in the first live action

film but he said leonardo's and rafael's kind

of very much similar to. With their kind of back

and forth, you know, we we start this film, like

we kind of briefly touched on where all the turtles

are kind of separated. So we see Leonardo, who's

like in Central America doing training. Yeah.

My man was like, how did he get to Central America?

Well, he flew in the bottom. He flew with the

with the dogs go apparently. Yeah. I was like,

well, just watch. We'll figure it out. And then

obviously, Raphael is kind of cameoing as this

night watcher character. Michelangelo is doing

the birthday entertainment. And Donatello is

like a IT tech support guy, which led to a weird

like sex line joke. Like there was a sex hotline

joke in here and I'm like this is turtles. Yeah,

I mean, I technically like the early like, you

know, comics that were not. But yeah, I mean,

there's been some. Even even put it even in like

the some of the movies so far. They've always

had especially came to April They've always had

some really weird remarks towards her right?

Yeah Nice paying all the bills like that's how

they're gonna That's how they're getting cable

and sat or whatever they have, you know He's

the one doing all the hard work, right? And another

interesting thing that it might be especially

with some news. I just kind of got posted online

I don't know if you saw this or not, but they

they just released the Character descriptions

for each of the turtles for the movie that's

coming out this year No, I have not so so that

is online and the thing that's gonna make everybody

Talk is what I'll get to in a second, but it's

gonna be interesting to see Throughout all the

other movies that we watch how consistent they

are with April O 'Neil and her love interest

because we Commented briefly in the live -action

film that it was kind of weird that the turtles

were kind of goo -goo Gaga for April Yes, and

then we obviously have a Casey Jones April connection

Writing that first live -action film and we see

that kind of carry on so far with the other stuff.

We've watched definitely in here They're you

know a couple Yes, yeah, you know pretty and

and so it went to describe the turtles that are

gonna appear in the 2023 and almost all of it

matches up like they added a little bit with

Donatello like he is into kpop and Something

else but but it was still in that world and they

did all Michelangelo lined up Raffaele lined

up Leonardo lined up like exactly what you would

think when you're just kind of trying to describe

them off the top of your head and then they add

this like little blurb at the bottom that's a

that basically says that Leonardo has a crush

on April O 'Neil and is dead set on going to

the surface world and and Like following his

feelings for April There you go So I think that's

going to be something that people are talking

about here in the next week that you're going

to see online online a little bit. So but I'm

interested to see how many different people they

try to like connect April with, because I want

to say at one point, Donatello has a thing for

her. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about

it all, but I'll watch it and see you see where

it goes from there. So I also thought another

thing was that the music that they put in here

made me think a little bit of. The first and

second live -action film like I feel like they

at least tried to hit that vibe Definitely it

like especially when you have the big like throw

down at the end within the big compound that

it it definitely seemed like they were going

for that type of Tone in that or that style if

it felt much more there was a lot of there wasn't

a lot of like music in the sense of like like

we but there were some key moments like you mentioned

where the soundtrack really kicked in Right.

They also added a couple lines that were reminiscent

of the live -action films. They had like the

I love being a turtle thing Obviously, that's

been something I think we've heard that in all

the films so far. Yeah, I don't I don't know

exactly I'd have to go back and actually find

out but I know we've heard it a couple times

so far in the in the films What what were your

opinions of the turtle layer in this one or the

turtle van? Any of that stuff? They were okay.

Like the layer seemed pretty nondescriptive it

felt You know just kind of basic especially you

know compared to the subway the old subway when

we got in the past it didn't feel like it was

in the sewer but i guess it makes more sense

since you've been there longer and they've been

able to clean up a bit and it doesn't seem like

the foot or as much of a threat so maybe they're

not you know i like the design that rafael had

for his like you know super hero get up or whatever

you want to call it with the motorcycle and whatnot

Nightwatcher yeah that's what you know it was

a little goofy but it kinda made sense considering.

It's rafael trying to hide the fact that he's

a turtle in some sort of get up so right right.

The other thing i was thinking on this one is

i know we talked about the the plus convoluted

obviously that's like a parent right from the

get go by the way guys when you start a movie

and there's like five minutes of narration. You

know you're in trouble. Like when they have to

explain that much stuff to you off the bat before

you ever see anything, you're like, I know it's

Laurence Fishburne, so I'm listening to it all

day. But like this is this is a bad sign. But

is there can you just take Karai in the foot

out of this and nothing changes? Well, they they're

the ones that capture like the last beast or

I guess, but I don't know. I just feel like that

is completely shoehorned into this movie. I it

is you know it it felt like that like I said

I felt there was more there cuz you see that

I don't like how does she become the Leader of

the foot in the begin with like where does she

come from? I think maybe supposed to be a red

herring you're thinking like oh It's the foot

supposed to be the bad people here, but they

end up I want to know what happened to Tatsu

or whatever Plus I think they're also there to

set said this kind of set breadcrumbs for what

they hope would be sequels so But yeah, they

didn't have much to do here except be cannon

fodder and, you know, you know, help out a little

bit at the end. Yeah, I guess the talks originally

there was when they were talking about the sequel,

like they were throwing around the idea of it

being turtles, like somehow in space. Nice, why

not? Why not? I guess Fast and the Furious got

that idea and like, you know what, we'll steal

that for. 11th ninth movie was it not yeah, it's

something like that and there was another one

that he I guess it was like a planned trilogy

by Monroe like he wanted to do a three -parter

and I know one of them or somewhere in there

he wanted to have like the technodrome be a part

of it and the Triceratons and things like that

so I saw them to where they thought about like

where There was like Michelangelo would be you

know Upset with the turtles and joined the foot

which maybe would make sense with what happened

here since they kind of Show that they were honorable

so maybe they weren't like the foot of the bat,

you know the right evil It seems like I think

that's existed somewhere. I don't know if it

was in one of the comics or not But I always

wonder like is that the turtle that would join

like isn't it way more? likely that Raphael would

be that character I think Raphael would be too

stubborn. I think Michelangelo can kind of make

sense because He he's a little bit easier to

manipulate. Maybe like they younger more naive.

Yeah potentially. Oh, they also they also in

the little blur, I know this kind of sidetrack,

but in the little blurb for the twenty twenty

three movie, they also make a point to mention

how old the turtles are, not like an actual age,

but like in relation to each other. So in the

new one, Leonardo is the oldest, then Raphael,

then Donatello and then Michelangelo. He's the

youngest. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I actually

always think the graph being oldest makes the

most sense, but I agree. that would add to that

would add to like the the tense the tenseness

as far as like why is Leonardo leading me when

I'm the older brother but I could buy that. the

fifth Dad I I don't even remember that to be

honest with you, but I mean I'm over my head

So obviously this one came out and did okay right

away at the box office as far as at least it

didn't lose money for this company and Like you

said a beat 300 and some other stuff critical

response not great. That's gonna be a theme I

think probably for all the films we talked about

except for maybe one and Had like a 34 % on Rotten

Tomatoes How do you feel about it especially

in comparison to the four films that we've looked

at so far i'm not necessarily saying you have

to rank them all what kind of what's your like

first instinct as far as like where does this

one fall the plots terrible but there's a bunch

of other good parts is that enough to like make

up for it and get it decent rank for you. Yeah

like i was not like i didn't went into this try

to be as blind as possible not knowing anything

and when i was like i was like what is the rating

for this and so thirty percent which was like.

That feels really low to me. Again, I talked

about how I think the plot's really convoluted

and complicated, which is true. Honestly, out

of all the ones we've watched so far, it's probably

ranking right now, right below the first one.

Not that there's a huge amount of competition

there, but I genuinely enjoyed myself. I don't

know, because maybe I had low expectations. I

didn't know what to expect, but like I said,

I enjoyed. The turtle dynamic. I thought the

action was fun. It didn't overstay its welcome.

I don't know if it's because it's 90 minutes

and like we can never get a 90 minute movie anymore

and just something that can kind of just do what

it needs to do and get out. But yeah, it certainly

has its faults. I went through it. I was curious

like why people were so negative about it. And

I agree regarding the pot stuff, but I also saw

a lot of people saying it wasn't. It was not

goofy enough or not fun enough or whatever. Which

I don't agree with I felt like it was I feel

like that people were just comparing it to like

the cartoon show and because it's not like that

But I thought it had a good bounce. I felt like

it it had the jokes when it needed to but it

had some serious moments some of them Good moments

that carried out for me were like that the action.

I thought was all there was a great like Long

not great but a pretty solid long take in near

the end when they're entering the compound and

like they're going through all the different

turtles It felt like people that really wanted

to make a good movie you know like they put their

heart and soul into it and maybe they needed

a bit of a better editor when it came to the

plotting but it was good like. Basically saying

the action was solved it was a funny film when

it needed to be the characters were good when

it came to like the turtles and their surrounding

cast so despite my apprehension despite like

the issues I had you know with with everything

surrounding that. It didn't bother me enough

despite all that's false. Yeah like i said the

plus terrible the casting of patrick stewart

is distracting even if he's a good performer

so like those are like my two biggest negatives

it's an interesting thing though because it's

like you see all these things were there. Going

back for me to the first live -action film where

it be the relationships between the characters

and some of that with Casey Jones and rafael

with rafael leonardo and kind of the The inner

relationships between the turtles reminds me

of a lot of the first turtles then it has A little

bit more of that serious i'm not saying dark

necessarily but it has a little bit of like let's

go a little bit towards the comics versus the

cartoon Which reminds me a little bit more of

the third live -action film because it seemed

like that's both of those films were trying to

do that in a way And then you know, you have

the music and nods So it's like it seems like

it's a little bit of this film a little bit of

that film And it makes me wonder if the third

film had been animated by this exact same company

with the exact same look You know how how would

they have stacked up against each other at that

point? Yeah, because something that's distracting

for me in the third one is so much of the The

visuals are just super distracting for me and

I'll put it in the third So I'm like if the third

movie had been animated in CGI like this would

it have been better? I don't know. Like I definitely

put yeah Yeah, definitely agree. Like if you

if you just put that story pen the paper and

maybe made it a comic it would probably be a

lot better than it was when you're distracted

by the fact that You're looking at what are clearly

bad puppets that do not work the way that they

should. Right. So yeah, so this one's definitely

for me below the first live action. I don't know

where it falls after that. I think I'd have it

right close to the second movie with me. And

it just kind of depends on what you value more,

whether you value the story more or whether you

value the character relationships and the look

and the sound and everything like that. And I

still think I have the third one. Third live

-action film as as my least favorite so far I

would probably watch this animated one again

before I would watch the third live -action film

But that's just my personal preference Yeah,

and anything else that you haven't had a chance

to to talk about Dan as far as this film goes

or where we're sitting right now with the four

films in out of I believe it's gonna be ten in

total nine ten like that No, I'm definitely glad

I watched it because I was I was I don't know

what took me so long I think I was interested

in what was coming out And then I think I heard

and I just never saw it. It was one of those

things where it's just like, yeah, never went

around around to it, but I was glad I watched

it in the end. I can't say that about everything.

Every move we've watched now this is turning

out a lot better than you know the video game

retrospective. Yeah, I don't think I can get

that back now. So next on the docket would be

just what came out. Two years later, which was

an animated made -for -TV film called Turtles

Forever, we've referenced that a couple times.

That, I believe, is one of two, one or two or

three that didn't actually make it to theaters,

so the Turtles Forever from 2009 is where we'll

get to next, and then we'll jump back into some

live -action look with what we saw in the 2014

-2016 era, so. I don't know if i'm looking forward

to those two as much but i remember enjoying

turtles forever i know i've seen it at least

once for sure yeah i remember enjoying it have

you seen turtles forever i watched it once i

watch the back when we were doing like the animated

movie countdown so this will be a second watch

for both of us but but probably at least. Five

plus years since we've seen it definitely yeah.

So it'll be interesting to see where we go from

there dan anything that you have going on with

your tiktok or comic coverage that you'd like

to uh, share with everybody No, you can just

you know, just the same as always for my stuff

on tiktok at comic concierge. It's also instagram

youtube, uh twitter all that good stuff with

it being like halfway through the year almost

i'm gonna try to do some like Favorite of stuff

for for june. So we'll see how that goes. You

did do something turtles related though recently.

I saw right I thought you did something that

was like a look at something turtles comic. Oh,

I did. Yes. So recently I did a review of the

day right now just started a new comic Saturday

morning Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I forget

the exact series, but it's basically a comic

that takes basically takes place in the universe

of the original. Cartoon cartoon series from

the 80s. It's you know, very much inspired by

that So I did a review of the first issue and

you'll be happy because it you know rankings

in it And then we've been talking about racking

a lot. So he made it's a fun book I did a review

of the first issue. This is the second series

are doing of this. They did a series earlier

They also did one for GI Joe as well, you know

taking you know, it's for IDW but they really

you know find different ways to use their properties,

but If you love that cartoon definitely check

that out. There's a lot of uh, one comics coming

out right now too because there's the ronan comic

that's out soon and I just I was actually working

on a review of They had a crossover this week

with street fighter Uh, so that was interesting

to see very 90s. It was like, you know, 90s are

coming back in a major way So you can check for

that soon as well Like it and you can keep up

with whatever I'm doing if you follow the geek

showcase on YouTube I've just finished the ultimate

Saturday morning cartoon lineup series that I

did which was going every year 1983 through 1989

and highlighting eight cartoons that aired in

that year and There's some other stuff that kind

of goes along with that into the 96 and I'm gonna

take a break from that series for a minute I

have I've been wanting to do this like We've

been making our way through every star trek series

in a logical order and we're down to like the

word on the card which is one of the more recent

one so we've watched all of enterprise all of

voyager all of deep space nine all of. We've

been doing it for a while now So but I'm gonna

go through and do some quick videos where I'm

ranking the crew from each of those series Like

my favorite to least favorite characters or something

of that nature I haven't a hundred percent decided

so I'm gonna be doing some Star Trek related

content and then I'll probably jump back into

some cartoons because that seems to be what people

like right now, so It's getting that some views

that i didn't expect so i enjoy that and you

can keep touch with us to on twitter or facebook

you can either search out geocast radio network

which is gonna give you all the different podcasts

that are done. By the by the network and by the

other guys or like you said you can look at Dan

stuff on Twitter or my stuff it would be at optimus

solo or at geek showcase and That does it for

this episode. We'll come back next time and look

at turtles forever from 2009 So that is it from

cinema geeks to the next time for more