Victim of Culture

Ninja Turtles come back to life, or at least live action

In all the rush to turn every possible comic book into a feature film, it looks like producers are turning to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a third time.  It you recall, the Ninja Turtles have been the focus of two previous film franchises.  First, the, to some, iconic 90s live action trilogy, and later the CGI animated version.  Both of those franchises have appeared dead for a while now.

So a third go is being made at it.  This time returning to live action, but focusing the story much more on the original comic than the live action originals, the cartoon series, or the CGI animated film.

This new version will go back to the spirit of the original comics that first spawned the characters in 1984. Unlike the previous films, this version may employ face replacement technology, which would allow the turtles to be much more expressive.

Really, facial replacement technology for turtles doing ninja maneuvers?  Is this something that needs to be made?  Understandably there’s a hope to cash in big on a franchise that is celebrating 25 years of existence, but to do what?  A darker version of a story about giant turtles fighting crime in New York City?  It’s one thing to respect what Chris Nolan is doing with the Batman film franchise, and it’s quite another to emulate it with every comic.  Will Archie and Jughead someday dead with meth addiction?

What’s amazing is that the turtle films really aren’t all that bad as kids’ entertainment.  Sure, they don’t exactly belong alongside the Harry Potter films in a quality lineup, but neither do they sink to the lows of the Power Rangers movies.  Reinventing the franchise for a third time seems forced, at best.  Not everything needs to be rebooted.  In fact, sometimes it would be nice to just boot the old girl up one more time, or perhaps better yet—let sleeping turtles lie.

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