Why Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows Failed So Spectacularly

what are you uh we're ninjas or mutants well technically we're Turtles oh and we're teenagers Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been a long-running franchise for close to 40 years the wild success of the turtles from almost every era comes from the uniquely quirky perspective that the characters and creators bring to it from the original Eastman and Laird mini Comics to the surprisingly dark first feature film to the wonderful reinterpretations that have followed after the Michael Bay produced Turtles were a box office success the newly reborn franchise looked poised to reach even greater Heights with its 2016 follow-up TMNT Out of the Shadows however the reputation of the first film ultimately proved to be the undoing of its sequel we may be brothers we are not a team before we get too deep into this episode be sure to subscribe to nerdstogic in order to stay up to date with everything we have going on cast your mind back to the year of 2014. Paramount's Transformers franchise was ruling the box office so the powers that be wanted more how did they plan to accomplish this build out a Cinematic Universe of interconnected Transformers franchises well yes only that experiment didn't exactly work so well so they pivoted to plan b or plan T they decided to have Michael Bay produce another franchise of films based on an iconic 80s toy property and let the money roll in thus Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles directed by Wrath of the Titans and battle Los Angeles Helmer Jonathan liebsman cowabunga despite being heavily recut in posts to fix problems that the fan Community were justifiably up in arms about the film was released to mixed reviews and a sizable 493.3 million dollar theatrical opening and here's where things get weird a sequel was put into production almost immediately which is basically what happened to the original new line Cinema franchise and with this new installment a new director new writers and new creative Direction was selected one that would lean into the more comic bookie and animation-based elements of the franchise that many had complained had not been present in the franchise reboots fledgling outing that's harsh man even though the first film was successful the behind the scenes turmoil post-production reshoots and general lack of earnestness in its execution had resulted in a lackluster critical reception the original plan for the film was that William fichner's bootleg Lex Luthor was going to be the shredder and that the turtle's origin was going to be altered so that they were partly alien in creation however the idea of a non-japanese man playing Shredder didn't sit well with the sizable Turtles fandom and so after the majority of the film had been shot it was reconfigured to include an actual Shredder all these years I've been trying to recreate them and you just handed it to me with this creatively compromised and slightly jumbled explanation for the turtle's existence the studio wanted to move quickly and create a crowd-pleasing family film so as the film originally titled teenage mutant ninja turtles half shell enter development it was serving two masters realigned the Creative Vision of the franchise to attempt to pull in more children and families and attempt to overcome the growing resentment from the critical and fan communities while incorporating more of the comic book accurate continuity into the film this sounds like a high task even for an auteur director to handle however the person selected to direct the follow-up would be Dave Green a filmmaker with only the children's feature Earth to Echo under his belt do you have a name Echo what that's what we should call it Echo Paramount purposefully selected green with the goal of being able to get him to make the film they wanted madeless to say things did not go well for him or the film early on in the film's development life it was leaked that the project would feature fan favorites Bebop and Rocksteady as well as Krang one of the most iconic and beloved Turtles villains this was met with positive Buzz the fans were excited this served as a signal to them that the ship was being righted out of the Shadows follows the turtles as they team up with a new version of Casey Jones this time played by Arrow Stephen Amell as they attempt to stop an Unholy Alliance of Shredder and Krang from taking over the world however the weirdly convoluted plot and inclusion of long time favorite characters that feel more like soulless checking of boxes leaves a lot to be desired we were a team I finally reports that green wasn't allowed to direct the action on the film was kept away from pre-production meetings and stories of cast members being mistreated by the disorganized production started to circulate as filming ramped up to put it simply the finished product is a jumbled mess out of the Shadows only grossed a total haul of 245 million worldwide it seems very apparent why people didn't show up for the second film the turtle's design looks ugly the visuals are pedestrian and the directors selected could never match what the previous incarnations of the turtles had accomplished is it a better Turtles movie than the first Bay produced log Fest yes but only minimally so and it's still a chore of weirdly abrasive wall-to-wall CGI and stiff performances where everyone seems unhappy we're Four Brothers From New York who hate bullies and love this city and right now we're the city's best hope Paramount wanted the turtles to be their junior Transformers franchise and that's why the original film faltered even before being released the turtles are their own thing Paramount didn't go into it being like what's the best way we can tell a good Turtle story they approached it from the perspective of how can we replicate our success from Transformers with this IP Turtles has always been about making offbeat stories and the importance of family and the acceptance of people and creatures that are different than us well that and pizza you know what it's not about giant rat one new guy zero well yeah annoyingly out of character quips but also the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have lasted for close to 40 years because they come from the genuine love and enthusiasm of Legions of fans and professionals the turtles have always thrived when the creators respect the source material and are passionate about the very surreal and strange blend of goofy Antics and gritty martial arts action they've never been forced to cram themselves into a corporately mandated hidey hole which is exactly what bay and Paramount were trying to do the Transformers movies aren't good but they also know exactly what they are they're fun mindless Sci-Fi Action films when they're working currently a new reboot of the turtles franchise in the works to be shepherded by Seth Rogen's production company it would seem like there's a fairly straightforward mission statement to stay true to but only time will tell what Fate has in store for the turtles will it have an actual emphasis on characters will it not try to change their origin to be from outer space or whatever the original cut of the 2014 movie was trying to do who knows all we can say is that if it approaches it with the purview of making a good Turtles movie first and foremost there's Legions of people out there who are hungry to support it what do you think which is the worst TMNT film is it one of these two or does the original tmnt3 take the cake let us know down below and as always please be sure to like comment and subscribe to nerdstalgic for more videos just like this [Music]

Channel: Nerdstalgic

Views: 233,795

Keywords: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Out of the Shadows, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Failure, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Michael Bay, Nerdstalgic, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Animated, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Reboot, TMNT Out of the Shadows, TMNT Movie, TMNT Comic Books, TMNT Franchise, TMNT Seth Rogen, TMNT Video Games, TMNT Failed, TMNT Transformers, TMNT CGI, New Rockstars, Screen Crush, IGN, Corridor Crew

Id: -k6C2BmGSvU

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2023