The much-anticipated teaser trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released today. There is plenty of buzz around the film, but not much optimism.
In fact, skepticism has followed this movie from the beginning. Michael Bay first sent shell-heads into a frenzy with comments about aliens, even though he is the producer, not the director. Then came Megan Fox as April O’Neil.
Look, anything with an existing fan base will get critiqued by the die-hards no matter how good it ends up being.
But Megan Fox? Really?
A Different Origin for the Ninja Turtles?
Now that we have our first real glimpse of the film, the tone and look are clearly different from what we’ve seen before. Even the dialogue seems to point toward a different origin story.
Still, any good fan knows the turtles’ origin has been told several ways across the comics, cartoons and movies.
As long as it involves mutagen and not, like, a dryer dropped in a bathtub or something, I’m good.
Yes, the Turtles Can Be Dark
The trailer also has that whole “we can be gritty like The Dark Knight, too” vibe that seems to be everywhere in superhero movies right now.
That tone is a sharp contrast from the current Nickelodeon cartoon. However, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic was much darker and more violent than the version many fans grew up watching.
So as tempting as it is to give in to the negativity, some perspective helps.
The franchise moved from that dark original comic into the goofy, kid-friendly cartoon of the ’80s. It was almost like The Walking Dead making its TV debut as a kid-friendly, Phineas and Ferb-style cartoon.
And somehow, it worked.
That version became a massive success and helped turn the Ninja Turtles into a much larger cultural phenomenon.
Maybe this movie will be really fun. Maybe it will be awful.
For now, I’ll sit back and be happy that nearly 30 years later, we still have the Ninja Turtles.