You have undoubtedly heard by now that Michael Bay is producing a live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie—which has garnered reactions ranging from, “Oh. OK.” to “WTF? Why?” But the first teaser for the film has hit the web, so you can judge for yourself.
The most obvious thing you’ll notice in this teaser is that the turtles are massive and muscular. They’re so big that Megan Fox, as April O’Neil, passes out when she sees Michelangelo. The other thing we can say about the reboot is that the guy playing Shredder (William Fichtner) tells O’Neil that he and her father were trying to “create heroes,” presumably the Ninja Turtles. Why the Turtles’ Big Bad would be trying to make heroes is unclear. He could be bluffing, but if he’s being straight, it’s a fairly significant shift from the original secret of the ooze. (The general story from the comics and some other incarnations of the story is that the Ninja Turtles were created by the ooze of a New York City sewer.)
Again, this could be an ooze ruse on Shredder’s part, but at least there is green stuff in the trailer, so it’s not like their origin has been thrown out completely. (Remember when Bay suggested the Heroes in a Half-Shell would be aliens, then backtracked after fans completely freaked out?) So, at this point, we know the movie doesn’t look totally terrible. We’ll know for sure when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hits theaters in August.
