Why Michael Bay's Ninja Turtles Was the Best Movie of 2014
I was the first person to speak out against Michael Bay's vision of the Ninja Turtles when it was first announced. Changing the origin story was ludicrous to me. Making them aliens? Even more ludicrous. But when I watched the movie, I was blown away. Michael Bay has managed to touch on what we love about our favorite heroes in a half shell while simultaneously maintaining enough distance from the source material to craft the most beautiful space opera ever to grace the silver screen.
Meet Michael Bay's New Ninja Turtles.
The most noticeable difference between Bay's movie and the original material is that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are no longer teenagers, mutants, ninjas, or turtles. Rather, they spend their time flying around the galaxy in a spaceship, guarding it from the evil that threatens them. What stops the movie from being cheesy is that Bay has found a way to completely keep the Turtles' carefree and reckless attitudes more or less intact. There is a sense of "fun" and that is what the Ninja Turtles are all about. As the movie starts, Chris Pratt, the first of the "new" turtles we meet, enters a spooky alien world and we're treated to mysterious, Indiana-Jones-like quest music. Instead of staying this way, the party boy turtle, now named Star-Lord, turns on his Walkman and dances through the caves. It's this tone that lets us know that no matter how different the turtles might look, these are still the turtles that we know and love. Cowabunga!
Still the same goofy troublemakers we know and love!
But why change the turtle's looks? That's where Bay's genius lies. Were he to keep the turtles the same, the cosmic world that Bay meticulously crafted wouldn't have felt as truly vast as it did. On screen, it felt like the world had opened up so much more than if the Ninja Turtles were just a group of five turtles who were born from the same ooze. (Bay is obviously pulling from FOX's Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, which featured Venus as the 5th turtle) Instead, Bay's turtles have fully realized identities and lives that they have been living before any of them even encounter each other for the first time. If there were five of the exact same species from disparate parts of the galaxy, it would feel completely limited and Bay saw this. The story would become all about how they should fit together because of their similarities.
But these turtles are different. A human, taken from his home planet of Earth following his mother's death. A hotheaded, talking raccoon who has undergone so many experiments that he's gone insane. A sentient tree who can only say, "I am Groot." Bay lets us see how the turtles function when they are forced to work together despite their differences. More than any other iteration of the Ninja Turtles, these are the true essence of the turtles. Shell yeah!
Their diversity truly brings them together.
Bay is truly committed to this reboot. He shows amazing restraint by never showing even the slightest of nods to the original turtles or their old names. Bay has shown real grown with this film, allowing the audience to really feel the essence of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while still experiencing a brand new movie.
In its big climactic scene, the turtles face off against their nemesis, Ronan, who is never once referred to as Shredder. As Ronan looks on, defeated, he asks them how it's possible for them to wield such power, to which Star-Lord, not Mikey, responds, "We're the Guardians of the Galaxy, bitch." Michael Bay has ushered in a brand new era for the turtles. He has shown us that the underlying essence of a franchise can remain strong and true while completely new material is laid over on top of it. Bravo, Mr. Bay. You have shell-shocked me by making the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot my favorite movie of 2014.
