[CRITICAL] NINJA TURTLES 2

Let’s say the net : by its lack of new proposals, NINJA TURTLES 2 will appear as a decal missed from its predecessor and, by extension, in the style of Michael Bay. However, to better explain the failure of this result, consider first the phenomenon of the reboot, and then how the saga Ninja Turtles, in spite of its many defects, was not so illogical as it seemed.

In a reboot, it is usually to retrieve an item of generation of the past, modernize it, thanks to technological developments, to give this replay to an author that is clearly identifiable in the collective unconscious, and spit it back out in the form of a work composed of multiple public – if not always successful.

The success of the reboot is almost assured in that it brings together multiple audiences around the nostalgia, of a common language for several generations, and the modernity that defines it.

The saga Ninja Turtles takes over it, the main principles of the reboot. It will be produced by an author very identifiable – Michael Bay, it will draw its scenarios, and its substance of an animated series (and comics) iconic of the 80-90’s, and will be rooted, as often, in themes teenage girls modern.The charming kitsch of the animated series and movies-live in a cardboard dough, is therefore giving way to the aesthetic of the blockbuster modern in that it has more absolute, symbolized by Michael Bay.

As explained by Tony Zhou in his Every Frame A Painting is dedicated to Bay, the grossly disproportionate is applied to EVERYTHING, all THE TIME, with the director of’Armageddon, The Rock of Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys or 4 Transformers. The epic is what defines the protagonists, their heroism abstruse may sindéniable, the action scenes, or the improbable scenarios. The until the end-isme Bay-Ien is to apply this formula of the +++ even in the moments that do not lend themselves, as when dialogues are functional, in moments of intimate, in the description of the female figure, or in the newspaper. There is a certain genius behind this staging of the ordinary as a permanent spectacle, which therefore seeks to transcend the term “performance” during the action scenes. The cinema of Michael Bay takes certainly a around eye-catching, but can be seen as the climax of the escape sought by the viewer of the blockbuster summer. His cinema is defined as vulgar, but isn’t it also the one that most respects its audience ?Having said that, there or Michael Bay has created an aesthetic of its own, passing through a certain complexity in its realization, someone like Jonathan Liebesman, producer of Ninja Turtles 1, does that traced its iconic grammar film without really thinking about the until the end-ism that it implies. As well, in the movies, Ninja Turtles, saturate the yellow, green and blue at every turn, denotes the place of iconiser the moments; the over-cutting plans until the epilepsy is not a guarantee of pace, but on the contrary, generates a problem of legibility; the framing oblique standing has no particular purpose, when it serves as a at Bay, to place the situations and characters from a low angle, making them all the more iconic. In Jonathan Liebesman, the camera is effectively rotated around the characters, the action scenes are as expected improbable and unnecessarily explosive, there’s Megan Fox… But the Bayhem there is, unfortunately, not. And what can one say of Dave Green, director of NINJA TURTLES 2, that copy, not Michael Bay, but Jonathan Liebesman ?

We will not withhold the implementation of the scene “explosive” NINJA TURTLES 2, as a result even more messy, illegible, and any that that of its predecessor.

Always in this logic of a modern cinema and identifiable, one cannot see the consistency of the artistic direction. In line with our time-post-Avatar, these super-hero perfectly fantastic are, therefore, perfectly digital. If this allows them to perform stunts and impossible movement (and, therefore, extraordinary in theory), from the point of view of emotion and empathy, there is a problem of credibility that the technology has not yet managed to erase. The necessary identification to empathy, then goes through the reminiscences of the collective unconscious. The graphic of Michael Bay, the design from the original material, and the aesthetic finish of the turtles, pastichant Marcus Fenix, Dom, Baird and other heroes ultra heroes of Gears of War. You can imagine the reasoning within the artistic team responsible for giving life to these Ninja Turtles ²⁰¹⁴, asking himself at what looked like the icons of the 2010 youth to better be inspired by it, and stopping the most natural thing in the world on the biggest success of the video game – the media of the youth par excellence. Anyway, it works : the aesthetic of the turtles and antagonists reflects quite well the tone of the movie, nag, décérébré, preferring the caricature extreme accuracy emotional. Again, there is something modern and consistent in this definition.

“Ninja Turtles 2, a sub-decal style of Michael Bay, served more by its lack of proposals in relation to the first component (!!)”

As for the protagonists, there’s this feeling of sloppy, unfinished. Leonardo, Raffaello, Michelangelo and Donatello are strangely defined by their interchangeability is enhanced by the aesthetic and digital caricature aroused, and this is not that tiny characterization (the fun, the worship, the geek, and the head) will feel empathy for them… Even their torments adolescents, namely: to accept his difference, to trust one another, learn from mistakes and gain maturity, are not exploited by the scenario, merely to enumerate these emotions in scenes desperately flat, rather than having to interact with the scenery, situations, story, characters… With the rest of the world what. The heroes here are not avatars fantasy of the viewer, but only of the vectors of the action, existing almost outside of their control very black-and-white against Shredder. Also speaking bad guys, they will not be introduced properly, nor charismatic – special mention to Shredder, wasted potential … His armor.

This encourages to pay attention to the secondary characters when there isn’t action on the screen, by default rather than by interest. One of the pleasures of the film comes from the scenario relatively wicked one; the origin story of mutants is told and revisited through the conflicts of interest between April (Megan Fox) and Sacks (played by the ghost of the collective unconscious that is William Fichtner); the two characters winner, by a development almost off-topic, a depth sufficient to overshadow those that were thought to be the protagonists. Even Vern*, as a comic-relief too far, seems to assert itself more as the hero.

*That said, it is the basis for ultra-fans of the performer Will Arnett, manager of our biggest folly-laughter as a GOB in the fantastic series ‘s arrested Development. Objectively, his humour, looser lord does not really part of the film.

Then there’s the problem of the second installment, which picks up the exact model of the previous film. Present the heroes by their characteristics (that is to say, skills are fantastic, but interchangeable, stereotypes, and caricature), give a relatively consistent to the secondary characters (Casey Jones, Bebop and RockSteady – the true remnant of the anime of the 90’s), switch to a villain and a generic out of nowhere as an antagonist main (Krang), from in search of an artifact X in this exotic environment, take the opportunity to propose action scenes operator successfully these environments (if there really be spectacular), and finally end with an “epic” final scene in the form of a “boss battle”… To save the world. No difference, no change, less developments, more shortcuts, not necessarily more action, and a realization of the least worked. If the first film could still limit the impression of déjà vu being limited to a copy of the production to Michael Bay ‘s previous, Dave Green takes the party to draw briskly not only in Ninja Turtles 1 , but also in everything from super-heroic and gaming, with loans from Spider-Man, Uncharted 3 and Furious 7 (the scene of the plane), but also for his final, the Avengers (and Transformers 3, you admit it), making it all the more ridiculous, the lack of intensity of the whole.

In the end, although we do not expect much, NINJA TURTLES 2 is a disappointment. He can’t even begin to be entertaining, nor by the humor too much to the side of the plate, nor by the spectacle all too common and poorly packaged, or by an identification with the problems typical of super-heroes, those eternal teenagers. If we had something to save him from this debacle, it would be Bebop and Rocksteady, always cons, and we are plunging in spite of ourselves in the memories forever of the anime of the 90’s.

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