The summer of 2014 was a surprisingly enjoyable summer. After being blown away by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and being genuininely surprised by the awesomeness that was the Guardians of the Galaxy, came possibly the years biggest surprise in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Famously produced by Michael Bay and starring Megan Fox as reporter April O'Neill, the movie, a reboot of the franchise on the big screen, had been met with much negativity before its release. One major criticism that the movie received before its theatrical release was the 'facelift' the title characters had received, which did away with the bulbous beaks seen in the comic books and cartoons and replaced them with more anatomically correct beaks.
Though the movie may not have been met with critical acclaim, I was pleasantly surprised, having been a fan back in the late eighties and early nineties, to have actually enjoyed the movie despite having hated the 'facelift'. While Megan Fox being cast as April made absolutely no sense to the movie, the portrayal of the key characters of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michaelangelo felt lifted straight from the comic books and cartoons. A feeling shared by co-creator Kevin Eastman whom also collaborated on the movie.
The forthcoming sequel, due in theatres 3rd June, seems to continue the trend of the reboot series of movies taking their creative direction straight from the source material with the inclusion of Bebop, Rocksteady and Krang having been revealed in recent trailers, unlike the first series of movies which bore little to no relation narratively with the comic book series it was based upon.
Whether or not this means will we see Dr. Baxter Stockman's Fly mutation or characters such as Wingnut and Screwloose or even Man Ray (aka Ray Fillet) in a sequel remains to be seen, but it would be interesting to see how such characters would be realised both narratively and visually.
