Will the rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie be worth the price of admission?
Paramount Pictures and Producer Michael Bay hope to succeed in their attempts to reboot the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. A franchise that has had it's fair share of successes on the big screen, as it has bombs. A tough act, but does this franchise still have commercial viability?
Let's start right at the beginning— the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles named after four renaissance artists, who were all trained by a anthropomorphic rat sensai in the art of ninjutsu. These characters all originated in the comic book series of the same name that was created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. With the success of the comic's, they were transferred first to our television screens in the late 80's as a cartoon series before making their movie debut in the early 90's.
The cartoon series has taken many new lives over the years and is currently being produced and aired on Nickelodeon— proving to still be a hit amongst teens. This in-turn led to the theatrical reboot of the much loved quartet, but does it still hold the same appeal as the original cartoon series, and will it be swamped by other blockbuster releases this summer?
THE POSITIVES
On the face of it, there seems to be a lot of positives heading into this release. The Nickelodeon animated series brings in good viewership numbers which has helped this franchise to maintain it's relevance but also attract a new generation of fans. This new generation of fans is responsible for toys sales still being high and a new theatrical movie will only benefit this section of the franchise. Any franchise that has a solid base in merchandise sales will always be seen under a positive light in the opinion of a studio. Branching off into other forms of marketing not only helps grow the brand but also helps in regaining that huge investment.
Another aspect that could draw audiences is the nostalgic factor. The 80's cartoon series was wildly popular and a staple in many of today's thirty-somethings teenage years. With fond memories of growing up with these four-crime-ending-cool-dudes still fresh, there will be a huge temptation for that particular age range to check this movie out.
Michael Bay has his name attached to the project— even though he didn't direct this movie— it certainly looks and feels like a Bay movie. Yes, that isn't exactly a desirable feel for a movie. Bay is hardly a director who is known for making exceptional pieces of cinema, but you can't deny the fact that he sure knows how to dress-up action and deliver visually appealing sequences.
THE NEGATIVES
When the first trailer (watch here: http://bit.ly/1o5kjuj ) hit the internet, it didn't exactly whet everyone's appetite. In fact, it actually set about angering people, in particular fans of the original cartoon series. People felt that the look of the turtles wasn't 'likeable' enough, and to a degree that's a fair point. They have a far more menacing look to them in this version and the subsequent posters that followed only highlighted that. The turtles have never been seen as menacing, aggressive or even violent, but more friendly, funny, cool with a butt-kicking attitude when needed. This negative first reaction may be enough to put some fans off this reboot entirely.
Casting Megan Fox won't exactly increase the appeal in the female movie-goer either. Consequently, it'll have the opposite affect and no doubt attract a more male based audience. This is simply because Fox is considered 'eye-candy' in the opinions of most men. A consciences decision by the producers was to push the importance of a strong female lead, which would increase the female demographic of the audience relate, but this piece of casting may well backfire.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is released seven days after Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, and if that particular release does bring in it's projected numbers, it could easily overshadow and dominate the turtles. Guardians of the Galaxy is predicted to bring in approximately $68million in it's opening weekend, and is predicted a total gross in the region of $180-190million. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should consider itself a success if it brings in between $30-40million in it's opening weekend, going on to gross around the $100million mark. It's doubtful that it will succeed in beating Guardians of the Galaxy to the number one spot, but if Guardians doesn't start too strongly, the turtles may end up taking a bigger slice of the pie. There is potential for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to over-perform.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is directed by Jonathan Liebesman, stars Megan Fox, Johnny Knoxville, Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fischer, Jeremy Howard and Whoopi Goldberg. It is scheduled for release on 8th August 2014.
