MovieChat Forums > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) Discussion > How would you have done the origin?

How would you have done the origin?

posted 10 years ago by q_leo_rahman
7 replies | jump to latest

The first time I saw the film, I enjoyed the origin for how new it was. But as time has passed by, I find the origin to be, for lack of a better term, too serious and too short. It took from RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN in an effort to be clever, forgetting that the origin was fairly simple and cartoonish to start with, and ended up becoming a half-baked mess.

Beyond that, it deserved more than a flashback to explain it all. We already had a flashback in the 1990 film, we could have had an origin story and a cut to 15 years later.

Anyway, here's how I would have done the origin:
Open at the TCRI Institute. Research is going on a new compound called mutagen; scientist Dr Kirby O'Neil (who brings his daughter April to work) theorizes that it has the power to splice DNA of different species together, creating a hybrid race of soldiers that possess superhuman abilities. The Institute is taken over by Eric Sacks, who runs the Foot (second to the TRUE Shredder), who has taken interest in the mutagen and its properties. He publicly executes Hamato Yoshi, a former samurai who defied the Foot and refused to pay them tribute, to use his warrior's blood and to make an example to the public. The blood is mixed with mutagen and tested on a lab rat, and it is proven to be a success: the rat's intelligence has improved and he can read and write. However, he has also inherited the genetic memories of Hamato Yoshi...

The Foot next brings a set of four turtles who are also injected with the mutagen. However, Dr O'Neil decides to destroy the mutagen so that no more biological weapons can be formed from it. Sacks kills him, but a young April manages to set Splinter and the Turtles free and is then put into a foster home. Eric Sacks decides to be her guardian, nothing she has no idea he killed her dad, and thinking she may know something about the mutagen...

... then cut to 15 years later and leave the rest of the film as it was.

That's how I would have done the origin. Nothing really too fancy, just an idea I had. I hope you guys will like it.

07/08/06... 786... the sentinel of Allah has arrived.

[–] tyreeewebster 10 years ago

I would have kept the idea of the turtles and Splinter being laboratory experiments, but I would have canned the link to April. That edition made the world seem too small.

[–] captkirk_459 10 years ago

I would have made it like the comic or the TV show and make sure to have Ho-moto Yoshi in the origin and make the Foot ninjas instead of terrorists . Having no Yoshi in this movie and the Turtles fighting Shredder is like Superman fighting Zod without the history Zod has with Superman's real father, Jor-el. The Turtles fighting Shredder in this movie have no meaning because the origin is all wrong. Get it right and the fight has meaning. Having the Foot as terrorists means no cool fight scenes between them and the Turtles. The foot is just bland villains. At least the second movie they are putting some effort into it with Stephen Amell from Arrow as Casey Jones, a better actors playing Shredder and Karai. At least the sequel will have Rocksteady and Bebop. At least Casey looks Bad Ass. I bet Bebop and Rocksteady will look terrible but at least they will be in the movie. Man this movie was Turtle crap.

[–] q_leo_rahman 9 years ago

I would have kept the idea of the turtles and Splinter being laboratory experiments, but I would have canned the link to April. That edition made the world seem too small.

That sounds fair.

And I'd probably removes Sacks too as a middleman and go directly with the Shredder.

I would have made it like the comic or the TV show and make sure to have Hamato Yoshi in the origin and make the Foot ninjas instead of terrorists. Having no Yoshi in this movie and the Turtles fighting Shredder is like Superman fighting Zod without the history Zod has with Superman's real father, Jor-el. Having the Foot as terrorists means no cool fight scenes between them and the Turtles. The foot is just bland villains.

Yeah, I agree.

07/08/06... 786... the sentinel of Allah has arrived.

[–] JRC-6 9 years ago

Splinter would have been an ordinary rat who learned ninjitsu via mimicry of Hamato Yoshi. He'd have escaped during the fight that took Yoshi's life and been found by TCRI where he would have been subjected to mutagenic experiments along with four baby turtles. He'd escape the labs with them to the sewers, where he'd raise them and train them in ninjitsu in order to defend themselves from any and all potential enemies.

[–] charlesdusk 9 years ago

Splinter would have been an ordinary rat who learned ninjitsu via mimicry of Hamato Yoshi.

That seems believable to you? How does an ordinary rat learn martial arts?

[–] JRC-6 9 years ago

Maybe, "unmutated" would have been a better description.

[–] manchof1 9 years ago

Personalty, I liked that they did something different with the origin this time. It would have been boring if it was exactly the same one we've seen before.