Fan Boys

I went to see the new Star Trek film with the wife a few days ago. I rather enjoyed it, I will try to avoid spoilers when possible but will not dance too far around things so no promises readers.

I liked the movie, there were the obvious tropes and scenes that one can expect but even with them the movie progressed well. I did not require a lobotomy to enjoy the film and for the most part the action mixed well with the story telling. I actually thought it was better than its predecessor. Which got me thinking about a friend I have that hated the first J.J. Abrams film since the characters were so far removed from the previous incarnation of them. I pointed out that they had so neatly sewn that issue up at the start when they altered the time stream, I felt that was an easy way to say;

"We know X would never have behaved like this in the prime universe, but this timeline is no longer on that course, everything is up for grabs now. If you trust us for the next hour or so you may find you like what we've done."

But he was unwavering in his dislike. While I was thinking about that it reminded me of my hatred of pretty much everything Micheal Bay does and more specifically his proposed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. The leaked script that had the Turtles come from Dimension X which is inhabited by alien Turtles I wholeheartedly agree with the masses was a terrible idea. But I recently saw that the internet had exploded all over the fact that his April O'Neil was going to wear a Yellow Jacket rather than the Yellow jumpsuit that we remember. Now I hate most of the stuff I had heard of, as well as the casting of Megan Fox as April O'Neil, but I do have to give Bay credit here as a yellow leather jacket is the move I would have made myself. It's a nod towards the source material while not having her run around in an eyebrow arching jumpsuit.

I cant think of any work that Megan Fox has done that leads me to believe that this will be any different than watching the Transformers franchise, G.I. Joe, and the latest Indiana Jones nightmare. Frankly I thought that she had burned the only bridge she had and have no idea why Bay even entertained her as an option but that ship has sailed.

What makes the difference between turning a jumpsuit into a jacket, and Mutant Ninja Turtles into Alien Ninja Turtles? Why does one seem the only logical option to me and the other like its a bad joke? Perhaps its because one is a simple visual updating that has 0 bearing on the story while the other changes the main characters at their core. But really is the origin of the Turtles that critical to the story? Yes, yes it is.