Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Releases Street Art Inspired Posters
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Jonathan Liebesman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles doesn’t even open in theaters until August 8—unless those rumored delays and reshoots actually come to pass, a scenario that is looking less and less likely as time passes—but it is already the most divisive movie of the summer. From the look of the amphibious heroes to their changes in their origin stories to the fact that their iconic nemesis Shredder has become a white guy named Eric, just about every new detail that comes out makes the devoted fan base cringe in horror. That said, a new collection of TMNT-inspired street art is actually pretty cool.
Paramount unveiled these new images earlier today, and they are easily the best piece of promotional material that we’ve seen so far, and that includes all of the trailers, TV spots, and the various posters. These pieces come from the paintbrushes of Mike Johntson, an elementary school art teacher and self-proclaimed “street art evangelist,” and the simple, monochromatic color scheme, is striking and makes you want to see this movie way more than anything the studio has put out before.
All the usual suspects are present and accounted for, including the katana-wielding leader Leonardo…
…Michelangelo and his bone-crunching nunchuks…
…Raphael, who is traditionally the dark, brooding, troubled member of the team…
…and Donatello with his trademark bo staff. It isn’t his weapon that gives me pause, it’s all the extra gadgets and gizmos hanging around that worries me. Donny has always been the smart one of the mutated quartet, and has a history of creating technological tools. But all that extra crap looks like Batman’s tool belt, and I can’t help but worry that Liebesman, producer Michael Bay, and writers Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, and Evan Daugherty, are going to eschew his martial arts skills in favor of spiffy new toys. That’s disheartening to think about.
Shredder (William Fichtner) also shows up in this collection, and though we’ve seen glimpses of him in footage, as well as in concept art, this view actually makes him look pretty badass. We also know that in this incarnation of the story he is responsible for creating the turtles, creating them in a lab.
You will notice, however, that Splinter, the Turtle’s master and mentor, it nowhere to be seen in this posters.
Johnston also came up with this poster that has a more comic book feel to it. With their faces covered in shadows like this, you can’t even tell that their faces are all screwed up and stupid looking. Given how much noise fans made over the more humanoid noses, keeping them under wraps as much as possible is probably a good move.
