New 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Trailer Reveals Armor-Clad Villain Shredder
The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles generation is all grown-up, and the new Michael Bay-produced movie isn’t playing around. The full-length trailer for this summer’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gives audiences a good look at Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael, who are hulking superheroes compared to their earlier, more Muppet-y incarnations. No pizza jokes or surfer slang make their way into the new clip, though longtime fans will be pleased to see the Turtles still have their skateboards.
The most exciting reveal is the film’s villain, Shredder, a samurai outfitted with impenetrable robotic slice-and-dice armor that shoots a blinding array of knives. Considering that the character was originally inspired by a cheese grater, this frightening new version is definitely an upgrade from the more bare-bones battle gear the character initially sported. (A few commentators have even noted the new Shredder’s similarity to a certain shape-shifting robot.) The trailer also offers a first glimpse of the turtles’ sensei, Splinter — who is still, after all these years, just a giant rat. (He’s voiced by Monk’s Tony Shalhoub.)
Besides the CGI characters, the big star of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is Megan Fox, playing intrepid reporter April O’Neil. Her character is described in the press materials as “fearless,” though most of what she does in the trailer is cower and faint. At least she gets to bounce a good one-liner (“They’re ninjas.”) off her co-stars Whoopi Goldberg and Will Arnett.
Overall, the trailer shows a new aesthetic for the Turtles: less Japanese cartoon, more futuristic hip-hop video. Will it play to nostalgic fans as well as 12-year-olds? We’ll find out when it opens on Aug. 8.
