Enter The Shredder
My version of Teenage mutant Ninja turtles, moving away from the title Secret of the Ooze and calling it, 'Enter the shredder.'
Tone. The tone of the original ninja turtles movie was fun and somewhat violent, they set it right away with April O'Neill getting attacked and mugged after foreshadowing it her own newscast.
Secret of the ooze began with a silly fight scene taking away that dark tone we loved. They needed to go back to what made the original so great and bring it up a notch. Part two should of felt like Empire Strikes back not Ernest scared Stupid. Raphael did get his ass kicked and the fearsome foursome did lose a battle, but it could of been much worse.
Setting up for a potential trilogy, this second movie should of been a blow to our gut, a punch to our heart to make us hate the footclan, and to make us feel for the characters.
So here are my ten things they should of done in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Secret of the Ooze.
1. Tatsu should of been the leader much longer than ten minutes, he should of been planning to find the turtles, recruit, and to destroy them any means necessary. Follow April O'Neill! For fuck sakes, it's not that hard, she works at a news station. Follow her Tatsu! Do your damn job! Ok. Sorry for that outburst.
He could of been tailing her for weeks, even stay the course with what they did, have one of their own in the crew but not tell us. They could of even had that person help her get away from the footclan at point. That sets us up later on, when he turns on her and we are like WTF!? That also can even push into Casey Jones territory making him jealous. (Yeah Casey's in my movie)
2. The ninja turtles are staying with Casey Jones, not April O'Neill, because what the fuck....they know they are with her, common sense says "Follow April to the turtles!" God damnit Tatsu!
This sets up Casey and Raphs relationship more and what they do together at night, which is being bad ass vigilantes! These two developing more closer and dealing with their anger issues would be cool to see.
3. TGRI can remain the same, the ooze is a part of the ninja turtles lore and story wise it makes sense they go into that more.
4. April and Casey are in a relationship, but they are in a bad time, and havent been getting along, especially with talking about the new guy at work and how he saved her. This also pushes Raph and Casey to come up with a stupid idea, that he told Splinter about, but he didnt like it, so what do two hot heads go and do? They follow April to make sure shes ok during some of the night news reports.
5. Leonardo and Splinters relationship, training, and leadership. These three things should be a big part of this movie. Splinter is training Leo harder than anyone else, he knows his time is coming sooner or later and believes Leo needs to be the leader he was meant to be. You see Leo training harder and possibly more than his brothers, and see that yes, Leo is growing up, and his decisions are sound.
6. Enter the shredder.....Yes Shredder returns but not to take over the footclan, he doesnt want anyone knowing hes back. Being a ninja, he hides among the shadows waiting to strike at his enemies. During that time of almost dying and now, he has contemplated his mistakes and knows he must be patient. He follows from afar what the footclan is doing, but waits. He comes into contact with Baxter Stockman after some seeing and hearing of a mechanical device to deal with the rat problem of NY.
When approached, Baxter is skeptical but seeing how no one will take him serious, he agrees with Shredder, to help him with his "rat problem."
We get a new character and more character development from the Shredder, you see how his mind is working at this point. Hes trying to cover every little detail on his plan of revenge.
7. After a report on TGRI, three parties are interested and believe that the Turtles have been made by this weird ooze. The Footclan, the Ninja Turtles, and Shredder.
The battle for the ooze is about to begin...with one last batch left, the foot clan kidnaps the scientist and takes the ooze. It plays out the same as in Secret of the ooze, except the battle is more intense.
When it's all said and done a foot ninja grabs the canister and runs as the foot and ninja turtles continue to fight.
The foot ninja is alone when Shredder appears for the first time in his armor and kills the foot ninja and takes the ooze and disappears into the night.
(Tone) shit just got real because Shredder at this point is being secretive and using every tool, trick, and ability to get the revenge he believes he deserves. Killing a foot clan ninja, pushes us to believe this asshole will do anything to get back at his enemies.
8. So the relationships are set, the chessboard is all ready to go so where do we go from here? Shredder has a plan, he has the ooze, he has Baxter Stockman, and now hes about to pull a rabbit out of his hat.
April...follow April, Its so simple. And what do you think Shredder does for a long time in his spare time? Follows the women who fucked things up for him. Everything was fine before she came into the picture. What does he notice? Casey Jones and Rapheal. What does he do? Follows Casey. The game is set. His plans are waiting on a perfect moment to strike and finally one night, he has that moment.
Raph, bored of just watching for April leaves Casey to it, who is also bored of it. After a news report April is attacked by, guess who? The damn person who saved her! His mission, to demand her to take them to the Turtles, the ooze is a major priority and they want it back. April confused as hell, because she heard what happened and knows they dont have it doesnt know what to do. This brings in Casey Jones who finally gets to be the hero and save April....he beats the hell out of the footclan dweeb, he has that moment where he can kiss her and all will be well. But a Blade goes right through his stomach, he falls, his eyes never leaving hers. Shredder, standing over Casey's body, to a distraught April now demands her to listen to what hes about to say.
He demands a confrontation. If they want to see Casey again, to meet him at the abandoned junkyard and take him. April runs off....Shredder then tells the hurt foot clan soldier who cant believe Shredder is alive to take Casey back to the secret HQ, and as ordered, he does so.
This sets in motion Shredders plan, it also shows what kind of trouble everyone is in, he just stabbed Casey, who is now barely hanging on to life.
9. The turtles need to act quick and do so, despite the odds they need to get Casey back....Raph, who left Casey feels hes to blame and is emotional and angry, April, knowing he went to save her blames herself. The United group feels divided. The believe this will be a trap, but need to do this, they need to save Casey who shouldn't even be in this mess to begin with.
Tatsu, doesnt know if he believes Shredder is back. But he puts more guards out then before, and puts Casey on a post tied up. He gets the foot ready for the upcoming battle, this is his test, to do what even Shredder couldnt, to beat the Turtles.
10. Revenge is sweet. Dont get sad. Sometimes the good guys dont win in the end, that's life.
As the Turtles move into the junkyard secretly, weapons ready, the shadows move as foot clan ninja pull their weapons. As soon as Raph sees Casey hung up, he loses his shit and runs toward him. Leonardo screams that it's a trap, but it doesnt matter. Foot ninja begin jumping in and attacking, in a tense violent fight.
Casey Jones building is shown and then Shredders face, with him is a truck, driving is Baxter Stockman who is now being ordered to turn his machines on....the mousers begin towards the building, to find a rat.
The junkyard battle is going back and forth, Showing how good Michelangelo really is and how determined Donetello is to save his family. Leonardo and Raph argue while fighting, trying to get to Casey.
Cut back...while Splinter is meditating as mousers begin to crash through the walls, surprised at the little machines he is ready to defend himself.
Cut back to the junkyard....Tatsu holds his own and pushes back the turtles from getting to Casey, but not for long.
Cut back...the apartment is on fire as Splinter destroyed some of the mousers and looks up to see the Shredder standing in the destroyed doorway and burning room.
Leonardo and Raph begin working together and finally get to Casey, Tatsu is unconscious, and it's now time to vanish....they hit the sewers to get away when they finally get a minute, Donetello checks Casey....tears come out of his eyes as he says, "Hes gone." The brothers have an emotional moment and lost a human brother...it pushes them into another level of development character wise and emotionally.
Shredder beats the piss out of the Splinter, who is to slow and to hurt to defend against his old enemy. And as fire devours the building, Shredder grabs his beaten foe and leaves him beaten, half dead...before leaving he stops and says "You left me half dead, I am returning the favor. I will come for your family next," before disappearing into the shadows.
Shredder is a cunning warrior and is using every advantage he can to ultimately get what he wants, Revenge. This is only the beginning for him, he wants the ones who destroyed what he built and who he was to pay, killing Splinter wouldnt do anything for him, but having Splinter know he ultimately is the cause of his kids dying? That my friends is revenge.
We can see the reaction of the Turtles finding Splinter at the end, and mourning the loss of their friend from afar, how April is dealing with this terrible situation, someone she was close to, that she feels responsible for his fate, how her and Raph cope together for both feeling that this is their fault. How Leo takes over and doesn't even hesitate, he knows what they need to do, they need to take down the shredder.
You can even throw a Marvel esq end scene where Shredder and Baxter are playing with the ooze, and Shredder says something like, "Now, let's see what this does," while panning with the camera on two cages with a warthog and a Rhino. (Which can be part of a news report during the movie in the background somewhere, on how two animals were taken.)
That's how I want the movie to end, in despair, with the turtles in turmoil, the foot clan in disarray, and with Shredder ready to push into his next step of his final plan, to rid the world of the Ninja Turtles.
So yea, that's my story and I'm sticking with it. Sure it needs tweaking and maybe some plot details would be nice, and it may be a little gloom and doom for some, but as Empire strikes back taught us, when the odds are against the heroes, it makes it ten times better when the heroes win in the end.
#TMNT #NinjaTurtles #SecretOfTheOoze #Shredder #CaseyJones #Mousers #EnterTheShredder