It is, again, arguably by necessity of the source material adapted and the structure chosen, something more akin to the more gender-neutral fantasy films of the 1980's such as Labyrinth or Casper. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a film that arguably targets young boys and yet has a lady protagonist with no emphasis given to said fact. It is not a specifically female-targeting would-be blockbuster like Maleficent or the Twilight Saga, nor is it a female-targeted animated film that stars a woman ( Brave, Frozen, etc.). She just happens to be a "she" instead of a "he." Megan Fox's gender is not vital to the story or all-that-relevant to the narrative. That is what makes the choice to center the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film around its human protagonist, one who just happens (by virtue of source fidelity) to be a woman, arguably noteworthy. As untrue (or at least irrelevant, depending on the budget and expectations of a given project) as that might be, it is still a notion that filters through the vast majority of blockbuster film making. There is an old cliche that states that girls will see boy movies but boys won't see girl movies. Sony's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones) where the protagonist's gender is merely a matter of artistic choice. There are a few fantasy-lit young adult franchises (think
Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy arguably revolves around Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). This gets ever-more true as you get higher up the production budget pole, with most so-called "blockbusters" revolving around the would-be hero's journey of a white guy as a default. Except in films explicitly targeting women or two-hander romantic dramas or comedies, the vast majority of releases tend to involve the journey of a white male. It is said by any number of people both inside and outside the industry that one of the core problems with diversity in the films being produced and the stories being told is that "white male" is considered the status-quo default among those who write films and produce films.
But it is just as important for us to get mainstream studio releases that just happen to feature a protagonist who just happens to be a woman, which if anything is even more rare in this current environment. I talk a lot about the need for more mainstream films that center on women and tell stories somewhat rooted in the fact that the protagonist is a woman. By virtue of this story choice, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became not only one of the only major studio releases this year that focused on a female protagonist's story, as well as arguably among the few such big-scale releases where the gender of the protagonist was irrelevant. In this film, it's Meganįox's April O'Neil. In that film, it was Shia LeBeouf's Sam Witwicky.
To wit, the film, which was produced by Michael Bay and directed by Jonathan Liebesman, basically took the heroes in a half-shell and plugged them into the story structure found in the first Transformers. Like that 2007 smash hit, the title characters are basically CGI-created supporting characters in what amounts to a story about a human protagonist who discovers and befriends said heroes. I won't rehash my issues with the film ( review), which nonetheless earned a terrific $477 million worldwide on a $125m budget, but out of one of the film's primary flaws comes an interesting nugget of discussion. I was not a fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which arrives today on Blu Ray and DVD along with the various VOD services courtesy of Paramount (