Friday, March 30, 2012

A Thing about Rats

Episode 3
Mousers aren't so tough.
I’ve written so highly of the pilot series but now come to a point where I find myself putting a stop to that.  This episode is a step back from the two we’ve seen so far.  What we have here is Shredder trying to use small robot “mousers” to destroy the turtles, Splinter and April.  The mousers are a neat little invention by Baxter Stockman who makes his debut on the show.  If I’m Shredder though, I make these mousers much bigger in size at the very least.  I think I could take out a handful of these pesky little robots, the turtles basically annihilate them.  This is the first time Shredder disappoints me in his desire to defeat the turtles.  He previously stated in Turtle Tracks he never should have sent a punk to do a ninja’s job so he thinks mousers should get a crack at it?  Why mousers?  Why??  Shredder has technology from dimension X and goes with mousers created by an inventor that can’t even sell a robot rat catcher to a pest control company.  That scene is great though as the guy boots Stockman and says he’d be out of business if all the rats were gone.  The idea of the mousers is interesting but they’re just too tiny.

Can we trash your apartment?
                The turtles go to Aprils apartment and basically act like 5 year olds for some reason as they mess up the place by either flooding the bathroom or setting fire to the kitchen.  I don’t understand why they become so unaware of modern conveniences.  They have those things in their sewer lair do they act like idiots at home too?  It was mildly funny.

                The turtles get the tip on Stockman and go to pay him a visit.  By the way, Shredder created 100’s of mousers overnight which is so unbelievable; why not create 100’s of foot soldiers instead to defeat the turtles?  That seems more likely to do the job than mousers.  Taking a bit more time to make the mousers would be more interesting but of course could not fit into a single episode I suppose.  The turtles defeat four foot soldiers easy as can be since they failed to put up any resistance whatsoever.  They were like crash dummies.  Stockman squeals as to where Shredder is hiding so the turtles promptly steal Stockman’s van while leaving him tied up to a light pole.  I’d be pissed at the turtles for that wouldn’t you?  Stockman has clear motive to hate them at this point.  To Stockman’s defense he didn’t know Shredder was going to use his mousers for anything other than rats initially.  He just thought Shredder has a thing about rats, ha-ha.

How desperate are you Baxter?
                Michelangelo decides to go solo into Shredder’s hideout and gets caught fairly easy at gun point by Shredder.  Shredder should have blown Michelangelo’s head right off but he only ties him up instead.  You do want to destroy the turtle’s right?  I hate when a show puts the evil character in that position then refuses to go through with what said character would do.  How about at least blasting him with the gun into unconsciousness?  Show some brass that you mean business about eradicating them.  Krang unties Michelangelo and tells him where the master controls are for the mousers.  It’s so funny to see Krang and Shredder so hateful of one another that they want the other to fail to meet their own ends.  Michelangelo dances and makes a fool of him so as to coax Shredder into blasting his own machine.  Why won’t Shredder fight hand to hand?  He has the blades on his arms for a reason right?  He could take Michelangelo one on one.  Shredder of course is a ninja so he can’t hit the broad side of a barn with his high tech laser rifle.  He misses everything except the master controls.  Shredder is showing signs of being an impatient man and somewhat incompetent character.

My Precious...
                Now with the master controls destroyed I’d imagine the mousers going offline?  No, Donatello stole Stockman’s mini-remote control, another reason for Stockman to hate the turtles, and programs them to eat Shredders hideout.  Speaking of which, the mousers ate Aprils building incredibly fast and it crumbled to ruins.  How many people died tragically in that event?  Was April alone in that huge building, probably not, kudos to the writer for mass unreported death?  End result is Shredder gets foiled as he should have killed Michelangelo when he had the chance but instead gets beaten by that same turtle.  The jokes are not bad overall in this one.  It’s a weaker pilot episode in retrospect.

Rating: 5 of 10
Links
Next Up: Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X – Episode 4

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