#ReleaseTheEricSacksCut

 You may heard the news of the Snyder cut is out on HBO Max.



I will explain it to if your not familiar. You can skip the next few paragraphs for the entire Justice League discussion if you don't want to see me recapping it and just want to see me discuss Ninja Turtles.

In 2017, we got a movie called Justice League which is DC's version of Avengers. The movies: Man of Steel and Batman v Superman were leading up to this film. When it came out, it wasn't really good.

Man of Steel and Batman v Superman has some criticism. Examples are like Superman snapping Zod's neck, the calm and collective Lex Luthor is a goofy manchild, Bats aka Mr. Do-Not-Kill gives the police to OK to execute certain prisoners. Batman and Superman stop fighting simply because they learn their mothers share the same name. Some were unhappy they were making the darker than it needs to be.

"Your so dark! You sure you're not from the DC Universe?"- Deadpool from Deadpool 2

People were blaming the Dark Knight Trilogy creating the dark, gritty, and realistic re-imaging tread that led to MoS and BvS. Several studios think they can create a great movie if they re-imagined the same way as the above trilogy, however it doesn't work.

Zack Snyder who is best know for 300, MoS, and BvS, was going to direct Justice League. He promised it be more lighter than the previous two. He was in the middle of post production but sadly, his daughter committed suicide. He didn't have the heart to continue and left the film. Joss Whedon who is famous for Avengers, Firefly, and Buffy was brought in work on the post-production and do reshoots. The very same reshoots that led to Superman's CGI upper lip.

Whedon's vision clashed with Snyder's and it seem that there was studio interference that led to the theatrical release. There was a noticeable amount of missing scenes that were in trailers as well as characters having their roles being deleted. This led to fan campaigns where people saying, "#ReleaseTheSnyderCut". 

However that version of Justice League seems like it will never happen and we're stuck with Whedon's cut. Warner Brothers had no intention to release the Snyder Cut. Even Synder himself said it's a pipe dream.

However years later in the year of 2020, it was announced that Zack Synder's version would be released on HBO Max on March 2021. When it came, it was far better received than Whedon's cut up and trimmed version.

Suddenly it release the floodgates and people are wanted the director's cuts of every movie ever made or better yet, unmade films. One thing is they wanted Suicide Squad before it's reshoots happen, some joked about Bumblebee back when it was originally envisioned as a prequel of the Bayformers movies before reshoots.

Others wanted TheTrevorrowCut, where Colin Trevorrow wrote a script for Star Wars episode 9 before he and his script were dropped and got replaced by Rise of Skywalker. This is downright impossible for many reasons. The Snyder cut was pretty much shot and had all it's footage ready, just needs touch up by with post-production while Trevorrow's script is nothing but a script. You have to spend time and money to produce a whole new movie, also it was written before Carrie Fisher's passing.


Director's cuts is kinda debatable. Sometimes the version we got is the best version, sometimes it's not and the best version is hidden in the studio's storage space.

If there is one director's cut I been wanted see, it's 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

This was controversial for many reasons. Michael Bay who is infamous from Transformers was the producer of this, then he told people at an upfront presentation that they "Came from an alien race." People complain that Bay was radically changing their origin story. However he could be referring to the Utroms, the alien slugs that created the ooze that would one day mutate the turtles who were present in the original Mirage comics and 21th century shows/comics but not the popular mainstream 1st cartoon/1st three movies/Konami games.

Other controversial stuff is casting Megan Fox as April, the ridiculous designs where they're oversized ogres, Foot ninjas re-imagined as swat teams, and that according to early interviewers and early early trailers, A Caucasian actor, William Fichtner said he's playing Eric Sacks and greatly hints that he is the Shredder. However fans know he is normally a Japanese man and not of European descent.

Then a later trailer showed him speaking to Japanese man, "We're taking your suit to the next level."

Wait what!? We're not getting the Mandarin situation all over again. This is awesome man!

Then we saw the movie and things didn't seem right. Oroku Saki himself was only seen outside of his armor in a few scenes while Sacks was all over the area but he still answer to Saki who we barely saw.

People wonder if Flectcher really was originally intended to be the Shredder like the early material suggested. There were alot signs out there like the official French trailer that had the audio in English but French subtitles clearly had Shredder's voice completely different. Another sign is the 3DS tie-in game. Months after the movie's release, Flectcher in an interview admitted he was originally playing Shredhead himself but the reshoots happen and changed the entire movie's villain because of it.

During the big showdown between Splinter and Shredder. They acted like they have a years long rivalry despite this is the 1st time they encounter each other. Sacks is the guy that actually has a connection to the Turtles and April since he was the guy caused the Turtles' mutation and killed April's father.

In the end, some people's opinions started to favor the white dude over the Japanese guy. Flectcher at least played the slimy baddie well and you can tell he was enjoying the role while most people found Masamune's Shredder not memorial. 

There were alot stuff that look like there were cut. One had Splinter telling April his four sons' weapons and he only told her Leo's sword skills and that's it. He just suddenly stops.

And soon, I gave them all names: Leonardo, annnd...I too lazy to tell you the rest. You figure the rest out on your own Miss O'Neil.

From what we heard of the actors, April was going to have  a fight with Karai with the reporter losing but Vernon threw his camera at her that cause her to lose her balance. Sadly, the fight was never released.

Remember how they try to disguise themselves in trench coats? Well in the 2014 movie...

Sadly, this scene is only available in production stills. Never in the finished version.

It's downright ridiculous, especially with Raph being gigantic and sticking like a sore thumb but you know what, I don't care. This is fun to laugh at.

They even made an action figure of it of this.

There is a video called Legend of the Yokai.

It's a video to promote 2014 film that has little to connect to. It seems like an alternate universe what if story that re-imagines the Turtles as yokai in Feudal Japan. However it may if the reshoots didn't happen, I get to that in a minute.


Also according to the credits, K. Todd Freeman played Baxter Stockman is in the movie and we didn't notice.

If you try to keep your eyes peeled, you barely see a black scientist hanging out with Sacks during flashbacks of April's childhood. I'm guessing he had a far bigger role the reshoots happen.

The climax of the film had Sacks shooting at April while Shredder is on the roof fighting the Turtles. Maybe originally, it was Baxter shooting at April and telling her that he killed her father.

Speaking of Baxter and Sacks...

The 3DS game based on the 2014 movie had Eric Sacks as the Shredder and Freeman's Baxter will loads of screentime.

However I wouldn't read too much into the game that much. Video game tie-ins sometimes take liberties from the movie. For one thing, famous villains such as the Rat King and Slash were bosses but I'm 85% sure they weren't intended to be in the movie and were created to be in the game.

Casting a popular Asian villain and re-imaging him as a white guy is controversial. It was unpopular with the 3rd Iron Man movie when it was revealed the highly hyped Mandarin was an actor hired by a white dude in a business suit who was calling the shots. They have retcon this and revealed they are coping off the real Mandarin whose still out there in a much later film. But heck, Iron Man 3 is less of a mess than the Turtles film we got because it was planned from the get go and they stick to their plan that was not sloppy changed at the last minute. 

For all we know, there may of been some great twist that surprised us and reveal it's closer to the source material than we thought. For example: Rise of TMNT has re-imagine alot stuff in it's show. The mutagen was some sort of ancient alchemy from a mythical city. Well in the final episodes, they reveal the very source of the mutagen came from some titan that crashed from ancient times.

It came from skeletal remains from The Krang/Utroms. The creators of the ooze in most versions of the franchise. Surprising the viewers it's closer to the source material than we thought.

Maybe that was the case for the White Shredder before the reshoots that they had a planned before changed their minds

He could of been a guy currently held the mantle of the Shredder and Oroku Saki was out there somewhere else.

In one version, Oroku Saki's adopted daughter took the mantle of Shredder for a when he was believed to lost for good.

Heck, even Raph held the mantle in the comics and it was to control the Foot and turn it around but it didn't last.

Heck, the 2003 show version of Oroku Saki that the Turtles faced for three seasons wasn't really the real Shredder.

The dude is really an alien slug underneath his suit of armor.

The show's 5th season reveal that there really was an actual Oroku Saki from ancient times that was past off as legends who became a powerful demon that got sealed away. The alien bug took the identity of this legend to gain an army and form his ninja clan.

And that could be the case for Sacks. He's an alien bug posing as a human who took the identity of some demon from ancient legends from Japan who will come back in a post-credits/sequel/etc.

One thing I see people bashed the film over is April knowing the Turtles before their mutation and being the one that gave them their names. Another thing to scream at Michael Bay at.

However believe it or not, that actually came from the IDW comics. April did know them and gave them names before their mutations.

There's more interesting stuff that came from the IDW comics. When the turtles got mutated, Splinter mutters that he and his sons are reborn and have a 2nd chance at life. They think he may be nuts. Also they know ninjitsu with no training.

That's because they are reincarnations of Hamato Yoshi and his sons from Feudal Japan. They lost their mother and the run from the Foot, but soon they were capture and executed by the Shredder. Splinter has full memories of his former life while his sons start having partial memories.

Maybe that was the original plan. Eric Sacks is the reincarnation of the Japanese Oroku Saki and carrying on his centuries old rivalry with Hamato Yoshi who is reborn as a rat. The Legend of the Yokai video that was posted to promote the movie may of been the part of the original plan with the Turtles being reincarnations. The fact the movie had Splinter teach the Turtles karate from reading a book in full untranslated Japanese seems downright silly. Maybe that was a last minute rewrite since they aren't doing the reincarnation thing.

Sadly we may never know what was the original plan was. Maybe there was a some grand twist, maybe he was a dumb whitewashed Shredder, but one thing for sure is, this movie is a mess and it would be less of a mess if we knew what the original version was.

So if there is one director's cut I want to see, I want to see this original cut of this film.