While the 1990 movie adaptation of Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics remains a fan-favorite version of the heroes in a half-shell, there have been several other iterations of Leonard, Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Raphael and their battle against the Shredder and numerous other mutants. One of the most divisive was the Michael Bay-produced CGI spectacular that reimagined the four brothers, threw in Megan Fox as April O’Neil, and defied all opinions by becoming the highest grossing movie of the franchise. Now the 2014 box office hit is fighting its way into the Netflix Top 10, to prove that you cannot keep a good turtle down.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brought with it all the star names and big-budget thrills you would expect from a movie involving Michael Bay. This included, along with Fox, Will Arnett, Whoppi Goldberg, William Fichtner, Johnny Knoxville, Tony Shalhoub, and Alan Ritchson prior to his Prime Video Reacher series. The movie rebooted the Turtles franchise, with the foursome meeting April O’Neil for the first time and facing the threat of The Shredder and his Foot Clan.
While the bombast and visual spectacle was straight from the Michael Bay handbook, critics found very little to like in the movie. Some called it a “101-minute music video with little substance,” while others denounced it as “nothing more than an overlong advertisement for pizza, soft drinks, and the capitalist ideal.” This resulted in dismal 20% Tomatometer score, although it was slightly redeemed by a 50% audience score, as many allowed nostalgia and the lack of a live-action Ninja Turtles movie for two decades let them see past the many faults of the movie.
Now, having recently been added to Netflix’s library, more people are rediscovering what really was an underrated take on the 40-year-old franchise that continues to be as popular among fans now as it ever was.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Have Found New Success
As well as frequent screenings of the 1990s movies around their anniversary years, and the appearance of the 2014 movie on Netflix, the Ninja Turtles franchise has recently gained a new resurgence under the guidance of Seth Rogen in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
The new uniquely animated movie put a fresh spin on the franchise, and coming from the massive Turtle fan that is Rogen, the film was able to pull off what Bay’s movie couldn’t do and deliver a final product that really stuck the landing. The film scored 95% and 90% from critics and audiences, respectively, brought home a worldwide gross of $180.5 million from its $70 million budget. While it could not match the huge box office of Bay’s movie, it did enough to have a spinoff series and a sequel green lit. Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a kid-friendly addition to the Mutant Mayhem story, and holds a 100% critic score.
While fans wait for Mutant Mayhem 2, it looks like the 2014 live-action movie is proving to be a popular way to pass the time. The film’s less successful sequel, subtitled Out of the Shadows, which brought Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady to live-action for the first time, is also available to stream on Netflix and Paramount+.
- Release Date
-
August 7, 2014
- Runtime
-
101 minutes
- Director
-
Jonathan Liebesman
- Writers
-
André Nemec, Josh Appelbaum, Evan Daugherty, Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman
- Producers
-
Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, Denis L. Stewart, Galen Walker, Ian Bryce, Jason Reed, Michael Bay, Scott Mednick
