(Photo by New Line Cinema courtesy Everett Collection)
Cowabunga! We’re ranking the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, starting with the original! The story of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and their sensei Splinter was a hit back in 1990, as audiences were drawn to the movie’s relatively gritty and realistic ninjitsu-practicing half-shelled heroes, in line with the Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird comic book. One year after, at the height of Turtle mania, came sequel Secret of the Ooze, which replaced April O’Neil with a new actress, brought back Shredder, and went to great lengths to tone down the weapon-based violence. One more sequel in 1993 sent the Turtles back in time, a box office under-performer that closed the book on the original movie trilogy.
But the franchise stuck around, through video games, comics, action figures, and numerous television series. Seems like there’s always a market for brash, active reptiles for young people to latch onto. This has led to film revivals throughout the years, including an animated film in 2007, and a Michael Bay-produced reboot in 2014.
Recently, the 2D animated movies have seen way more success with critics, like the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their crossover with Batman.
And upcoming in 2023, producer Seth Rogen is putting the T back in TMNT (uh, the first T, the one that stands for Teenage) by scaling back their age for the Spider-Verse-esque animated Mutant Mayhem, releasing August 4th.
Now, we’re ranking all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
#1
Adjusted Score: 83866%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#2
Adjusted Score: 48955%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#3
Adjusted Score: 44146%
Critics Consensus: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is exactly as advertised: one-liners, brawls, and general silliness. Good for the young at heart, irritating for everyone else.
#4
Adjusted Score: 46462%
Critics Consensus: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is a slight improvement over its predecessor, but still lacks the wit or anarchic energy of the comics that birthed the franchise.
#5
Adjusted Score: 39079%
Critics Consensus: TMNT’s art direction is splendid, but the plot is non-existent and the dialogue lacks the irony and goofy wit of the earlier Ninja Turtles movies.
#6
Adjusted Score: 37300%
Critics Consensus: Not only is the movie’s juvenile dialogue unbearable for adults, but the turtles’ dopey and casual attitude towards physical violence makes them poor kids’ role models.
#7
Adjusted Score: 27112%
Critics Consensus: Neither entertaining enough to recommend nor remarkably awful, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may bear the distinction of being the dullest movie ever made about talking bipedal reptiles.
#8
Adjusted Score: 19171%
Critics Consensus: It’s a case of one sequel too many for the heroes in a half shell, with a tired time-travel plot gimmick failing to save the franchise from rapidly diminishing returns.