'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Movie Review Roundup: What Critics and Fans Are Saying; Is This the Best 'Turtles' Movie Ever?

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is moving into its third generation of fandom, thanks to the latest movie released about the squad of pizza-eating one-liner dropping mutated turtles. Although the turtles have been a part of television and movies since the early 1990s, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," which came out this weekend, shows the popularity of the characters refuses to die.

The movie is set to make a respectable $65 million in weekend box office receipts, according to Variety.com The most recent 'Turtle's' movie, however was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III," released in 1993. This movie is proving to be a stronger box office contender since that movie made $42.3 million when it opened.

Critically, the movie has been generally panned, with few critics enjoying it. Megan Fox, who stars in the film, along with the voice of Johnny Knoxville, is one of the focus points of much of the criticism.

The reaction from fans has bee slightly better. Giving the movie an 8 out of 10, metacritic.com user Bertoflyingfox had this to say: "This movie wasnt very bad for me, just a really fun popcorn flick. Megan Fox was probably the biggest detractor and even then she didnt ruin the entire movie. The turtles were done really well, I was expecting them to be much bigger and thankfully they werent. Anyway, I'm glad I went to see this movie despite all the negativity surrounding it," he said.

Reports say that while the movie isn't a critical success, it's benefiting from the interest of older fans of the 1990s era Turtles, as well as younger fans who watch the Nickelodeon show. With all the technology behind it, mixed with the production level of a Michael Bay movie (he's the director of the "Transformers" films and the producer of this movie), this may well be the best of all the live action 'Turtle' films.

A review in the Chicago Sun-Times called the movie a fun time, saying that turtle power was alive again. The review also noted the big difference between this version, which is produced by Michael Bay, and the older versions, which featured actors in turtle costumes. This movie was done with motion capture and CGI, and took some liberties in changing some aspects of the story.

"The only thing that stands out as a major change in the 2014 turtles is the way they've been beefed up with motion-capture technology and CGI. It's miraculous that the muscles on these bad boys didn't bust open their shells. By comparison, Jim Henson's 1990s costumed incarnations look like, well, muppets," the Sun-Times reported.