Movies I Like That Everyone Else Hates

Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movies

Now, I'm not going to defend Michael Bay. To me, he's a poor man's James Cameron. But there's no denying he can make a popcorn blockbuster. And he knows how to make a shit ton of money. When he's not in the director's chair, sometimes the movies he and his company Platinum Dunes are involved with aren't half bad. Like The Purge series for example. Each sequel often gets better and smarter. A great example of a movie produced by said company that did great is A Quiet Place, which may as well become the new Get Out. So Michael Bay can do a good movie, if given the right script. Sadly, his short lived Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise was one of his many misses. The story behind it is interesting in my opinion though. On October 21, 2009, Nickelodeon purchased all of the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Though strangely enough, the first four movies still belong to Warner Bros and its sister company New Line Cinema. Mostly WB. With a new franchise under its belt, Nick made no hesitation to reboot the franchise. They developed a new cartoon series, which is honestly the best interpretation ever. And they decided to do a live action movie franchise. Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies then teamed up with Platinum Dunes to produce this new franchise. Now on a financial standpoint, it would make sense that Paramount would turn to Michael Bay to help them produce the franchise. He made a lot of money for them when he directed the Transformers films. He had enough credibility in their eyes to take the franchise in new directions. Fans got outraged when Bay made the decision to give the Turtles alien origins. Now, I think Bay's decision was a little justified. To me, it would make sense that the mutagen Splinter and the Turtles were exposed to was of alien origin. See how it works? I was willing to give it a chance. Once the movie came out, I decided to give it a watch and... I liked it. I mean, because of the 2012 cartoon being great, I kept my expectations low for this film due to the negative reviews. And I had a lot of fun watching the film. The jokes were funny enough for me. I wasn't bothered by the Turtle's designs. I thought they were unique enough to where you could tell them all apart just like the 2012 cartoon. Megan Fox was an okay April O'Neil. I'll admit, Renae Jacobs, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Mae Whitman have portrayed April better. But her performance wasn't so terrible she deserved that Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress. Plus, she was doing this for her children. Will Arnett was funny as Vern Fenwick, but I never realized how funny he was until he voiced Lego Batman and BoJack Horseman. It was an enjoyable romp for me. I was especially excited for the sequel. It was going to have Stephen Amell as Casey Jones, Tyler Perry as Dr. Baxter Stockman, Bebop and Rocksteady, and Brad Garrett as Kraang. What could go wrong? I remember seeing it, and honestly, it was an improvement over the first film. It was more faithful to the source material, and it looked like a lot of fun. It's sad that it was underwhelming at the box office. I really wanted the film to succeed. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of the characters, but while some people may have hated Michael Bay's interpretation, I liked it, and I'm glad I saw it.