YMMV / TMNT

• Broken Base: Opinions vary on the quality of the villains of the movie. Those who don't like Max Winters/Yaotl and his army of Stone Generals think they are boring and forgettable and wish the makers of the movie had used villains from the franchise like the Shredder. They also think that the movie is ultimately forgettable except for the big fight between Raph and Leo. Those who like Winters/Yaotl think the movie cleverly pulls a Bait-and-Switch by setting him up as the generic rich bad guy who wants to capture the thirteen monsters and use them for his own nefarious goals, before revealing that he was Good All Along who just wants to end the curse of immortality he and his family are burdened with and to send back the monsters he inadvertently released. Supporters of the villains also think how Yaotl and his family are a good foil to the Turtles' own family and how Yaotl's brothers' loyalty to him before ultimately betraying him is a good mirror to how Raph resents Leo throughout the movie before their big fight and how they ultimately learn to resolve their differences and work together. They also praise Patrick Stewart's performance.
• Can't Un-Hear It: Nolan North as Raphael is seen by many as the best Raphael voice by fans.
• Complete Monster: General Aguila is one of the Stone Generals and the film's true main villain. The brother of the warlord Yaotl, Aguila aided his brother in his destructive conquest to conquer the planet, where they killed many and attempted to use the Stars of Kicaan to gain more power, only to be turned into stone with his other siblings as his brother becomes immortal. As shown in the tie-in comics, Aguila would be worshipped by those who came to him as a god with immense power, being influenced by his presence and causing mass amount of bloodshed as part of a sacrifice to him. In the present, Aguila would be brought back by Max Winters, Yaotl in the modern times, to help him find all 13 monsters released by the portal and undo their curse of immortality. Aguila lacks his brother's desire to atone for his actions and desires to remain immortal. He convinces the other generals to betray Yaotl and sabotage his efforts, revealing his plans to unleash hordes of monsters for him to bring utter destruction upon the Earth and conquer what's left.
• Continuity Lockout: Karai's presence in the film is not explained, and the film doesn't take much time to explain her significance aside from working with the Foot Clan and the fact she's currently their acting leader. To explain, Karai is basically the Shredder's first and most primary enforcer, and her major defining quality is her Undying Loyalty and honor, and takes over the Foot Clan in the comics and 2003 show after the current acting Shredder died. Kids who had been watching the 2003 show were likely the only widespread audience members to recognize her right off the bat.
• Critical Dissonance:
  • The film was critically trashed by critics when it was released, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a rotten critic score of 34%, making it the second lowest rated TMNT film behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. Audiences meanwhile, were more receptive towards it, as the audience score was a lukewarm, but respectable 60% and audiences would give it an A- grade by when polled by CinemaScore. The film also performed well at the box office, grossing over $95 million worldwide and $54 million domestically against a $34 million budget. It did well enough that at least two sequels were planned not long after, until they were scrapped due to outside factors unrelated to the film.
  • While James Arnold Taylor and some of the creators of the film didn’t like that celebrities like Patrick Stewart, Chris Evans and Sarah Michelle Gellar were brought in for star power, the fandom generally responded warmly to the casting and considered the latter two good choices for Casey and April.
• Cult Classic: While this film is one of the less popular works in the franchise, it still has a dedicated following.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Despite her relatively small (and unexplained) role, Karai was well-received as the first appearance of the character on the big screen.
  • Raph's Nightwatcher persona was wildly popular for being just plain badass. Many fans have been hoping to see the persona return in future incarnations of the franchise.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The deleted birthday party scene is viewed as being pretty warm and hilarious, and most fans can't figure out why it got cut.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The film uses a newscast about the collapsing real estate market to establish its Next Sunday A.D. timeframe, since the real estate market had actually been thriving for years at the time of release. Three years and a global real-estate-fueled recession later, that subtle gag is now a harsh reality.
  • One of the film's major plot aspects is the family potentially falling apart, with Leonardo and Raphael's fight nearly ending with the latter killing the former, before Raphael runs off in horror at what he almost did. The 2012 cartoon series would later make Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki brothers (Saki having been adopted by the Hamato Clan after defeating the Foot Clan), which ends in misery for everyone involved.
  • A tragic example occurred before the film even released, as Mako was announced to play Splinter at San Diego Comic-Con 2006, only to pass away literally the next day. Though it was reported he completed all his dialogue, his replacement Greg Baldwin later confirmed he provided some of Splinter’s dialogue to fill in. He would later do the same to Mako's roles in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Samurai Jack.
• Ho Yay: One of Donatello's phone calls that truly gets crap past the radar: "No, I'm not playing hard to get. I'm telling you, sir, it's not that kind of phone line!"
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • General Aguila, more or less the leader of the Stone Generals, is the Big Bad of the movie, and played by Kevin Michael Richardson. He would go on to play The Shredder five years later.
  • Raph says "I don't feel so good." What makes it funnier is that Chris Evans acts as Casey Jones. And of course, Winters in the end gets dusted off, much like victims of Thanos.
  • James Arnold Taylor (Leonardo) and Mikey Kelley (Michelangelo) both voiced Ratchet the Lombax. Putting things in full-circle, the director, Kevin Munroe, would later go on to direct the Ratchet & Clank movie. In addition, James Arnold Taylor would face off with Nolan North years later in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as Ratchet and Nathan Drake from Uncharted.
  • Pokémon X and Y also had a backstory driven by a 3000 year old man who led an ancient conflict that ended with him becoming immortal. The popular "It's been 3000 years" meme from that game also works with Max Winters finally being relieved he can die.
  • April wears a shirt in some scenes when she is in the Turtles' lair that looks near identical to the one Gwen Tennyson wears in Ben 10: Alien Force. Not only are both characters redheads, but Gwen later also gets a hunky long haired boyfriend (Kevin) in Alien Force, similar to April's boyfriend Casey Jones.^note And of course, Ben, Gwen's cousin, is generally associated with the color green, similar to the Turtles, who have a familial connection with April in most incarnations.
• Magnificent Bastard: Max Winters was once the conquering warlord Yaotl, who laid siege to the world over in his successful domination. After a ritual to harness the Stars of Kikan granted him immortality but doomed his armies, Yaotl spent millennia taking part in civilizations that rose and fell until establishing his current business empire as Winters. Reviving his four stone Generals and conscripting the Foot clan, Winters seeks to round up the 13 monsters the ritual unleashed and return them to their home dimension so as to atone for his crimes. When betrayed by his Generals, Winters allies with the Turtles and helps take them down, saving the world in the process and finally ending Winters' curse of immortality, which he accepts with joy, happy to finally be able to die in peace.
• Misaimed Fandom: A lot of viewers seem to side with Raph in the movie and use the outcome of his fight against Leo to point out that he is right. Except, in the actual movie, Raph winning the fight and destroying Leo's katanas ultimately cause even bigger problems: Leo is left weakened and vulnerable and this allows the stone Generals to capture him and Raph himself acknowledges how he messed up big time to Splinter. And while Raph raises some very good points during his argument with Leo, Leo also correctly points out that Raph is impatient and hot tempered, which is only proven when Raph not only defeats Leo, he comes dangerously close to killing his own brother, something that results in Raph having a huge My God, What Have I Done? reaction.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: Of all the games based on the movie, the Game Boy Advance version is often considered to be the best. It also helps that it's a beat 'em up much like the Arcade games.
• Older Than They Think: One of the major criticism of the movie's plot is Max Winters and his storyline, which a lot of people say doesn't feel like a TMNT story. However, his plot is very similar to the 2003 animated series episode The Darkness Within, which follows the story of a European explorer around the year 1000 AD named C.F. Volpehart, who was also cursed with immortality and once his curse is lifted thanks to the Turtles defeating the monster responsible for this, he is Reduced to Dust and Michelangelo gets a grossed out reaction when he realizes he is standing on the dusty remains of the old man, which is almost exactly what happens in this film as well.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The one image we see of the Shredder in the prologue. He would later receive a toy that was designed like a hybrid of 2003 Shredder and this film’s aesthetic, and also served as a flashback boss in the video game adaptation with his appearance almost entirely based on his 2003 appearance.
  • Several of the monsters have cool and unique designs, but are relegated to only brief appearances during the monster roundup scene. They are implied to be the source of several worldwide myths and legends judging by Bigfoot and the Jersey Devil’s names.
• Presumed Flop: With reports that the 2014 live-action movie made more money in its first weekend than this one did in its entire run, combined with the fact that this film never got a proper followup despite the Sequel Hook, some fans assume this film failed in the box office. However, the filmmakers were actually quite pleased with the film's performance, enough for them to seriously talk about making a sequel. It was behind the scenes troubles that ultimately killed the sequel before it got off the ground.
• Shocking Moments: Raph snapping Leo’s katanas and nearly killing him in their rooftop fight. Although fans of the franchise had seen them bicker for years, it does not make this outcome less surprising.
• Signature Scene: Leo and Raph's duel, not just for being a visually gorgeous emotional climax to the film, but for being a moment franchise fans had always wanted to see come to life.
• So Okay, It's Average: The general consensus towards the film amongst fans and critics. The film isn't bad and it has some strong moments, on top of fantastic animation, but it is let down by clunky writing and an uninteresting plot.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The thirteen monsters. None of them have more than a couple of scenes, most of them are captured in a short montage, and several of them remain entirely off-screen when many fans wanted to see a complete assortment of classical mythological beasts.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: More like wasting a hinted plot. The Sequel Hook has Karai suggesting the Turtles will have to someday face the return of the Shredder, which fans probably would've preferred to being the actual plot instead of the one we got.
• Uncertain Audience: Due to the ambiguity as to where this fits into the wider TMNT canon. The movie feels like an extension of either the three live-action movies or the 2003 cartoon, which means many elements would not resonate as well with newcomers to the series. At the same time, it does not exactly fit either of the aforementioned continuities and does its own thing in many aspects, which means even established fans of those series may feel a sense of Continuity Lockout.
  • A criticism of the tie in comics; they have violence, language and themes that wouldn't be out of place in the Mirage comics, yet they are meant to tie into a PG-rated film marketed towards children. Some colorized reprints aimed at kids had to tone down the violence and language as much as they could because of this, which only serves to highlight the issue.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: It's difficult to feel sorry for Splinter when he laments his family falling apart since he was the one who sent Leonardo away for leadership training in the first place and forbade the other brothers from getting involved with crime-fighting afterwards, making the whole situation come off as his own fault. He never even acknowledges his involvement and instead lays the blame on his sons.
• Vindicated by History: While the film initially received mixed reviews when it originally came out, fan reception has warmed up to the film over time and it isn't uncommon to find fans today who consider it to be an underrated gem in the franchise.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The film's color palette and design really go the extra mile to making it look like a comic book, excellently capturing the classic aesthetic of the franchise's origins while also looking fresh and familiar like the then-concurrent 2003 series as well as the Fred Wolf series.
  • This film really pushed the limits of Imagi’s tech to excellent results: to the point that the majority of the DVD Commentary is spent showcasing every cool visual effect they did.