'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' reboot: What critics are saying

This has to be something like the eleventh time the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have gotten a reboot. After their comic book roots, endless cartoon versions on the small screen, live-action films with actors in complicated suits, an all-CGI animated movie and gazillions of toys, the powers-that-be have seen fit to grace us with a new "Ninja Turtles" movie, this one populated by live-action actors and mo-cap CGI turtles.

Fans have been wary of this new Michael Bay-produced "Turtles" flick since the main characters' drastic makeovers were first glimpsed. Would director Jonathan Liebesman stay true to the Ninja Turtle legacy? Would Megan Fox make a good April O'Neal? Everyone agreed that William Fichtner was a smart choice for a villain, but the rest of the movie was one big question mark.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" opens in theaters this Friday, August 8, 2014. And apparently critics are decidedly less than impressed with the new "Turtles," currently delivering a 36% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes. However, several of them admit that Turtle fans will probably have a good time.

The Hollywood Reporter was dazzled by the ultra-realistic CGI Turtles, if not the story:

Liebesman relies on his genre-film résumé to keep events moving at a brisk clip and the motion-capture process employed to facilitate live-action integration with cutting-edge VFX looks superior onscreen, sharply and smoothly rendering some thrilling action scenes and delivering impactful 3D character detail.

Variety didn't particularly enjoy the movie, but said it's not bad enough to scuttle the franchise:

Michael Bay and director Jonathan Liebesman have delivered a back-to-basics origin saga that is neither a particularly good movie nor the pop-cultural travesty that some were dreading. Much slicker-looking but less endearing than its '90s live-action predecessors, the film manifests all the usual attributes of a Bay production...

The Wrap couldn't find much about the movie to like, particularly taking to task the Turtles' new appearances:

The voice performances are fine, but the creatures themselves look like blobs of clay that got kilned at different temperatures... The turtles never pop enough as personalities to make the inevitable sequel seem appealing, although Fox deserves credit for one of her more solid performances. If the next movie follows April O'Neil into a new sewer to meet the Radioactive Adolescent Black-Belt Hamsters, that might be more of a draw.

SlashFilm doesn't mince words in its review.

The biggest problem with Jonathan Liebesman's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is how disposable it is... This movie is a cinematic flatline that shows rare blips of life only to crash back down again into nothing.

IGN is kind of "meh" about it, finding things to both enjoy and hate.

Despite the strange revamp of the Turtles into huge, superpowered behemoths who seem ready to throw down with Colossus or the Thing, the film does a nice job of capturing their brotherly in-fighting, camaraderie and rapport.

HitFix thinks everyone should chill, because it's just the latest interpretation of a 25-year-old franchise that's gone through changes with every new version produced:

There are three big action scenes where the film kicks into a higher degree of fun that, taken together, add up to just enough of a thrill for me to recommend the film. There's one in particular that is inventive and impressive, and if the whole movie had been able to demonstrate that same level of energy, then I might be more enthusiastic about it.

While poor reviews can put a damper on a fan's expectations, the only way to truly find out if you'll like a movie is to see it for yourself. Here are a few more tweets from critics with similar sentiments to the reviews above.