Tmnt Secret of the Ooze: Overrated or Underated?

[FredWolfLeonardo]

I am a big fan of the Original Trilogy of live action tmnt films, and I love to see people review them from many different angles. However, while reviews of Tmnt 1 and 3 seem to be pretty straightforward, I always found Secret of the Ooze to be a little murkier.

One the one hand, there's the crowd which likes this movie and has a ton of fun with it, even saying that it surprassed the original 90s film in parts when it came to the costumes etc. and that it was a welcome sequel in the franchise. On the other hand, there's the people who say it was very painful to watch and even worse than Tmnt 3 (which they really don't like in the first place).

So, which side of the spectrum would you lean on? Do you think this movie is an under-appreciated gem in tmnt that gets undeservedly bashed, or do you think this movie is severely overrated and has very little quality to offer?

[d_osborn]

It's an awful kid's movie with a ton of charm and heart that I have loads of nostalgic love for.

It's not the ideal sequel to Barron's 1990 film, but it's far from the being the worst media produced out of the franchise-- even during it's era. Henson Group's work was fantastic, David Warner is a treasure of the human race, and although we lost Hoag, I didn't know a dude at the time that wasn't completely smitten by Paige Turco.

The indie dance soundtrack is WAY more fun that it deserves to be with some serious hitters from the early 90s. Cathy Dennis is a damn legend in pop music.

SOTO isn't a good movie by any means, but I love the hell out of it.

1990 was a fluke that made it through pre-production without anyone realizing (and thus subverting control) the success of the source material. SOTO was more along the lines of what a committee-designed 90's TMNT movie was always going to be.

[Andrew NDB]

Highly overrated. Nonsense plot and characters around a very thin and quickly abandoned arc about "What is our purpose? Are we just freak accidents?" They could have done a lot but chose to make a movie for PTA groups instead.

TMNT 3 is better, costumes aside. It's not good, but it at least has some heart.

[TurtleWA]

Can’t say anything critical about the film. I just like it way to much.

[MikeandRaph87]

I believe this poll will go down as do you like Secret of The Ooze opposed to underrated and overrated. That being said it is my favorite of all the films. It has The Shredder and evil mutants. That gives it a leg up on TMNT III: Back In Time and TMNT because those were made for movie villains. Tokka and Razhar had potential beyond just the film. Norinaga was whimpy and Walker has rather limited potential and the same can be said for Max Winters. Not much to work with him besides he was blinded and could see the error of his ways in the end.

It also had a good tone. It was fun yet serious. I would have liked more weapons usage. It just got caught up in an unnecessary backlash thanks to the same villain that struck TMNT (1987) the censors. *signal ominous music* Why else would Super Shredder just be a mindless steriod monster inspiring Batman and Robin(1997)'s Bane? Also, why else would Super Shredder do nothing more than drop a pier on himself. When I think of Secret of The Ooze as an adult is what script it could have been. No only the above mentioned, but yes the utrom who I would have assumed was Krang. Unless there were other utroms Perry was seen contacting or referencing and his utrom birthname was Jordan Perry.

There was also potential for more characterization when it was learned that the TMNT were just accidents. I would have liked that explored, but the lesson of poor origins and present richness was a solid one for young people.

[pferreira]

I think it's a pretty good sequel. Yeah it's not quite the sequel we should have got but it could have been far worse. The mutants, the origin questioning, Freddy as a spy, Warner's character, all great stuff and make the film a delight. I just wish they could have done more with the whole questioning the origin and opened in up. Far better than the third movie but let down with the toning down of the fight scenes.

[Autbot_Benz]

I love this movie. I rented it a ton as a kid. Ya its not as good as the first one but its a guilty pleasure.

[d_osborn]

It's overrated as being a hated bad installment of the franchise. Not a good movie by any stretch, but not nearly as bad as other bits of TMNT media from the era.

It's a watered-down, corporatized version of one of the most well-done entries from the franchise-- the Barron film.

[Powder]

I was surprised to see how much hate this movie got online, so I went with underrated. It has its faults, but it's a lot of fun.

[triplexxx]

I underrated all the live-action ones at first, guess I didn't care much for the idea of it when they had just come out, but they grew on me, I can honestly say I enjoy them very much.

[Shark_Blade]

It's the worst TMNT movie ever.

No proper fighting, no weapons (using hotdogs to fight??), playing it safe, kiddie kindergarten jokes, dull dialogues, lame characters (Keno??? and the scientist guy??), and Shredder being useless and non-menacing like "first them....then you..." lmfao so cringy cheesy... I could go on.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

It's the worst TMNT movie ever.

No proper fighting, no weapons (using hotdogs to fight??), playing it safe, kiddie kindergarten jokes, dull dialogues, lame characters (Keno??? and the scientist guy??), and Shredder being useless and non-menacing like "first them....then you..." lmfao so cringy cheesy... I could go on.

It's not THAT bad.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

It's the worst TMNT movie ever.

No proper fighting, no weapons (using hotdogs to fight??), playing it safe, kiddie kindergarten jokes, dull dialogues, lame characters (Keno??? and the scientist guy??), and Shredder being useless and non-menacing like "first them....then you..." lmfao so cringy cheesy... I could go on.

Sounds alot like that Out of the Shadows film you champion so much.

I do think it is underrated but I can definitely see why others don't like it. It may be heavily toned down and the Vanilla Ice scene is an either you like it or you don't scene but I still get some enjoyment out of it and it does have so interesting plotlines and family moments.

[frank_one]

Tmnt 2 is a bad movie, but it is so full of 90's spices and flavours one can still appreciate its crunchy nostalgic taste.
Tmnt 1is the only one worth watching but only if you're a fan.

[shihe]

I consider everything TMNT slightly underrated.
But having this in mind, I don't think SotO is either overrated nor underrated. I think it's just... Rated?

I like it, but weirdly, I like the 3rd movie slightly more. Despite its flaws. (Everyone can speak English? Really?)
I mean, at least they get to use their weapons there. (Though how cool could it have been to have the movie tell the events of Turtles in Time THE GAME).

But back to SotO. I liked Keno. I still hope someday we'll get a random shell-kicking Asian pizza delivery guy appear in one of the animated shows just for an episode.
Even though it's my least favorite classic movie, I still hold it close to my heart. (Seriously, Super Shredder still gives me goosebumps when he first appears).

[Wesley]

Secret of the Ooze is overrated, imo. I never saw it as a kid, though, so I don’t have any nostalgia for it. Only watched it for the first time today. It’s ok but I didn’t like that the violence was toned down. Also, too much humour such as the pizza jokes. I actually prefer Turtles in Time over this movie.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Wesley

Secret of the Ooze is overrated, imo. I never saw it as a kid, though, so I don’t have any nostalgia for it. Only watched it for the first time today. It’s ok but I didn’t like that the violence was toned down. Also, too much humour such as the pizza jokes. I actually prefer Turtles in Time over this movie.

Turtles in Time was a video game man not a movie. Apologies for being pedantic but...yeah I'm being pedantic.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

I've heard people call the 3rd movie "Turtles in Time" (I think it was even promoted that way once) but as far as I know, its mostly just been offically known as tmnt 3.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

I've heard people call the 3rd movie "Turtles in Time" (I think it was even promoted that way once) but as far as I know, its mostly just been offically known as tmnt 3.

Yeah it's just a weird and slightly annoying mislabelling of the movie. I always saw it promoted as 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III'.

[Wesley]

Originally Posted by pferreira

Yeah it's just a weird and slightly annoying mislabelling of the movie. I always saw it promoted as 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III'.

I didn’t know that. I assumed tmnt 3 had the subtitle Turtles in Time, as it was used in the dvd 3-disc collection of all 3 live-action movies I have. Lesson learnt.