Was the 2014 "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" directed by Michael Bay?

  Blender Dumbass
November 01, 2025

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While Steven Spielberg was producing a Michael Bay film Transformers 4, Michael Bay was producing a Jonathan Liebesman 2014 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And like with a Spielberg-produced film The Poltergeist by Tobe Hooper about which people started claiming that Spielberg himself directed the movie in question. With the 2014 TMNT people started claiming Michael Bay was the actual director on this film. It is absolutely and utterly poetic that both Tobe Hooper and Jonathan Liebesman also made movies in the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise.

As you may know I reviewed every single Michael Bay movie on this website and constructed some rather interesting Michael Bay related theories throughout my other reviews. So you could say, if I'm not an expert on Michael Bay, I am at the very least a Michael Bay nerd. And therefore I think I might have some qualifications to spot Michael Bay's directing style. So... Was the 2014 TMNT directed by Bay?

No!... It wasn't. Kind of...

The vast majority of the film, including the action sequences doesn't look like something Michael Bay would shoot. The non-action scenes are too calm for Bay. And the action scenes are too clean for Bay. Yet, watching the movie, here and there, I couldn't help, but notice a few shots that would totally be something that Michael Bay could have directed.

I think for the majority of the film the film is actually a Jonathan Liebesman project. But here and there comes Michael Bay with a few shots that he either couldn't help himself but do, or that he told Liebesman how to do, so Liebesman would try to imitate Bay's style better. So basically the movie has 3 types of shots: Liebesman shots ( the majority ). Liebesman shots that try to look like Michael Bay shots ( maybe a few ). And Michael Bay shots ( a few ).

Like for example, I'm watching this action scene. The film has a very cool action sequence as the turtles fight off the "Foot clan" while a huge car chase is happening in the snow. It is a stupidly intense piece of action film-making. So I'm watching this scene and I'm thinking to myself "no... this isn't Michael Bay. It's his energy, but not his camera techniques". Like the shots resemble more something like Ready Player One by Spielberg. They are long and complex and while they have extreme level of dynamism, the shots are too clean. Michael Bay likes shorter, messier shots. But the thing is, if you use a Michael Bay shot in that sequence, it would not break the flow. It would not change the energy too much. And so suddenly I see a shot that I think could be a Michael Bay shot. Yet then it swiftly goes back to Liebesman's style. And that kind of thing happens through out the whole movie.

Here is an interesting thing. While I'm kind of a Michael Bay fan, I'm also a fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Specifically the 2003 animated series, not the original 1987 animated series. As a kid I was exposed to both. But I much preferred the newer 2003 series. And maybe the 2006 TMNT Fast Forward which is cool in its own way. But the 2003 series is the best out of them, because it is the most gritty and violent TMNT series. The cartoons from 1987 are so childish in comparison that they feel like Dora the Explorer. While the 2003 series almost feels like a proper violent anime.

This is why I prefer the Jonathan Liebesman 2014 TMNT to the 2016 sequel. While the sequel Out of the Shadows was received slightly better by critics, I believe it trying to be a live action adaptation of the 1987 cartoons ( borrowing the same stupid tone ) is an absolute misfire.

The 2014 movie, on the other hand, tries to be properly cinematically dark. Kind of like the first Transformers film. It doesn't totally succeed at being a serious installment of TMNT. It still has silly characters and rather corny ways to poke fun at emotionality. Which was kind of hip for the blog-basters of the time. And which fits the corny overall esthetic of TMNT. But it at least tries to give us something rather more realistic in nature.

The only other contender for the most serious TMNT movie would be Kevin Munroe animated film from 2007. Like, the whole motivation of the villain of that film is to kill himself. That is some dark, borderline suicidal stuff. And the cinematography of the cartoon is also rather dark for a cartoon. But it is still a cartoon, so it is very silly and child-friendly despite trying to be a bit moodier.

In my opinion, despite some rather stupid plot, at the very least visually speaking, the 2014 Jonathan Liebesman film is the closest we got, so far, to a truly grounded, kind of Dark Knight-esque version of TMNT. I wish Bay and Liebesman went full on Nolan / Snider mode with it. And I wish there would have been a truly dark and grounded TMNT movie. But I suppose we got what we got.

Maybe reusing the plot from the 2007 TMNT with the sincerity that Munroe brought to that version, but shooting everything in a live action way with the visual language of the 2014 film, would have created an absolute banger of a movie. But unfortunately the new TMNT: Mutant Mayhem film from Jeff Rowe and Seth Rogen ( while having absolutely amazing critical response and starring Jackie Chan as Master Splinter ), has moved TMNT back to being an unserious children's cartoon. Even though we get a scene of a horny rat making out with a horny cockroach in that film.

Perhaps maybe somebody would even be brave enough to make a live action adaptation of The Last Ronin comics where only one of the 4 turtles is alive, because the other ones died long time ago in a brutal battle. And that one lonely brooding, depressed turtle, on a mission of revenge, who never says a single joke, turns out to be none other but Michelangelo. Mikey, the same goofball dude that always brought the mood up in all the rest of the stories, is now a depressed, suicidal dude, suffering from PTSD because he witnessed how his brothers were murdered. This is some fucked up R-rated material. And it could have been made into some fucking cool TMNT live action movie.

Liebesman's 2014 film is nowhere near close to that. Even though at one point you believe that Splinter might die. Shredder kicks his ass in one scene pretty substantially. And the visual quality of the film. The beautiful shots. The visual effects. The designs of the turtles themselves. All of it could be so cool, if only the story of the film wouldn't be so shitty.

The film's plot is kind of taken from Mission Impossible 2. And I get it. Michael Bay is a fan of John Woo. But come on... Now, say what you want about the idea that April ( Megan Fox ) as a child having the turtles as her pets. It is kind of stupid. But it is kind of emotionally satisfying, to be frank. I remember the first time I watched this movie, seeing little April ( Malina Weissman ) saving the turtles from fire, made me cry. Even though immediately I was like "wait... what... she saves her pet turtles by dumping them near a sewer?". I suppose it is stupid. I mean, the execution is rather stupid. But the idea isn't terrible. It could be really cool actually. It could be emotionally satisfying to have this sort of thing. Just the writers sort of fucked it up.

The visual effects of the turtles themselves are fucking flawless. I've seen this design in 3 films ( this one, its 2016 sequel and Spielberg's Ready Player One ) and every time I see those turtles I love them. I remember watching the damn movie with my girlfriend some time ago. And I thought that maybe she would not like them. But she got fucking horny on those turtles. She got really into the turtles in a very Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro kind of way. As in, you know Mikey in this film has a crush on Megan Fox's April. Well my girlfriend wanted to be April. This is some rather sexy design. But also knowing how hard visual effects can get, I respect the fuck out of the work the VFX artists put into those turtles. Because they're fucking amazing. The rendering is flawless. And I totally get reusing those rigs, when Spielberg wanted to populate the backgrounds of Ready Player One with recognizable characters. Those are some amazing rigs.

I'm kind of conflicted. The movie is both very good and very strangely stupid in the same time. The direction is good, both Liebesman's and Bay's ( who I believe directed at least some of the shots ). And most importantly their styles work together. Maybe they need to try to make another movie together. Actually co-directing it this time in a 50%-50% kind of way. That could be cool. The only big question I have from this movie is: What's up with this The Texas Chainsaw Massacre curse?

Happy Hacking!!!

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  Troler c:0



I perceive such Bay shots as more intense. When watching an action scene drag on, it doesn't hit as much as short bursts of action.


I preferred the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It is so serious and grim. It has a scene where a person hasn't slept for 30 years, due to fear that a demon will come out to life if he does so.




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