Customer Reviews

Bionicle - Mask Of Light [VHS]

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

We bought this movie for my five-year-old Bionicle crazy son. My husband has read him the comic books that come with Lego magazine. I didn't know much about the story. I was really amazed at how good the movie was. It had a complete story line. The graphics were excellent and I have become somewhat a Bionicle fan, myself now. I must admit fatigue from hearing about them 12 hours a day, but this movie was really fun and exciting. The animators did a great job bringing the Bionicles to life. We look forward to the next movie.

Ok..I have to admit as a parent when I saw the trailer for the movie I thought oh brother another [money amount]out of my pocket to Lego. I didnt even want to have anything to do with this thing.

This morning my son wakes up, and is so excited that the movie was going to be released for sale today. I reluctantly bought him a copy.

We sat down and popped the DVD in, and my first impression was "Hey this is kinda cool". Its got really neat interactive features ( I wont go into great detail, as I wouldnt want to ruin it for you, and I would list them but you can see them in the product details).

After playing with the bonus features, we started the movie. The graphics and sound are AWSOME!! There is a feature that you can toggle on an off that allows additional information to be viewed during the movie (like the pop up bubbles).

Its a tad slow during one part (but me not knowing really what was going on..well that could be because of my lack of Bioncile knowledge). I actually enjoyed the movie. There were three adults and one child, and everyone was GLUED to the set. No one moved or made a sound during the entire film.

Its got a good story line.

My son was a little disappointed in the way the one of the Bionicles talked..but over all was really happy. He had a smile on his face through the entire thing.

I cant wait until the Second movie is released in the Fall of 2004

Besides reading the other reviews here I didn't really know what to expect from this movie. I was very pleasantly suprised how well done this movie is. It's a movie that the entire family can enjoy (yes even the parents) and you can tell the people involved knew how to handle the material.

I have to agree with the other reviewers though that the voice given to Lewa was all wrong.

The extras on the DVD are also nice and give more backround info into the Bionicle world.

Even if you are new to the Bionicle scene or know nothing about it at all you will not be let down by this fine feature.

I am a Lego fan, even in my late 20`s. So I was excited when I heard about this movie.

Now that I got it, here is my 2-cent-worth review.

It is an entertaining little romp in the world of the Bionicle. Some kids were amazed to see their favourite toys brought to life onscreen. The animators manage to take some liberties in adding some features to the characters for obvious reasons (i.e. adding fingers to the hands, slight mask modifications to allow mouth movement...) while maintaining the spirit of the Bionicle. And the story is good for a kid-oriented movie. Adults would be able to watch it with their children without feeling bored.

As pleasant this movie has been, there are a few issues that brought the score down. First is the art and animation. As great as it may be, I have found some of the design and scenarios to be uneven. An example would be a scene where a character pokes her head out of the water near the top of a waterfall. As the raging water comes rushing, the head does not seem to be affected by the flow of water. There is no water turbulence, splash or drag animated around the head. There is barely a ripple. After seeing the movie, I do not understand why more details where added, since the rest of the movie was of an above average quality.

Also, the story seems to have some holes that do not explain certain plot details. Sometimes a character would just suddenly KNOW something out of the blue, without any explanation on how he/she got to that conclusion. At other times, heroes would conveniently appear during critical situations without explaining why and how. Things like this makes you scratch your head and wonder if you have missed something. After seeing the movies four times, I still do not have all my questions answered.

But despite all this, the movie entertains us. The characters are more than cardboard, bland figures based on toys. They have emotions, personalities and behaviours that make you forget that this movie is based on a Lego product. The music is also well delivered, with a good quality orchestra. Although not memorable, the main theme may echo in your head for a while.

In my book, for a first movie from Lego and Miramax, the producers did a good job. Here`s hoping that there will be more.

Wow....What can I say. This is a very good movie. I had never heard of Bionicle before but because it is a 3D movie, I have to give it a shot. This movie is awesome.

It's by far one of the most interesting 3D movie around. I mean, this movie is very unique in a lot of ways. It's not a complicated science fiction movie like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within or a cute movie like A Bug's Life and Finding Nemo. The story is about good and evil, light and darkness in a very cool way. There is a lot of magical fighting sequence in the movie. It reminds me a lot of japanese videogames and cartoons like Dragon Ball, Transformers and Heavy Gear.

The story is simple but very interesting. The movie is only 70 mins. The video and sound are excellent. Anamorphic 1.78:1 with DTS 5.1 or Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. I'm 23, I had a great time with it so does my 5,7 and 9 years old nephews.

Overall, everybody can enjoy this film. I can't believe this is a direct-to-video movie. I can't wait for their next DVD release in 2004.

We loved this movie!! We watched it three days in a row!!! We couldn't get enough of it!! Two Matoran, Takua and Jaller, go on a journey to find the seventh Toa. Along the way, they run into all six of the other Toa--Gali (The only girl Toa!!), Tahu, Onua, Lewa, Kopaka, and Pohotu. (In the magazine, after the Toa had defeated the Bohrak Kal, they went back to their own villages to help rebuild what had been destroyed. "Mask of Light" shows how they're reunited.) Although Lewa said things such as "airfly," "footwalk," and "quicklearn," he DID start saying things like that in the magazine, right before the movie came out, so it only makes sense that he'd talk like the magazine. In spite of that, he DOES have the perfect voice! "Mask of Light" is the kind of movie that everyone can enjoy, and it won't scare your little sister.

Let's face it, this is a product tie-in movie. In addition, it is a straight-to-video movie, so let's just say my expectations were looooow. Pokemon Low. I expected "My Little Pony meets Lion King 2"-level quality.

But the movie is actually coherent, thoughtful, moral, quasi-religious, and suspenseful. Maybe my low expectations had me disarmed, but it was genuinely not torturous to watch. The two children I watched it with, 6 and 8 years old (and both girls!), were mesmerized by it, and had to watch it again immediately. About 2/3 of the way through the first viewing, I thought, wow, this is actually pretty good. Then one of the girls exclaimed, "This is REALLY GOOD!" For this type of movie, what more can one hope for?

I give it 3 stars because, I mean, it ain't exactly Kurosawa or Hawks or anything. This is hardly One For The Ages. But for an entertaining evening with children and adults both watching the same thing, enjoying it, and discussing it afterward, this movie is exactly what you want.

I have to admit that I had reservations about this dvd...an entire world based on lego's? But it does live up to the lego name. My son watched it twice last night and sat there almost quietly (a small miracle for an 8yr old!) for both times. Admittedly he had to explain what was going on to me...since I'm not familiar at all with the whole "bionicle world" I had no clue. It's rated PG for a reason...there ARE some darker images...a character who sacrifices himself and the whole good vs evil concept is shown in truly dark graphic ways. But if your child is old enough to play with the small sized lego's then they shouldn't have a problem with watching the dvd. There are a lot of extra's...an entire map of the "bionicle world", descriptions of all the baddies and what horrible things they can do to you, the making of featurette and some information on the next installment. The animation reminds me of Toy Story...maybe not quite as "believable" but we are talking about an entirely created world with no humans whatsoever. All in all it's a very enjoyable dvd and if your little ones are legomaniacs like mine then it's a definite must have!

I am a definite Bionicle fan. I have most of the products and all of the comics. When you watch this movie, you will be walking into the middle of an elaborate story line that they don't cover enough. This makes it hard to understand for some people. If you do know the story and like the franchise, you'll love the movie. I won't ruin the story for those of you who are trying to decide whether to buy it or not, but you should be prepared for some things that wont make sense.

Pros:
Outstanding Graphics (most of the time *see Cons)
Elaborate Story Line
Cool Action

Cons:
A Few Choppy Or "Sped Up" Moments
A Few Odd Voices For Characters
Walks In The Middle Of A Long Story

Overall:
This movie is a good one for those who can overlook a few small details.

This is a nice movie and I would recommend it to anyone. I'm a...er...veteran Bionicle fan, and I was impressed of how the movie stayed with the story. I enjoyed it, although I noticed that there a lot of "rocks-falling-and-people-running-and-screaming-everywhere" scenes. The computer graphics are very very good, but sometimes some scenes look strangely sped up a bit or shaky. The biggest annoyance in the movie was probably Lewa's voice. It seemed way too fake, and he said things like "windfly", "footwalkin'" and "quickspeed" too much.
I loved the commentary because it was really interesting. The Behind-the-Scenes are very nice too.
It's a good movie for everybody, even my 4-year-old brother demanded to see it again as soon as the credits started rolling, so it's not THAT scary. You should buy it!