Customer Reviews

Bionicle: The Legend Reborn

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Whoever thought that a toy line would become the star of a movie franchise? (with the exception of GI Joe of course)

Years ago, when bionicles first hit the marketplace, and my boys discovered them,we always thought they would make a great film. With CGI advances,they are now here. Even if you do not know anything about the Bionicle line of toys, you will like this.

In terms of plot, Mata Nui, a great and powerful ruler at one time, helps win a monumental battle. The local population asks him to help fight the Skrall and Bone Hunters. There is bionicle action, great animation, and and excellent plot. For those familiar with bionicles, the characters transform well to film especially when it comes to their high range of motion. In one scene, Michael Dorn voices a character, and as in all animated films, reflects a Worf like pose. It would take a Trek minded viewer to see that one though.

On the DVD, the bonus features include "Bye Bye Babylon", "Metus Revenge" ending, a character gallery, and deleted scens. The embossed cover is pretty cool too.

With every film these get better. We look forward to the rest.

Tim Lasiuta

My son thinks it's better than the other Bionicle Movies and we have them all.

Have both long-time fans of the Bionicle franchise as well as new fans in my household (11 year old and 5 year old) and they both loved this movie. The production quality of the film was great, with the characters really coming to life, more so than in any of the previous films. The story line was exciting and easy to follow for the new fan, while delivering on established storyline for our long-time Bionicle devotee. All in all was even better than we expected and a film I am sure they will watch over and over.

This one is a bit of an odd trade-off. The first three Bionicle movies won praise for their directing, writing, music and sound design, but garnered criticism for their graphics, voice talent, and action. This movie is like the opposite of those movies. The voice acting is great (with two exceptions). All of the characters are voiced appropriately at the very least and artfully at the very most, except for Kiina, whose voice actress was unconvincing and sometimes annoying; and Tuma, whose voice actor did a fine acting job, but sounded inappropriate for the character. All of the characters are represented in this movie with three exceptions, but I don't mind that as the cast never felt cramped. The look of this film is beautiful. The artists who worked on this film show a religious dedication to toy accuracy, which cannot be said for any of the other films. Even the pins that hold the sets together spin. The environments are lush, and only one shot in the whole movie really stands apart from the others as bad looking. And the fight choreography is not only lengthy, it's exciting. Unfortunately, the camera work is not up to par with the fighting, content to sit still and watch the action happen rather than move with the characters in a meaningful way. The music in this film, while not terrible, could definitely have been better. And many of the sound effects are cheesy and instantly recognizable from a dozen other films, commercials, and computer games (the Wilhelm scream is in there, too). The actual writing of the movie is fine, but the story comes across more as part of a TV show's unfinished plot arc than a stand alone piece, and the ending of the movie confirms fears that the whole thing is a set-up for a sequel in what i suspect will be a trilogy. But, this movie's good points far outweigh its bad ones, and I found it to be highly enjoyable as a long time fan of both Bionicle and Michael Dorn (who plays the leading role). I recommend it.

If you are a fan of Bionicle this is a great movie. In fact, I think if you are not a fan of Bionicle you will become one after watching this. The movie is fantastic - it looks great (incredible animation for a direct-to-video title!) has a great cast, and is just a lot of fun. Sure, if you're not too familiar with the world it may take a few minutes to understand what's happening, but all in all, it's a very satisfying film. If you have young boys in the household it's perfect for them - although, I should add my little girl is walking around quoting it too - there's a strong female character in the movie as well that she really responded to. A very high quality and thoughtful production - definitely recommend!

The story begins where the original comics end: MataNui, a god to his people, has been cast out of his own enormous body by his traitorous brother, Makuta Teridax (though the film never mentions his name). Trapped within the legendary Mask of Life, MataNui (voiced wonderfully by Michael Dorn) is banished to the depths of space, only to crashland on the (not-actually-so-distant) desert planet of BaraMagna. Once he awakens and the Mask forms for him an all-new body, he quickly meets many new friends and foes alike.

Ackar (Jim Cummings) is an older, highly experienced Glatorian, a race of mighty warriors employed as mercenaries and combatants. After his life is saved by a golden-armored new-comer in the arena, the two team up with other Glatorian, Kiina and Gresh, as well as the collector Barix, in a quest to save Bara Magna from the Bone Hunters and Skrall, and help Mata Nui to return to his homeworld to save his people from the tyrannical rule of the Makuta.

1 point off for the horribly-animated water in the very beginning, and another for the still-thriving island of Mata Nui, which in the comics was left a barren wasteland devoid of any signs of life (this was necessary to awaken the being MataNui).
I won't spoil any major plot points, but the 1.25 hour movie does end on a cliffhanger, leaving plenty of room for at least one sequal.
Action is in no short supply, acting is solid, and plot is plentiful in this latest installment of the BIONICLE storyline, and I personally can't wait to see what happens to our newest heroes as their journey continues.

I am an adult, but I am a very involved parent so I get into what my two boys are into. We've been fans of Bionicles for 5 years now. We collect all of the construction sets and have pretty much every one. We play the lame video games. My kids even do jobs around the house to earn money so that they can buy the older sets off of Ebay, which have been discontinued. The previous three movies were extraordinarily good and we watched them countless times as they were something that they loved and that I could appreciate because there was real production quality; much like a Pixar production. I frequently marveled at all of the detail and the obvious passion that the production team put into these movies. To be honest, I enjoyed them as much as my kids; they're very entertaining and well crafted movies with great action, stories and tremendous production value.

However, this one changes all that. It was as if they hired some cheapo production company to capitalize on the franchise's potential to make a quick buck. Gone is the incredible character designs and wicked animations. Gone are the exciting action scenes. Gone is the great layout and cinematography. Gone is the solid voice acting. Gone is the excellent lighting effects. And most tragically, a complete thrashing of the tremendous quality in sound and score. These two areas where were the first 3 movies truly excelled. The scores in the first three movies were legitimate, well-crafted scores by a reputable Hollywood film composer. The score in this latest movie is so horribly bad and off the mark, it seemed as though it was thrown together by the director's 15 year old cousin hacking and slashing his way through Garage Band for the first time. It's really that bad.

The sound effects are even worse. They're just average, bland horse pucky which would be fine if this were a hackneyed Saturday morning cartoon, however the precedent set by the previous 3 movies makes the sound in this one an absolute crime. We watch these movies in our home theater and play them loud, so I used to really marvel at the sound work in the first 3 movies. It was really extraordinary. This one however, is so bad that these characters just aren't cool anymore. They're wimpy and delicate sounding and that makes them less cool not only in my eyes but in both my kids. One thing that I really notice in movies is that you can make a bad animation good with good sound and music, but if you have bad sound and music with bad animation, it's all just miserable, and this movie is exactly that: MISERABLE.

What once made my kid's jaws drop and got them excited and enthusiastic about animation and filmmaking in general, is now something we joke about in my house. My 9 and 6 year old boys rolling their eyes and throwing popcorn at the screen says it all. This movie is just plain awful and it made my kids passion for the toys diminish significantly. It's really sad and just makes me wish that we had skipped this one entirely.

BRING BACK THE OLD PRODUCTION TEAM FOR THE NEXT ONE, LEGO!!!!

This is the fourth movie in the series.
It continues the story of the Bionicle's and my son loves it.
No true Bionicle fan will be disappointed.

I bought this movie for my Grand kids and they loved it! They said that I would enjoy it during their next sleep over.

As a huge fan of Bionicle I have been looking forward to this movie for ages. Unfortunately it blows on so many levels. The voice work is pretty cool but the actors are dealing with such cliched material that they can only take it so far. The camera work, as mentioned by another review here, is ordinary. Like the director fell asleep at key points during the shoot. The art and design is really cool in parts but what's with the crappy opening? A really poor finale for what has been a great series.