Bionicle: The Legend Reborn (2009)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

There were several Lego and Bionicle films released, mostly direct to video obviously. This is ranked as the worst of them and with good reason. I admit that the animation and voice acting was good, but that's really it. It's just way too clichéd. We get talks about honor and courage and loyalty and blah, blah. The characters aren't really well defined either. The plot is that a magic mask takes a new form on another planet and helps save their people.There's really nothing too bad or good about this. It's just not worth getting worked up over. It's at least better than the horrible "The Final Destination" and "Halloween II" movies I had to sit through. Bionicle is part of Lego obviously and this proceeds the Lego Movie. Gee, I wonder which of these will be more fondly remembered? It's too short to even pay that much attention to. **

First of all, I have to admit I am not a massive Bionicle fan or I have never seen any movie or TV show before or after this movie was made but boy this movie was just a waste of my time on the evening I saw it.I have to give it some credit though because it had good animation, really awesome character designs and some good voice actors like Fred Tatashiore, James Arnold Taylor, Jeff Bennett and Dee Bradley Baker. With Micheal Dorn as the main character which is now my favorite character, he has voiced in his voice acting career. The problems this movie had was it had week plot, dialogues, timing and stupid scenes. Another problem with this movie was that it looked rushed. If you want to see a movie with a story that makes no sense or with a great cast and animation then I suggest that you watch this movie.

I love this movie, the action, visuals, script, plot and everything about it is just so awesome I would definitely recommend it. I think this is underrated I mean the final fight with Tuma teaches a great strategy and is very entertaining to watch. The villain is very entertaining I loved him. He was so awesome. So please go watch this film!!

OK, let me just get this out of the way first: "Bionicle" is the one word that pretty much defines my childhood. I grew up with these "some-assembly-required" action figures. Bionicle has been with me since I was 6 years old, and even though Bionicle was ended a few years back, I will always cherish the many memories this franchise has brought me, and I will never forget. Heck, I still keep all the parts and figures I've bought over the years, they're in a large box under my bed, and hardly a week goes by without me taking it out and just playing around with them again.Anyway, let's get on with the review: I was really excited to see the recent Bara Magna storyline be wrapped up with a movie. It isn't the first time Bionicle has been brought to the big screen, but it will probably be the last.The movie does a good job of portraying the characters and bringing them to life: Mata Nui acts appropriately out-of-place for a god that has been banished from his own universe, Ackar plays the "old sage" role well, Kiina is the cheerful and confident one, while Gresh is the inexperienced hothead. The characters are mostly well done, but I do have complaints: Tuma and the Skrall.When Mata Nui And Tuma fight at what is supposedly the movie's climax, Tuman waltzes around and brags without paying attention, letting Mata Nui exploit a weakness that doesn't even make any sense.Also, since when did the Skrall mysteriously lose the ability to talk? Not a single Skrall in the entire movie said a word, just grunts and growls, coming off like they were some sort of heavily confused Brakas monkeys(gotta love Bionicle references).Voice acting, however, is well done: James Arnold Taylor I already know thanks to me being a huge fan of the Ratchet & Clank series of games, and he does a great job of making Berix the movie's source of comic relief. The rest of the cast is also great at their jobs.The characters in the movie and the environments are well designed, they way the gears in the character's bodies swirl around is a nice touch of realism, and their designs stay true to their real-life toy counterparts.The storyline is one of the weaker aspects, but Mata Nui manages to carve his own niche in the legacy of heroes that Bionicle has produced over the years, but aside from this the story is pretty weak.For starters, it fails to stand on its own merits: In order to really understand what's going on you'll need some background, it's hard to get a grasp without an extensive knowledge of the Bionicle lore. Since I've been following Bionicle ever since its very beginning, I had no problems with this, but I came across many scenes in the movie where I only felt like I knew what was going on because I knew the backstory.Second: The story is linear and predictable, even if you don't know the backstory. We Bionicle fans already knew Metus was a traitor beforehand, since it had been revealed in an earlier web-story, but I couldn't shake the feeling that even if I didn't know, I probably would've figured it out rather quickly.Thirdly: The movie doesn't really feature a satisfying ending for casual movie fans. Granted, the story is continued on Bionicle's websites, but as a stand-alone story the ending leaves you with a lot of questions that will pretty much go unanswered.As for the animation and camera work, action sequences and so on, I can only say one thing: "LAZY"The movie's fight scenes usually just feature characters banging swords and shields for the most part, although the initial battle between Strakk and Ackar wasn't too shabby. The second Glatorian duel between Tarix and Vastus, on the other hand, is rather baffling, are they fighting or performing exceedingly violent aerobics?The same goes for the huge battle at the movie's climax. According to pretty much every piece of Bionicle lore outside of the movie, the Skrall were supposed to be incredibly fierce warriors that were unbeatable in the arena, so why does it all of a sudden seem like they're a bunch of dimwitted grunts who hardly know how to swing a sword? This is the kind of stuff I'm left wondering about.I had an easier time enjoying the movie because I was familiar with Bionicle, but that's cold comfort I suppose.