Zaktan of the Shadows Posted September 11, 2009 Posted September 11, 2009 Awesome movie. Enjoyed it a lot. Can't wait for it to be released, as it was amazing for a Bionicle movie. -ZotS Quote
Zarkan Posted September 12, 2009 Posted September 12, 2009 Okay, might as well give my review of the new movie, since everyone else has as well. As you all know, ever since the first few images of The Legend Reborn came out, I’ve been praising the different direction that the makers were going in. The first three movies never sat well with me at all, and I was hopeful that the fourth would finally do Bionicle justice. And now that it is out, only one question remains - did it live up to my hopes. The answer… yes… and partly no. First off, I’ve really got to commend the voice actors that were featured in TLR. While the first three movies has a few decent voices (particularly Makuta), most of them were rather poor. Bionicle 4 has fixed this aspect completely – I honestly could not find a single voice that I disliked. Michael Dorn does great as the fittingly bombastic Mata Nui, and Jim Cumming’s Ackar is thoughtful and wise. The voices that I was worried about also panned out well – Kiina is energetic and rather feisty (which is true to her character in the comics), Gresh is perfectly fine, and Berix is absolutely hilarious and not annoying at all. Even Tuma manages to be fine in this area (although in all the others… well, wait until later). The award for best voice, however, has to go to Metus. Man oh man is he awesome – he sounds exactly how a shady dealer should, and the line delivery is probably the best of all the characters. Going onto the second biggest improvement, the action scenes are absolutely fantastic compared to the first three movies. In Mol, all we saw was Tahu shooting flames into the ground and Takanuva playing sports with Makuta. It didn’t get much better in the second and third either – but fortunately, this has been fixed in TLR. From Mata Nui’s first battle with the Vorox to the arena matches to the canyon fight with the Bone Hunters, the action is intense and surprisingly violent for a kid’s movie. Characters get smashed against rocks, heads get bashed together, animals get trapped under landslides, and Skrall get burned up by flames. Speaking of which, it’s great to finally see elemental powers used in combat, although they fortunately don’t outshine the weapon fighting. Next up, the improvement that many seem to disagree with me about – the graphics. Okay, so there are a couple short scenes that lack good texture, but most of the scenery is excellent. Tesera is lush and invokes the Le-Koro jungle better than the actual home of the Le-Korians did in MOL, the desert canyons are fittingly dry and dusty, and the Great Being’s lab is absolutely incredible. The character models are even better – gone are the super organic, bug eyed creatures that barely resembled the actual kits, replaced with set-accurate models that have very realistic weathering. Also, I personally really love the animation technique that they used – the motion capture is IMO just as fluid and realistic as the animation in the first three movies, and it especially shines in the aforementioned action scenes. Finally, there are two more improvements that I must commend the new movie on. The first one is humor, which is the last thing I would expect a kids movie to succeed with - especially after the lame attempts in the first three movies. But, against all expectations, there are actually a lot of funny lines in TLR. Kinna and Berix’s banter is hilarious, the running joke with Metus’s joking is great, and every reaction to Click is gold. Secondly, the story is far better in this movie, mainly due to all the references to past events and newer elements like the Great Beings and the Valley of the Maze. The basic story is fairly simple, but it’s additions like these that help it to appeal to the older fans of Bionicle as well. However, although The Legend Reborn generally did please me far more than the first three Bionicle films did, there were still several things that brought it down. The biggest, no doubt, is the fact that the villains largely weren’t threatening. Without voices, the Bone Hunters and Skrall felt like mindless grunts rather than experienced warriors, and their combat skills in the storyline simply didn’t show much at all. And Tuma… oh man, poor Tuma. Gone is the awesome characterization that we’ve seen in the serials and comics, replaced with a one dimensional brute that is just about as interesting as the average villain from an 80’s cartoon show. Worse, he wasn’t used barely at all, and his only big scene found him being defeated by the complete amateur that Mata Nui should have been. And the second problem that I had is, despite all my hopes, the movie still featured a lot of cheesy lines. The first 60 minutes were okay, but by the last 10 the script broke down into the generic “unity lessons” that the first three featured. Seriously, I can’t count how many times Mata Nui exclaimed “together, we can win!” or something along those lines, although it calmed down a bit in the last few minutes. Now, on the one hand, neither of those problems were surprising, considering that this still is a kid’s movie. But, with all the other improvements, I can’t help but wish that the movie hadn’t devolved into all the outright and overbearing moral teaching that most kids flicks have in some form. Not everything aimed at kids has to be so forceful and robotic in its lessons, and I’m sure that the average 8 year old is smart enough to pick up on morals without needing them rammed into their minds like a sledgehammer. Sure, you still need them fairly obvious, but not THIS obvious. Still, even though the ending of the movie leaves much to be desired, I can still safely say that the Legend Reborn is the best Bionicle movie out of them all. Is it perfect? Hardly. But is it still a pretty good flick that does far better justice to Bionicle than the first three did? Yes. And, since it looks like we are staying in Bara Magna next year (contrary to what the supposed 2010 set lists stated), I hope that we get a second movie that will continue Mata Nui’s adventures and hopefully send him home to the Matoran Universe by 2011, where a third movie could wrap up his mission and the current Bionicle storyline as we know it. All we need is a better villain and far less preaching next time, and we may just have the ultimate Bionicle movie. Quote
Illari Posted September 12, 2009 Posted September 12, 2009 We also need music that doesn't make people want to shoot themselves halfway through the movie. Music and SFX play a large role in turning movies into masterpieces or shit. They're supposed to support the picture and evoke emotions instead of being irritating and distracting. For example, I'm sure the Mata Nui vs. Tuma fight would have been much better if it had appropriate music. Quote
jala12 Posted September 12, 2009 Posted September 12, 2009 (edited) Needs better sound design too I think. The first three movies had amazing sound effects that were unforgettable like the Rahkshi and Visorak noises. In this one, it just seemed more generic. The Rock Steeds had modified horse sounds and the Skopio had the usual generic monster roar used everywhere these days. As for the music, please bring back Nathan Furst. Edited September 12, 2009 by jala12 Quote
Bfahome Posted September 12, 2009 Posted September 12, 2009 Worse, he [Tuma] wasn’t used barely at all, and his only big scene found him being defeated by the complete amateur that Mata Nui should have been. At least Tuma didn't wipe the floor with MN but then get fried trying to take the Ignika. Quote
Zip Posted September 12, 2009 Posted September 12, 2009 (edited) o gawds bfa one moar post Main thing that bothered me about the fight was how Tuma "died". It's like some funny video game, you kill something, then their eyes X out. Edited September 12, 2009 by Zip Quote
~Wrack'n'Ruin~ Posted September 12, 2009 Posted September 12, 2009 Mata Nui hit his weak-point for massive damage. Quote
---Vertea--- Posted September 12, 2009 Posted September 12, 2009 Mata Nui hit his weak-point for massive damage. Mata Nui used shield smack! Critical hit! It was super effective! Enemy Tuma has fainted. Mata Nui wins! ....But he only gained, like, two experience from the whole ordeal. Quote
jeffrey Posted September 13, 2009 Posted September 13, 2009 Just had a Bionicle afternoon with watching the Bionicle 4 : TLR laugh.gif It has been a while since the last movie, the WOS, and finally a new Bionicle movie series has landed. I would expect a hugh improvement of B4 from the last three movies, acknowledging that the Bionicle team worked closely with the Movie Production team this time. However, there is a little disappointment after watching the new movie. The graphics, I would say, better or worse than before. We all see the improvement from B1 to B2, and keeping quality for B3. B4 has a better texture overall.The effect quality, like using blur at the background, is great but a bit heavy on it. The animated motion and physics is strange. There are lot more fight scene than ever, yet it's strange. You would expect a 1 to 2 second delay of every hit during the fight. (Perhaps the weapon is over-weighter to handle?) It showed that the characters are not the pro of the fighting. The musics is a downside of this movie. Some of the fight-scene music is great , but in general it feels liks hollow. The story, hummm..I won't spoil too much on it due to policy, but it's great to know some secret about the Bionicle world ( Solar system ) and the Great Beings/Spirit, as such information has come to the big screen finally. The plot is fine, except the final fight that the villans are less powerful than they should be. I was wondering how could they be the most powerful group on the planet with such unreasonble defeat from Mata Nui team. More or less B4 gave me the same feeling of B3, in which I found it not appealing. But to the Bionicle fans like us, it is a nice addition to the series. My rating: B2 -> B1 -> B4/B2 Quote
Lepaka Posted September 13, 2009 Posted September 13, 2009 My rating: B2 -> B1 -> B4/B2 You put B2 in twice. Quote
Wrinkledlion X Posted September 13, 2009 Posted September 13, 2009 A lot of people are saying the animation is worse but they don't really explain how so. I understand the backgrounds aren't as lively but the characters? Were you guys watching poor quality rips or something?Also, that Tesara theme did sound like something from Gurren Lagann, lol. I explained pretty thoroughly here. Granted, it's not as distracting in the body of the actual movie, but it is a problem. The animation really isn't any better than the first three, the character designs just have more detailing. Quote
jala12 Posted September 13, 2009 Posted September 13, 2009 Seems to be more of personal preference I guess. In my opinion, the overall animation for this movie is better in the sense that there are no awkward laggy moments in animation (like what we saw with Nivawk flying towards the coliseum) and the animations are less stiff and awkward (although it was greatly improved in WoS). Quote
Zarkan Posted September 13, 2009 Posted September 13, 2009 We also need music that doesn't make people want to shoot themselves halfway through the movie. Music and SFX play a large role in turning movies into masterpieces or shit. They're supposed to support the picture and evoke emotions instead of being irritating and distracting. For example, I'm sure the Mata Nui vs. Tuma fight would have been much better if it had appropriate music. Needs better sound design too I think. The first three movies had amazing sound effects that were unforgettable like the Rahkshi and Visorak noises. In this one, it just seemed more generic. The Rock Steeds had modified horse sounds and the Skopio had the usual generic monster roar used everywhere these days.As for the music, please bring back Nathan Furst. I honestly didn't have a problem with the music at all. Sure, it wasn't spetacular, but it didn't sound anywhere near as horrible as some people have claimed. Also, I didn't think the sound effects from the earlier movies were memorable at all. Why? Because I don't remember any of them. Quote
Brickthing Posted September 13, 2009 Posted September 13, 2009 I honestly didn't have a problem with the music at all. Sure, it wasn't spetacular, but it didn't sound anywhere near as horrible as some people have claimed. Also, I didn't think the sound effects from the earlier movies were memorable at all. Why? Because I don't remember any of them. For the sound effects, they weren't distracting in the first movies, but a lot were in this one, with many that sounded too comical or like they were only slightly altered stock sounds (Rock steeds for one). But I guess this movie was meant to be more of a cartoon than the previous ones, so it's semi-forgivable. Quote
---Vertea--- Posted September 14, 2009 Posted September 14, 2009 For the sound effects, they weren't distracting in the first movies, but a lot were in this one, with many that sounded too comical or like they were only slightly altered stock sounds (Rock steeds for one). But I guess this movie was meant to be more of a cartoon than the previous ones, so it's semi-forgivable. The part with Berix and the steeds was VERY cheesy-cartoony. They could've put a little more effort into that scene Quote
jala12 Posted September 14, 2009 Posted September 14, 2009 The part with Berix and the steeds was VERY cheesy-cartoony. They could've put a little more effort into that scene I hope by effort you don't mean the way it was animated. But if you mean audio-wise, then I agree. The use of the music and that cartoony sound at the end was really unnecessary. I didn't even get what Berix said at the end of that scene. To rephrase what you said, I think it would have been better if they put a little more thought into that scene and how well it would mesh with the rest of the movie. It sticks out like a sore thumb in my mind. Quote
---Vertea--- Posted September 14, 2009 Posted September 14, 2009 I hope by effort you don't mean the way it was animated. But if you mean audio-wise, then I agree. The use of the music and that cartoony sound at the end was really unnecessary. I didn't even get what Berix said at the end of that scene. To rephrase what you said, I think it would have been better if they put a little more thought into that scene and how well it would mesh with the rest of the movie. It sticks out like a sore thumb in my mind. They could have put more effort in sound wise, and writing wise. Sorry bout my vague-ness. And he said something like, "no risk, no reward..." Quote
ShaddowCroc Posted September 16, 2009 Posted September 16, 2009 Hey was just wondering if anyone noticed that this movie came out yesterday . . . (Then again, we've all probably seen it already. I've seen it seventeen times at this point, actually . . .) Quote
jala12 Posted September 17, 2009 Posted September 17, 2009 Already bought it. There are some changes from the 'not so legal' versions. For one thing, Mata-nui's narration at the beginning sounds deeper and the music has been revised a little. Sound is better too. Quote
ShaddowCroc Posted September 17, 2009 Posted September 17, 2009 Do you mean his voice is deeper, or the intro's subject matter is deeper? Quote
jala12 Posted September 17, 2009 Posted September 17, 2009 Do you mean his voice is deeper, or the intro's subject matter is deeper? Sorry, meant voice. Quote
The Alchemyst Posted September 20, 2009 Posted September 20, 2009 Just finished watching it. Minor errors here and there [shield color, etc.], movement was really rigid. Skopio's "Turret" made me go wtf. So did Tuma and his Video Game-ish fight, and Mata Nui scraping Click on the cliffside. The Deleted scenes were worse in terms of comical action. You have Kiina and a Bone Hunter doing the Raiders of the Lost Ark scene, with fancy swordplay... Then a water shot. You get Tarix throwing his weapons away and pushing over a Skrall. And Metus's Revenge? It's a Cartoon. Literally, comical effects of a cartoon, and even a Cartoon ending. It's slightly funny though. Cyroshell's music video is different than the one on their site; it uses new footage of them as well as TLR clips. As a movie, it sucks, that much is obvious. It really tries to be funny, and sometimes it succeeds, other times it makes me go "What?" As a Bionicle Movie, I guess it fits in. The action and moral is as cheezy as the rest, but there's more comedy in here. The Backgrounds and textures are very nice though, compared to the others, but I still have problems with the fighting and overall movement. It's funnier than the rest though, and the voices were great, especially Raanu and Metus. :D So yea, it's an okay addition, it's not like the first three were any better. >.> Oh and the end definitely sets up for... Another Movie. Let's see what 2010 has. >.> Hey, actually with the Bionicle Stars [i heard it doesn't have a story the first half?] That means there's a direct connection from summer 09 to summer 10 and the next movie. o.o [-TA-] Quote
S-N Posted September 20, 2009 Posted September 20, 2009 We got explanations from Greg on certain things. Erebus from Bs01 provided the info, but I lost the quotes. D: I'll get them back shortly. Anyways: *Tuma is weak and injured due to what happens in EotS. *The Skrall panicked when they saw the giant Malum, as they thought it was an attack of the Baterra. *Tuma survived. *The Skrall army retreated up north. *The Glatorian themselves have the elemental powers, not the weapons. Quote
The Alchemyst Posted September 20, 2009 Posted September 20, 2009 That... Actually explains a lot. And Oh yea, biggest wtf moment was that Purple Malum. Didn't realize it was a bunch of Scarabax for a while. I thought it was some Elemental being or something [-TA-] Quote
S-N Posted September 20, 2009 Posted September 20, 2009 (edited) ER gave me the quotes: 7. In the movie, it is shown that Tuma was damaged even before the Mata Nui and Tuma battle. How was he damaged? 7) Read EOS. 7. Does this mean I have to read future chapters or did he get hurt from the previous chapters? 7) Read future chapters 10. Is Tuma dead? 10) No. BIONICLE heroes do not kill. 10. Did he escape with the rest of the Skrall? 10) He is wandering, yes 9. In the movie, the Skrall seemed weak. Was this because the Glatorian became more brave and their skill increased? 9) In the final battle? The Skrall were shaken up because they initially thought the giant Glatorian was an invasion by baterra. 12. Where was the Rock Tribe (Agori) in this final battle? 12) They were fighting any non-rock Agori who showed up for the battle. 11. Where did the Skrall go? 11) Scattered into the mountains, mostly Edited September 20, 2009 by S-N Quote
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