Bionicle: Mask of Light (2003)

Best movie ever!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Grew up watching; and loving this movie. While the lore was kind of overly forced, (which left my parents totally confused) I was able to follow it no problem as a five year old. This is a wonderful tale of friendship, sacrifice and drama, all tied together by lovable characters. I feel motivated to write this, after seeing the truly shocking mess that was 'Bionicle 2' and after seeing that the user reviews for THAT were overwhelmingly positive, and better than this, I felt compelled to intervene here. The sequel confused and messed up all the lore put out in this movie, and had none of the heart or friendship. Watching Bionicle: mask of light will be an utter delight for young children, and adults alike. Assuming you are willing to buy into the lore and universe without resistance (which a child is)this film will be an utter hoot. With the fun and exciting concept of 'Koli' at the beginning, right up to a cool, half and half fused Bionicle at the end, the simple and exciting plot will enthrall both young and old. Don't bother trying to watch the confusingly numbered prequel before going into this, as it will only leave you bored.I have seen many people here comparing this movie to Lord Of The Rings, which I am pretty sure they are only saying because IHE said it. This could be slightly true I suppose, but this is far more entertaining, action packed and fun than LOTR. It is an abridged version, with all the boring scenes removed. The scene in the cave with the blue plants still gives me goosebumps to watch, with the cool villain's voice. If you want a fun, silly and entertaining time, watch the only true Bionicle movie, THIS ONE.

Now, I loved Bionicles while I was growing up. Building and playing with them were one of my favorite past-times, so of course my little 7-year old self watched this movie on repeat while playing with the toys that were in the movie.Now I'm 19 years old and watching this movie I have to say. This movie sucks.This movie has NOT aged well. In fact this movie is bad enough to the point where if I had a time machine, I would go back in time and smack myself around for watching this stupid, stupid movie.So let's start off with one major problem. The characters. No matter how you look at it there is not one character who gives a memorable performance or even one that is mediocre. They all feel very archetypal and mundane. The Toas all feel flat, Jalah and Tekuah (or however the hell you spell their names) have voices and actions that make you either want to beat your head against a wall or strangle something nearby.Not to mention the boy who becomes the Toa of Light... is unworthy. If anything Jalah is more deserving of the title, he didn't falter and give up in his quest, he sacrificed EVERYTHING for his friend, and even paid with his life at one point (before they pulled a deus ex machina and brought him back) to save someone. What did Tekuah, the Toa of Light do? Beat Makuta in a game.That's it. Truly a hero to go down in the history books.The animation is sub par at best. The characters look accurate to their toys but they move about awkwardly and not as freely as they should. The constant use of slow-motion is an eyesore and gets old QUICK, and the battle scenes leave something to be desired. All the fights feel anti-climactic and like they have 20 minutes of better fighting footage but don't use it for God knows what reason.It's a shameless plug to sell more toys. But even that's not an excuse for this poor excuse for a film. We saw the same thing with Ninja Turtles and Transformers, but those at the very least had likable characters with an increasingly interesting storyline, especially with the films. This? This is just bad. And I mean BAD.So please. Play with some Bionicles if you want to have some fun, they're really cool. But for the love of everything that is holy don't watch this movie. It's really, really bad.

Title: Bionicle: Mask of Light Directed by: Terry Shakespeare Storyline: From the get go we are thrown into a spoken narrative to give us the exposition of who the Bionicle are, not necessarily what they are but who they are. After the narrative we are introduced to two Matoran Takua and Jalla, they will be the main focus for the movie, but you also hear a reference from Jalla at the start that will not make sense unless you know the franchise and think about it. The way to explain a Matoran is they are basically the children versions of Bionicle, whereas Toa as the adults and Turaga are the elders Jalla is looking for Takua and finds him, but Takua sets off a trap to get a mask and ends up having to be rescued by Toa Tahu. They then start playing a interesting variant of hockey, until the mask is revealed then the old wise Turaga send the two matoran on a quest to find its owner. The big bad of the movie, Makuta finds out about the mask and the 7th Toa and sends his dark minion children to go to hunt down the mask. Toa Gali finds out about Makuta's dark forces and has to get to Ta- Koro before they do, but for some unexplained reason they can hover, while she has to swim. She gets to Ta-Koro in time and is able to get them to sound the alarm before the attack, in which the Tahu and Gali get beaten around before the Rahkshi (Makuta's children) leave after poisoning Tahu. Takua and Jalla make it through the jungle with the help of Toa Lewa and make it to the ice fields where they are ambushed by Rahkshi again, but Toa Kopaka steps in at the last minute and freezes the Rahkshi solid. They make their way along Oni-Koro highway which are tunnels where Makuta tries to get inside the head of Takua to make him feel like he isn't worthy. This then works as he then splits away from Jalla and heads for Oni-Koro through the tunnels whereas Jalla goes somewhere else. This is where Takua is ambushed by the second set of Rahkshi which are much more capable at taking out the Toa than the last set. A mixture between a blast from one of the Rahkshi and the poison from earlier causes Tahu to start attacking his own side while the rest are trying to deal with the Rahkshi. They are able to save Tahu and get him back to normal as Takua meets back up with Jalla after having a change of heart. But just as Takua and Jalla get to where they need to be both sets of Rahkshi are waiting for them, but the Toa arrive in time to fend them off. Jalla makes a heroic sacrifice to save Takua who finally decides to embrace his destiny and becomes the 7th Toa, the Toa of light, which was expected and no expected at the same time. He then heads down into the darkness to confront Makuta, instead of a final fight they play another game of interesting hockey, this leads to the Toa of Light putting his mask on Makuta and combining the darkness and light to create some odd abomination of a being. They are able to awaken Mata Nui but the Toa of Light has to sacrifice himself to do so, but he is then brought back from his Disney death by the Turaga and Toa holding hands in a circle and saying a few words... Acting: The voice acting was OK, nothing all too special about it, but everyone did their partAnimation: The whole movie was made using CGI and it works well and holds up decently for a cartoon-ish mechanical look. They did a good job giving the characters emotion, especially as it would be quite bland and boring without the ability to convey emotion. But just as with normal movies there are a hell of a lot of continuity errors. Length: 70 minutes Overall Feel: This isn't a movie for beginners, this isn't a movie for the people who only casually play with the toys. This is a movie for the fans, only fans and dedicated collectors would get any of the references made or understand who the characters are and what they are like. A non fan could grasp the concept of Bionicle, they might not understand it fully, but the movie would give them a standard concept of what they are, who they are and who is the villain. The movie is a good movie, but generally it would take a fan to understand who everyone is and what their role in the franchise is. But thankfully even a not so dedicated fan could know it, it isn't a movie which only the biggest of fans would understand whats happening. A non-fan would be treated to a liner coherent storyline which a few action scenes which they can enjoy, a fan would be treated to a big screen adaptation of the Bionicle franchise's story. It is a good film, but not one you should go out of your way to see if you're not a Bionicle fan. A word of the wise would be, not to see the sequels as it'll only get more confusing from there onwards

This movie isn't for everyone, that's true, but this isn't necessarily based on an age-value, but an experience-value. Mask of Light is a movie more so created for the FANS of the Bionicle series. It isn't impossible that somebody unfamiliar would enjoy the movie, but it does make it more difficult for them to really bond with the characters and the story line. Of course it would promote the toy line in SOME sense, that's only logical considering the movie is a PRODUCT of the toy line, but it does not revolve around that aspect. The character's features were altered to take on a more lifelike state, yet without straying too far from their familiar appearances that fans have come to know them by. As far as expressions go, the characters display emotion beautifully. The way that the masks were designed, as they were to suit the film, allowed for obvious expression that the actual toys could not replicate. Overall, the film was an excellent rendition of the Bionicle world + characters, amazing soundtrack, smooth flowing animation, and rich in design. Bionicle has been around for some years now. This movie didn't just POP UP from a new and showing story. Development of the characters + the legends has evolved greatly. If this movie had been made to COMPLETELY suit those unfamiliar with Bionicle, it wouldn't have been set in the time area that it had, or have gone straight to home video.