5/5 The story continues.........
  by S. B. (Elyria, Ohio)
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.

5/5 Grand Kids Loved it!
  by P. Calloway
I bought this movie for my Grand kids and they loved it! They said that I would enjoy it during their next sleep over.

4/5 As our story continues...
  by Master Z
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.

1/5 LEGO...I am disappoint.
  by Stewart T. Haggin
Let it never be said that I am overly unfair in my reviews or that I am anything less than a true blue BIONICLE fan. I have followed the franchise quite eagerly since its inception in 2001, when I was just an 11-year-old boy who happened to receive the first BIONICLE comic book packaged with the new issue of LEGO Magazine. I remember the 2003 release of Mask of Light quite fondly, and I still find the film rather enjoyable all these years later. 2004's release of Legends of Metru Nui thrilled me even more, as I quickly discovered that Toa Lhikan is arguably the best character ever to appear in BIONICLE canon. 2005's release of the last movie, Web of Shadows, was also highly enjoyable, as the series took a nice dark turn. I eagerly anticipated the release of the next movie, but it never came until now.

I suppose my first warning sign should have been when I looked at the back of the box and saw the logo of some no-name studio I'd never heard of in place of the familiar Miramax logo, but I didn't care too much; I popped the DVD into my laptop and sat down to watch.

The first few minutes of the film are actually acceptable; everything shown before Mata Nui gets exiled from his own body is roughly on par in terms of animation quality and writing with the previous Miramax films. Mata Nui's arrival on Bara Magna is similarly nice, right up until he finishes making a body for himself, at which point the film moves down from "acceptable" into "mediocre" and doesn't stop moving down until it reaches the end, which I would give a name except it would likely result in me being banned from all civilized conversation for a period of no less than five years. Michael Dorn, who voices Mata Nui, did a reasonable job during the intro voice-over, but unfortunately seems to be trying to play the character using a voice that suggests a horribly-done combination of Dan Green and Peter Cullen.

At first I thought I'd merely have to deal with an poorly-acted main protagonist, so I wasn't too worried, but then more characters were introduced and I realized that I was dealing with a poorly-acted film. "This has to be a record," I thought. "I don't think I've ever seen a movie that I desperately wanted to end after watching only the first ten minutes."

The film appears to suffer from poor voice acting all around, but I'm not entirely sure that's a fair accusation, because voice acting can only be so good when you're forced to read some of the blandest and most unnatural dialogue imaginable. Arguably the best voice acting in the film comes from the characters who are actually supposed to be annoying: since the characters were deliberately supposed to make me want to shatter my screen with a golf club, I'd say they can declare Mission Accomplished on that count.

As for other counts, I have to attack the film's visual style now, being that film is supposed to be a visual medium. While I will admit that the characters themselves are extremely well-animated, the rest of the film ISN'T. The character animation quality has received a solid step up from the older films, while the environments has been downgraded to roughly third-rate-PS2-launch-title graphics quality, and the contrast is rather jarring, though not as jarring as it could be, since the character animation quality starts to become distinctly inconsistent during battle sequences.

And now we're onto the battle sequences. The previous films had battle scenes that actually looked somewhat like actual actors performing a well-choreographed fight scene, the kolhii match-of-death from Mask of Light notwithstanding. This new film, however, seems to have decided that the best possible fight sequences should look less like people fighting and more like toys fighting, and the resulting battles come off looking unnatural and uninteresting, rarely involving the dramatic poses and awesome acrobatics that previous films like Web of Shadows featured. I'll show you what I mean: early on, Mata Nui, having just formed himself into a full body, finds himself in a fight with a savage beast called a Vorox. Near the beginning of the battle, Mata Nui finds himself quickly thrown down onto his back, trying to avoid the Vorox's stinger tail as it whips down at him. The first time, he rolls to the right, then rolls back to the center. The second time, he rolls to the left in almost the same exact way, then rolls back to center. The third, he rolls to the right AGAIN, using almost the same animation as the first time, and then rolls back to center AGAIN, followed by him blocking the fourth attempt with his new shield, which causes the stinger to break off entirely and causes the Vorox to flee. THIS IS NOT HOW YOU MAKE AN INTERESTING BATTLE, EVEN IF YOUR HERO DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO FIGHT YET.

This review is already running a little long, so I'm going to flash through the remaining points at the same time, which is convenient, since they're essentially the same category anyway: the sound. Any and all sound in the film. The sound effects all seem to have been pulled from the "stock cartoon noises" pile, while the music is lacks any of the majesty or power that the Miramax films put into their soundtrack, settling instead for what really comes off sounding like a stock cartoon soundtrack.

About the only thing that could possibly anger me more than this movie is the fact that Tinseltown Toons, the studio responsible for this festering pile of shovelware, has already been contracted to do the NEXT TWO BIONICLE MOVIES. If this doesn't scream "prematurely killing the franchise", I don't know what does.

1/5 disappointed customer
  by Kim Brown
very disappointing customer service. i forgot to update my shipping address and have had 3 weeks of constant emails going back and forth on trying to resolve this slight problem with no resolution. i finally emailed to cancel and NOW THEY WONT CONTACT ME BACK. i would NOT recommend ordering through this vendor.