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There were several reasons I can think of for them to use Atakus. First and foremost, it allows them to advertise the Atakus set-- they couldn't have included him in any other way, since kids would be confused why the Rock Tribe had Agori on their side. ("I thought Agori were the good guys!). It would have also been odd for viewers if both the Rock Tribe Agori and Bone Hunters were among the Skrall's allies, since it's kind of hard to tell them apart even in sets (and in all honesty, Fero's the one you'd expect to be of the Rock Tribe between the two, what with his heavy use of black and his rockier-textured mask).

 

The fake water was indeed a disappointment, but based on something I read in Popular Science last year it's actually incredibly difficult to make realistic CGI water. It had a sort of a timeline on the website of what films improved heavily on water, and trust me, they're all operating on much larger budgets than TLR was.

 

I'm glad the Valley of the Maze wasn't featured in the plot. Toward the end I was worried that it might be, and if it had been it would have been crammed into a very short section of film. As you said, dragging it on longer would make the ending feel extraneous.

 

Metus has always been a good candidate for the traitor because of that one appearance in EotS. It's said "Metus could talk the wings off a Sand Bat", and I think that's the kind of talent it would need to take to mess with Tuma's mind and push him around the way the traitor did. Of course, I was still a bit skeptical about him being the traitor, largely since his business involves the arena system and I expected the destruction of Atero to bring an end to that in its entirety (since the movie showed quite clearly that arena matches continued about the same as normal, Metus's role makes more sense in the 2009 saga as a whole, as he planned to profit from it until the bitter end).

 

Of course, by the time of the Big Revelation in the film, it was kinda predictable that Metus was the traitor, especially with all the little scenes like him running from Vulcanus and talking to the Bone Hunters (wish they'd done more to conceal him).

 

A lot of people are saying Tuma was one-dimensional, but I disagree. As we've seen in EotS as well as some of the comics, he's ridiculously insecure about his role as leader. He expects the worst from even his own tribe constantly, and snaps at Stronius (who is, from all appearances, the closest he has to a friend) at even the slightest indication that he's not doing his job right. For this reason he does what he feels is expected of him as leader, even if it's risky or dangerous (for instance, going to see the Sisters of the Skrall with only figments of a backup plan that's not at all certain to work).

 

In other words, Tuma acts like a generic evil villain wanting to rule the world because his people expect it of him. If he had ordered Mata Nui to be captured and imprisoned, don't you think some of the Skrall would have doubts about his courage and his capacity as a leader? I can't say for certain, but obviously Tuma thought they would. As some of our earliest material on him said, his weakness is that he's not as smart as he thinks he is-- he thinks he knows what's best for him as a leader, but in reality it often costs him dearly.

 

Gresh's personality was kinda shallow, but as you say it fits what we've seen of him so far. I don't expect it to expand much until he's matured a bit and become a bit more of a dynamic character.

 

I wouldn't say it was the best BIONICLE movie so far, but that's probably because of my probably never-ending difficulty choosing favorites out of anything. It was certainly a fun film, though, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought so.

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

A lot of people are saying Tuma was one-dimensional, but I disagree. As we've seen in EotS as well as some of the comics, he's ridiculously insecure about his role as leader. He expects the worst from even his own tribe constantly, and snaps at Stronius (who is, from all appearances, the closest he has to a friend) at even the slightest indication that he's not doing his job right. For this reason he does what he feels is expected of him as leader, even if it's risky or dangerous (for instance, going to see the Sisters of the Skrall with only figments of a backup plan that's not at all certain to work).

 

In other words, Tuma acts like a generic evil villain wanting to rule the world because his people expect it of him. If he had ordered Mata Nui to be captured and imprisoned, don't you think some of the Skrall would have doubts about his courage and his capacity as a leader? I can't say for certain, but obviously Tuma thought they would. As some of our earliest material on him said, his weakness is that he's not as smart as he thinks he is-- he thinks he knows what's best for him as a leader, but in reality it often costs him dearly.

 

Perhaps I wasn't clear on Tuma. I meant that the movie portrayed him as a generic evil villain. I know quite well that he is much deeper than that, having read both Raid on Vulcanus and Empire of the Skrall. I was just disappointed that he came across as sort of one-dimensional in the movie, compared to how he appears in the serials and books.

 

However, what you've said does make me think of how Tuma was portrayed in the movie differently, so that's one thing, at least.

 

Of course, by the time of the Big Revelation in the film, it was kinda predictable that Metus was the traitor, especially with all the little scenes like him running from Vulcanus and talking to the Bone Hunters (wish they'd done more to conceal him).

 

I actually didn't know who it was when Metus ordered the Bone Hunters to go after Mata Nui, Kiina, and Ackar. However, I agree that by the time Kiina and Berix were cornered by the Bone Hunters shortly after they came to Tesara, it was pretty obvious who it was (particularly when Metus ran up to Mata Nui and the rest and told them what happened).

 

Metus was still awesome, however.

 

The fake water was indeed a disappointment, but based on something I read in Popular Science last year it's actually incredibly difficult to make realistic CGI water. It had a sort of a timeline on the website of what films improved heavily on water, and trust me, they're all operating on much larger budgets than TLR was.

 

I see. That explains it. Anyway, it's a very small thing and doesn't bother me as much, though I occasionally like to jokingly point out how fake it looks to my brothers whenever we watch it. Just for fun.

 

There were several reasons I can think of for them to use Atakus. First and foremost, it allows them to advertise the Atakus set-- they couldn't have included him in any other way, since kids would be confused why the Rock Tribe had Agori on their side. ("I thought Agori were the good guys!). It would have also been odd for viewers if both the Rock Tribe Agori and Bone Hunters were among the Skrall's allies, since it's kind of hard to tell them apart even in sets (and in all honesty, Fero's the one you'd expect to be of the Rock Tribe between the two, what with his heavy use of black and his rockier-textured mask).

 

I see. Never thought of it that way.

 

I wouldn't say it was the best BIONICLE movie so far, but that's probably because of my probably never-ending difficulty choosing favorites out of anything. It was certainly a fun film, though, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought so.

 

Glad to see we agree .

 

-TNTOS-