Futurama: Bender's Big Score Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
Planet Express sees a hostile takeover and Bender falls into the hands of criminals where he is used to fulfill their schemes.
| Billy West | Philip J. Fry/Dr. John Zoidberg/Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth/Captain Zapp Brannigan/President Richard M. Nixon's Head/Additional Voices |
| John DiMaggio | Bender B. Rodriguez/Sal/Elzar/Additional Voices |
| Katey Sagal | Turanga Leela |
| Lauren Tom | Amy Wong/Additional Voices |
| Phil LaMarr | Hermes Conrad/Additional Voices |
| Maurice LaMarche | Lt. Kif Kroker/Morbo/Calculon/Additional Voices |
| Tress MacNeille | Mom/Turanga Munda/Additional Voices |
| David Herman | Turanga Morris/Additional Voices |
| Frank Welker | Nibbler/Additional Voices |
| Al Gore | Himself |
| Dwayne Carey-Hill |
8.10 out of 10 (2980 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Watch it a second time!
posted on 08 Aug 2009Hi everyone out there!...I have had the pleasure of watching the all new Futurama full length movie, Bender's big score!... I have been a big fan of the series and have watched all the episodes more than once, and I can say already now that I am not disappointed by this full length movie!... The story was extremely well put together, and I think that it really had a big deepness to it. I watched the movie for the second time just now, and I can only say this. Watch the movie a second time, it really helps you understand the movie, and help you put all the pieces together. And it also made me realize how nice the storyline was put together. It really have some nice tweaks because of the time traveling, and it can give you headaches trying to figure out what is going on the first time watching it, but watching it a second time helped me put it all in order, or almost I think... Because time traveling can't really be explained properly.For me as a fan, I think it is just GREAT to see Futurama BACK in the AIR! :) ... I hope in the future they will make more Futurama, but somehow this also gave a nice ending, also letting you know that Fry was the one for Lela! Very sweet :) You should be aware that there is a change from the movie and the series from how often the funny lines comes. In this full length movie there can be some time without the humor in first place, but it should also be different from the series in that way, it is a full length movie, so it should have a better storyline, and I think it surely does. :) And it also makes, this film more deep than any of the episodes where. So to all who likes Futurama go out and see it, be sure NOT to miss it... :) My grade will be 10, because I can't give 9.8, which I was thinking of ;). so the closest would be 10. close to perfection! :) Thank you for reading!
its back baby!!!
posted on 19 Jul 2009-May Contain spoilers-Like family guy, I really wasn't into the show until I actually saw it on DVD about 2 years ago. I watched it and LOVED it. It was disturbing to learn that it was off the air though. However, I heard that it was coming back, and I waited. I got mad since I was waiting for the series to return. However, my wait paid off when I got the movie. It was great from the start with the "box" (play on Fox) network firing the crew, then bringing them back. This movie made me re-realize how ridicules it is that shows like these are canceled, but how great it is that high DVD sales resurrects these shows from the dead. I really liked this movie, and can't wait for the next one to come out. 8 out of 10
Not back with a 'Bang', but more of a 'Non-Disruptive Knock'.
posted on 19 Jul 2009I've always been a bit disappointed that 'Futurama' is coming back. It's not that I don't like the show, quite the contrary: it's the finest animated television program I've ever had the pleasure of viewing. The characters, the character development, the animation, the writing, the acting...it's eons above any other contemporary cartoon I've seen, and that includes 'The Simpsons'. It's hysterically funny, and at times, rather touching (was there a dry eye in the house when we first watched "Jurassic Bark"?). And the last episode, "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings", might just possibly have been the best series finale I've ever seen.Of course, that's precisely why I'm a bit worried about 'Futurama''s return...sure, it's back, but at what cost? What has changed? It's hard for me to come up with a comparison; the closest I can think of is when 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' was cancelled by Comedy Central and then revived on the Sci-Fi Channel: while it was still pretty funny, it really lacked a lot of the show's original charm that came with the previous writers and actors. And if there's one thing 'Futurama' can't afford to lose, it's its charm. Regardless, I was still mega-excited over the release of 'Bender's Big Score', and went out to purchase it the day it came out.My expectations of the film were sort of medium: I knew it wouldn't be *great*, but it would be at least on par with a regular episode of the show. Were my expectations met? No. No, they weren't. It was bad. It was really bad. Well, it wasn't REALLY bad, but Lord, was it disappointing.Let's start off with the plot: the basic core of the film revolves around a trio of naked lobster-like aliens who, using the power of e-mail scams and a tattoo on Fry's rear end which has an embedded code that makes time travel possible, enlist Bender's help to go back through time, steal a variety of expensive objects, and take over the world. However, as is the norm with feature-length adaptations of television shows, there's a number of subplots: Hermes' body is destroyed and, living as a head in a jar, must try to win back the love of his family (this story doesn't really go anywhere and is mainly used to pad out the 89-minute run time), a series of flashbacks follow the life of Fry if he were to return to the 21st century (which, of course, creates TONS of continuity and canon problems), and Leela starts falling in love with "Lars", a lab technician, much to Fry's dismay (this story takes over the entire third act, wrapping up in a completely ludicrous conclusion).And, of course, there's a fair amount of time spent on cameos from beloved 'Futurama' characters. Unfortunately, it's the not-so-beloved ones that are featured most prominently. While there's no Calculon, Wernstrom, Lrr, URL, or Robot Devil, there's plenty of Hedonismbot, the Harlem Globetrotters, Santa, and Barbados Slim, who has more screen time than Zapp Branigan. Let me reiterate: BARBADOS SLIM has more screen time than ZAPP BRANIGAN. A Zapp Branigan that is barely used, by the way...I like the character in small doses, but I couldn't help but feel a bit ripped off when his three-minute part was over with. And did I mention Santa has his own musical number? Now there ARE a good number of chuckles throughout, and maybe even a couple of guffaws if you like Zoidberg's antics (and who doesn't?), but most of the time, the jokes really fall flat, which is something that I never thought I'd say about 'Futurama'. One joke in particular, which is the myriad of uses for dust made from the ground-up corpses of FOX executives, may have been amusing the first time, but is repeated so often throughout the course of the film, it just becomes annoying. In fact, the whole FOX-bashing, fourth-wall breaking opening scenes that reference their cancellation is really heavy-handed and gets old quickly.The Fry/Leela relationship is handled rather clumsily, as well. The kinda subtly complex relationship the two characters formed over the course of four seasons seems to have completely vanished. Fry comes off more whiny than sympathetic, and Leela's relationship with "Lars" seems forced and unbelievable (and yes, I am aware that they're fictional characters, so I'll just stop talking now).On a positive note, however, the animation looks spectacular. A lot of money went into making it look like a theater-quality feature film, and it shows. The inevitable space battle towards the end and a lot of the background art looked superb.Mostly, though, the entire thing played out more like a below-average episode of the show, stretched out over 90 minutes (and it DOES feel like 90 minutes, might I add). 'Futurama' didn't quite return with a 'bang', per se, but more of a 'non-disruptive rap'. Of course, I've only seen it once. I may give it another chance sooner or later and again with commentary, but after such a long wait, the first experience should have been a memorable one.I don't wish to appear ungrateful, though: I'm extremely happy that the fan support wasn't all for naught and the show's back in production. I've yet to relinquish hope, either: the brief preview of the next film, 'The Beast With A Billion Backs', featured on the Best Buy-exclusive bonus DVD that came with my purchase, looked to be much more promising: it had a few laughs, and it appears to be focusing on the relationship between Kif and Amy...and you can't go wrong there....can you? Until then, though, I think I'll just stick with reruns of the series.But that's just MY opinion...
Like going home for Christmas
posted on 15 Jul 2009I must admit i had huge fears about the reincarnating Futurama...in retrospective, i don't know why. It hasn't been that long after all, and the team has stayed pretty much the same. From the very first scene i felt right at home. No neat hyper modern animation tricks, no bullet time camera spins, just the familiar Futurama, which is all i wanted.Bender's big score is a surprisingly plot-driven movie, reminiscent of the few more serious episodes. Have no fear, though, the gross humour is still present. Even with the horrid singing numbers (i was looking for anti-depressants) and the obsessive re-introduction of nearly every character that ever appeared on the original series, this is a rewarding event for sure, especially for us die hard fans who waited so long. It could have been better as a movie, but i don't want to get too critical, i'm just glad futurama is back! It just won't die!
More a tribute to Futurama than a Futurama story.
posted on 13 Jul 2009Though the movie was OK, I was disappointed by it. I feel like it lacked a lot of the originality, coherence and edginess of the original series. It was largely the same old jokes repackaged and flung at you fast and furious. They made an effort to cram in a bit of everything and largely succeeded, but it lacked depth and coherence because of this. The social commentary was also largely recycled and felt forced. I'll see the next movie, but I hope they put more thought into it and go for something more meaningful. Here it seems like one of those cases where they tried to please everyone and wound up creating something unauthentic.
Not up to Futurama's high standards
posted on 29 Jun 2009It pains me to have to say so, but Bender's Big Score makes a disappointing return for the Futurama series.One of the great appeals of Futurama was the respect it showed for its own continuity. With Bender's Big Score, that's out the window. Here's the best example: Nibbler's secret life as a powerful sentient being, a subplot the original show spent four seasons building up to, is revealed 15 minutes into this production -- and for no reason; all it leads to is a futile attack on the alien scammers.Not that this movie doesn't like pointing out Futurama continuity. At times the story looks like a contest to see how many obscure characters it can work in. There are loads of tacked-on and unnecessary cameos; Santabot is probably the most egregious. Meanwhile, important secondary characters like Dr. Zoidberg, The Professor, Zapp Branigan, Kif, and Amy Wong have very small roles.And the main characters disappoint as well. The Fry-Lars-Leela love triangle is shallow, and lacks any of the poignancy we saw in "The Sting" and other Season 4 episodes. The lambasting of Fox for cancelling the show is heavy-handed; Family Guy did a much better job of this (and if you didn't like it, at least it was short). The alien scammers, while they did have some gross-out appeal with their "sprunging", weren't nearly powerful enough to take over the earth. Leela could have killed all three of them with one kick. And the whole time-travel story (which were once verboten in Futurama) was convoluted and nonsensical.And above all else... it just isn't funny. I can't think of one funny thing that happens in the whole movie, or any memorable moments.I can only hope that this disappointing effort was the result of trying to write a feature-length film for the first time, and that it indulged whatever need the creators have to reference themselves.
Our Kitten-Class Attack Ships Were No Match For Their Mighty Chairs
posted on 25 Jun 2009Our expectations being the attack ships, and this wonderful, wonderful film being the chairs.It has been far too long a wait, but the "Futurama" gang has found a way to make it worthwhile with this absolutely wonderful debut movie. The plot is about a trio of nudist aliens who learn the age-old secret of time travel and use it to gain control of Earth (remember not to give out your credit card numbers!), told in a fashion reminiscent of both "Back to the Future" and, fortunately, classic "Futurama.""The Simpsons Movie" wasn't anywhere near this good (it's also, oddly, shorter). Even the series episode "Roswell That Ends Well" doesn't quite hold a candle to this ingenious and very intelligent (read, brilliant) outing. In fact, it feels very much like an extended episode of the TV series, only, again, much better.I look forward to the three upcoming features, but this film's quality could pave the way for a theatrical Futurama movie that will kick Springfield's behind!
All hail to Futurama... eh Hypnotoad...
posted on 19 Jun 2009Recap: It has been a couple of bad years for Planer Express, their deliveries cancelled for two years. But now they're back! But as usual something with the mission goes awry. This time the crew gives their e-mail addresses to a couple of strangers and subsequently everyone is scammed out of all their belongings. What is worse, Bender is uploaded with a virus forcing him to obey every command from the scammers. And with a time machine he is forced to steal every known treasure from Earths past. But more than one can play the time game, and soon everything is a mess that threatens to destroy the universe...Comments: This is a splendid comeback. At least for us Futurama-fans out there that were devastated when the show was cancelled. And Fox, sorry the Box-company, is given a kick in the beginning.Then there is a typical, but longer, Futurama-adventure with all the typical jokes, the special Futurama-humor, twists and turns. Everything that makes each and every episode great is there. Bender is as evil as ever, Fry ignorant and lovesick for Leela, Zoidberg as incompetent as only he can be, Professor Farnsworth a couple of years older still. But added to this are also a lot of flashbacks, references and pointers to a lot of earlier episodes. Most, if not all, of the notable characters make appearances. So, for you to enjoy this movie to its fullest you need to know your Futurama, and know it well.Fortunately I do know my Futurama, so I thought it was great. And I have high expectations on future Futurama-videos when they can develop a story much more than the ordinary 25 minutes.And oh, if you have the DVD, do watch the Extras. They're great.All glory to the Hypnotoad! 10/10
Back to the future was not made in vain
posted on 01 Jun 2009Not that I didn't enjoy parts of this movie and it certainly tops the dismal Family Guy features, the story is a bit too in love with being clever than actually producing enough laughs. The first third is hilarious, involving Bender who stupidly downloads a virus into his system. He becomes a slave to the most vile, naked aliens you have ever seen, but hey, they are pretty funny.However, the subplots (and there are many) are distracting and though they come together somewhat nicely in the end, you wish you could just skip them and see more of Bender. Fry is given the most important storyline of course, but I think that the convoluted plot he's a part of does seem kind of boring. The big revelation at the end doesn't feel particularly surprising and it's glossed over with no real finish. Maybe it was too hard to find yet another reason to discuss a time travel paradox and we just get a repetition of the first reason.Anyway, the movie does deliver what it set out to do but you do wonder what the obligatory attack on the Fox, excuse me, Box Network is all about. Was it so terrible to cancel a show after four seasons? The Futurama nerds will probably say yes, but I am not so sure.
is a great film
posted on 30 May 2009Oh, I like to much Bender's big score, and that's why i like the complete series since ever and i can't accept that is gonna be just four films and nothing else! Is hard to know, we i see the film my sister and I think that they gonna create a new season but later we realize the truth :( I guess four new films is better than nothing.... If I can say something to Matt and his crew that's would be this : Make another season of the series because with the bender's big score you show to everybody that you have to much to give with this program. I means, the Simpson's have 17 seasons! can you imagine what happen if on the four or five season Fox take it away? is crazy.
I loved it (Coming from a non-futurama fan)
posted on 28 May 2009Normally I'd think that futurama was slightly better than the Simpson's. But Both seemed to suck. I wasn't expecting to like this movie. I thought it was just another Fry loves the Cyclops. Bender steels everything, makes cold sarcastic jokes. Zoyberg and this "Whoop, Whoop...Whoop,Whoop. Whoop" I was so wrong. This movie blew my mind away. It wasn't some stupid chain of events like Simpson's. It actually had a good, deep plot. The love story within it was so touching. The jokes in the movie were funny. They wouldn't make you roll on the ground laughing, but for me, a guy who never laughs, I got a few good chuckles. Anyways I recommend this movie to anyone.
It's time to rejoice!
posted on 26 May 2009Well, It's hard to start commenting something so dear.. but I try, I Have always liked Futurama, and when the show was originally canceled I was so sorry about it and felt like what ever the reasons for the cancellation were, they were WRONG, ( Corporate-Bots: More Reality-TV(?) ), or maybe the humor in series were too hard to understand for general public, but when comparing Futurama to other Groenings series like Simpsons, there is no doubt which one is better, Futurama, Simpsons had it's edge like 8 seasons ago but not any more.. anyway for the movie: Ah, The movie.. when the Futurama title song started. I almost felt like crying, because it just was so nice to hear the theme again after two years, very emotional feeling at least for me.And Oh yeah, They are back!, Fry, Bender, Leela.. list could go on and on, movie featured almost all(?) characters from Futurama series in their nice little came-o roles, and couple new ones, which was nice.. They kinda tickled the original memory about how good the series were.Movie itself is certified Futurama quality, much better than Simpsons movie (I think), if I compare the movie to the original series, naturally it's not so clever as the some of the single episodes (o really?), but for a comeback, the movie is just perfect. Very nice adaption to the movie format. Its just so nice to hear old familiar voices again.. Hou hou hou.I'm really looking forward for seeing all the other upcoming Futurama movies and I really wish that after the movies, corporate bots at the box *fox* TV see that they should start doing the original series again.."The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", 9 out of 10. And for the end: Bender absolutely Rocks! :)
A must see for the fans, but overall maybe better once re-written as episodes..
posted on 26 May 2009I've been eagerly awaiting this release since the first whispers from Billy West and then the trailer appearing not long ago.My brother-in-law preordered it, and seeing as it was coming from America I guessed we'd be late seeing it. How I was wrong, it was delivered over a week early and in my excitement watched as soon as I could.After the moderate success of The Simpsons Movie which actually turned out to be half decent, I had bigger hopes for Bender's Big Score as Futurama has always been the better series IMO.Frustratingly though, I feel a little let down. The first 30 minutes were fun and in my opinion the best. I felt the story dragged after that, my interest only being kept up by my enthusiasm for the movie and the occasional joke (maybe I'm being too harsh).Still, that being said I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the series, as the first 30 minutes, the constant references to the series and the jokes will entertain (even the two songs).6/10.
It just won't stay dead... or will it?
posted on 20 May 2009Well,According to the title line (and that's the only reason for the spoiler warning, I'd rather be on the safe side tho), Futurama won't stay dead.Well, I guess it won't - but in the episodes and fun it brought as a TV-Series. The film version interested me much, especially because I like/d Futurama, TV-Series.So I got my hands down on it as quickly as possible, and I must say, I guess the humour so abundant and twisteous in the series is no longer in here, or is but very scarce.I guess it's not the exact same crew doing this one, or maybe it's the method (a long film) that's causing the aforementioned issues here, but no matter what it is, it just seems as the spark that made me enjoy Futurama in the first place, feels gone in this release, or at least I fail to see it.Maybe if I watch some more ;-)The whole "Memento"-style thing is kind of helping it, but it still isn't all what it used to be. Kind of hard with to beat a strong predecessor, especially after such a long time of no action. One of the good sides of Futurama as a TV-Show was that it could tell short stories, and they would not need to stick together, plot-wise, as long as time and place matched-and sometimes it wouldn't even do that completely, due to the nature of futuristic films, giving the authors almost endless possibilities of placing the plot.Anyway, give it a go (the film), maybe you'll like it. Myself, I guess I'll wait and see if the series gets revived, and take a look if it will regain some of it original flavour. Perhaps give the film another spin too, time permits.Cheers all Futurama fans and not!
This Movie Is Great
posted on 14 May 2009First of all I would like to say THANK YOU for bring this great show back! I personally am a die-hard Futurama fan, and when it got taken off the air I thought I would never hear from or see my favorite characters in new adventures ever again, I was joyfully mistaken.This movie is great, it brings back a lot of the old lovable characters and of course the usual charming characters. When I watched this movie my expectations were pretty high considering how great the show is. It's very funny and the ending is great, Futurama: Benders Big Score is better than the Family Guy Movie and I would even go as far as saying its better than the Simpsons Movie which I thought was well made as well. This movie is like one long episode and upon viewing makes you feel like the show never took a break, it just continued where it left off. Im not going to spoil anything for fans, but I would just like to say if you truly love the show and want the Planet Express Delivery service crew to continue to have adventures beyond the 3 upcoming new DVD releases as well, GO BUY THE DVD AND SUPPORT THIS AMAZING SHOW!IF YOU LOVED THE SHOW, YOU WILL LOVE THE MOVIE, A LOT!10/10
Even if this movie were awful, it still must be seen
posted on 12 May 2009Direct-to-DVD Movie; Genre: Animated Comedy, Sci-Fi; Content Rating: Unrated (contains animated nudity, violence and gore); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4); "Futurama", Matt Groening and David X. Cohen's Emmy-award winning animated series masterpiece that was beaten to death for 5 years by the Fox network, is back! Sort of."Bender's Big Score" is the first of four feature-length movies brought to life by the magic of DVD and Twentieth Century Fox home video. This ground has been broken with the "Family Guy" movie, "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story". I thought that "Stewie" was lazy, 3 episodes strung together and packed with filler and I wished that Seth McFarlane had swung for the fences with it. That is exactly what Cohen and co-writer Ken Keeler do with "Futurama". It is my great pleasure to report that "Score" does not come off like a cheap compilation of episodes, but an epic full-length 88 minute story. Maybe they swing a little too hard for their first DVD outing.The story (as if it really matters to fans and non-fans): A race of flabby alien nudists try to take over Earth using spam and internet scams (a more-than-worthy yet untapped villain in our pop culture - thank you "Futurama"!), and using their ability to sniff out your personal information discover the secret to time travel as a tattoo on Fry's (Billy West) butt (there is more animated butt in this movie than in all 72 episodes of the show). After their internet virus takes over Bender (John DiMaggio), he volunteers to sneak back into the past to bring the nudists riches, but the ability to time travel opens up all sorts of complications for Fry who is reeling with jealousy from Leela's (Katy Segal) latest romance. If you thought Fry and Leela got together at the end of the series, think again.The voice cast, most of the animators - everyone is back for this production. Thankfully the CGI animation is not only intact, but improved. For their movie outing, Cohen and co. get a widescreen format and an HD resolution that the series should have had all along. Like a child with a new toy, you can almost see how excited everybody is to be back radiating off the screen."Futurama" was never the funniest show in the world. So the movie, for me at least, has an equivalent ratio of laughs. Some clever and some flat-out-funny. The real genius of "Futurama" was always the world it created and those brilliantly original stories that were unfolded in surprising ways. The show's clever, circular dialog and cliché-knocking script remains fully in tact. It also weaves in a few good parodies. "Star Wars" is the usual suspect, but I liked how "The Terminator" just slides right in there. In fact, I wish the story had explored a Fry and Bender facing-off more then the character drama it winds up on.With a captive audience of eagerly awaiting hardcore fans, Cohen & Keeler have jam-packed "Score" with a smörgåsbord of all things "Futurama". In a giddy desire to entertain it is SO crammed with one in-joke after another. Series peripheral characters like Hedonismbot and Santabot march in for a scene or two for no story servicing reason. "Bender's Big Score" is like the "Spider-Man 3" of DVD movies. It is hard to deny it is entertaining in parts, but there is just so much going on at all times it doesn't quite fit together as a whole no matter how many loose ends the writers try to either sew up or ridicule.The story gets pretty convoluted, bringing in doubles and triples from centuries, hours and minutes ago as well as throwing in a 21st century B-story to slow the pace down. In true "Futurama" genius even this strangeness is taken to insane new levels. One of the odd things the movie does is use the time travel devise to go back and both flesh out and crush the established plot line of the series. I can't deny I was disappointed in the way they revised and soft peddled the history established in "Jurassic Bark" or just glossed over the talking-Nibbler secret kept during the series. The mind reels to imagine how many versions of Fry are now crammed in that cryogenics lab on 1999.The movie is like a cat who fears he will never eat again so he gorges himself until he throws up. It trips over itself at a lightening pace and feels rushed trying to pack every "Futurama" delight it can think of into a running time that could have been longer and paced more tightly. The first act, in which a revenge of sorts is taken on the Fox network and the internet villains get theirs, is gangbusters, but the 2nd act becomes jumbled in it's attempts to bring every storyline together and, as mentioned, Cohen and Keeler try to recapture the sweetness of some of the show in a way that really lets the air out of the movie in the final 10 minutes.There is a lot going on here and director Dwayne Gary-Hill is not quite able to coral it all together into a smooth feature. Still, even if it isn't on the big screen, it's a pleasure to see "Futurama" given this expanded cinematic treatment. As TV-to-movie translations go, "Bender's Big Score" works. I'd place it on a scale between the best and worst episodes of the series. It's a creative, funny and unique piece of work that only "Futurama" could deliver. Even if this movie were awful, there is no denying that it just has to be seen. "Futurama's" back. At least for a while. And I'm going to enjoy every crazy minute of it.* * * / 4 Don't miss the full-length version of "Everybody Loves Hypnotoad" on the DVD extras. It is about the most brilliantly hysterical DVD extra ever.
Absolutely HORRIBLE! Don't waste your money
posted on 10 May 2009I bought this movie, because I loved the animated series. I was praying that this movie was going to be just "another episode", boy was I mistaken. It started out somewhat funny, but not as funny as the original episodes. Even the animation looked off from the series.I am or was a big fan of the series. I still enjoy watching the old episodes on Adult Swim, and I will continue to watch them. But never again will I pop in Benders Big Score into my DVD player. It has absolutely NO replay value. I am even embarrassed to show this to my fellow Futurama fan friends. They should be ashamed at what they have made.Resurrecting a series after how many years of not being on the air is obviously detrimental to television cartoon series movies. I give this a 1 because that is the lowest I can give it. Maybe it is best to remember Futurama like it was. A memory.Don't waste your time or money on this movie. You won't be sorry.
You don't have to be a nerd to be disappointed
posted on 06 May 2009Casual fan of the original series here, always respected the ingenuity and wit of Futurama enough to sit down and give it a spare half hour, so to be blunt, I'm not the breed of obsessive fan you'll find at the conventions.And yet, I too feel disappointed after watching this feature length outing. Like all good science fiction the brilliance of Futurama (the series) was in how the other worldly setting gave enormous capacity to say things about our modern world, funny things and sometimes touching things in the case of the series. That's all gone with the film, instead we're heavily into self-reference territory - making poor jokes about New New York in 3007 rather than funny ones about New York 2007, so one of Futurama's enormous strengths is gone. It's the major gaping hole in this picture.It's variously bad for other reasons, not the least the over-use of the time travel mechanism to tell the story - which is bad news whatever the story. The songs are nowhere near the regular standard of the Simpsons/Futurama stable and cemented with nerry a care for the dialogue surrounding them. The cameos fail too - if Al Gore isn't going to have any funny lines, why not just have an impersonator read them?To sum up, let me explain the shallow depth of the humour we have here. It doesn't spoil too much to inform that in the denouement our villains employ a field of golden death stars. That's a 12-year-old's idea of funny/cool. For the rest of us, it's a cheap, tacky, sloppy solution from the writers to the problem of how to stage a final battle scene.Stick the TV re-runs instead folks.
classic
posted on 24 Apr 2009Recently, we have seen several full-length features from our favorite TV-series. Family Guy, the movie. Simpsons, the movie.One thing both of these lacked were going back and not only recalling, but intertwining our favorite side-characters into the plot.Futurama does this beautifully and we see not only commonly featured side-characters, but characters that hard-core fans will rejoice to see, and I _wont_ give any examples here, because every element of surprise in this movie is what makes it worth watching.I want to stress that I was very critical to the idea of a movie after such a long pause, and I was a die-hard fan. I signed the online petition all of those years ago when it got canceled (rumor has it all those signatures got printed and transported to box the CEO of FOX into his office, but thats only a rumor as far as I know). Having said this, I want to ensure everyone that even if you go into the movie with high expectations - they will be exceeded.The plot may seem tangled, but the writers don't leave anything out. Nothing is "forgotten", like in Lost. If you watched the TV-series, you will love this. If you didn't - tough luck (but you will probably wind up loving it anyway). Its literally a celebration of all of the five seasons aired on television, and its impressive that they did this without repeating anything.All of the old themes are brought back - its like the show never went off the air. You will straight off the bat be able to re-identify with characters and feel the same way about the show you did all of those years ago.I haven't seen a story tied up like this in years. The ending is _beautiful_.This is for the fans.FUTURAMA - IT JUST WONT STAY DEAD!
All hail Futurama.
posted on 20 Aug 2009Futurama: Benders Big Score is a classically funny movie that proves even further the people at Fox were not thinking straight when they axed this awesome show. The movie is about when Bender accidentally downloads an obedience virus that of course that of course makes him obedient to everything a nudist colony of something says he has to do which ends up in him robbing the worlds greatest treasures. The movie is extremely funny especially at bits and also has a good storyline going for it as well. Everyone who reads this though should remember to watch this on TV because the new series relies on viewings from the split up movies. Overall this is an enjoyable movie every fan of the series should enjoy. I rate this 83%.