Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs

Unfortunately, this movie does not live up to the standards of the perfect track record of the Fox series. It does have several good moments, its trademark goofy sci-fi inventions, and all the voice actors from the show, but it left me unsatisfied. It looks like the cardinal rule of any phenomenal TV show is true-- if it's canceled, keep it that way. I'm afraid Futurama's gone the route of ol' Family Guy, whose first 50 episodes (all prior to cancellation) were superb. After those, an okay movie, followed by a terrible wheelbarrow of rehashed jokes and overused side characters heaped together with family guy merch out the wazoo. Futurama is still my favorite show, but this movie is not representative of the show.

The problem with "Beast With A Billion Backs" isn't the writing, the storyline, the gags, or the inside references. Those are all just fine. Not great, but a decided improvement over the convoluted and fanservice-heavy "Bender's Big Score."

The greater problem -- one that all four DVD movies will face -- is that Futurama's fantastic worlds and crazy plots just plain work better in 22-minute episodes than as 90-minute stories. It's hard to keep up the energy and the gags for that long, while also involving all the characters and hitting all the notes Futurama fans want to hear.

"Billion Backs" had its share of slow spots, and gags that should have never escaped the Deleted Scenes part of the DVD. (The "schkler" and "schklee" thing was painful.)

The Yivo storyline could have been done in one focused episode (a la "The Day The Earth Stood Stupid"). The Bender/Calculon story would have been an okay B-story for a 22-minute episode, but it was weak for a feature-length movie. The other subplots weren't any deeper than you'd see in a single episode.

I realize that the movie will be broadcast as individual episodes. They should have made them that way in the first place, and cut out the dull stuff.

If you don't believe me, watch the "lost episode" bonus feature on the DVD. It's a compilation of cut-scenes from the Futurama video game, made into an "episode" of about 30 minutes. While it's nothing special, its fast pace and simple plot work a lot better than the padded-out, hit-and-miss main feature.

Having said all that, "Billion Backs" is a fun story that should appeal to all Futurama fans. There are some great gags, some beloved characters we missed in the first DVD movie, a Futurama-quality plot, and a fun homage to 1950s-style monster horror flicks.

i'm a colossal fan a futurama, but i was very disappointed with this effort.

snappy dialogue, clever writing and coherent (occassionally poignant) story lines set futurama apart from the field but the movie lacks these.

jokes are reused and predictable, the plot is overblown and indulgent, the casual manner in which major events happen is disjointed, and the resolution is just bad.

the film focuses on fitting in obscure characters from the series, having some new wacky future technology, and reinforcing the stereotypes that define the main cast, but to be honest i could forgive it completely if it was as funny as the episodes or even the other movie.

This movie isn't really as bad as everyone seems to be saying. My only problem is it feels rather segmented/disjointed, as if it's 3 separate movies (probably due to the fact that it's basically 3 episodes strung together). Other than that, the jokes, especially in the 1st half hour are fast-paced and hilarious. I laughed way more than I did during Bender's Big Score, which only managed to get a couple chuckles and nostalgic smiles out of me. Really, the only reason there's any problem at all is that they're forcing themselves to write 90 minute episodes, where they really shine in the 30 minute block. If you're a fan of the series, you should (in theory) be quite happy with this.

A rip in the very fabric of time and space sees another universe potentially linked to the one more familiar to the crew of Planet Express. However, it has been there a while and the initial panic and fear has sapped into acceptance with a bit of fear. The intension is to launch a scientific mission to travel to the rift and study it, a mission that Fry decides not to go on as he thinks he has found love in a new relationship. The expedition doesn't bring back much in the way of information but very soon it becomes clear that something is coming through and taking over the world – but what are its intentions?

I came to the first Futurama film hoping for it to be just as good as the TV show – not brilliant but just funny and creative. I was disappointed there but I wanted to watch the next film regardless. The improvements are obvious because the narrative is slightly more focused and does feel like it is all part of the same film. Of course it is not perfect and for stretches it does feel fragmented and unsure of itself – but just not as bad as the first film. What it feels like though is that they are filling the time with plot rather than anything else, so instead of having one central story, the threads are expanded to fill time even if the material or substance isn't really there to do it. As with Bender's Big Score, this film doesn't ever convince that it has enough about it to justify being 80 minutes long – and that is not even that long for a film. So Amy and Kif relationship appears to be there just to fill time, likewise Fry's relationship and, although funny, the League of Robots feels dropped in as well.

It is funnier though and for that I am grateful but it is not funny enough because the writers do seems to have focused on filling the film with plot rather than laughs. The cast do as well as one would expect, given that this is hardly a testing film to act in. West and Di Maggio have the lion's share but the other cast (Tom, Sagal etc) are also good and the additions of Cross, Castellaneta and Murphy are good in their voice work. In terms of animation you can see more money has been spent on it and it does look good while also keeping the feel of Futurama.

Beast with a Billion Backs is better than Bender's Big Score but it still suffers from many of the same problems. The script is not loaded with laughs and gags but rather lots of plotting to try and fill the long running time. However it is not "one" story but rather lots of bits pieced vaguely together and the feel of time being filled is unavoidable. So an improvement but still not great – hopefully the next few films over the next few years will be better.