Futurama: Bender's Big Score

I'm not that familiar with this show, but the full length movie came on this morning, chopped up into four half hour sections, so I thought I'd give it a try.

It's pretty original stuff from Groening and company, and all of the time travel allows some good twists and turns in the plot. It is basically about three members of a not so clever species of nudist digital age scammers who end up defrauding the owner of Planet Express, stealing the company and downloading an obedience virus into robot Bender.

For some reason the employees don't leave and instead reluctantly assist the scammers in their efforts. The presence of a time portal allows the scammers to send Bender into the past, looting the earth of all that is valuable and returning it to the scammers, since a robot has no mortal life expectancy. As a result the current population of the earth becomes destitute with everything being owned by the scammers.

Meanwhile, Leela falls in love with Lars and even becomes engaged to him while Fry looks on.

The part about scammers using pretty obvious methods to steal is still pretty timely, but Fry being willing to use dirty tricks to get in the way of Leela's happiness has not aged well. The guy is a stalker. Leela's not avoiding Fry because there is some kind of animal attraction ala David and Maddie in Moonlighting going on here that her brain tells her is not good for her. She's simply not into Fry. But I imagine this will all work out to Fry's benefit because the nerdy guy always gets the pretty girl. As for the reverse situation happening? That is an infrequent occurrence.

Managed to see an advance copy of the DVD Screener of this flick. As an original futurama fan, I was eager to see how the TV genre translated as a feature-length.

It's hard not to draw parallels to the Simpsons movie - both are epic, and amusing, with the futurama film being arguably more so.

We're treated with references to all major characters and events past and present from the series, and similar gags that fans will appreciate, but I couldn't help but take the feeling that it was overly ambitious, perhaps sprawling.

The best part of the series is arguably that the episodes were compact, neat, quick witted and very well packaged. Although it's a solid production, it still feels a little confused. 8/10.

It was a sad day in 2003 when I learned that Futurama had ended. I remember watching the first episode and being hooked straight away. It's not very often humour and genuine sci-fi have been balanced so expertly. But thankfully, like Family Guy before it, Futurama has now been given a new lease of life in the form of 4 direct to DVD movies (to be split into 16 episodes to make up a new season).

When something this great is brought back, there is always the lingering fear that it won't retain the "magic" of the original. But I can confidently say that the magic is back! When Family Guy released Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, I feel it suffered the problem of seeming too much like an over-long episode, a problem I think that the Simpson's movie also suffered (though both were not without their fair share of laughs). However,Benders Big Score, the first of these new Futurama features FEELS like a movie.

I feel it should appeal to old fans (who will be spoilt by many in-jokes and call backs, as subtle as they may be) and those (and shame on them) who have never encountered Futurama before. The story kicks off with a quick introduction of the characters, and within 5 minutes, old fans will be in familiar territory, and newcomers will be brought up to date. What follows is nearly an hour and a half of laughs, sci-fi action, and romance.

This is a film I would definitely have paid to see at the cinema over the Simpson's movie. I hope that the DVD sales of this and the next 3 films do well, as it was sorely missed.

Welcome back Futurama!

It's a great funny and fantastic return for Futurama. I was very sad to hear that the show was and canceled and had to watch those great episodes over and over again but after awhile I wanted to hear new jokes and great story lines. This is probably the best straight to DVD movie ever and is one pf my favorite movies in general and knowing that there are three more to come makes me very happy. The acting and the writing is very good just like the show. The story is very well done and is one of my favorite story lines. The jokes and the drama are hear just like and it feels like an ordinary episode but just longer and as good. The acting is just superb and I think that futurama has the best voice overs ever and never get tired of them . The story has a lot plot twist that rank up with the The Prestige and anyone that is fan of the show get this as soon as possible.

Recently, 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!