The very first day into this project, and I already ran into a snag. All of my top 10 were TV shows or TV based. I had to go with Bender's Big Score, because technically it's a movie, I guess? I'm about 99% positive I've never actually seen this before.
I'm going to assume that everyone reading this already knows the basics behind the Futurama universe, so I won't take the time to explain that. This is the first of four straight-to-DVD movies created after Fox had cancelled Futurama and while Comedy Central was bringing it back.
The story is based around Planet Express being brought back after getting cancelled by the Box Network, only for the crew to all fall victim to spam, giving away personal information building up to Professor Farnsworth giving away the ship itself to the scammers. The scammer aliens find a code for time travel tattooed on Fry's ass, and send a mind-controlled Bender back in time to steal stuff for them. Eventually Fry uses the time travel code to go back to the year 2000 and Bender is sent back to kill him.
Eventually the aliens (pictured above) take everything of value on Earth and the Planet Express crew wind up homeless on the streets, which eventually leads to a war against the scammers. There's a pair of substories about Leela and another guy, and Fry back in the 2000s. Both of these are pretty boring and feel like filler, until they eventually do reach a conclusion that ties back into the main story.
Overall, I basically came to the conclusion that Futurama just doesn't need to be a movie. It just felt way too long with its 88 minute runtime, and I was just waiting for it to end. I'm a fan of Futurama as a TV show, but this just seemed to drag on. I'd have to give it 3/5 stars, and can only marginally recommend it to fans of the show. I'm sure if I had seen it when it was new, and people were desperate for ANYTHING new Futurama related, my opinion on it would be higher than it is now. But as it is, I won't be in a hurry to watch any of the other 3 direct to DVD Futurama movies.
Seems like my earlier comment was swallowed. Anyway, I thought this movie was decent. Not nearly as good as Bender's Game though.
ReplyDeleteYou totally need to watch Mystery Team.
Well maybe Mystery Team will come up at some point. Doubtful though since the netflix estimated rating for me isn't that high.
ReplyDelete