Rate/Review Futurama: Bender's Game

[Disgruntled Goat]

Since there wasn't a thread already, I went ahead and made one. I got this on DVD on Saturday, suprisingly. Play.com sent it out on Thursday, four days before its official release!

I thought it was pretty good. It was weird to have two halves to the film, the real part and video-game-universe. The game part felt too much like it wasn't real though, as if it was a "Tales of Interest" story.

4/5

P.S. Feel free to suggest some poll captions. I was thinking of doing games but I don't know enough to assign them to good or bad options...

[Kiyosuki]

Haven't seen it yet but from what I hear it sounds like an extended version of one of those "random stuff happens" episodes, which I like. It'll be a nice change of pace after two galaxy saving sized "epics".

[Otis P Jivefunk]

I've literally just watched this for the first time, got the DVD today. In a word I'm disappointed. To sum up my main thoughts, it lacked humour, was generally quite boring and never really picked up pace. It relied too much on references to the series, but all that did was remind me of how good those episodes were and how much of a failure this movie has been. The saving grace is the story of dark matter and Nibbler on Vergon 6, but that is only a small part of the movie. Worst of the 3 movies so far, and yet all of the movies are worse than the TV series. I'm a huge Fururama fan, and it saddens me to write this...

2/5

[kupomog]

A 3/5 solely for everything that WASN'T the fantasy world.

Although that Amy and Leela thing...

[Paul]

This was not Futurama. I hope they get their acts together for the fourth and hopefully final chapter.

1/5

[Ryan]

Strange to see a lot of people on the internet is saying this is an improvement over BWABB. The last one wasn't the greatest, but it certainly was better than this. I just can't believe they got FOUR DTV movies and this was one of the stories they chose. Aside from Nibbler's origins, they chose to reveal that (gasp!) Ignar is Farnsworth's son!! *chirp* *chirp* Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

2.5/5, but I rated a 2/5 because the staff needs to get it together...

[D4C]

Needed to even out the score.

[The Southern Dandy]

I loved this. I think anyone claiming it was bad or a step down from the other most recent DVD releases is being way too picky. It shocks me that some people give Simpsons episodes from the last 11 seasons high ratings or claim that any of them are "just as good as it's ever been", but I do believe that's true for Futurama. I don't see how any of these DVD releases are significantly worse than the show when it was on the air. I enjoy them just as much as I enjoyed the old episodes and am so glad that, unlike "Family Guy", this show has not been ruined by cancellation.

Even as someone who despises all things "Lord of the Rings", I had a blast watching this feature. I especially loved the references to other episodes like Roberto and Robot Mad Hatter. David Herman as Roberto was a much better guest star than David Cross in the last Futurama DVD. It was also very cool to see a quick visual reference to the spider scene in "The Fly" (1958) as I just watched that movie for the first time a few weeks ago. Scenes like that made "Bender's Game" totally come across like it was made just for me, which again is amazing since I hate "Lord of the Rings" and it was riddled with references to it.

The only part I didn't like was the commercial for the knife. It was one of those bits where something is parodied for how annoying it is, but instead of cleverly finding humour in that, the parody is just as annoying as the original. Tricky business, and it's rare for Futurama to make such a sloppy error in its attempts at humour...it was more like a modern Family Guy gag. That was my only issue with the whole story, everything else was excellent. It would have been nice to see Zapp and Kif, though. I thought "Bender's Big Score" had a better story and "The Beast with a Billion Backs" had a better ending, but I think this one was just as successful overall and I would rank it somewhere between the two.

[arii]

Hell, I liked it. Not as good as Bender's Big Score, but better than The Beast With a Billion Backs; 4/5.

The first half was pretty amazing. I was laughing a lot, I was pretty into it, Leela's story was progressing really nicely and it was just... funny. I loved Bender's plight about imagination as well and the scenes in the robot insane asylum were hilarious. Zoidberg was at his best here, and the best he's had since these movies started popping up. I'll agree though that it really did start to fall apart in the second half, which disappointed me because I was actually looking forward to the fantasy, even though I don't play those types of games, just because, well, it should've been really, really interesting.

I think it was parodied nicely but it felt just... slapped on to me. I mean, I know there was the whole thing with Bender so at least it didn't come completely out of nowhere but the way everyone was transported to the fantasy world, and then transported back and... it seemed, it didn't feel natural. It just felt like the writers were musing about how to get all of their main cast into each world and then decided to say fuck it, and just slapped them all in anyway with no real reasoning behind it. Oh yeah, and the twist behind Igner was kind of stupid, even though at least he was pretty funny and I enjoyed Mom in this one.

I mean, I still really enjoyed it and all - everything flew pretty smoothly until partway into the fantasy setting. And I was really, really, really happy there finally wasn't anything about relationships in this one. I'm not really a shippy kind of person, and certainly not for Futurama so to see that stuff mostly ignored, have Leela and Fry as friends, (and hopefully have the Kif/Amy stuff adressed in the next movie because it still needs a conclusion), and to have this as just a more fun video.

It could have been paced better (the build-up was stellar), but it was funny - funniest movie thus far, I'd say.

[The Internet King]

I never saw this. When did it come out?

[Dark Homer]

today

[Cartoonnetwork]

I've literally just watched this for the first time, got the DVD today. In a word I'm disappointed. To sum up my main thoughts, it lacked humour, was generally quite boring and never really picked up pace. It relied too much on references to the series, but all that did was remind me of how good those episodes were and how much of a failure this movie has been. The saving grace is the story of dark matter and Nibbler on Vergon 6, but that is only a small part of the movie. Worst of the 3 movies so far, and yet all of the movies are worse than the TV series. I'm a huge Fururama fan, and it saddens me to write this...

2/5

I generally agree with this opinion. ALERT: SPOILERS AHEAD. The structure of the movie was kind of clever but the humour was a lot more consistent in the previous two movies. Some of the gags in this one were abysmal, especially the Dixie Chicks gag. Some decent gags were overdone to the point they lost their humour (robots that shoot each other). The first half was also pretty boring and uninteresting. I repeat I liked the structure (first real world, then the epic fantasy) but the set up took too much time and most of the stuff that happened was quite tedious, there were good ideas, like Bender developing an imagination, but the gags and pacing were pretty uneven. In general the first part didn't seem a movie like the previous two. Those were more cinematic, for dvd releases they kinda look a little more spectacular than the regular episode of the series. This one seemed one of the weakest episodes.

The second half is more entertaining, but it still relies way too much on easy humour or what-it-seems-like-fanservice (Amy and Leela kissing each other). Also Star Wars and LOTR parodies are not exactly the most original stuff they could came up with. I can imagine Family Guy going LOTR (instead of SW like they did in Blue Harvest) and not being very different to this. That's not a good sign.

I didn't like the final revelation about Igner either. It was quite contrived. I didn't like Wengstrom being Mom's lover either (I think this is new).

On the plus side, I must admit I enjoyed Mom and her sons in this one, that's something that was decently handled here. I used to think these characters got old since their third appearance or so, but here they were quite entertaining. They did Mom slapping the children gags about twenty times in the movie but they managed to include some amusing twists each time. Those and Nibbler's parts, like some other people have said, were some of the most entertaining moments.

Still I could rate it either 2/5 or 3/5. Didn't like it too much but probably it wasn't worse than some of the most mediocre episodes. Thing is, like homer5000 said, since this is feature-format, they should only pick the best of the best concepts instead of average ideas that would probably work better in regular episodes.

Fortunatelly the fourth movie already looks quite better in the advertising.

[♩ ♪ ♫ ♬]

I voted 2 out of 5. Lots of moments made me lol, but it was far to random and disjointed. The fantasy world was terrible. It was just too many references to LOTR and D&D. I had already known about Farnsworth being Ignor's father from some random website years ago. It was one of there original ideas along with Nibbler being in the cryogenics lab, Leela being a mutant etc, but they had just not got around to revealing it in the series.

To sum up I think this was the worst feature length episode so far and it relied too much on parodies and was not clever enough.

[McClure]

I was disappointed, the movie really just felt like a rushed unimportant film pieced together by rejected jokes. I didn't really like the opening sequence with the Yellow Submarine, it wasn't as good as the one on TBWABB. The first 20 minutes were pretty disappointing, the Demolition Derby wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be (and what the hell was with that Rocket Ship song and the Dixie Chicks thing?).

One thing that really bugged me was all of the toilet humour. There were a lot of fart, poop and toilet jokes, way more than your average episode. Now, I like South Park so I'm not completely against such crude humour, but it seemed really out of place in a Futurama movie.

The Leela anger subplot seemed very forced, they kept milking it for lame jokes, and in the end it just went nowhere with no pay off. They could have built her giving up violence better, she just suddenly gave it up, then after a bad montage, suddenly got it back.

It had its moments, I think Amy, Zoidberg and Nibbler were the MVPs of this one, but generally was not as good as the previous two. BBS was built on a strong emotional plot, and to some extent, so was TBWABB (although not as successfully), but the latter was funnier. This one didn't have anything particularily memorable and the plot didn't seem deserving of its own film.

I also didn't particularily like the ending. It seemed like they just ran out of time and slapped together the quickest solution they possibly could. There was so much they could have done/explained. I mean, why were Hermes, Amy and Zoidberg also sucked into the fantasy world? And I've never been a fan of Mom, she's always struck me as an attempt to have a female Mr. Burns but has never really evolved as a character (and don't get me started on her three sons).

All in all, I'll give it a 2/5.

[TriforceBun]

Just picked up and watched the DVD. *SPOILERS AHEAD*

I thought the first ten minutes or so were pretty bad, but around the time Leela was eating dinner with her parents and Zoidberg, the humor and story picked up. From that point on, it was decent through the credits.

One of my bigger gripes with the movie was in how they handled the fantasy aspect. Yeah, it sort of tied in with Bender's imagination, but it felt very much like a Deus Ex Machina how Bender was just magically whisked out of the asylum and all the other major players were sent to this fantasy realm. I get that it was somehow tied to Dark Matter, but it all felt EXTREMELY rushed and slapped-together for a show that prides itself on having some extremely well-thought-out story arcs. And they got sent back to the real world for an equally arbitrary reason: because Mom had "won"?

Also, for the staff just itchin' to do a fantasy world, they didn't seem to put much thought into it. Instead of embracing their own world with its own rules (something they've done particularly well with the "real" world of Futurama), they mainly just pieced things together from Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons and called it a day (even ripping major aspects like Gollum and Gandalf, which totally hasn't been done before). It may seem like a lot to ask for a more creative, absorbing take on this than a full-blown parody, but this IS Futurama here. They can pull it off, because we've seen them do it before.

One other complaint: the knife commercial was unbelievably drawn-out. I know this phrase is thrown around a lot, but it's true--that's a total Family Guy joke. At least it changed perspectives from time to time (unlike Family Guy).

That said, there were still plenty of things this film did right. The subplots involving Leela (this is my favorite role of hers in the three movies so far), Mom (who was actually pretty funny throughout), Nibbler, and Bender were all handled well, while Fry, Amy, Farnsworth, and Zoidberg all had some generous screen time and good lines as well. The "Morcs" joke was so ridiculous, it was funny. It was also pretty clever how they kept this "swallowing things that shouldn't be swallowed" runner involved in the humor and plot. I really liked the ending with Ignor and Farnsworth hugging; pretty clever. The animation was also a joy to watch, as always.

3.5/5

One thing that really bugged me was all of the toilet humour. There were a lot of fart, poop and toilet jokes, way more than your average episode. Now, I like South Park so I'm not completely against such crude humour, but it seemed really out of place in a Futurama movie.

I agree, and I've noticed this for all three of the movies. It always feels a little awkward and gross to me to see it in this show. There was also a ton of gore--limb-chopping, decapitations, large splashes of blood, Leegola ripping out hearts and eating one, biting into dragon stomachs, etc.

[D4C]

I didn't like Wengstrom being Mom's lover either (I think this is new).

Pfffthahahaha. Been canon since at least season 2 or 3.

[Snack Related Mishap]

Definately the worst of the three, but I didn't think it was nearly as bad as people are saying. It just wasn't up to Futurama standards, which is dissapointing, but it was still amusing and enjoyable. I'd say the movie was pretty consistent in terms of humor(although, the jokes started out a little slow), but the major problem it had was the plot. It just felt like they didn't have a good enough story to support an 88 minute movie. 3/5

When I first heard Futurama was coming back, and that they had written these four movies in such a short time with a limited staff, I was a little worried. And it seems like my fears were well founded. I'm sure if Futurama were to come back, and the writers had a full staff and the normal amount of time to write the episodes, the quality would return to that of the first few seasons, but these DVDs are not reflective of that quality. That makes me worried the series may not be renewed. Luckily, Futurama fans are dedicated so this shouldn't be a problem... hopefully.

[Ryan]

Okay, so everyone says that Fry dies in the Wild Green Yonder trailer.

Uh, just watched it. Hasn't anyone come to the conclusion that it's just a Zoidberg-is-a-bad-doctor joke? I think it's a huge mislead...

[arii]

There is something that looks like a nail coming out of Fry's head (whereas they're at a construction site and everyone else is wearing hardhats) and he is lying still...

It could be a mislead, or it could be serious. Dunno. (Someone should start up an ITWGY speculation thread.)

[The Southern Dandy]

One thing that really bugged me was all of the toilet humour. There were a lot of fart, poop and toilet jokes, way more than your average episode. Now, I like South Park so I'm not completely against such crude humour, but it seemed really out of place in a Futurama movie.

I agree, and I've noticed this for all three of the movies. It always feels a little awkward and gross to me to see it in this show. There was also a ton of gore--limb-chopping, decapitations, large splashes of blood, Leegola ripping out hearts and eating one, biting into dragon stomachs, etc.

I guess that's just their way of taking advantage of the fact that they don't have to worry about network reprimanding since these are DVD releases. I didn't think any of the humour was so unusually crude and/or violent to be jarringly extreme by Futurama standards.

One thing these posts are making me wonder - do you people take notes of every single joke you don't like and every plot hole you detect while watching these things? Because that's the only way I can imagine people coming up with these negative ratings. Is everyone so cynical that they can't just get caught up in the story and not have to nitpick every little thing in it?

When I watch these things, I notice that some parts don't work, but then I just forget those quickly because of all the other ones I'm laughing/smiling at. For example, when it actually happened I was also thinking it was a little convoluted how they escaped the fantasy world, but again, I got so wrapped up in the story before and after this development that I quickly forgot about how confusing it was. The only joke that really stood out to me as a serious blunder was the knife one because it was so drawn out and unfunny from start to finish that you couldn't possibly ignore it and forget about it right away. I've now been reminded of how awful the Dixie Chicks joke was, but I didn't care because I was laughing at George Takei's line. It was totally worth hiring him just to give one line.

[TriforceBun]

I agree that it wasn't anything that actually HADN'T been shown in the show before (i.e. strong profanity, or frontal nudity or whatever), but the main thing is just that it was a whole lot of it. I mean, there were dozens of poo/fart/genitals gags in the movie. It just felt really dense in low-brow humor, and it kinda cheapened the Futurama experience for me.

As for your other comment--well obviously, I want to enjoy this as much as possible since I just spent 19 bucks on it and I love Futurama. I don't sit there with a pen or anything making notes or whatever, but if something bothers me, it bothers me. As far as remembering gags and stuff in these R/R threads, it's sort of a mix of things that stuck out to me and reading others' posts and remembering certain lines and such.

But like I said, I still enjoyed the movie; I just didn't think it was up there with the best of the show, not by a long shot.

[That Don Guy]

Anybody else own the Blu-Ray version? I thought they could have done something better than taping everybody sitting around in chairs for the video portion of the commentary.

By the way, you don't need to search for those digits in the opening online, as I already did; they're from the number "e". (I think all of those e's instead of the numbers in the animatic version of the opening was a hint...)

SPOILER - highlight over this area to read it:
One thing confused me; if all of the ships in the universe were powered by dark matter, and now it's all inert, how do they move?
END SPOILER

-- Don

[D4C]

Anybody else own the Blu-Ray version? I thought they could have done something better than taping everybody sitting around in chairs for the video portion of the commentary.

By the way, you don't need to search for those digits in the opening online, as I already did; they're from the number "e". (I think all of those e's instead of the numbers in the animatic version of the opening was a hint...)

SPOILER - highlight over this area to read it:
One thing confused me; if all of the ships in the universe were powered by dark matter, and now it's all inert, how do they move?
END SPOILER

-- Don

Dunno the specifics but Ill give you a simple answer as to what the solution will be:  Al Gore 

[Cartoonnetwork]

Pfffthahahaha. Been canon since at least season 2 or 3.

Is it? Man, I didn't remember that at all. I said I didn't like it cause I like Wernstrom-Fansworth conflict because of their mutual jealousy and stuff. So now adding a confrontation because they both loved the same woman seemed a little cheap for me. But if that was already canon, then it's ok.

[Cartoonnetwork]

One other complaint: the knife commercial was unbelievably drawn-out. I know this phrase is thrown around a lot, but it's true--that's a total Family Guy joke. At least it changed perspectives from time to time (unlike Family Guy).

I believe that's the reason why I actually found it funny, it was long but every now and then we see how perplex Fry is while he's watching this thing and that makes it quite funnier than those regular Family Guy speeches.

[PreciousBodilyFluids]

I'm almost positive that the Wernstrom/Mom affair had not been established prior to this movie.

Of course, ARMslingerJoshua could be taking a stab at sarcasm.

[Cartoonnetwork]

After rewatching I've changed my mind a little bit. Now my opinion is more similar to TriforceBun's and I'd give it 3,5/5. The middle part of the movie when the plot actually starts is actually pretty good. The first minutes are pretty bad and the fantasy segment is average. Bender's subplot is actually pretty enjoyable but Leela's one seems a little pointless.

[Tomacco]

I wrote a brief review in the other thread, but I wanna say, another big reason I didn't care for this DVD much (and I'm probably not alone) : The whole DVD (movie, bonus features, commentary) is too much on the nerdy side for me. Considering all of the D&D and LOTR content, the main target audience of this movie is your stereotypical nerd, and even though I'm an avid message boarder, I've never been into the Fantasy genre as a whole, or D&D.

[The Southern Dandy]

I really don't think that should be an issue. Like I said, I hate Lord of the Rings, and I've never played Dungeons and Dragons. I have no interest in it and know next to nothing about it. I also consider the fantasy genre my least favourite in movies (the only movie I liked that could be considered "fantasy" was "The Princess Bride" and that's more of a romance) and yet I loved this feature. Yes, it threw in little references that will undoubtedly make the fantasy fans smile, but that doesn't mean it alienated everyone who isn't into that genre.

[blueguy]

I thought it was alright. The level of the jokes was a bit disappointing considering the subject matter. It's like they were holding back. LOTR parody is welcome, but it seemed like only plot and visuals. No quotes or spoofs on dialogue? Ok, there was, but so very few. I mean, they did with the Star Wars reference.
Simply not enough real funny jokes, just overall amused.

Poop jokes I didn't mind. It's to be expected when dark matter is a main focus in the episode. The part I didn't care for was all the slapstick. Ok, it's fine when Mom does it now and then, but she was doing it way too much. Too much going on elsewhere as well. How many times did Bender and other [Zoidberg]robuts[/Zoidberg] get smacked around in the head? Just not funny after first few times.

Voted 3, but would have gone 2.5