Why the Futurama Movie Sucks

In celebration of “Bender’s Big Score” being shown on Comedy Central, here’s my official explanation of why it blows so goddamn much. (Warning: Spoilers ahead, both for the movie and show.)

Reason #1: Bender’s character is all wrong. Yes, I understand that he’s under mind control for about half the movie. But that doesn’t change the fact that Bender is the series’ “lovable scamp,” and watching him being pure evil for half an hour is unsettling. Bite-sized doses of Evil Bender are tolerable when there’s a lot of humor surrounding the situation (See: Warecar episode), and even then, only for a few minutes. Bender’s character is enjoyable for the air of innocence surrounding his selfish shenanigans; he doesn’t work well as purely evil, even if it’s due to a loss of control.

And the only thing worse than way-too-evil Bender is way-too-emo Bender. We’re fine with seeing Bender briefly repent for the results of his reckless actions (like when he makes Leela deaf after merely attempting to annoy her with a blow horn), but the key here is briefly. Seeing him crying repetitively about killing Fry for 20 minutes is nauseating.

Reason #2: The villains aren’t enjoyable to watch. Futurama has a knack for creating endearing villains. They’re funny, and their dialog is punchy, filled with wit. Whether they’re evil robots, floating brains, Amazons or Omicronians, they’re always enjoyable to watch, and you don’t mind if the show dedicates a few minutes to their scheming.

The alien nudists in Bender’s Big Score are disgusting, unfunny, and contain no redeeming qualities. You constantly want them to simply die, or at least, just go away for the remainder of the movie. I say this as someone who wouldn’t actually be bothered by a fat naked guy walking down the street, so it’s not just that they’re naked. The “solid gold Death Stars” joke near the end is actually kind of funny, but by the time it gets to that point, I was so annoyed with these guys that I just wished they’d stop getting any screen time.

Reason #3: The sentimental aspect of the movie is far too predictable. Futurama has its fair share of sentimental episodes. Obviously there’s the one with Fry’s dog, but there’s also the one with the bee sting, the one with the clover, the one with Fry’s opera, and the one with the time jumps where Fry convinces Leela to marry him, then doesn’t remember how he did it. Yes, most of these involve Fry’s obsession with Leela, but they also share 2 other critical elements: They’re unpredictable, and they don’t get in the way of humor. They hit you with a sharp, unexpected, heartfelt twist that doesn’t dwell on itself for more than 30 seconds or so. We get the picture, and the episode usually ends.

The Bender’s Big Score twist sounds all right on paper. Fry is rejected by Leela, is insanely jealous of another guy, and we later “learn” that the other guy is actually Fry from the future, who took a few life lessons to win Leela’s heart, then sacrifices himself for her later on. The problem here is that the viewer sees every part of this coming from a mile away, and the movie spends far too much time hammering in every single goddamn point/“clue.” You get no points for figuring out that Leela’s new boyfriend is actually Fry the minute he appears: They look exactly the same. You also get no points for seeing the parallels between Leela and Leeloo, which is dragged on for about 10 minutes. Even fewer points for predicting how that eventually ends, and what Fry learns from it. By the time we finally get to the big payoff where Fry sacrifices himself, we’re already too annoyed with the whole drawn-out premise to even care anymore.

Reason #4: The singing. Yes, Futurama episodes occasionally include a bit of singing. There’s Fry’s opera, Hermes’ bureaucracy song, the Slurm Factory song, etc. What do Futurama (episode) songs all have in common? That’s right — they’re funny. And, in some cases, they’re actually sort of catchy. The singing in Bender’s Big Score is neither of these. It’s actually painful to watch, and no better to listen to.

Reason #5: References, references, references. Merely referencing an old joke does not count as a joke in and of itself. For us Futurama nerds who get it, the laugh has already been had. For newcomers, they’re just confusing. The exception here is seeing how the alien ships demolished New York in the background of the cryogenic chamber, when Fry was frozen in the series’ very first episode. That actually adds something to the reference; I wish something like this had been done more often in the movie.

Reason #6: The actual jokes are few and far between. If you took every single joke in Bender’s Big Score and compressed it down to 22 minutes, it would probably make a passable episode. If I weren’t so fucking sick of the movie by the end of it, I probably would’ve gotten a bigger laugh out of the “Quick! Everyone out of the universe!” line. There were a couple of other good ones too, but they’re spread so thin that the audience is given plenty of time to grow weary between each one — something incredibly uncommon in the actual show.

That is all. Discuss.

Hm…we don’t have Comedy Central here but still, I’m a Futurama fan (wink wink Sp3000)

I’ve definitely got to see this some time.

Edit: Hang on…lovable scamp? Hasn’t Bender always been with the whole “kill all humans” thing?

There was a movie? Why haven’t I seen the movie? D:

Sounds like someone needs a hug, though :P

now I’m not a person for one word posts but,

AMEN BROTHER!

That was 2 but you get my point.

Didin’t you say you were leaving mister nine?

Yeah… I saw the Futurama Movie… I thought it was pretty painful to watch…

Yes, I understand that he’s under mind control for about half the movie. But that doesn’t change the fact that Bender is the series’ “lovable scamp,” and watching him being pure evil for half an hour is unsettling.

Bender was annoying in this, but I don’t think it made him less funny… it was kind of like the “evil side” of Bender being released (or whatever)

The alien nudists in Bender’s Big Score are disgusting, unfunny, and contain no redeeming qualities. You constantly want them to simply die, or at least, just go away for the remainder of the movie. I say this as someone who wouldn’t actually be bothered by a fat naked guy walking down the street, so it’s not just that they’re naked. The “solid gold Death Stars” joke near the end is actually kind of funny, but by the time it gets to that point, I was so annoyed with these guys that I just wished they’d stop getting any screen time.

Yeah… they were one of my biggest problems with the movie, I just wanted them dead already… pretty much any scene they were in wasn’t funny.

The Bender’s Big Score twist sounds all right on paper. Fry is rejected by Leela, is insanely jealous of another guy, and we later “learn” that the other guy is actually Fry from the future, who took a few life lessons to win Leela’s heart, then sacrifices himself for her later on. The problem here is that the viewer sees every part of this coming from a mile away, and the movie spends far too much time hammering in every single goddamn point/”clue.” You get no points for figuring out that Leela’s new boyfriend is actually Fry the minute he appears: They look exactly the same. You also get no points for seeing the parallels between Leela and Leeloo, which is dragged on for about 10 minutes. Even fewer points for predicting how that eventually ends, and what Fry learns from it. By the time we finally get to the big payoff where Fry sacrifices himself, we’re already too annoyed with the whole drawn-out premise to even care anymore.

Yeah… this may be a bit of subject to what you were saying, but they payed a lot more attention to the storyline than they did to the actually humor.

Yes, Futurama episodes occasionally include a bit of singing. There’s Fry’s opera, Hermes’ bureaucracy song, the Slurm Factory song, etc. What do Futurama (episode) songs all have in common? That’s right—they’re funny. And, in some cases, they’re actually sort of catchy. The singing in Bender’s Big Score is neither of these. It’s actually painful to watch, and no better to listen to.

I really dislike musicals, so I downright hated those scenes in the movie

If you took every single joke in Bender’s Big Score and compressed it down to 22 minutes, it would probably make a passable episode. If I weren’t so fucking sick of the movie by the end of it, I probably would’ve gotten a bigger laugh out of the “Quick! Everyone out of the universe!” line. There were a couple of other good ones too, but they’re spread so thin that the audience is given plenty of time to grow weary between each one—something incredibly uncommon in the actual show.

Yeah… like I said before:

Yeah… this may be a bit of subject to what you were saying, but they payed a lot more attention to the storyline than they did to the actually humor.

The post Greg made was really long but I assume it’s about kongregate can anyone paraphrase it for me??

jk

:P

I agree

The post Greg made was really long but I assume it’s about kongregate can anyone paraphrase it for me??

I will say what massage he was trying to get across in one sentence: Futurama Movie sucked.

…Gregabread’s going to have like what, 3 or 4 additional Futurama movies to complain about,,, “D’oh >.<”

Gregabread…bender knew he was under mind control, so he let iObey change him, BLAME THOSE NUDISTS! ahem and the fact that he downloaded too much porn ahem

Response to Reason #1: Is it called warecar or wearcar? I don’t know,,, but there was barely any humor surrounding that episode >.o, “1010011010!?! Oauuuuuuuugh! D:”(weird little tidbit; wikipedia that number). who the hell cares about binary. The only funny part in that episode was goes and watches it on DVD

(I think it’s season 3 hopefully I don’t have to waste time searching through these damn DVDs)

Damn you Gregabread! It’s called “The Honking” >.>

Anyways, the funniest scene is the whole mail call scene at the beginning of the episode, a bunch of little original puns i.e. “I hope it was one of my enemies, those guys suck!”, once it cuts away to the cloudy scene it becomes a bunch of really stupid puns that are trying to pass themselves off as scenes from Dracula Dead and Loving it!lovingit

Fry is his best Friend man!!! Jesus! If you killed your best friend, unless you were a homicidal maniac, you’d probably bawl your brains out too…maybe not implode, but crying is a possibility

Response to Reason #2: Amazonians? They are not villains, Gregabread you do realize they frequent at D.O.O.P. meetings :P. You lose! :D death by Snoo-Snoo does NOT make them villains. You must remember Fry and Zaff’s smile-frown faces…

Those nudists…, I do agree they were total A-Holes but if you really wanted a good movie, try fitting some other villain who like scamming people, who likes money and who is nosy….[…(…)…]… The fact that a bunch of laid back nudists are actually scammers is good enough for me.

Response to Reason #3: LARS! Mother Effing LARS!!! You don’t see that? I do agree the larynx idea was under-cooked but hey I had no clue it was Fry, only people who are those eagle-eyed (machete enthusiasts realize a little druid networking under the stairs) people who try to find every continuity error and character flaw would want to deprive them self and other people watching with them of that plot twist >.> and plus it seemed good. Leelu/Leeloo was actually obvious, anybody think the other narwhal had a spin off of Fry as his name? And on another note, what the hell is a narwhal?

Response to Reason #4: :P if you’re going to make a good show why NOT go vaudeville(music) dude,,, Scrubs, Simpsons, Family Guy, Clone High, (the list goes on). But yeah Leela’s singing scene sucked, and the Neptune/Satan-Santa’s workshop song wasn’t good (as in it was done before), I love Kwanzaa-Bot though (his best moment was this quote “Naww, I gotta go and finish passing out these books,” holds up book titled “what the hell is this religion” KWAZAANG!

Response to Reason #5: Yeah there were too many references but to me, they made the movie feel more homey, awww look at that I remember seeing that in a previous episode, how cute :D. There was also the whole Box networks and HeadOn spoof (props to Wikipedia) those weren’t referenced from other movies but from real life my friend, REAL LIFE! You know Gregabread, the place outside World of Warcraft, where you take walks, watch movies, read books, etc… plus half of the references were from real life and half from the series

Response to Reason #6: TOTALLY! those like what 12 puns at the beginning of the movie killed my funny bone’s appetite, the jokes that are far between(in a good way), the WHOLE HeadOn thing, the theme of this movie in my opinion “SCREW YOU FOX NETWORKS!” because I mean hey, would you want to have to create a 30th century Fox logo at the end, I know I wouldn’t, would you like getting canceled after being one of the most popular shows on fox, not as good as Simpsons, but better than other shows, I know I wouldn’t, would you like getting a smaller budget at first? I know I wouldn’t!

something incredibly uncommon in the actual show.

again, ‘cmon Gregabread!, roughly 90 minuts in comparison to 22 minutes, GET A WATCH!

Hasn’t Bender always been with the whole “kill all humans” thing?

Except one man, except one.

There was a movie? Why haven’t I seen the movie? D:

Sounds like someone needs a hug, though :P

Hi grampa! I need hug!

I will say what massage(do you mean message?) he was trying to get across in one sentence: Futurama Movie sucked.

how’s about we all pretend we know what Gregabread was trying to say :D I think you should find out if he mega-loathed the movie or was just annoyed by it, because I think if he wanted them to die, he would’ve done it himself by killing the TV

Yeah… like I said before:

Yeah… this may be a bit of subject to what you were saying, but they payed a lot more attention to the storyline than they did to the actually humor.

When did you say that?

Because I would’ve jumped out of the bushes, said “Screw you!” and then clotheslined your ass. Because did you pay attention to the storyline,,,? I really doubt you saw the fact that Benders were constantly, from the first time, going back in time and stealing precious artifacts, I doubt, you realized that 2 people would have needed to go back in time(to 2 different places) and put the tattoo on Fry’s ass, not 1. I doubt, you saw that Hermes must have been killed once before had he been really doomed

Did Hermes ever die in any of the episodes? (Was it the age reversing tar episode? I’ve never seen that one.)

but there was barely any humor surrounding that episode

There was plenty of humor surrounding that episode. In fact, there’s a huge difference between Bender trying to kill Fry in that episode and Bender trying to kill Fry in the movie: In the Warecar episode, the motivation for Bender’s killing spree was actually funny. You may recall that as the Warecar, Bender is programmed to kill his best friend. When he tries to kill Leela, Fry is jealous and upset. Then near the end of the episode, when Bender turns on Fry and attempts to kill him instead, Fry is happily celebrating Bender choosing him as his best friend while he runs for his life. The premise is funny, much unlike the premise of the movie.

Amazonians? They are not villains, Gregabread you do realize they frequent at D.O.O.P. meetings :P. You lose! :D death by Snoo-Snoo does NOT make them villains. You must remember Fry and Zaff’s smile-frown faces…

Okay, so they weren’t exactly villains, but they still served as the antagonists/crisis of the episode, and they served as this in a humorous manner, much unlike the villains of the movie.

Yeah there were too many references but to me, they made the movie feel more homey, awww look at that I remember seeing that in a previous episode, how cute :D

Comedy Central shows an episode of Futurama every day, and the DVDs are readily available. If I want to revisit old jokes, I’ll just watch the episodes where they were actually funny.

There was also the whole Box networks and HeadOn spoof (props to Wikipedia) those weren’t referenced from other movies but from real life my friend, REAL LIFE!

Merely referencing something in real life doesn’t count as a joke either. The reference needs to make a statement about something or exercise satire for it to qualify as even an attempt at humor.

The show was great, the first of four new movies sucked. I don’t care why it sucked, it sucked that is it.

I did not read everybodys whole posts, but it was missing some of the magic from the old episodes. Hopefully they found it for the other 3 movies yet to come.

Edit: Hang on…lovable scamp? Hasn’t Bender always been with the whole “kill all humans” thing?

No, that’s only used as a joke regarding his dream. Bender doesn’t really want to kill all humans. There are several instances in the show when Bender goes to great lengths to save the lives of those around him, showing that he does actually care about his friends (“downgrading” episode, robot planet episode, “Bender God” episode, etc.). His character has always had far more innocent recklessness than actual evil.

No, that’s only used as a joke regarding his dream. Bender doesn’t really want to kill all humans. There are several instances in the show when Bender goes to great lengths to save the lives of those around him, showing that he does actually care about his friends (“downgrading” episode, robot planet episode, “Bender God” episode, etc.). His character has always had far more innocent recklessness than actual evil.

He’s the sleazy, selfish guy who always turns out to be good in the end.

touché,

The reference needs to make a statement about something

I later went on to say the statement they made was FOX NETWORKS SUCKS,,

I don’t know if you saw that, Mr. Eagle-eye Smith, but that is obviously alluding to fox networks being morons for canceling their show >.>

… exercise satire …

Is it not at all satiristic that a lot of old-timey remedies from traveling salesmen in County Fairs, such as the one where Matt Groening got the idea for Futurama, What did you want it to be titled Gregabread? “Ground up Network Executives of which has 100 uses”?

<blobkquote>Comedy Central shows an episode of Futurama every day, and the DVDs are readily available. If I want to revisit old jokes, I’ll just watch the episodes where they were actually funny.

Gregabread >.> you do realize that by saying that it makes me think you torture yourself by watching reruns for no reason…go find a betting friend who enjoys Futurama

Okay, so they weren’t exactly villains, but they still served as the antagonists/crisis of the episode, and they served as this in a humorous manner, much unlike the villains of the movie.

Wasn’t the real criminal the woman robot? She was also a victim, but I don’t care about that. And you’re implying that the villains in the movie were barely humorous. I disagree Gregabread, doomsday armor? iObey? I got some snickering out of that :P

This last retaliation is a cross explination, one explination will clarify the other,,,

You may recall that as the Warecar, Bender is programmed to kill his best friend. When he tries to kill Leela, Fry is jealous and upset. Then near the end of the episode, when Bender turns on Fry and attempts to kill him instead, Fry is happily celebrating Bender choosing him as his best friend while he runs for his life. The premise is funny, much unlike the premise of the movie.

Auuuugh, Gregabread >:( ,Bender is not the victim, he is afflicted with something that forces him to do what he does not want even though his subconscious mind is affecting the desicion. I.e. would he have the tools to run over Fry if he wasn’t a werecar? No. You are laughing at an imaginary premise because it is not really Bender trying to kill fry.

Bender doesn’t really want to kill all humans. There are several instances in the show when Bender goes to great lengths to save the lives of those around him, showing that he does actually care about his friends (“downgrading” episode, robot planet episode, “Bender God” episode, etc.). His character has always had far more innocent recklessness than actual evil.

But Gregabread D: all his intentions are for naught because he ends up damaging all his “friends” emotionally, even Fry!

Also, remeber at the robot museum? “Bender-Vision”? Leela looked at Fry through the goggles and it read: (paraphrasing)“Sucker: become friends with him then steal his wallet.”

Wouldn’t hovercars be a good thing though? I mean If we could keep the accidents the same(less explosive because obviously hovercars would ASPLODE when in accidents) We would have a 3D plane to drive on.

i agree that the movies were sub par but futurama was meant to be 22 minute television show and not a movie same thing with the simpsons

Tl;dr = Your movie’s bad and you should feel bad.

Originally posted by soulreapermitch:

i agree that the movies were sub par but futurama was meant to be 22 minute television show and not a movie same thing with the simpsons

hey guys i bumped a topic from 2008 im cool now hurr durr

Originally posted by mafefe:

Originally posted by soulreapermitch:

i agree that the movies were sub par but futurama was meant to be 22 minute television show and not a movie same thing with the simpsons

hey guys i bumped a topic from 2008 im cool now hurr durr

qft

This post has been removed by an administrator or moderator

Originally posted by soulreapermitch:

i agree that the movies were sub par but futurama was meant to be 22 minute television show and not a movie same thing with the simpsons

What? the Simpsons Movie was great.

The movie was awesome a great way
to explain different parts of the show

So FU greg >:[

there was 3 movies so u cant so the movie couse u can be talking about any of them

Originally posted by nimbalo200:

there was 3 movies so u cant so the movie couse u can be talking about any of them

I hate you! Season 5.5 was of 4 movies not 3!

I don’t watch Futurama.. ;_;

Originally posted by Fatal_Cure:

I don’t watch Futurama.. ;_;

Why? :,(