Futurama: Bender's Game

Matt Groening had spawned another winner with Futurama: Bender's Game. I would had never viewed Dungeons & Dragons as being that imaginative. I played Dungeons & Dragons when I was much younger, but did not possess the imagination that Bender displayed with that version. Bender was accused of not having an imagination at first, but when he finally grasped one, Bender could not separate fiction from reality. Frankly, I would had settled for Bender's version of "reality" because at least there were surprises at every corner. Sometimes surprises are better than the same mundane ruts we had forced ourselves into. The final battle between dark matter reminded me so much how we are dependent upon oil from foreign countries. At least the professor was smart enough to create another crystal that would eliminate dependency on dark matter when they were within a certain range of each other. I would certainly play this version of Dungeons & Dragons, mainly for the creativity and most importantly, for a more positive outcome for the world today. Futurama: Bender's Game was certainly worth the viewing pleasure and with Matt Groening at the helm, you cannot miss.

Bender's Big Score still remains the best of the series, displaying all of the emotion, intelligence, romance, and fun of the rest of the series into one feature film. However, whereas I was disappointed with Beast With a Billion Backs (which was the perfect demonstration of why Futurama is at its best not when it's funny, but when it tells a good story like it did in BBS), I was very impressed with Bender's Game. It missed out on the emotion of the first film by a mile, which is why it's not nearly on the same level, but it is still a marvelous love-letter to the fantasy genre and role playing games. Very funny and very entertaining, with Amy on Leela action that will have the fans salivating while they role their 12-sided die, Bender's Game is not quite the impressive feat that the first film was, but is a return to form after the disappointment of BWBB. Let's hope the final film tops them all.

I have been impressed with the other Futurama 'films' (for wont of a better word), yet none of them achieved what this one did, the main thing I look for when watching the Futurama cartoon: laugh out loud comedy. And this has that - though not wall-to-wall, it contains enough clever plot writing to satisfy the most adamant of cartoon fans. The CGI far excels the majority of former episodes, although Futurama has always enjoyed a very shiny veneer of pure 'cool'. The character development was handled with far more maturity than in the previous longer installments, and focused on characters which were previously overlooked. In addition, the popular culture references were intelligent, amusingly accurate and, above all else, integral to the plot. No part of this film felt unnecessary - every moment of the outing felt it was necessary to the overall shape of the piece.

In conclusion, this is by far the best longer-addition Futurama produced to this day. In fact, I'm only sad I saw an advanced viewing, because now I have longer to wait for the next production! The writers have proved they can provide fresh material and give it to the viewers in a non-patronising, intelligent but not pretentious manner.

Bring on the next installement!

Bender plays Dungeons & Dragons with the kids to prove that he has an imagination but it drives him into the nut house. Leela gets challenged and enters Planet Express in a demolition derby. The Professor puts an electric collar on her for damaging the ship. She has to convince Dr. Zoidberg that she is cured of her anger issues before he takes it off. Mom is driving up the price of dark matter but there is no actual shortage. Professor reveals he's the one who worked on dark matter for Mom. The crew needs to find a missing crystal which would neutralize all the dark matter. Then Bender's overactive imagination sends everybody into a D&D alternate reality.

Nibbler's story recap is great and I like the crew's battle with Mom for the most part. Although I still don't like the scheme to neutralize black matter. I also don't like changing reality midway through the movie. I would rather have the whole movie be in an alternate reality or not do that at all. There are other minor quibbles but the cast of characters is still great. It's fun no matter how weird things get.

Well, I guess the show finally abandoned the sappy romance and got in joke-after-joke mode. That's... kinda what I wished for, and it's still good, but a lot of the jokes aren't Futurama style, but more of a pop culture parody. Like when Leela says that "Sex and the City - now that's funny". Really? Oh well. Mom's sons acting like the three stooges was also kind of stupid. The writer, whoever he is, did better than the 2nd movie, but again, that doesn't say much. The social comment on gas prices and ecological fuel and whatnot, was covered already for a moment in Bender's Big Score, and that's where it should've stayed. Also, there is the whole "going into a fantasy world" plot hole. How? So, the two crystals combined, and how exactly did the new fantasy universe got there? How exactly did this come out of Bender's imagination? Never explained. Whatever.

Now don't get me wrong, the movie was fine. And that's it. It wasn't sap-filled like the first, it wasn't total bullsh1t in the scenario department like the second, but still they can't seem to hit the perfect balance. Smart, true Futurama jokes, consistent storyline and some, but not too much Fry-Leela relationship.

Futurama movies so far: 1st movie: too much love. 2nd movie: crappy story. 3rd movie: lost of jokes, but most hit-and-miss. 4th movie: Hopefully perfect.