Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Into The Wild Green Yonder is the fourth and final installment in the series of direct-to-video Futurama movies, all of which are scheduled to be cut up into quarters and be broadcast as a "fifth season" on TV. While it's a decent enough episode in its own right and provides an poignant conclusion to the series, it demonstrates the difficulties (not insurmountable, but significant) in adapting Futurama's blend of witty satire, sci-fi action and character development to a feature film.
The first quarter of the movie shows our heroes enjoying a vacation in the New Mars Vegas, recently developed by Amy Wong's wealthy parents. The whole chapter is lighthearted, enjoyable and plants two seeds of the main plot -- Fry gets injured in an accident and gains telepathic powers, while Leela becomes upset at the extent to which the construction is destroying the environment. From here, the main story arcs develop: Leela joins an eco-feminist collective devoted to saving a violet dwarf star and planet and becomes a fugitive; Fry joins a secret society and learns that that the violet dwarf system is a key element in a cosmic struggle for the fate of all biological life in the universe; Bender teams up with Zapp Brannigan and initiates a crucial plot twist. The final scenes tie up a long-running thread in the Futurama saga and provide a touching (yet not excessively sentimental) conclusion to the Futurama series while leaving open the possibility of future adventures.
The massive, epic nature of the movie (a consequence of the feature-length format, as well as the writers' desire to go out with a bang) is responsible both for the strengths and the weaknesses of the episode. On the one hand, the characterization throughout the movie is very strong. Placed in stressful, completely unfamiliar circumstances, our heroes act in ways that are true to themselves for the most part without being overly predictable or coming off as caricatures of themselves. The artistry is impressive as well -- many of the shots of outer space are breathtaking, the opening Sinatra-themed number is a hit, and alert viewers will recognize the return of some of the moving musical themes from a previous movie. The writers and creative staff manage to take an epic adventure and make it connect with the viewer on a personal level.
On the other hand, the sci-fi content of the movie is sloppy and heavy-handed, with little of the nuance and subtlety of Futurama's previous ecologically-minded episodes. In addition, the satirical wit and goofiness that is the hallmark of the Futurama franchise gradually peters out about halfway through the movie -- the jokes don't disappear as such, but most of them are exhausted running jibes, while the genuinely clever lines and gags are unable to lighten the mood of the episode, making portions of the film feel tense and grim. It's clear that Futurama can become imbalanced when forced to adapt to the more massive, slower-developing story arcs of a feature-length film.
While this movie is certainly a mandatory purchase for devoted Futurama fans, who will appreciate the positive elements of this movie and be willing to leave the rest behind, novices are advised to start with the original series (or perhaps Bender's Big Score) before delving into the rest of the movies. As for the future of Futurama, the writers still seem to be capable of producing fresh ideas, and the events of Into The Wild Green Yonder leave several issues open as fodder for future releases (Twentieth Century Fox has just confirmed that Comedy Central has ordered 26 new episodes, to begin airing in 2010). Despite the unevenness of the movies, there's plenty of reason for optimism.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009)

FUTURAMA:INTO THE WILD GREEN YONDER - Blu-Ray Movi

Get 54% OFF

Click here for more information about Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009)

Futurama: Bender's Game (2008) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This movie is completely independent from the other two films, with everything back to normal at the beginning of it from when the last ended. It's pretty easy to follow along for thsoe who haven't seen the other two, or even the rest of the series. As others have mentioned, this movie takes on a D&D / Lord of the Rings feel to it as it explores the fantasy realm, but it's nicely explained as to why it happens that way. Everything seems to blend together well in this movie (the various subplots set up at the beginning join together). The movie also refers back to the original series and explains various things: a possibile origin between the Farnesworth-Wordstrom rivalry, more on the Mom-Farnesworth relationship, Nibbler being picked up off Vergon 6 as it implodes (and why it does implode), and a few other things. I think all of these add to what's known in the Futurama universe without taking away from anything, and fits very well in to what is already established.
I really enjoyed the movie, probably more than the other two movies. The one thing I didn't like so much about the DVD were the features. I didn't find them all that exciting. I enjoyed seeing how to draw the characters, and the genetics lab was somewhat interesting (but limiting). Everything else wasn't bad, but just seemed a bit short.
Features:
-Movie Commentary
-Storyboard Animatic for part one (~ 20 minutes)
-Futurama Genetics lab (you can choose two characters and see what they look like merged- but only for a small number of characters)
-Dungeons & Dragons & Futurama (~ 7 minutes, explains D&D references in the show)
-How to draw Fry, Bender/Flexo, Leela, & Zoidberg (~ 8 minutes)
-3-D modeling of various ships in the series (~ 5 minutes)
-Deleted scene (only one)
-"Blooperama," outtakes from the movie (~ 2 minutes)
-Bender's Anti-Piracy Warning
-Trailer for the fourth movie: "Into the Wild Green Yonder"
The packaging I got my DVD in was the cardboard "carbon neutral" packaging, in which the disc is put into a cardboard slit. I went out and bought a CD envelope to put in my box instead of using the slit.
The box did contain 4 Futurama postcards: giant Bender and Zoidberg (from the Anthology of Interest), Fry and Leela running away from aliens attacking, an ad to "Keep your robot clean" and a generic "The future is today, worry about it tomorrow." Even though these were mostly put in to advertise that these images were for sale in paintings, I kind of like the extra of having postcard-sized art ("One 'art' please").

Click Here to see more reviews about: Futurama: Bender's Game (2008)

With fuel prices skyrocketing, the Planet Express crew sets off on a dangerous mission: to infiltrate the world's only dark-matter mine, source of all spaceship fuel. But deep beneath the surface lies a far stranger place... a medieval land of dragons and sorcery and intoxicated knights who look suspiciously like Bender. So park your hover-car and saddle up your unicorn for Futurama's grandest adventure yet: BENDER'S GAME!

Get 54% OFF

Click here for more information about Futurama: Bender's Game (2008)

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)While I'm a truly devoted Futurama fan, I'm not one of those condescending supergeeks who claim to love Futurama so much that I have the authority to tell everyone else how virulently they're supposed to hate anything even slightly different than my favorite old episodes. (That's right, you heard me.) I'm ecstatic that Futurama has returned from the dead, and I totally loved "Bender's Big Score." But this new Futurama flick disappoints. Most of what we know and love about Futurama is still here in spades, but this flick suffers from a poorly-developed plot and a degeneration of the show's formerly deep and subversive humor.
The 88-minute format is either too long for a compact and focused plotline, or too short for the type of complex story the producers appear to be striving for. The story here jumps around at a very awkward pace and shows signs of severe over-editing. The jokes have been reduced to Family Guy-like asides played for cheap guffaws rather than deep thoughts. (The caped superhero is an unfortunate example, and Bender's firstborn son is a very unfortunate example.)
Many holes and inconsistencies in the storyline show that plot construction took a backseat to the more easily written sight gags and cheap asides. (Here's an example that hopefully won't be condemned as a spoiler. Late in the film the new Yivo character says he [sklee] sent an image of himself to artists in our universe, but most of the story is built on the idea that Yivo thought he was alone in all universes.) The fundamental story has also trumped the longstanding strengths of the show. The personalities of Fry and Leela (and important supporting characters like Kif) are inconsistent, Bender has been demoted to an unworkable subplot, and Zoidberg does little more than vomit for simpleminded laughs. There are also many missed opportunities for building upon the cliffhangers left from "Bender's Big Score."
You can rest assured that the great Futurama animation, music, and voice acting (the actors have always been the show's unsung heroes) won't disappoint this time around. But the writing will. Certain fans may or may not like the basic story, but the bigger point is that everyone will notice the careless and unprofessional defects in the story. Hopefully this flick will just be a temporary misstep. Console yourself by remembering once again how lucky we are to have Futurama back among the living. [~doomsdayer520~]

Click Here to see more reviews about: Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)

The thrilling conclusion to Futurama: Benders Big Score.Bender and the planet express crew must contend with a massive cosmic team that sends the world into panic.

Get 37% OFF

Click here for more information about Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)