Bender's Game reviews (Spoilers ahoy!)

[Reply #360 on:]

The great things about Futurama and all of the fans are that we can all love the movies and series while disagreeing on why we love them. I had a problem with BBS because it was hard for me to accept that Bender could be controlled by anyone. I think BWABB is my favorite of the movies so far because it shines the light on all of the characters , has the crazy sci-fi aspect, and also has an emotional component. BG had a lot of the craziness that I love with Futurama but lacked the emotional depth that makes some episodes classics. Ken Keeler is writing the (hopefullly not) last movie and even if this is Futurama's swan song I know that it will be going out on a high note. With Ken writing the upcoming installment we can expect emotional depth, craziness, and at least one fantastic song.

[Reply #361 on:]

Woo hoo,

BG finally arrived today (and I'm really glad I didn't wait for the local release here in December or whenever) and based on a couple of viewings I'm happy (and relieved) to say I really liked it. As a once avid (tabletop) role-play AND fantasy fiction fan, I'd have to say I didn't notice particularly many 'in' jokes but in a way that's probably a good thing.

At present I'd have to say I agree with the

BBS
BG
^
^
BwaBB

crowd, ratings-wise.

And to everyone who thinks otherwise I say

Show spoiler

Peace, Love, and Mung Beans. 

[Reply #362 on:]

What was interesting about Bender's Game was that fact Wernstrom and Mom dated and it's implied Walt and Larry are perhaps their kids.  I wrote a fanfic a few years ago implying that as well.

http://futurama-madhouse.com.ar/fanfic/crossovercrisis6.shtml

I have an idea that some of the writers may have read a fanfic or two and taken bits and pieces to use in the movies.  The Discipline Collar on Leela is simular to one used on her in one of the very adult fanfics that resides on another site...

[Reply #363 on:]

one of the very adult fanfics that resides on another site...

not that you'd know anything about such things, aye ralph?

[Reply #364 on:]

Knowing Ralph, he probably has all dirty Futurama fan sites bookmarked for quick reference.

[Reply #365 on:]

Knowing Ralph, he probably has all dirty Futurama fan sites bookmarked for quick reference.

Hot keyed to numpad.

[Reply #366 on:]

Knowing Ralph, he probably has all dirty Futurama fan sites bookmarked for quick reference.

Yes.  Your point? 

Knowing Ralph, he probably has all dirty Futurama fan sites bookmarked for quick reference.

Hot keyed to numpad.

Not yet... 

Ralph "Perveyer of Fine Filth" Snart

[Reply #367 on:]

Wanted to start out by saying I am new to the forum, what is up everyone.

In my opinion BG has been the funniest of the three movies.  I agree with what an earlier poster said about BwaBB having a more emotional aspect, and I do love that in the episodes, but BG made me laugh out loud at least twice as much as either of the earlier movies.  And as a disclaimer Luck of the Fryish and Fry's Best Friend (two very emotional episodes) are definitely two of my favorites.  But this movie just had a very good set up for comedy.  Putting Bender back in the asylum is comedy gold, from Roberto to Mad Haterbot to relaxation therapy, I was laughing the whole time.

I'd also like to say that I didn't like BBS very much at all.  The villains were such a turn-off in the episode for me, no redeeming qualities and constantly on screen.

[Reply #368 on:]

Ralph "Perveyer of Fine Filth" Snart

And that's why we love you.

Might know the one you're talking about.

[Reply #369 on:]

Ralph, if you meant to spell "purveyor" like that, that's a fine little piece of wordplay.

I agree with what an earlier poster said about BwaBB having a more emotional aspect

A more emotional aspect?  Polyamorous multiuniversal tentacle molestation?

I have an idea that some of the writers may have read a fanfic or two and taken bits and pieces to use in the movies.

I knoww, I said that myself to someone a while ago and have wondered about it a few times. I've felt like a number of things have been in the movies which seem more like something out of [mostly bad] fanfics; and to me though that hasn't really been a good thing.
Plus, the overall general pandering to fanservice.

[Reply #370 on:]

A more emotional aspect?  Polyamorous multiuniversal tentacle molestation?

Lol, if Japan has taught us anything, its don't get raped by the tentacle monster!

Plus, the overall general pandering to fanservice.

Long as it sells I don't care too much, movies are about making the $$$ to bring back the show, once they come back I'm sure they will go back to what made Futurama so great!

[Reply #371 on:]

I must say that I'm glad that the writers didn't have Leela take her anger and frustration out on Fry.  As a matter of fact, she and he seemed to work pretty well as a team.

It was funny that he was trying to get her to calm down in the shower, she grabbed him and screamed, "REDNECKS!"

Ralph, if you meant to spell "purveyor" like that, that's a fine little piece of wordplay.

I intentionally misspelled the word.

Might know the one you're talking about.

The one over at TTP's?

[Reply #372 on:]

It was funny that he was trying to get her to calm down in the shower, she grabbed him and screamed, "REDNECKS!"

You can't ever let the rednecks win... EVER! Plus Fry probably didn't mind.

[Reply #373 on:]

The one over at TTP's?

Yes.

You can't ever let the rednecks win... EVER!

* Frisco stands in front of Pennslyvania flag and hums Battle Hymn of the Republic.

[Reply #374 on:]

The one over at TTP's?

Yes

I personally know the author.

I know.  I really need a life.

[Reply #375 on:]

I must say that I'm glad that the writers didn't have Leela take her anger and frustration out on Fry.  As a matter of fact, she and he seemed to work pretty well as a team.

It was funny that he was trying to get her to calm down in the shower, she grabbed him and screamed, "REDNECKS!"

I think that's my favorite joke in it.

In the first half of the movie (the anonymously better half of the movie), I'd have to say that Leela won it over. And that's a pretty big deal, since Leela (and almost all female characters) usually aren't too funny and aren't the best subjects for comedy. And Leela's one of the most serious characters on the show.

You can't ever let the rednecks win... EVER!

* Frisco stands in front of Pennslyvania flag and hums Battle Hymn of the Republic.

[Reply #376 on:]

I personally know the author.

We both do.

I know.  I really need a life.

What's wrong with the current one?

All right, I liked BG, but here's my main beef...

Show spoiler

After Leela goes through all the pain the collar gives her, there's no character development resulting from it. And she starts to enjoy it? Please.

There needed to be a scene at the end, where the collar comes off, and she gets a reason to go ballistic. Perhaps Zoidberg goes "Hooray. Now, enjoy some of the fluids from my celebration gland!", and sprays her with a sticky pink fluid. Her eye narrows and she whirls at him, fists at the ready - and the crew collectively gasp, thinking Zoidy is about to be made into crab cakes - but then she stops, calms down, and waves her finger at him, "Dr Zoidberg, that's not polite! Don't do it again!". She's still angry, but hasn't gone completely hippy either. She has her temper under control.

There. Short and simple scene, and character evolution. Why not?

[Reply #377 on:]

Because that's the lamest thing I've read all day?

[Reply #378 on:]

Ya im going to have to agree with  nixorbo on this one, why is that even worth talking about?

All right, I liked BG, but here's my main beef...

Stop playing with your meat its grossing everyone out.

[Reply #379 on:]

Because that's the lamest thing I've read all day?

I'm perfectly willing to listen to reasoned arguments of why you don't agree with me, shouts of 'lame' will be dismissed.

Stop playing with your meat its grossing everyone out.

And I'm accused of lameness? 

[Reply #380 on:]

If I want to watch an afterschool special I'll watch an afterschool special.  Your specific example was trite, preachy, and completely out of character for Leela.  The dialogue was stilted and unrealistic.  The only part I found believable was Zoidberg's spray and only because that has become cliche.

[Reply #381 on:]

Man Nix, did you wake up on the wrong side of the game controller this morning?

El has a point, the Leela shock-collar arc could have been used to add growth to her character.  Maybe not in the "After-School Special" way that El mentioned but it was an opportunity that was not utilized.

That's my opinion and should be yours. 

And probably already is.

Ralph "poking the mod with a stick" Snart
You do know that I say that with love?

[Reply #382 on:]

I was kind of disappointed that they didn't really end the collar story at all. I mean they didn't even take it off at the end of the movie. I forget, did she have it on when the Nibblonians were pulling the ship at the end? Either way I can forgive it because of how great the rest of that story was.

I think it actually would have made more sense character wise for Zoidberg to have taken the collar off only to have her whale on him anyway. Considering the fact that it stoppedd hurting her after awhile (quite the opposite actually) she essentially beat the collar.

[Reply #383 on:]

Your specific example was trite, preachy, and completely out of character for Leela.  The dialogue was stilted and unrealistic.

All right, so the example was crap. Doesn't mean that the idea is too.

I could have come up with something better - but this is the BG comment thread, not the fan fiction thread. My point has been made.

Frisco - yes, she is wearing it in the last shot she's seen in...

[Reply #384 on:]

As someone who grew up in New Zealand (Hi, El-Man), most of our TV programs came from overseas*, primarily the UK and the US. One thing that struck me about a disturbingly large number of the American shows was their propensity to smack you about the head and neck with a moral. It felt like there was some requirement to ram it home again and again, as if no one had an attention span of more than five minutes.

I even think that Godfellas suffers a bit from this when, at the end, the God-nebular-computer-being-thingy reprises its line about doing things properly. [Aside: compare that ending to the ending of Love and Rocket] But then its all just my opinion.

Anyhoo, I'm glad that they didn't feel compelled to resort to the sort of ending that some people around here (Hi, El-Man) seem to favour. [shudder]

* And still do, actually

[Reply #385 on:]

Hi, Hobbitboy.

Well, perhaps if you'd tell me what sort of ending I seem to favour, I'll tell you how close to the mark you are. But I don't like preachy moralistic endings either. 

(NB - if you're basing this opinion on five short sentences it took me a minute to write, and which I've already admitted is a crap example, you're probably going to be wrong...)

[Reply #386 on:]

Seriously I wasnt being mean earlier I was just saying that it didnt bother me. I think there were bigger issues than that.

[Reply #387 on:]

   Anyway, Im a Trek geek and have never played D&D - will it appeal to the rest of us never got into the D&D scene?  (This isn't a trick question - Futurama is nortorious for making "in" jokes that make sense to people with a background to the thing being joked.)

So, do you think they did a good job of avoiding the sort of 'in' jokes in Bender's Game that would require an extensive knowledge of D&D and/or fantasy worlds to 'get'?

   Well, perhaps if you'd tell me what sort of ending I seem to favour, I'll tell you how close to the mark you are.

Well thanks for the offer but I'll pass. I like to think that if I felt I needed to know something from someone I'd ask them, but then again maybe I'm just deluding myself in this regard. Who can say.

   (NB - if you're basing this opinion on five short sentences

I'll take your word that it was five but 'yes' I was.

   it took me a minute to write,

Yes, again. (Though, of course, I didn't actually know how long they took to compose. In fact the time issue didn't occure to me at all.)

   and which I've already admitted is a crap example,

I had read your later reply, so 'yes' to that too.

   you're probably going to be wrong...)

I agree, both with your conclusion and with your reasoning. The limitations of human communication, in conjunction with the distorting effects of a communication medium such as this seem to virtually guarantee that some significant degree of misunderstanding and/or outright error will occur, especially under the conditions that you laid out above. I am well aware of this and I thought you were too. I apologise if that assumption was unwarranted.

[Reply #388 on:]

After careful consideration, this patronising troll will be ignored. We now return you to the thread subject.

[Reply #389 on:]

OK, saw BG.  Liked it and definitely laughed out loud at many scenes, although I agree that the LOTR parody was oddly shoved in there.  I once had a chance to meet DXC last year and asked him about the movies, and he told me that BG was based on a concept hatched before the original series' cancellation.  I think the LOTR parody is an old idea they really liked but never found a means of using it, and so managed to shoehorn it into here.

I agree with SO, JBerges, and others that you can't take a cartoon show too seriously, and I'm fine that the new Futurama isn't "perfect" in the sense of continuity, character consistency, etc (not that the series was perfect in these respects either).  I'm not angry about it because, first, I'm a recent convert, and second, I know DXC and crew had a very tight schedule and budget to output, so I expect to see the quality improve the next round, if there is a next round.  In terms of just plain humor, I think BG is getting close to the series.

I do sympathize with those who have an unsatisfied feeling with the movies, though, because the original series did  have some form of continuity (unusual for a animated comedy) regarding the "Nibbler/Mighty One arc" and the "Fry/Leela" relationship that I thought was both clever and emotionally honest, and now both arcs seem to have been blown out of the water and/or abandoned.  Oh well.

This may be the world's latest review of a futurama movie!  Yay!

[Reply #390 on:]

   After careful consideration, this patronising troll will be ignored. We now return you to the thread subject.

Aww, you're no fun any more.

[Reply #391 on:]

How about checking out this fun Bender's Game. This widget has a Genetics Lab Game that allows you to combine two Futurama characters together to create a new character.

 http://www.ilovebender.com/widget/

 

[Reply #392 on:]

I was so irritated with "Bender's Game," I finally got around to seeing what everyone else thought. In my opinion, this was not only the worst of the three movies but, the worst thing that has come out of the series. Futurama is one of my favorite things in the world and I couldn't have gone into BG with more enthusiasm but it was terrible.

-First off, the Leela neck shocker was just a rehashing of Bender's emotion chip but not nearly as funny (since when is her character defined by anger above all else?).

-Second, they somehow managed to make Bender's trip to the HAL Institute more depressing than funny.

-It seemed fairly clear that instead of trying to make one long movie like the others, this was geared toward separate episodes only barely connecting to one another.

-I'm sure the entire Nibbler storyline and problems with that have been discussed to death (plus that's more of a technical issue).

-Instead of expanding more on the D&D aspect of the game, they turned it into a LOTR parody.

-None of the characters felt like themselves in that somehow I didn't care about them in this like in the past, the two biggest examples being Leela and Mom. Leela lacked almost an semblance of the way she used to act/react to situations. Meanwhile all of a sudden the only joke they could think of for Mom was her slapping. It is hilarious in the episodes but was totally overused in BG (reminded me of some Family Guy bullshit).

-The way they were sent into Bender's imagination world made absolutely no sense. Part of the beauty of Futurama, as I'm sure you all know, is even when wacky things happen, there is a semi-reasonable real world explanation or at least a made up explanation that is plausible (even with this being a "dream" they could have done almost anything to have this make sense). How would trying to remove Bender's chip trigger some sort of warp into his mind (why would he be transported there and just because he's thinking about everyone else they get transported there?).

-They also disregarded any storyline that had been established in the last two movies (the most noticeable being Kif and Amy).

I feel that if they would have chosen any one of the separate story lines (excluding Leela's collar) they could have made a ten times better movie. It was way too chopped up and I found myself actually forgetting meaningless events that had occurred only a few minutes prior. Every event in Futurama normally means something but they had way too many throwaway side stories (demolition derby).   

BBS - 8/10
BWBB - 7/10
BG - 5/10

I pray to god that IWGY brings it back. I honestly feel years from now, BG will be considered the Halloween 3 of the series. Don't get me wrong, it was still Futurama so I liked it for that reason. But, otherwise I was very upset.

[Reply #393 on:]

Watched BG again last week, and I liked it better the second time.  Leela's collar was supposed to indicate that every character on Futurama gets harrassed, punished, etc.    All these negative reviews for BG, I could understand it, but it seems like fans are losing faith in Futurama because of BG.  I'm sure ITWGY will be the best of the best.    And the thing about Leela getting harrassed by rednecks the dame thing happened in that episode Parasites Lost.  Also, they were harrassed by alien rednecks in Bendin' In The Wind. 

That reminds me, when is the last Futurama movie supposed to be released? 

[Reply #394 on:]

Hello all,
I've been intentionally avoiding this thread untill I had a chance to see "Bender's Game."
Well, I finally did. There's a lot here to catch-up on, so I've not read every word.

My humble opinion of "Bender's Game?"

Essentially, I think the makers of Futurama have finally hit their stride with the third movie. It's 'rewatchable' unlike the first two movies.
For me, at least, "Bender's Big Score" left me flat. That is, it was almost enough to extinguish my interest in Futurama.
Almost.
"Beast With a Billion Backs," was only marginally better.

But, with "Bender's Game..."
[Bender]
Futurama's back, BAY-BEH!
[/Bender]

After BBS I awaited BwaBB, hoping it would be better.
Having seen BG, I'm genuinely looking forward to "Into the Wild Green Yonder," and if the stars are just so, the rerurn of our favorite animated, science fiction comedy.
I now yield the soap-box to the next malcontent...

[Reply #395 on:]

As has been noted, what I find interesting is how oddly varied the opinions on the movies are.  I actually liked all of them so far, albeit that's not to say I thought they were the best things ever (and I'm fine with that), mind you.

If I feel any true "mistakes" were made, it was doing four movies before getting back to the series.  I realize this was pretty much the only way they could get FOX to bring them back (and they probably will I suspect), but it creates unrealistic expectations.  Not to mention we'd be divided on the opinions on episodes anyway, but in those cases we'd have one every week (or some such).  In this case, we basically have one long episode for several months.  People wouldn't have agreed on which episodes were good and which were bad in the first place...Four movies is even worse :-P

That said, I do agree with a particular concern:  One of the things I've loved about both Futurama and the Simpsons was the continuity (and I am also a practitioner of Rubber Band Reality in comedy under the right circumstances).  When the continuity went away and characters would suddenly die for stupid reasons (Maude pretty much sealed the show's fate for me. I loved the first eight seasons though, especially five...I still watch it, but I don't like it as much) it just wasn't as good anymore.  Hopefully Futurama will never experience the same fate, nor will any further Groening shows if there ever are any.  But who knows.  I do not think this has actually happened so much with Futurama yet, other than it's the nature of movies.

All in all, I must agree that it's sort of wonderful how people can disagree about what they like.  I suppose it gives Futurama a wider appeal, even if it doesn't seem like it at times.

Granted, this is coming from someone who had a fangasm when I spotted both members of the Powers family and Krusty's father in the Simpsons Movie, not to mention seeing Seymour on a shelf in Futurama (I suspect that one is more widespread among people).  My opinion may vary.

[Reply #396 on:]

.... and here

[Reply #397 on:]

That's uncanny.  And far, far more entertaining to stare at than it probably should be.  Seriously, this post took about five seconds to type, but I was entranced with the image for about five minutes.

...Is that a monkey?

EDIT:  For those curious for more opinions, my dad likes Bender's Game the best so far, didn't like BwBB, and thought Bender's Big Score was okay.

[Reply #398 on:]

Oh, nice. I thought someone would just comment on how inappropriate it is to post a picture of a book here. But I felt too lazy to take two pictures, and upload them both.

I think that's a monkey, certainly look like one, but I haven't started reading it yet.

[Reply #399 on:]

I watched it again and I found it more humorous and better than last time  Like when Leela is like: "I've never felt so alive!" but Fry has two holes in his stomach and  is coughing making a sick sound Also when Bender is so scared he vomits bolts