I think the problem is that instead of a lot of actual humor they just went with a lot of pop culture references. In this case Futurama references but it’s still just showing something from the show and essentially saying “Remember __________? Wasn’t that funny?!”
I found it to be pretty average myself. I didn’t hate it or find it to be a betrayal of all that is good about Futurama but at the same time I thought the writing lacked the same zip. I can’t think of one really great line of dialog from the entire film. You know, the kind of dialog that is beaten to death by nerds trying to be funny by proxy like Futurama had before.
[/QUOTE]
I agree. One of the only things I can recall finding amusing at the moment is Zoidberg being a bad doctor. And even that was mostly because I recall the good old season 1 gags. But also it wasn’t actually disagreeable at any point, except for the songs.
[QUOTE=cmkeller]
I enjoyed it. They really did throw in everything but the kitchen sink, didn’t they? I must say, though, that the bit where President Nixon’s head got scammed was telegraphed badly. The Barbados Slim bit was overdone as well.
The Lars matter was well done, I thought. At first I thought I knew, but along the way, they had me convinced that I was wrong, and in the end, what I thought originally turned out to be true. That takes some skillful writing.
One thing that disappoints me - Fry’s temporary return to the 21st century kind of dulls the emotional impact of “Jurassic Bark” and “Luck of the Fryrish” for me. That’s a real shame, as those are two episodes that really set Futurama apart from other sitcoms.
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Don’t forget these are paradoxes. The original episodes were exactly as they should have been Fry never went back, but because of Nudar and his schemes the Paradox was created… yet the flash fossilization happened and… uhh… damn wait that doesn’t make a lick of sense now… Though as confusing as things were I liked how they managed to keep the original Fry from dying due to the Doom factor.
Oh memorable lines… “Don’t get excited folks his nostrils are shaped like hearts… now who wants to see a star?”
Any executive powder anyone.
Well I think that it blows big rancid diseased chunks that it’s not out in the UK until next fucking year. Is there ANY justification for such a delay? Oh yeah, they have to spend all that time dubbing it into a foreign language don’t they? Gah.
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus]
Well I think that it blows big rancid diseased chunks that it’s not out in the UK until next fucking year. Is there ANY justification for such a delay? Oh yeah, they have to spend all that time dubbing it into a foreign language don’t they? Gah.
[/QUOTE]
I hope you don’t think that all those superfluous letter "U"s add themselves, do you?
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan]
Damn Brits! Always mucking about with the English language. You’d think they invented it, they way act about it.
[/QUOTE]
If you don’t behave we’ll unleash our hordes of robot Red Coats on you that we’ve been building as part of our plan to reclaim our Empire under the Sun. The first thing they’re programmed to do is burn all American dictionaries as heretical writings.
I rewatched it again today… I think it get’s better with each viewing now that I have no over the top expectations: Zap’s even shorter Skirt, Amy’s “Anti depressents” and Zoidbergs cheer at being able to deliver them. Bender as the Terminator. Lars and Leela in the bubble. Fry being used as a pen… “And initial there AIIIGH”
Lines are coming to me now
“It’s like looking in a smelly mirror”
“I can’t wait that long the boy needs a big handsom father”
I think this is recent enough not to count as a [Sweet] Zombie [Jesus] [thread]- I bought the DVD over the weekend. I was disappointed initially, since I can’t think of any super-great lines or jokes, but it’s improved some on repeat viewings. I wanted something that matched the very best episodes, but it’s understandable that they wouldn’t reach that level after a long hiatus.
What I did like:
The plot was not just complex, it was stunningly convoluted and still worked* - and they didn’t choose between complexity and emotional content; they got both. While they did ignore the effects of the series finale on Fry and Leela’s relationship, they had Fry grow up in a palpable and believable manner in a way he hadn’t in the series.
Both of the songs were good, and I especially liked the very funky “going to war” song. If I had to pick a favorite line, I think it’s Santa’s “Chestnuts are roasting/I’m gonna open fire.” And Mark Hammill made a great Chanukkah Zombie.
Oh, and I think my other favorite line would be Nibbler’s “I can do more than talk. I can pontificate!”
The Box Network stuff was very funny, and I liked Al Gore’s cameo- particularly his screaming.
For the record, I guess Lars was Fry during the wedding ceremony.
On the other hand, while you want the audience to dislike your bad guys, you may not want them to be so repulsive that your audience wants to turn away and plug its ears whenever they show up. I guess any reaction is better than no reaction, though.
The bigger problem was a general lack of really funny stuff. It’s not that I sat there and didn’t laugh the whole time, it’s that nothing really wowed me. Maybe the involved nature of the plot didn’t give them enough room to goof around.
*The one question they didn’t answer, and I’m assuming they will later, is when and why Fry got the time code tattoo in the first place.
[QUOTE=aktep]
Yes they did. Remember at the end? “None of this will make any sense unless one of us goes back and puts the tatoo on Fry’s ass”
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That’s not what I meant. They did not show when, or more importantly why, Lars got a tattoo of Bender that contained the time code. I’m not saying it’s a big plot hole because the story isn’t over, but the tattoo had to be tattooed on at some point, and we don’t know why that happened. It implies that somebody - not necessarily Lars - knew that all of this was going to happen, and that somebody wanted the time code to be discovered.
[QUOTE=Marley23]
That’s not what I meant. They did not show when, or more importantly why, Lars got a tattoo of Bender that contained the time code. I’m not saying it’s a big plot hole because the story isn’t over, but the tattoo had to be tattooed on at some point, and we don’t know why that happened. It implies that somebody - not necessarily Lars - knew that all of this was going to happen, and that somebody wanted the time code to be discovered.
[/QUOTE]
It’s not a plot hole, it’s a paradox. The only reason it’s there is because someone went back in time to put it there, but why did they go back in time to put it there? Well, because they had to of, or else it wouldn’t have been there.
Time travel is confusing.
You said it. I’m still trying to work out why all the Benders were in the basement. After all, he gets sent back in time and comes out of the basement to return the stuff he stole. So what are all the extras doing there.
(I figure I’ll just have to watch it again and figure it out. Oh woe is me.)
Anyway, I give it a mixed review, with the caveat that even “average” Futurama is head and shoulders above most shows.
I laughed at the opening and the fate of the Box executives, and my pleasure took a dive once they launched the spam sequence. A thousand years of spam and they’re still falling for it?
After that, it went up and down. Some killer lines, then some fallow stretches.
What seemed to help kill it is that they spent a lot of time rehashing the secondary characters and the secondary situations. Remember the Harlem Globetrotters? Let’s bring them back for math jokes. Remember Zapp? He leads the charge that’ll get them foolishly killed. Remember Hermie’s rival? Let’s retread that. Al Gore? Bring him back!
In addition to time travel paradoxes, they had recursive plot paradoxes.
I’m hoping that they got the fan service out of their system and will come up with new stories and characters.
[QUOTE=bouv]
It’s not a plot hole, it’s a paradox. The only reason it’s there is because someone went back in time to put it there, but why did they go back in time to put it there? Well, because they had to of, or else it wouldn’t have been there.
[/QUOTE]
But the start of the paradox isn’t explained, that’s all I’m saying. ''Lars" got a picture of Bender tattooed on his butt sometime between 2000 and 2012, and that tattoo had the time code hidden in it. Why? For all I know it’ll be explained in the next story. It just seemed like a significant omission. The tattoo magically appeared on Fry, and during the course of the movie we found out how it got there. But we don’t know why the tattoo was done on Lars in the first place.