Futurama: Bender's Big Score [DVD]

In a nutshell I liked it and it is a worthwhile buy for any Futurama fan.

However it isn't amazing. The format doesn't quite translate from a half hour tv programme to a 1 1/2 hour film. The writers evidently tried to cram as many of the minor characters in as possible which in some ways is a good thing but characters such as Robot Santa and Al Gore perhaps were given bigger parts than they should have been at the expense of say... Luur.

That said there are many laugh out loud moments and the plot while ludicrous is no worse than many in the TV series. A very welcome return for a much missed show.

Being a massive Futurama and Simpsons fan I was a little concerned as to whether this would suck-diddly-uck as much as the Simpsons movie did. Trust me, it didn't.

I think I only managed a couple of laughs with the Simpsons movie, but Bender's Big Score had my wife and I laughing out loud many, many times.

I agree with the comment about there being too much Hermes - please kill him off, he's awful (hence the 4 stars). Other than that it's great. The story hangs together well (no plot holes), which makes me wonder if it was a little too complicated for some of the reviewers on here!

Anyway, if you're a real fan of Futurama you should love this film, you'll definitely want to watch it again.

Like many, I adored Futurama when it was on TV, and like many, I was heartbroken when Fox cancelled the series in the underhanded manner that it did, so the news that it was coming back in direct to DVD movie form was very very welcome, and thankfully, this movie manages to maintain the series' high quality.

Taking place 2 years after the end of the series(and taking place in the year 3007), Bender's Big Score doesn't so much have a plot as it does a series of plots running concurrent to each other, like several episodes of the TV show running at once almost, but each one getting an equal amount of focus and importance. The 'central' plot(if you can call it that) concerns a group of nudist internet spammers conning Professor Farnsworth into signing ownership of Planet Express over to them and their increasing greed as they discover that Fry holds the key to time travel(in a plot point that cleverly ties right back into the very beginnings of the tv show and various past plots) and set about using Bender in a scam to steal the greatest treasures of Earth's past.

At the same time, Leela falls in love with an orderly called Lars, much to Fry's jealousy... Hermes is decapitated(Not fatally, surprisingly) and ends up losing his wife... and several other sub plots that tie into each other. It has an awful lot going on, yes, but the manner in which all the plots come together at the end is so superbly and cleverly written that it will have you genuinely intrigued. This is a funny movie, yes, but moreso, it's fantastic plot and sharp writing also make absolutely gripping. At points, you may even find yourself with a lump in your throat, I kid you not.

There are plenty of laughs to be had along the way of course, with some hilarious gags playing off the consequences of time travel and an amusing attack on the Fox network executives that cancelled the tv series repeats throughout the movie. To say more would spoil things, but I can assure you, this IS the Futurama you know and love back on form in spectacular fashion.

Also worth mentioning is the high quality of the animation. It looks just like the tv show, but the animation has improved a bit, but the movie also makes very impessive use of some cel shaded CGI in similar fashion to how the recent 'Simpsons movie' did, and the end result is a visual treat.

I really can't recommend this movie highly enough. There are parts that perhaps drag on a touch(Such as the pre-credits 'we're back' style celebration sequence) but these do little to detract from what is one of the most fun hour and a halfs you'll have in the near future.

Buy it.