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Futurama - Into the Wild Green Yonder

Yoda

Yoda

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
I thought it was pretty lame. The feministas were omnipresent and unfunny. Just like the previous 'movies' it had a bad combination of disjointedness, wannabe epicness, and checklist cameos.

I really think Futurama worked much better in 20 minute standalone chunks covering smaller more personal stories. I always found Fry reacting to all the weird/wonderful things in the future, especially things the future dwellers found mundane to be some of the best material in the show. I don't get any emotion out of 'zany save the universe adventures'. Everything about these direct to DVD efforts just feels like they're forcing 'big' stories.

That of course could be somewhat forgiven if the jokes were spot on. I won't say I didn't laugh at all, but it wasn't consistent enough. There were no new characters that jumped out at me, and all the 'old favorites' felt stale.

Sadly, this direct to disc series is one revival I could have lived without. And I had such high hopes.

I will say that the HD animation looks nice on blu-ray though.
 
I though the first 30 mins were great; the poker scenes were hilarious.

"Bender has been dealt the King of Beers, a coaster from the bar that was mistakenly shuffled into the deck"
 
votd said:
I though the first 30 mins were great; the poker scenes were hilarious.

"Bender has been dealt the King of Beers, a coaster from the bar that was mistakenly shuffled into the deck"
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I haven't seen it yet but I noticed a pattern in the movies. The first one was a time traveling rewrite history mess. However the second and third movies started off really promising and then blew it towards the end. The third one was just weird, let's randomly go to the LotR universe!

It seems they can think up a beginning but can't make it lead anywhere.
 
TheBrew said:
Yoda said:
TheBrew said:
This is a little crass, but my thread as a poll :p

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=82821
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Sorry, didn't see that one. Looked back a few pages, did a title search on Futurama... I don't usually bother trying to start threads.

Oh, but polls are lame :)
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You have obviously not been in a strip club. :p;):D
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Oh dear, now you're adding a 'spelling fail' to your 'thread fail'. Stop, for your sake! :guffaw:

bigdaddy said:
votd said:
I though the first 30 mins were great; the poker scenes were hilarious.

"Bender has been dealt the King of Beers, a coaster from the bar that was mistakenly shuffled into the deck"
Click to expand...

I haven't seen it yet but I noticed a pattern in the movies. The first one was a time traveling rewrite history mess. However the second and third movies started off really promising and then blew it towards the end. The third one was just weird, let's randomly go to the LotR universe!

It seems they can think up a beginning but can't make it lead anywhere.
Click to expand...
I think you're onto something, which might be why they usually cranked out good 20 minute episodes. I think trying to tie a plot together for a solid 90 minutes kind of breaks the show.
 
The main thing any of the 4 Futurama films accomplished was to retroactively make me like the entire series less. The movies are so average, so in the shadow of the show that I watch the films and wonder "Did I really find this so funny to begin with?
 
TheBrew said:
Yoda said:
TheBrew said:
You have obviously not been in a strip club. :p;):D
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Oh dear, now you're adding a 'spelling fail' to your 'thread fail'. Stop, for your sake! :guffaw:
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And yet they were all topped by your "Pun Fail".
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I didn't make a pun. Your pun did in fact fail. If this was an actual in person conversation, it would merely be unfunny, as most puns are. In written form poll does not equal pole, so there's no room for your pun.

Now can you please just discuss how and why the Futurama movies are failures instead of trying to murder the one thread per year I create?


The Evil Dead said:
The main thing any of the 4 Futurama films accomplished was to retroactively make me like the entire series less. The movies are so average, so in the shadow of the show that I watch the films and wonder "Did I really find this so funny to begin with?
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That's an interesting question. But I recently watched some of my Season 1 DVDs and frankly, they're just as funny as always. I crack up watching the "Whalers on the Moon" as if I were seeing it for the first time. Zap + Kif + Sexlexia is still gold.

I guess it's kind of like the Simpsons, I can tune into a new episode, barely laugh (I checked out the HD premier episode, my first episode in years actually), and still go back and recognize how good and funny the show was in some of its early seasons.

With Family Guy, I thought that the revival started off pretty poorly, but actually turned around enough to feel like the same show as the original episodes. Unfortunately after 4 movies, which I guess is practically the equivalent of a whole season, Futurama has shown no signs of recapturing its magic.

If they go back to a series, as has been rumored, I will still give it a chance because I hold the original seasons in such high regard.
 
Yoda said:
TheBrew said:
Yoda said:
Oh dear, now you're adding a 'spelling fail' to your 'thread fail'. Stop, for your sake! :guffaw:
Click to expand...

And yet they were all topped by your "Pun Fail".
Click to expand...
I didn't make a pun. Your pun did in fact fail. If this was an actual in person conversation, it would merely be unfunny, as most puns are. In written form poll does not equal pole, so there's no room for your pun.

Now can you please just discuss how and why the Futurama movies are failures instead of trying to murder the one thread per year I create?
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Well, I was trying to make a small bad joke (notice the smilies) and you turned it into an attack. I was being friendly and pointing to the rare thread I started so that some people don't have to repeat themselves from that thread. It is not my fault that you are unable to properly work the search function. If this thread dies, it is because of suicide by the OP.

As for the Futurama movies being failures, they are far from it. As I pointed out in my thread, talks have begun for a new full season of Futurama. They have been generally well-received over-all and have exceeded financial expectations.

In content, they have run the gamut from being great (ITWGY and BBS) to good (BWBB) to mediocre (BG). The biggest problems they have faced is that some of them are very awkwardly paced because of the nature that they are supposed to be cut apart into separate episodes. However, they have a ton of great moments from Al Gore and his deadly lasers, to Leela and Fry holding hands as they blast into the finale. To deem them a failure is to be at best a passing fan who doesn't get it. I can understand the complaints, but they don't drag down the movies into "terrible" territory.

Next year when you start a thread, I suggest doing it on something you enjoy. A negative OP leads to a negative thread.
 
Yoda said:
Sadly, this direct to disc series is one revival I could have lived without. And I had such high hopes.
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Well you know what they say "watch what you wish for". Same thing happened with everyone getting their hopes up about a Family Guy. I knew there would be many unhappy fans with this 90 minute movies. I dont think its the format really. Fry is no longer the character out of time. Hes assimilated now in the future so they really cant go that route as much anymore. Even if they chose to do 20 minute episodes you probably still wouldnt be to happy with them. Futurama went out on top and probably should have stayed that way. That said, I think the films are pretty good.
 
The Evil Dead said:
The main thing any of the 4 Futurama films accomplished was to retroactively make me like the entire series less. The movies are so average, so in the shadow of the show that I watch the films and wonder "Did I really find this so funny to begin with?
Click to expand...

I hear what you're saying about the movies --they are fairly average-- but I can't say that makes me like the series any less. I can watch an episode that I've already seen a zillion times and still crack up at many of the jokes. My fondness for the series will never die, mediocre movies be damned! :D

Anyway, I just watched ITWGY -- I have pretty much the same reaction that I had for the rest of them (more or less): watchable, vaguely amusing, but not particularly memorable. I also can't think of any moments that were truly laugh-out-loud funny, and the TV show had tons of them.

The "Botany Bay" reference was nice, as was Fry's line "Yeah, I get that a lot" when told that he is the savior of the universe... and there were some other decent gags as well. It felt a little choppy at the beginning (particularly with that subplot about Bender and the Don Bot's wife that doesn't really add up to anything), but it smoothed out towards the end. I suppose it's one of the inherent problems of trying to make a feature-length film that will later be divided into four TV episodes, but that's a problem that has plagued all the movies to a certain degree, IMO.

I didn't really expect the cliffhanger ending. I'm curious to see what the writers will do with it, assuming we get more Futurama in the, uh, future. Will it take the series' premise in a completely new direction, or will it be a momentary diversion? I'd like to find out -- regardless of my complaints, I do hope to see more Futurama some day. I just hope it's in the format of a new season of the show. The writers have demonstrated their talents many times over on the series, and if it comes back, even for just a little while, I'm optimistic that they can recapture the spirit of the Futurama we all know and love.
 
TheBrew said:
Well, I was trying to make a small bad joke (notice the smilies) and you turned it into an attack. I was being friendly and pointing to the rare thread I started so that some people don't have to repeat themselves from that thread. It is not my fault that you are unable to properly work the search function. If this thread dies, it is because of suicide by the OP.
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My ability to work the search function is just fine. It just proceeded with an apparently erroneous assumption that anyone who had started a thread about the latest Futurama release would have put 'Futurama' in the title.
As for the Futurama movies being failures, they are far from it. As I pointed out in my thread, talks have begun for a new full season of Futurama. They have been generally well-received over-all and have exceeded financial expectations.

In content, they have run the gamut from being great (ITWGY and BBS) to good (BWBB) to mediocre (BG). The biggest problems they have faced is that some of them are very awkwardly paced because of the nature that they are supposed to be cut apart into separate episodes. However, they have a ton of great moments from Al Gore and his deadly lasers, to Leela and Fry holding hands as they blast into the finale. To deem them a failure is to be at best a passing fan who doesn't get it. I can understand the complaints, but they don't drag down the movies into "terrible" territory.
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Get over yourself. I'm not a 'passing' Futurama fan because these movies aren't good. I'm not a 'passing' Star Trek fan because pretty much everything that has aired since DS9 went off the air wasn't good.

Ever consider that you're a fanboy who can't accept that sometimes things you love go downhill?
Next year when you start a thread, I suggest doing it on something you enjoy. A negative OP leads to a negative thread.
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Oh thank you so much for the BBS theory class.

Dar70 said:
Yoda said:
Sadly, this direct to disc series is one revival I could have lived without. And I had such high hopes.
Click to expand...

Well you know what they say "watch what you wish for". Same thing happened with everyone getting their hopes up about a Family Guy. I knew there would be many unhappy fans with this 90 minute movies. I dont think its the format really. Fry is no longer the character out of time. Hes assimilated now in the future so they really cant go that route as much anymore. Even if they chose to do 20 minute episodes you probably still wouldnt be to happy with them. Futurama went out on top and probably should have stayed that way. That said, I think the films are pretty good.
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The Dead Like Me direct to DVD sucked, the B5 Lost Tales direct to DVD kind of sucked, and the Farscape Mini, while I wouldn't say it sucked, it didn't live up to the original material... though in that one maybe Crichton and Fry have the same issue of the weird becoming too normal.

I think that the main problem is just the long break in production between these shows dying and their resurrection, it can just never be quite the same. It's more like some kind of unholy reanimated zombie of a loved one. You know that everything they were is gone, but you can't bring yourself to shotgun them at point blank range in the head.
 
I think that the main problem is just the long break in production between these shows dying and their resurrection, it can just never be quite the same. It's more like some kind of unholy reanimated zombie of a loved one. You know that everything they were is gone, but you can't bring yourself to shotgun them at point blank range in the head.
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I just think it works better as 22 minute episodes, rather than 2 hour movies.
 
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