Bender's Big Score

Like Family Guy and Jesus Christ before it, Futurama has been resurrected from the dead. After being canceled a few years ago, the series comes roaring back in the form of 4 straight-to-DVD feature-length releases (which will later be divided into 12 half-hour episodes for Comedy Central and Cartoon Network). Also like Family Guy, Futurama sadly makes its return at only about 80% strength. Luckily, while not on par with the Futurama of old, it's still better than anything else on TV at the moment.

The first feature to be released is titled Bender's Big Score, and should hit store shelves next Tuesday. It opens with a nice dig at the Fox network, though it's hard not to think that Family Guy has already made this joke, and made it better. From there is develops into a labyrinthine plot involving internet scams, time travel, and the usual shenanigans of the Planet Express crew.......as well as seemingly every character who even had a guest spot during the show's initial run. The Globetrotters are back to help with the time travel plot, Sarah Silverman makes an appearance as Fry's ex-girlfriend, Fry's poor old dog has a scene, and even Al Gore himself returns. I very much enjoyed this movie, but it felt like the creators were trying to fit too much into one feature. They have 3 more movies to work with, surely they could have saved some of the cameos for those releases instead of trying to jam-pack this one. By the end, it was really wearing out its welcome (which is hard to do, given how much I was welcoming this movie). And despite the title, Fry is the main focus, and Bender doesn't really do much until the 3rd act. Now I know that Fry is the series' main character and thus is always the focus, but the movie shouldn't be titled Bender's Big Score if Bender is going to just be in the background for an hour.

Those are my constructive criticisms. Now for my fanboy review:


It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! It's back!!!!! IT'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT'S BAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!

This concludes the review.