Futurama - Bender's Game [2008] - DVD (Billy West, Katey Sagal - Dir: Dwayne Carey-Hill)

The third of a series of four planned Futurama spin-off TV movies, Bender’s Game follows Bender’s Big Score and Beast With A Billion Backs, and comfortably sits alongside them. It’s good, and it’s sometimes very funny, but is unlikely still to be regarded as vintage Futurama.

The plot of Bender’s Game takes the regulars on a mission that soon sees them in a strange land, which bears a striking resemblance to something out of Dungeons and Dragons or Lord of the Rings. This isn’t, as you’d expect, the safest place to be, and thus the scene is set for lots of genre gags that are, at their finest, hard to resist.

On the downside, the pacing is a little off this time round, and it takes Bender’s Game some time to hit its stride. The quest part of the movie doesn’t kick into until well over half the running time is up, and while there’s real ambition in the narrative, it does demand some patience.

But still, even if this isn’t top notch Futurama, it still packs in plenty of belly laughs, and squeezes more entertainment into 84 minutes than many movies get close to in two hours. You still yearn for the tightness of the TV show format, but the quality of the writing just about drags Bender’s Game through, leaving us thirsting for the fourth, and potentially final, movie. --Jon Foster

Customer Reviews of Futurama - Bender's Game [2008]

Samadhi

24th November 2008

Don't listen to the bad reviews - this is the BEST Futurama film!!
After reading the mixed reviews on here, I wasn't expecting all that much from this latest Futurama movie (why is it that we're always more liable to believe the bad reviews than the good?!). I enjoyed Bender's Big Score but was mildly disappointed by The Beast with a Billion Backs...so was a little concerned that this would be another disappointment. How wrong I was! People can moan all they like, but the bottom line is that this is definitely the most entertaining and FUNNIEST Futurama film yet. I laughed more at this than the first two put together. It's a gag a minute with some delicious parodies of Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons-type fantasy worlds. This one has definite potential for re-watching and, unlike the Beast with a Billion Backs, I look forward to watching it again and again. Lots of hilarity, particularly from our friend Zoidberg and Mom, who is one of my favourite Futurama characters! Loved it!!

big blue pete
edinburgh scotland
23rd November 2008

muddled ideas and a poor script- is it time to call it a day on Planet Express?
Live action movie directors know that you cant throw everything into a script and expect it to work, the characters need to react to cause and effect and it would be prohibitively expensive. In animation however you can do anything. Futurama often thrived due to inventive plots littered with pop culture references that stayed true to the motivations and traits of the cast. The movies so far have not been great and the plot of Benders Game is guilty of trying to involve everything that the writers thought might be visually funny or interesting- for reasons of length rather than quality. This makes for a very muddled and increasingly unsatisfying viewing experience. Im a big fan of Futurama which was occasionally brilliant in its 22 minute format. As a movie its yet to work and each time its the same. Too many characters, not enough focus on writing good script and muddled unfocused execution. If the program tried less to appeal to what it assumes Comedy Central viewers expect and instead went back to what it did very well by breaking the longer format up into 4 clearly separate episodes with a too be continued cliffhanger broken with a comedy interlude then it might work. I await the next movie if there is one with even less enthusiasm than this one.

NW
Gotham, USA
20th November 2008

Better than last time, but still a bit hit and miss
I loved Bender's Big Score, but wasn't nearly as hot on Beast with a Billion Backs. Bender's Game is at least a step back in the right direction, but it also has a lot of the same problems as the previous movie, chiefly a lot of gags that just seem to misfire horribly(The entire extended Lord of the Rings/Dungeons and Dragons parody sequence around which the marketing for the movie is based felt laboured and unnecessary for one, despite a couple of nice scenes), and the movie again has no central 'character' plot like the Lars plot from Big Score yet again, unless you count Leela's 'anger management' plot, but that's a tad too comedy centric to be genuinely moving in any way.

There is a lot to like though. Bender has some great scenes, and there's a hilarious George Takei cameo at the start and the character dynamic feels like it works a lot better this time around, with believable, consistent, and most of all, amusing exchanges between the cast throughout. Honestly though, I think i'd have liked a couple more guest stars thrown in, as those seem to work out fairly well in these movies.

Overall, a step in the right direction despite a few stumbling blocks getting in the way. Still not quite up to the standards of the original TV series though, sadly, but you'll still have a great time.

mpack30

17th November 2008

I liked it.
I can't really understand all the negative reviews here: you can almost hear the comic book guy from the Simpsons declaring it "worst. episode. ever".

The first Futurama movie didn't quite work for me. Entertaining, but it seemed like the writers were struggling to fill the feature length, and chose to fill it with so-so material which would have been cut on an ordinary show (eg. the early "Fox executives themselves fired" joke dragged on far too long).

The second was much better, particularly the first half (the Steamboat Willie spoof, the Deathball scenes, Disco boogie).

The third one may be slightly less entertaining than the second, but still has more laughs than you'll get from just about any show still on TV!

So, ignore the naysayers. Buy it and make your own mind up.

Gripeycat

13th November 2008

Actually, getting better
Curious mix of reviews here, but I found that this is actually probably the best of the feature length Futuramas so far, and especially welcome after the rather uninteresting second installment, Beast with a Billion Backs. Yes, the plot does meander a bit, but the jokes come rapidly and most hit home.

I suspect enjoyment of this may depend on just how nerdy you were as a teenager...