Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs

At first I thought the movie was going to be as good as "Bender's Game." About the time right after the Madison Cube Garden scene everything went down south. This movie is not worth buying, unlike the other two, and a big disappointment from the first movie.

This outing from the Futurama crew was by far the 'worst episode ever' (thank you Comic Book Guy). The beginning has such promise: interspecies marriage! unexplained phenomena in the sky! Bender getting electrocuted! And then it all goes horribly, horribly wrong. In truth, I can't begin to explain why it's so terrible, since I'm sure many people reading the review will want to buy this movie anyway and I'd certainly hate to ruin the big 'surprise'...however unless you are super keen on seeing all your favorite characters turn into some convoluted chick-flick, sappy version of themselves STAY AWAY from this movie. NOT FUNNY!!!

I was already unhappy with the first Futurama movie, so I didn't have much hope for the second. I was surprised to see that this installment of Futurama is actually two awkward subplots mashed together: Lovecraftian horror for the first half, and a meditation on religion on the second half.

On the Lovecraftian side, throw in tentacle attacks, slimy ancient gods from beyond time and space, and the nihilistic view that Heaven is a fabrication and you've got a pretty depressing, semi-creepy, not really all that funny first half. Bender finally makes good on his threat to destroy all humans, Fry conveniently forgets his entire relationship with Leela, the Robot Devil shows up for a one-note gag ... I could go on but I'll stop there.

Judging by the reviews so far, the second half went over a lot of peoples' heads. Yivo is a parody of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which is itself a parody of religion. Basically, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a mental construct posed to challenge the notion of a divine being; if you can disprove that the Spaghetti Monster was responsible you win the argument. "Win" being a pretty subjective word, as anyone knows who has argued about religion or politics.

As one big joke about relationships and religion, Beast With a Billion Backs works pretty well. But for reasons known only to the writers, the plot shambles forward well beyond the Big Revelation by Leela about Yivo, the aforementioned Spaghetti Monster. It's like the drunk guy at a party who tells a joke, discovers no one thinks it's funny, then tells it in a slightly different way that STILL doesn't make it funny. We get it: relationships with people can be just as ridiculous as relationships with God. But this is Futurama, and while I appreciate the depth of meaning the show strives for with this movie, it feels forced. A multitude of guest appearances doesn't make up for it.

Still, I can't be too harsh on Futurama. You won't find many animated shows that are willing to take on topics like relationships and religion at the same time, so Futurama gets points for trying. I just wish it didn't try so hard.

Ok, I have been a big fan of Futurama and own all of the DVD's, but was very disappointed with the first movie. I thought the story was way too convoluted and simply not funny. I wasn't looking forward to this movie after I read some bad reviews. DON'T BELIEVE THEM! This movie brings it all back home.

Unlike the first movie where it was almost impossible to follow the complex story line, this movie is just like the original series. Its funny and has a great story. Bender is hilarious! You won't be disappointed. Buy it!

I have casually watched the series in the past. Recently, I casually watched a few reruns and started really getting into Futurama. I saw some of Bender's Big Score on TV and then watched the whole movie on DVD.

Of the three, I loved BBS the best. There were a lot of funny jokes and I love how they complexly interwove time travel into the movie. When you watch with the commentary on, you learn of all the thought that went behind this movie (e.g. numbers in the background, how they came up with equations, etc.) which they didn't do in the subsequent two movies. Couldn't watch the whole Hypnotoad episode. Zzzzzz. 5 stars.

The Beast of a Billion Backs was an interesting story but I personally didn't think it was that funny. 3 and half stars = 4 for the story, 3 for the (lack of) laughs.

Bender's Game was funnier than BBB but I'm not crazy about parodies because if you've missed the parodied movie.... In this case, it was the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy. 4 stars.

Still, I am great fan and will purchase the 4 season episodes.