Review of Futurama: Bender's Game (2008) by Emily B — 11 Mar 2009

The movie is divided essentially into two parts that are related only very very loosely. The main plot involves a dark matter monopoly by Mom and the Planet Express Crew's attempt to stop it. Also, Bender is addicted to D&D, but that's only an excuse to bring about the second section of the movie: a parody of D&D/LotR worlds involving all your favorite characters as different characters! I never found this concept funny. Ever. I thought it was lame when they did it with the Wizard of Oz in Anthology of Interest 2, and I think it's lame now. It's only barely related to the story (they're pulled into Bender's imagination), and the plot abruptly stops as it begins, and, unless you think it's funny every time a Futurama character introduces themselves as a character from Lord of the Rings, so do the laughs. Nobody knows what their goal is and the whole thing becomes pointless. Only one thing that happens in the D&D world has any effect on the actual world once they get out, making it painfully clear that they just wanted to shove a tribute to the late Gary Gygax into their movie. That's nice and all, but I wish they hadn't, because everything except for the D&D section is great, and I think it brought it down. Luckily, there's more of it than there is of the D&D section, so the movie ends up mostly great. One disconcerting thing, though, is that in the last two movies, Bender has been really annoying, and not all that evil. He's become my least favorite character, which is bad.

Anyway, it's definitely worth a watch and the beginning makes up for the D&D bit.