Review of Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009) by Dave C — 03 Jul 2009

Into The Wild Green Yonder is the fourth and final Futurama feature. After one masterpiece and two enormous disappointments, I was very skeptical going into this one, and with good reason. Bender's Game flat-out sucked balls. Thankfully, ITWGY is a big step up from Bender's Game.

For starters, I actually found myself laughing again. There are many moments that are smile-worthy, while others are gut-busters in their hilarity. Question is, is it up to the usual Futurama standards? Well, no. It's still disappointingly half-hearted, but it's much funnier than what we've been given the past two movies.

The good news is, the story is refreshingly timely, as opposed to the overly weird Billion Backs, and the overly shitty Bender's Game. It's got a good, strong message about the environment, something Futurama is good for. The problem is that it's dragged out over 90 minutes. It would have been perfect as a two-part episode, but for 90 minutes, it just drags. It took a while for the humor to get started, but thankfully it got funnier as the episode progressed.

Much to my delight, the Fry and Leela love story has finally made a comeback after it's baffling omission in the last two flicks. I'd be lying if I didn't get a little choked up at the end of the movie. Still, I wish they'd developed it a little more. Like the humor, the love story was handled a little half-heartedly. For a longtime die hard fan like myself, I was very happy to see how they wrapped it up at the end. Still, I was left wanting more.

Conflicting stories that I've heard say one of two things. Either this is the last we will ever see of the Futurama gang, or this is just the end of the first new batch of episodes, with a return to television coming in 2010. Obviously, I'd love to see more episodes so they can properly wrap up the story, the characters, and most importantly, Fry and Leela's story. If this is the last I will see of these guys, I'll be a little disappointed. The ending to this movie is kinda beautiful in a way, and the very last thing that happens is a nice way to go, but I can't help but feel like more adventures await for the Planet Express crew. The Devil's Hands are Idle Play Things, as seemingly forced as it may have been by Fox, is a stunning, beautiful, and tear-jerking final episode, and nothing will top that for me. Until the gang at 30th Century Fox say "we have more coming," that will remain the final piece of the Futurama puzzle in my mind.

Okay, I'm rambling. The main thing is this - Into the Wild Green Yonder is funny, and a huge step up from the last 2 Futurama epics.