Review of Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008) by Dave C — 12 Jul 2008

Ahhh, Futurama... It's my favorite show of all time, and like most great shows (Arrested Development, Firefly), Fox chose to cancel it, because hey, catering to the moronic general public is what they do best. Also, it was a very expensive show... But I digress.

Last year, the show came back to life in the form of the first of four feature-length epics, Bender's Big Score. My expectations were understandably high, almost too high, but in typical Futurama fashion, it completely blew my expectations away and then some. It was one of my favorite movies of last year, and my anticipation for the sequel grew, thanks in part to the awesome cliffhanger ending.

Unfortunately, my favorite show has disappointed me for the first time. Billion Backs doesn't suck, but it doesn't really do much good either. It's neither side-splittingly hilarious or heart-achingly poignant. It just sorta is. It's very singular in the Futurama universe, both in its story and execution.

My first gripe was that I was hoping for some sort of continuation of the story that we got in Bender's Big Score. While the focus of the movie is the giant rift in space, it just feels almost like an afterthought when the movie begins one month later. Where are the after effects of the beautiful reveal involving Fry in Big Score? It's not even touched upon, and that was probably the biggest story-related disappointment. It's going to feel even weirder to TV audiences watching the episodes back to back. Futurama's occasional moments of drama were its biggest draw for me, and it was nowhere to be found here.

The story is incredibly weird, and is unlike anything I've ever seen. I've never studied religion, but it almost feels like a parody on the story of God, just based on what little I know. Maybe later, someone with more schooling on religion can help back me up. Either way, as awkward and strange as the story is, it was pretty interesting. Weird even for Futurama standards, but still somewhat engaging.

Futurama is of course hilarious. The writing is sharp and spot-on as usual, but the humor is lacking in general this time around. Some things they do simply aren't funny, which is a shame. The writers are falling prey to the Family Guy disease of self-referencing itself constantly. It works at points (The Grand Midwife makes a pretty funny return), but most times it falls flat and feels forced (another Charleston Chew reference?). There are a few moments of utter genius sprinkled throughout, but it's simply not enough.

Overall, it just feels like the writers got lazy. The first movie was a triumphant return to form, whereas this feels less inspired than anything they've ever done. The fan service was fine in the first one since we all craved it, and also because it worked brilliantly while also working well with the hilarious and awesome story. This time around, it just felt like they needed to get the rest of the nods to the fans out of the way. It almost cheapens the greatness of some of them (Pazuzu you ungrateful gargoyle!).

It's still funny, just not Futurama funny, and therefore, a huge disappointment. Liked it, but didn't love it like I wanted to.