Bender's Game

While Isaiah was sleeping, I watched the latest addition to Futurama, namely Bender's Game.

In this latest installment, a dark matter fuel shortage is hitting the world and Professor Farnsworth knows a way to stop the evil Mom. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

It was a fun ride. I have to admit, the weird fantasy storyline seemed a bit forced on, like they had half a plot and decided to glom on something at the end, but hey, it's a show that features one-eyed sewer mutants, alcoholic robots, and (my personal favorite) lobster aliens who somehow become doctors.

What really has me a little irked, though, is the lack of continuity between the three new movies. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum here.

So at the end of the series, it appeared as though Fry and Leela were finally going to be together. At least, that seems to be what they were building up to, especially given the last few moments of the show. And then "Bender's Big Score" came out and everything was forgotten. Leela is all hot for Lars and she shows little interest in Fry. Well, until the end.

While the anomaly from the end of "Bender's Big Score" does feature prominently in "Beast with a Billion Backs," little else carries through. Fry suddenly forgets about Leela completely to go out with some weird bimbo (I forget her name). Given the way the first movie ended, that seemed a bit off to me.

And now, in this movie, there's no mention of Fry and Leela's disfunctional romance. No mention of Amy or Kiff. To put it bluntly, I expected better continuity.

That's not to say that this wasn't a fun ride. It was. But a little more effort to blend all the stories together (or, at the very least, explain away these relational hiccups) would have been appreciated.