The Militant's Review: 'The Simpsons Movie'

So The Militant got to go see The Simpsons Movie after all on the evening of opening day at The Arclight. As a self-professed Simpsons geek, it was more of a cultural event than anything else. The movie was funny and entertaining, though the Militant was expecting a little more, even noticing that nearly all of the subplots were done in previous episodes in some form or another (though that might have been intentional as an homage to the series...but after 18 years of episodes, storylines have become cyclical), overall the plot (which also was somewhat derived) stuck to Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie as the primary characters with most everyone else more or less delivering least one token gag. The producers used the movie format to not only show a little more on the sides, but to get away with more kinds of humor or references on the bigscreen with a PG-13 (Or is that a SPIDER PG-13?) than they could even do on FOX.

But back to the cultural experience, it turned the usual adventures of Our Favorite Family (which is normally enjoyed alone or with a living room full of family or friends) into an even larger, communal experience, with hundreds of people laughing at pretty much the same gags you are. That in itself is worth the value of the movie alone.

The Militant gives The Simpsons Movie 8 out of 10 clenched fists.

And oh yeah, Mr. Burns dies at the end.





(Just kidding).