I can not wait to see it

No, I expected something as bad as the current TV episodes, and in that regard it exceeded my expectations. But "exceeded my expectations" is still a long way from "good". A string of good jokes makes not a good movie.

Oh, and I was completely entertained, and find that - with a Simpsons movie - a string of good jokes is all I want.

I found the first third of the film particularly strong ... particularly because it was consistently hysterical. The jokes stopped coming fast and furious after that, and the film settled into merely "good."


But two-thirds a good and one-third a great = damn fine Simpsons movie, as far as I'm concerned.

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It was far better than I expected. The storyline is like an extended episode but that's to be expected, consider the show has been on the air for almost 20 years. Overall, I'm content.

:)

So it exceeded what you expected, yet you're still unhappy with it....remind me, why the heck did you want to see this film?

My expectations were pretty damned low, so exceeding them wasn't much of a task.

I hoped it would surprise me, and I had to know.

Was the South Park movie that much funnier than a good episode?


That seems to me the fairest comparison ... but I thing comparing any TV-show movie to its source TV show is fair game. In which case The Simpsons Movie is one of the best of the breed, imo.

It wasn't that I was looking for funnier than a good episode. I was looking for something that gave it a reason to exist as a movie at all. Something extra, something that pushed it beyond being just a long episode. Do I know what that something is? Hardly. Hell, after 17+ years of episodes, I'm hardly convinced such a thing exists. Double hell, after 17+ years of episodes, I'm downright certain that there's nothing left to even justify further TV episodes, let alone a movie. The characters have nowhere to go, everything they do is just rehash and caricature.

I thought the first 1/3 of the movie started out strongish, but it petered out quickly. By my math, it's 1/3 a good and 2/3 a poor = should-have-done-this-12-years-ago

In the case of South Park, yes I think they did a good job of moving it beyond just a long episode. Both in terms of the scale of the storyline and the scope of the character arcs. And most importantly, they did it long before they ran out of ideas.

I thought the South Park movie was a lot funnier than any episode that came before it.
They had a lot more freedom to do what they wanted to in the film. The unbleeped swearing was a big one.

I was talking to Chernabog about the SP movie in comparision to the Simpsons movie. The Simpsons creators should have pushed limits (you know, like they used to do) with the film but now they seem to leave it up to South Park to do that...

Well, I think Bart's skateboard ride pushed a limit, and did so with a nod to the iconic title sequence of show. But I admit there's nothing in the actual plot or character arcs that hasn't been done 17 times before.

Of course, my perspective is from someone for whom The Simpsons has only 10 seasons, and has been off my personal air for the last 8 years.



And by way of comparison points ... there have been plenty of TV-show movies I've enjoyed that did not go beyond any plots or character arcs covered on the free TV show.