A lot of potential gone to waste

Rating: 5/10 (26 July 2007)

The Simpsons used to be the best show on television by far. This was a time when the stories weren't wacky, the homages to other shows/films didn't take up half the episodes and Homer was just someone who "wasn't that bright". Over the years Homer degraded into someone who was there to be stupid and get hit on the head with slapstick becoming the main form of humour. This film actually starts strongly with some big laughs early on but as soon as the story moves into the Dome section everything goes wrong. Most of the humour and plot has been done before in episodes (especially Homer having an epiphany and the townsfolk turning on the Simpsons). The Simpsons has a wonderful supporting cast of characters but absolutely NONE of them are used for more than a few lines. Instead it focuses on Albert Brooks' Cargill character. I'm a big fan of Albert Brooks' Simpsons appearances but here he uses pretty much the same voice as he did for Hank Scorpio (to the point where I thought he would pull off a mask to reveal he was Hank Scorpio). There were some scenes for the fans (such as the brief glimpse of Trillo and the wreck of the ambulance by Springfield gorge from season 2's Bart the Daredevil, but me and my 4 friends all agreed that the the film wasn't as funny as it should have been and in fact the last hour was simply dull as we'd seen it all before in various episodes.