A parade of obviousness

Rating: 6/10 (12 December 2007)

No, this wasn't a very funny movie. Let's see how did they manage to mess this up: The style deviates from the TV show even more than the new episodes deviate from the style and spirit of the golden era episodes. For example, the humor was much more "mature" (i.e. childish). The TV show I loved never resorted into cheap stuff like that. That integrity was something I always respected about The Simpsons, even though I do love mature humor as well.
Another example of a dumbed down joke is the President Schwartzenegger character. Why not President Wolfcastle? Not obvious enough? Similarly, many classic characters were wasted. Yet they had to introduce new characters and move the plot outside Springfield. It is also remarkable how they manage to make the absurd cartoon world unbelievable. The glass dome thing wasn't very believable even though I could believe Mr. Burns blocking the sunlight (who was also almost absent in the movie). In hindsight, I think having Burns as the evil character would have worked much better because he is an established character, not just a new face with a celebrity voice.
The plot is a typically convoluted Simpsons plot that tries to mimic the hilarious randomness and unexcepted twists, failing miserably much like most new episodes do by emphasizing the wrong parts. It's not funny when Homer does something really, really stupid. Constantly. It's not interesting if the Simpsons suddenly decide to go to Alaska and do something there. They already went everywhere. Similarly, it's not very interesting to watch Homer and Marge doubt their love for the zillionth time.
It is interesting though, that people even thought a Simpsons movie could be a success quality-wise. The show simply did everything at least once and it was funny. Then it did the same things for the second time (with celebrity guest stars) and wasn't very funny anymore. Then the movie came, wasn't very funny and pretty much did the same things yet again.
The song was also over-hyped, even though the musical number was visually the most interesting thing about the movie.