david-sarkies I remember watching this film back when I was a kid, and while I knew about Westworld I was never particularly interested in it namely because it was set in the wild west and I really was not a huge fan of the western. Well, I'm still not a huge fan of the western, though there is something interesting about the whole concept, but that is another thought for another time. However, I was interested in Futureworld because that had much more of a science-fiction feel to it, though the only thing that I could actually remember about the film was the holographic game of chess.Anyway, since I have just watched Westworld, and also finished watching the series, I decided that I might relive my childhood and rewatch this film as well. As it turned out this movie was rubbish, and pretty boring as well. It certainly wasn't one of my favourite films as a kid, but it had robots in it, and it was set in the future, so it did keep me entertained for a while. Okay, calling it rubbish is probably a little harsh because it wasn't as bad as some films that I have seen, however putting it up against the likes of Westworld does make it feel very inferior.So, Futureworld is, obviously, the sequel to Westworld, and set a few years after the previous film. The owners of the park have fixed up all the problems, and reopened it, and have invited a couple of journalists to report on the new theme park. Mind you, the fact that the robots have previously gone haywire and proceeded to kill all of the patrons sort of undermined the suspension of disbelief – I simply could not see how a theme park could have survived something like that. Okay, theme parks have survived instances where a ride has malfunctioned resulting in fatalities, however I sort of can't accept it happening in this particular case.While I'm not all that phased about revealing the plot of this film, I won't, just in case you insist on watching it. It is sort of okay, and while they suggest that they attempted not to simply do a remake of the original film, a part of me felt that basically it was, just a lot more subtler. As such there is a lot more interaction between characters, and of course the protagonists are attempting to find out what is going on. As such Futureworld is more like a mystery than a simply sci-fi action film. However, it does drag on a bit, and the scene where the female protagonist dances with the Gunslinger from the first film is simply ridiculous and completely out of place. In the end if you insist on watching it then maybe you will like it, but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to get your hands on a copy.

mattbaxter72 (Spoilers for the movie Westworld. Though if you haven't seen that, heaven only knows why you're watching this).Back in the day, studios didn't really take sequels seriously. It wasn't uncommon for the stars, director and writers of a major hit to all jump ship from the sequel, leaving a bunch of second-stringers to pick up the slack, and the resulting product was almost always inferior. Even by those standards, though, Futureworld is a godawful mess. The plot doesn't really matter, and it's similar enough to Westworld anyway. So let's just list some of the more jaw-droppingly stupid moments in this mess:1) So they're just re-opening the resort, huh? After about 150 people died last time round. And people are just lining up to visit the place? Yeah, I don't see that happening in the real world, somehow.2) Apparently these events where a load of people died are so obscure in this universe that people need a refresher course in what happened, all of two years later.3) If you invite an investigative reporter to your theme park, you can't really act all surprised when he wants to investigate stuff.4) 'Meet me 10 minutes from now in the Hyatt'. On the 50th floor, no less, though Fonda doesn't specify where, in this enormous hotel, he wants to meet his source. He doesn't even ask where the source is calling from - he might have been in LA or Australia for all Fonda knew, but luckily he was at most a couple of minutes away from that hotel.5) Judging by how the bystanders react, a guy being stabbed to death in front of you is perfectly unremarkable.6) So, uh, you're just going to leave the ruins of Westworld like that, huh? Not clear up, or build over it or anything? You're even going to leave body parts lying around? That's just icky.7) The main bad guy is so nice and avuncular that he might as well have 'EVIL' written on his head in neon.8) Good lord, Blythe Danner is useless in this movie. I know it was the 1970s, and attitudes were different back then, but surely she could do something other than stand around and scream helplessly? 9) Yes, robot ninjas are an excellent way to get rid of those pesky reporters. 'Crusading reporters killed by rampaging robot ninjas' is a headline that'll make page 9, at best. No possibility of bad publicity there.10) Should I mention the dream sequence, or shall we just all look the other way in stunned embarrassment and pretend that none of that ever happened? That absurd sequence is the only time that the 'star' of this movie, Yul Brynner, appears in anything other than flashback footage. He didn't act again after this, and I don't blame him.11) Almost none of the movie takes place in actual Futureworld, and you'll see much more of air-conditioning ducts and boiler rooms than futuristic wonders. It's probably because they had a tighter budget this time around, leaving the whole thing looking very, very cheap. In short, this is not a good movie, and not even an entertainingly bad one. It's not unwatchably bad, but if you can get through without using the fast-forward button a couple of times, you're more patient than I am.

Leofwine_draca FUTUREWORLD is a bland, uninteresting sequel to one of my favourite science fiction films of all time – Michael Crichton's WESTWORLD, a movie I can watch over and over again without ever getting bored. This sequel has only one thing going for it, and that's that it doesn't simply repeat the robots-run-amok storyline of the first film. Many sequels rehash the plots of the original movies, but this one evades that in favour of a more complex and layered storyline about an evil corporation's plan to replace the world's leaders with robot versions of themselves.Unfortunately, the execution of this film is diabolical, making it near unwatchable. The script is boring, focus on long, talky dialogue sequences and almost totally omitting any action or interest altogether. The story seems muddled and never really goes anywhere, with the focus being on two of the dullest leads I've seen in a film, a pair of reporters played by Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner. Danner is pretty irritating as the 'sassy' TV host, but Fonda's simply awful – wooden doesn't do justice to just how bland his performance here. The robots express more emotion and acting ability than he does! The story goes from one non-event to the next, never succeeding in engaging the audience's interest. The highlight of the film is a cameo from the original's Yul Brynner, who pops up in a dream sequence. He's quite brilliant, and by far the best thing in the movie, reminding us of the classic scenes he had in the first film, but he's gone before you know it and the film lapses into boredom once more. Other, brief elements include the (very) early use of some computer effects, a brief and tacky action sequence in which our heroes are attacked by a trio of Japanese robots (I don't know what's worse, the appalling fight choreography or the fact that the Japanese are played by western actors with rubbish 'slant-eyed' makeup), a supposedly exciting climax in which the leads come up against robot versions of themselves, and a surprisingly brutal stabbing in a film that's otherwise been made for kids.B-movie stalwart John P. Ryan (IT'S ALIVE) plays the role of the evil scientist behind the project, but he seems wasted in the part and doesn't even get his comeuppance in the climax. Instead, this seems to try and be a conspiracy type thriller in the style of something like COMA, where the hero is the only person who believes that something sinister is going on and nobody else ever believes him. Unfortunately, unlike that film, it falls flat.

AaronCapenBanner Peter Fonda & Blythe Danner play two reporters who attend the re-opening of Delos, the amusement park that went haywire in the first film, resulting in many deaths. Fonda has been warned that there is still something wrong at Delos(He helped break the story of "Westworld" in the first place). Once inside, everything looks impressive and safe, but soon they discover that there are indeed sinister things going on, and with the help of a technician(played sympathetically by Stuart Margolin) are determined to expose a far-ranging conspiracy that threatens the country...Yul Brynner also returns(sort of) as the gunslinger.Quite interesting and entertaining sequel has some good ideas and nice direction by Richard T. Heffron, good performances, and a satisfying finale.