MST3K 3.0 is here!

Discussion in 'Media Central' started by NAHTMMM, Nov 10, 2015.

  1. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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  2. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    First episode was pretty good, pretty solid. Not an instant classic on the level of the S11 or S12 premieres, but I'm left with a warm, content feeling that we're still in good hands. Two or three riffs that really got me good. A few Lou Costello wheezing noises would have been appreciated. The wrestling trash talk skit was a classic example of the bots just being bots.

    The new intro is host-agnostic so they don't have to change it depending on who or how many they have for human riffers. Felicia has pulled a Janeway and gone from a bun to short, down, and loose. The lobbies of the virtual theater aren't what I expected but they look good. Actual movie-watching visuals are good, choice of whether you want to see the whole theater or just the screen or just go full-screen with the video.
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  3. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    Oh, I remembered the thing I forgot!

    When they're showing a sample of the plaques of donor names, there's Matt Blackwell in the corner. He's one of the big names from early online MSTing, perhaps most notably the keeper of the archive of Ratliff MSTings for many years. So he's still around. :)
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  4. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/makemoremst3k/posts/3499338

    Santos premiered for non-backers yesterday, Robot Wars tonight, Beyond Atlantis tomorrow!

    I thought Santos was solid but not an instant classic like Mac and Me or Reptilicus, although I was sleepy when I watched. The first short for this season was also good with a few great lines.

    There's also a curated selection of classic episodes available for May only, with special extras promised to be attached to them. King Dinosaur, btw, gets my vote for second-worst movie they've riffed, don't watch that and expect the movie to entertain you.
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  5. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    Not sure what possessed someone to think they needed to cross Airplane! with the assault on Hoth, but barely any robot wars is a little more entertaining than barely any Mexican wrestling. Also Crow gets in a quality "You look, I'm bitter." :techman:
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  6. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    So Katy and I are 7 episodes into the new season and all caught up on the shorts.

    Emily brings some fun "newbie" energy to the room, she goes :shep: sometimes when the bots get a little crazy but she's game and she's starting to stick up for herself. I'm still adjusting to her Crow's voice.

    The episodes have all been pretty decent to good. Munchie is probably the closest to an instant classic so far, but it kinda overlaps with Cry Wilderness and Mac and Me in my headspace so it'll be interesting whether it gets overshadowed by those two when fans talk about favorite episodes in the future.

    The shorts have been mediocre to good, mostly. The 20-minute meal was my favorite until the most recent one, the fish reproduction one, dropped. Now that one's gonna be considered a classic. The tennis ball factory short is my one big disappointment in the new show so far. Watching the filmstrip was kinda interesting, but I suspect the riffing gameplan started and ended with "have Emily yell BALLS at the screen a few times".

    Tom used to be my favorite bot. Crow kinda overtook him for the duration of the Netflix years, but Tom made up the ground this season and then shot ahead with his beautifully executed E.L. Konigsburg reference during the Doctor Strange knockoff movie.

    Speaking of -- the writers are back to pulling references from whenever, now that they aren't on Netflix and trying to draw in the young crowd by focusing on 2010s internet references. I like it this way.

    They're having some fun with the "Synthia's Selects" premise for the vault picks. They could have just released old episodes on a monthly basis and us non-completionist fans would have been happy, but they do opening and closing bits with Synthia talking to one of the other cast and a new host segment in the middle. (Plus a host segment to advertise one of the "founding" sponsor businesses. Those tend to be a bit eh.)

    I'm pretty dubious about how much Pearl has mellowed out for this season, but it's just a show and I should really just relax. She's about to take Kinga on a vacation anyway, maybe something will cause her to snap and become the old Pearl again.

    I, uh, actually thought Demon Squad was pretty well done for what it was. :calli: Granted, there was nothing one could call an actual demon-fighting squad, but you can tell effort went into giving it a plot and some dialogue and acting, and I've seen far worse effects in professional movies. If the cinematography were a little better and the rest of it was polished another notch . . . :shrug: It may be the Final Sacrifice of nuMST3k.

    All in all I'm pretty happy so far.
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  7. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    So Mega-Synthia scared Synthia away from hosting the Vault Picks and is doing it herself this month. I watched Monster a-Go-Go and she does a great send-up of Synthia's intro style but I think she's supposed to be completely serious. CHIT-CHAT ACHIEVED levels of camp. Good fun. The toddler didn't know what was going on but he found her funny. And then her credits are her trying to google how to do credits followed by rage. Great stuff.

    I've seen people say they can't even watch Monster a-Go-Go and I can understand why, it's genuinely such a bad movie (not entirely its own fault -- it was unfinished until someone bought it up and finished it themselves on a shoestring budget, hence it feeling like four movies smashed together). But the riffs are so quotable and of course there's the classic "Johnny Longtorso" bit and Gypsy not getting Crow.

    Everybody in this show had so much chemistry back in the day and it shows even through the silly robot puppeteering, the extra little bits that flesh out the sketches. Every time I think of the "Crow, I don't get you" sketch, I remember Tom's little "yecch" as he comes onscreen and sees what Crow was working on. Just a throwaway grunt and it punches the whole sketch up so much. The relaunch is great but sometimes the sketches could really do with more little bits like that.
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  8. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    So we finished The Bubble, which is up there with Munchie for best of the season. It's nowhere near the worst movie they've done -- I'd actually say it's pretty good for being a low-budget Twilight Zone reject -- but I can see why the riffers would be frustrated with the cycling between a few sets, and why they would compare it to Manos. But the episode does have a pretty serious flaw, in that, well . . . they pronounced GIF with a soft G. Took me a moment to understand what they were saying.

    Anyway, it's been a good season (still have the Christmas special to go) but I don't think they're back up to the standards of the Netflix seasons yet.

    The bits they add to the vault episodes are still amusing. Playing around with the credits on those depending on which of Pearl and her clones is hosting has been a pretty funny bit.
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  9. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    Watched The Christmas Dragon. It's another highlight of the season for the riffing and the big escape sequence at the end (spoiler comment below). We also finished the shorts, Mary Jo and Josh's turn as riffers was the best of the lot. I had been saving "Mr. B Natural" for a special occasion so this re-riff was the first I'd actually watched it. Wow. I've got the original riff in the shorts collection from one of the Kickstarters so I guess that's next on the list for comparison.


    I guess there's a bot-hosted wrapup of the season yet to come, and then we'll see what happens next. It's been a pretty good season, though like I said maybe a little below the Netflix seasons (though we've usually been watching late at night when I'm sleepy), and I think they've got the dynamics and formula figured out to where they can keep producing quality MST3k moving forward as long as the money keeps coming in. My wish for the future would be that they bring back dynamic camera work for the host segments, but I suspect those backgrounds are greenscreens so that might be a reach for their budget.
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  10. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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  11. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    Word is that Joel is waiting until the writers strike is over to do a Season 14 Kickstarter.
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  12. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    https://showmaker.mst3k.com/makeseason14

    Kickstarter . . . well, funding drive . . . is up and going!

    They're shooting for 12 episodes + 12 shorts + upscaling 36 classic episodes is what I guess they're doing?

    Between COVID and apparent problems with the shipping company of choice, a lot of backers got frustrated last time with how long it took to get the physical rewards (we only got ours within the past month or two), so the physical rewards will be simpler this time. They're doing the smart thing and offering lapel pins. Those millennials love them some lapel pins, so I hear, although from what I've seen in shops lately maybe they should have offered Croc pins too.
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  13. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    Big names for the next season: Battle Beyond the Stars, Deathsport, and Plan 9.

    Unfortunately the total $ is dragging. I think Joel underestimated how much the strike would limit word getting out. We can always try again if need be.
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  14. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    I'm more than happy to drop some $$ for this. I've actually never seen Plan 9.
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  15. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    12 episodes is not bad.
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  16. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    Rifftrax covered Plan 9 already. There are definitely far worse movies out there, but Plan 9's flaws are very amusing and easy to see.

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  17. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    I'm currently watching the turkey day marathon on YouTube. Beyond Atlantis just started.
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  18. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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  19. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    What I love about MSTK is that they introduce me to movies I would never watch otherwise. Example, Moln ZeryTwo. Yeah it’s a cheesy movie, but, you know what, I like it anyway.
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