MST3K Season 12: Ah, go marry your sister!
I’m just gonna go ahead and say, at risk of being irritating, that the invocation of the phrase “running the gauntlet” annoys me. Yes, I know that’s the modern accepted usage. It still annoys me. I’ll leave it at that.
General thoughts on this season: Surprised it was so short, though I understand why it was shortened; I like that the jokes were spaced out more, but sometimes the delivery still felt rushed/unnatural. A good selection of movies. Specific thoughts, keeping in mind I didn’t completely binge-watch the series but was still pretty tired:
Mac and Me: I was fascinated/horrified to see this title on the list, knowing it was infamous. I’ve never seen ET. I know that’s terrible. But it did allow me the advantage(?) of assessing this movie in isolation. It was dorky and bizarre. I always have trouble judging what are clearly kids’ movies though, as aren’t they all pretty dorky anyway? The explosion near the end and the riffs on it were hilarious. Pretty nice!
Atlantic Rim: I saw this called the weakest movie of the season, but I found the riffs on the sheer ridiculous bro-ness of it and the unlikability of the alleged protagonist on-point enough to be quite funny. I never saw Pacific Rim either. I’m sure that’s dreadful.
Lords of the Deep: You know a movie is bad when you find yourself rooting for the character who’s killing all the other characters. Best part of this one: The Shape of Water jokes. (I did see that one.)
The Day Time Ended: This thing was so weird. No coherency to the plot... well, no plot at all really. Still, the weirdness might have had some entertainment value if the effects weren’t so bad. Best part: cute small girl.
Killer Fish: I kind of zoned out on this one. The combination of waterside antics and heist plots vaguely reminded me of Catalina Caper, which I always found pretty dull too. I guess at least this one didn’t have musical numbers? Except the song the ‘bots sang, which was great.
Ator: This one was an odd choice for the lineup, since Rifftrax riffed it already. However, it’s a fun movie, so I’m not too annoyed by that. Jokes were funny, but actually I think some of Rifftrax’s were funnier (and I find Cinematic Titanic and the original MST funnier than Rifftrax). Best part of this one is just the movie itself, the cheesy 70′s fantasy-ness of it and Ator’s just... weird relationship with his wife.
I miss the original Tom Servo. The new one just doesn’t feel the same.