Rank-A-Gauntlet

[mrmeadows]

Okay, so now that you've survived *dramatic hands* "THE GAUNTLET", how do you rank the experiments?

Here's my rankings based on my first viewing:

1. MAC & ME - Have to admit the ridiculous movie did the heavy-lifting here, so this was put on a tee for them, but they took every advantage. I had never seen this movie before, and had no idea it was as full of WTF moments as it was! That was a wild finish. Great episode.

2. KILLER FISH - This one seems to have split fans, but I loved it. Perfect movie for the show, with a great 70's has-been cast and a beyond-silly plot. Sure, the song in the theater may not be kosher to most MST3K purists, but I was willing to go with it and thought it was an enjoyable curveball.

3. ATOR: THE FIGHTING EAGLE -- This one had such a strong start that it was hard for them to keep it going for the length of the movie, but there were still enough great riffs sprinkled along the last half to make this a strong entry. Glad we finally got to see the first installment of the Ator films get the MST3K treatment.

4. LORDS OF THE DEEP -- This one had a strong open, a strong finish, but a saggy middle. I give them credit for doing anything with this claustrophobic movie, staring at the same uninspired set and wooden actors for 80 minutes. Not a lot to work with until the goofy monster shows up, but they did a decent job.

5. THE DAY TIME ENDED -- I had high hopes for this one, and it definitely was an odd duck of a film. But Just. So. Boring. Their riffing may have been okay, but the movie was absolutely crushing in its dullness. I will note that I did watch this late at night right after finishing Lords of the Deep, and that after a very long day of holiday driving, so I may have just been too wiped out to enjoy it (I did fall asleep briefly at one point). So this one has the most potential to change in the rankings once I watch it again with fresh, more alert eyes.

6. ATLANTIC RIM -- I was one of the few who defended this choice of movie, but now that I've seen it I think the naysayers were right. This kind of movie just doesn't really work. I don't know why, exactly. It wasn't that it was too self-consciously bad, or too tongue-in-cheek, because it wasn't. It was just bad in a strangely "polished" way. I can't put my finger on it, but it just didn't click with me. Some of the riffing was fine, but the movie didn't really give them much to work with.

These rankings may change after I go through the eps. a second time, but these were my first impressions. Kinda sad to think this might be it, unless Netflix decides to grace us with a 13th season.

[Shark]

1. Lords of the Deep
2. Killer Fish
3. Mac and Me
4. The Day Time Ended
5. Ator
6. Atlantic Rim

The Good: as I’ve said in other threads the invention exchanges and host segments were really great this year. Hugely improved acting, writing, pacing, characters, set, camerawork. I liked them working the new ‘bots into the show.

The Bad: The loss of the commercial bumpers and host segment is sad. The editing of the movies - there’s no excuse for this. I wish the writing for the in-theater segments would improve and be more consistent. I’m really getting sick of “Watch out for Snakes”, “It Stinks”, and many of the other constant callbacks to a few certain classic episodes - it’s really getting bad, it’s lazy, and it needs to stop.

I’ll continue to support the show and I really hope Netflix orders more, it would be a shame for it to end now. I hope they can get to at least 50 episodes with the new cast and if they must do them in 6 episode blocks, hopefully they can do two seasons per year.

[chudnado]

Before I get into the individual episodes, I'll start off by saying I enjoyed every episode of the Gauntlet, and they made some improvements over last year's season, but I have some complaints: 1) I miss Max's station ID bits. Even if they were pointless in a streaming medium, I dig Patton Oswalt and they were funny to me. 2) The episodes are too short. If they had to get rid of a host segment for the new format, that time should've gone to showing more of the movies. 3) There was too much reliance on fart jokes and callback references in the riffing. I don't mind either, but they went overboard. 4) Getting really nitpicky here, but I still hate the new Cambot, and the minor tweaks they made didn't change that. It's still my second to least favorite Cambot, just ahead of the old Joel era season one version they cobbled together out of KTMA Gypsy. Also I guess there's more than one Cambot now?

Ok, now my thoughts on the episodes:

1) THE DAY TIME ENDED: What can I say? I guess I like a lot of concepts in a bad movie. The musical number was even better than "Every Country Has a Monster," and I loved the totally unexpected cameo. This was probably my favorite for those reasons.

2) ATLANTIC RIM: I was one of the people legitimately worried about them doing an Asylum film, but hey I thought it worked out great. I genuinely enjoyed this episode and now have full trust in whatever movies they pick in future seasons.

3) KILLER FISH: Dunno what it was, but I really liked this one. The in-theater musical number was a bit much, but still had me laughing.

4) LORDS OF THE DEEP: I have no real feelings on this one other than I enjoyed the riffing, and the monsters are adorable.

5) ATOR: I dunno, I was mostly bored during this movie. I don't think it was as much fun as the sequel, Cave Dwellers, was. It was kind of a dud to end the season with this and not one of the weirder movies, in my opinion.

6) MAC & ME: I expected this to be a good episode, and it was, but my familiarity with the movie may have hurt my enjoyment a bit. The riffing was mostly good, but not as good at times as I was expecting for this film, and the part I was most looking forward to them riffing was the big McDonald's dance number, and THAT's the part they decided to edit down to fit their new format. I had more fun than with Ator, but that disappointment moves this to the bottom.

[Diet Kolos]

Oh boy, I've been mulling how to write my overall thoughts of this season, and I could go into it briefly, but I know I'll just drone on, so I'll save that for it's own thread. But Shark and Chudnado make good points.

Ranking best to worst.

1. 1203-Lords of the Deep
2. 1201-Mac & Me
3. 1206-Ator
4. 1204-The Day Time Ended
5. 1205-Killer Fish
6. 1202-Atlantic Rim

Not a big drop between 1 and 5, A- to B-/C+. But I particularly dislike Atlantic Rim.

[Mighty Jack]

I was alright with the movie selection... not that this has ever been a big issue for me.

Overall, while they improved some things (I liked Jonah as host more this year. And even Baron improved. Host segs were stronger), I can't say it's better, or rather, funnier than Season 11. I'm all about the laughs and while 11 had its lows, its highs where much higher than what we got from the 12th season. In addition to those often named (Cry Wilderness, Avalanche, that Wizard one). 2 of my treasures are The Loves of Hercules and Carnival Magic. Nothing in the Gauntlet came close to those 5 gems.

Killer Fish was clearly the weak one for me. Everything else is in the solid middle. I can't really rank one ahead of the other. They are the same.

[Diet Kolos]

Nov 25, 2018 18:21:39 GMT -5 Mighty Jack said:

I was alright with the movie selection... not that this has ever been a big issue for me.

Overall, while they improved some things (I liked Jonah as host more this year. And even Baron improved. Host segs were stronger), I can't say it's better, or rather, funnier than Season 11. I'm all about the laughs and while 11 had its lows, its highs where much higher than what we got from the 12th season. In addition to those often named (Cry Wilderness, Avalanche, that Wizard one). 2 of my treasures are The Loves of Hercules and Carnival Magic. Nothing in the Gauntlet came close to those 5 gems.

Killer Fish was clearly the weak one for me. Everything else is in the solid middle. I can't really rank one ahead of the other. They are the same.

That is something that I've thought of since watching Season 12.
Season 11 had some really high highs and some really low lows. I haven't hidden my disdain for Loves of Hercules for example. But I LOVE Avalanche and Beast of Hollow Mountain as much as anu classic episode. We all know MST3K is subjective and some people's trash is other people's treasures.
Having said all that, Season 12 really doesn't have trash nor treasure. It's all generally "ok". And at only 6 episodes long, I'm not sure if "ok" is good enough.

But I'll get into that if I can ever sit down and put my thoughts together.

[RedTom]

As far as episodes go, this season was especially half and half for me. Some episodes are star quality, while others rank among the forgettable.

1. Mac and Me - By far the greatest episode in the Gauntlet. I know this movie, and there have been a number of movie critics bringing it to the light and bashing it into the ground because it was so bad. To see that it was in the line-up, I was a little afraid, but hopeful. My worries were laid to rest. It was hilarious! I loved their riffs from beginning to end!

2. Atlantic Rim - Should MST3K do Asylum knockoff films? Yes, if this is any indication, then I am all for it. They handled this movie so very well and the laughs were constant and plentiful. Is it a fluke? It could be. However, it renews my hopes for the future.

3. Ator: The Fighting Eagle - A movie that was a very long time coming. Doing Cavedwellers first was a very smart move, because the scene where the "Great One" explains the plot of the whole first movie just wouldn't have had the same effect were this movie to come before it. Still, the time has come and here it is. The episode is definitely a solid ending to the whole season and can be counted among the gems. It was by no means a show-stopper, but it was a great watch.

4. Killer Fish - A very middle of the road episode in my opinion. Not great, but not overly terrible. The movie itself is not horrific in terms of quality, but it is very boring and dismal. The Six Million Dollar Man jokes were great points in the episode as well.

5. The Day Time Ended - A dismal, terrible series of special effects that disguised itself as a movie. It was an obvious attempt at showboating all of their abilities in claymation and light shows. There just so happened to be a scared family involved. The family seemed to fade off into the background as the effects took the reigns and ran the movie into the ground. The riffs suffered as a result.

6. Lords of the Deep - A cookie-cutter movie plot with the most stale, lifeless bunch of characters they could possibly come up with. This movie was boring and atrociously plotted. The riffs did not show up very well, though they were still funny. It was very hard to sit through, and not very good for showing to friends to showcase what MST3K is capable of in terms of comedy. I consider it the weakest of the bunch, but apparently some folk liked it. Nothing wrong with that, I simply do not agree.

So half good, half bad as far as the whole season goes. I enjoyed it for what it was, and I definitely got some good laughs out of it. Mac and Me was the star of the show as far as I'm concerned. Their riffs were on point and kept me laughing through the whole thing. I can only hope for a longer season next time. Good effort and a good turn out. Here's to season 13!

[Torgo]

We'll have to wait and see if it changes, but for right now I'll go:

1. Ator, the Fighting Eagle
2. Mac and Me
3. Killer Fish
4. Atlantic Rim
5. The Day Time Ended
6. Lords of the Deep

I was a little surprised. The bottom two were the ones I was looking forward to the most.

[leeharveyosmond]

1. Mac & Me
2. Atlantic Rim
3. Killer Fish
4. Ator
5. The Day Time Ended
6. Lords of the Deep

It got off to a good enough start with Mac & Me, which almost had it right all around but ran out of steam past the mid-point (the whole thing felt right in spirit at least and unfortunately got my hopes up for the rest of the season). Atlantic Rim was a lot less funny but never got any better or worse, staying pretty consistent throughout. The middle two episodes were the biggest duds; Lords of the Deep reminded me way too much of what I hated about Season 11 and nearly put me to sleep, while The Day Time Ended was only marginally better. The last two episodes started off VERY strong but petered out even quicker than Mac & Me did, I was pretty much silent after the first 15-20 minutes of each show.

The host segments were not as embarrassing this time around, the lack of "celebrity" cameos certainly helped and I appreciated seeing Josh Weinstein back even though the whole sub-plot he was involved in was odd and not funny (the awkward re-recorded song and borderline incomprehensible reason for why it was even being brought up in the first place just had me baffled). Certain things still seem way too rushed, like they keep wanting to try out new ideas without giving them much room to breathe. The new robots are cute and all but there's virtually nothing there to let any sense of personality or purpose come through and their increasing appearances in the theater were just jarring. The smaller silhouettes and wider frame aren't helping either, especially when they frequently blend in with the darker picture of the movies. There's still a very hollow and disembodied feeling to the riffing even with the three main guys being recorded together this time. It's still too reliant on either reminding people of things from the original show, coming off more like pandering instead of feeling like organic call-backs, or as others have pointed out, going for more LCD jokes and references, whether they be fart jokes (literally every episode had at least one, no? I'll at least cop to laughing at the "Fartman" name drop in Atlantic Rim...) or references to overly popular franchises and media (Star Wars, Harry Potter, video game tropes and terminology). I don't know, it's ultimately not very appealing to me and isn't much of an improvement over the previous season or a good continuation of the original show, which it was never going to be in the first place.

[mrmeadows]

I did think the host segments (fewer though there were) were much more focused this time around. They were given more time to play out, and actually had some structure to them. I thought the S11 ones were too rushed and barely even worked as a premise much less a full on segment. Big improvement this year.

But yeah, cutting down the runtime of the movie/show even more than before to cater to shorter attention spans is annoying.