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Post by Diet Kolos on Mar 30, 2022 17:03:32 GMT -5
This is the thread to be used for 1302-Robot Wars AFTER its premiered on Gizmoplex. This is for discussion and review of the episode. For live reactions to the premiere on Gizmoplex, use this thread.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Apr 1, 2022 20:55:51 GMT -5
Well. 2 down, 11 to go.
Flowed more smoothly this time, generally. Some post-production stuff was evident, like the lighting in the mads segments. Plus some zoom and pan after-effects added, most notably to the stewardess sketch, but I'm pretty sure the zoomed-in shot in the Mads intro/Prologue was post-production, too. It works, as an afterthought fix, if not a little clunky.
Host segments were all pretty good, 5 out of 5, some went a tad too long, but they weren't painful or cringey, so its a win.
They finally got the movie editing right, if only because the movie was so short. It finally felt like watching a movie on MST and not watching riffing over movie bits. It was nice to see full credit riffing again.
Now the riffing...I didn't feel was as sharp as 1301. There were no big laugh out loud moments, but there were a few sporadic chuckle bits. It started slow, improved after Segment 2, but then kind of plateaued. The long "bit" jokes that were an unfortunate hallmark of Season 11 are back in full force, though. Several of them. May be a different writing team.
Overall, a decent-to-good episode. Maybe not as good as 1301 due to the riffing.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Apr 1, 2022 21:18:03 GMT -5
I just posted notes in another part of the forum, but yeah, a lot of what you're saying mirrors my own thoughts. Much smoother production, though not as funny as Santo in the theater. I like that it was shorter, the 3 hours + runtimes of the last 2 livestreams (granted 1301 had the tech issues) was exhausting. I'm not worn out tonight.
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Post by demoniclambertobava on Apr 1, 2022 21:23:47 GMT -5
I'm going to review it thoroughly later, but before I had to take off I thought the riffing got much, much stronger after the first break. The segments were pretty good from what I saw.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Apr 1, 2022 22:04:54 GMT -5
More random thoughts.
I really, REALLY like the paper cutouts and jazz music interstitials. It strikes the correct balance of home-made, kitsch and retro charm that is the exact correct note for the show.
The new impromptu feeling intro with the jazz band (biggest surprise of the night for me) and crew was a little too cute for me at moments, but it also was lively and spontaneous feeling. Gives us a chance to see and meet some of the people making the show outside of just hawking products like in that kitchen intermission last time.
Speaking of. I'm still not a fan of cutting away from Segment 3, to commercial, then intermission, then commercial, then Segment 3 again. Very clunky. It should just be: Segment 3, commercial, commercial, 2 minute intermission (or intermission then commercials), cut directly back to Jonah and bots walking into the theater.
However...the 2 minute intermission musical interlude was nice. Love those jazz vibes. And the commercials, though I'm not 100% pleased at their presence, felt less shoehorned in and more natural, the writing around them was better.
What else... Audio mix! MUCH better. Riffing volume and movie volume were nearly equal and it wasn't distracting.
Audio synch was still an issue. Not as severe at first, but it did wander towards the middle. Not sure how they're going to fix that.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Apr 2, 2022 10:01:49 GMT -5
Another quick thought:
Since we don't have credits yet, it's impossible to know, but...
I'm fairly confident that this episode had a totally different team writing the riffing. It just FELT like a Season 11 episode, but at half speed. And not the good bits of Season 11 riffing.
Lots of empty nostalgia-bait callbacks (Blast Hardcheese! and This Island Earth references).
Very surface-level jokes generally, the end credits stand out for this.
Way, way too many "bits". By bits, I mean multi-sentence jokes where the riffer takes on the cadence of a character, sets up situation and ultimately tells a punchline after several dozen words. They're not riffs, they're exhausting. THESE were rife in Season 11, usually were told by Jonah and were never, never funny.
I look forward to seeing the credits for each episode to pin down the culprits.
Its a shame, because this episode was clicking on the other aspects: movie & host segments. The rare example where the riffing alone holds the episode back.
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Post by pufncraft on Apr 3, 2022 17:47:28 GMT -5
I re-watched this today. Fast-forwarding through the ads, the episode's around 85 minutes without credits. That seems like an improvement over last season. I especially like how the host segments have time to breathe and don't feel as rushed as the Netflix ones.
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Post by Troy's Dad on Apr 4, 2022 13:25:56 GMT -5
I have not finished the episode yet, but from what I've watched the quality is much improved over 1301 Rough Cut. So much so that I'm going to wait for the non-live screening version to drop so it's free of any a/v issues. I've also decided to wait to watch 1301 in full until the final version premieres with credits and everything. I was one of the higher Kickstarter tiers and wanted to see my name in the credits (I believe I get three episodes). Part of the fun of season 11 was watching the episode and anticipating a Where's Waldo search of my name (mine was Cry Wilderness).
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Post by BoB3K on Apr 4, 2022 15:16:31 GMT -5
I saw some of it.
The audio mixed still wasn't that great. Movie was still 30%-50% too low.
I also thought many of the riffs didn't land. I don't know if this is the 'bits' that DK is referring to, but I don't like it when the riff sounds rehearsed, planned, whatever. Like they all say something in unison that isn't a running joke or brought up before, or if they finish each others joke, you know, like they're not watching this for this first time, and they literally have jokes prepared for parts, which yes we all know they DO have a script, but isn't it supposed to be a bunch of riff jokes that a guy and his bots are saying as they are forced to watch a cheesy movie.
Also, it's so sad, i fast forward past the opening song. I've always loved the MST3K songs. They're fun and catchy and get you in the mood for the show. These, ugh, cringy.
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Post by demoniclambertobava on Apr 4, 2022 16:05:12 GMT -5
I never have the audio mixing trouble on either Roku or Chrome. Not sure why.
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Post by BoB3K on Apr 4, 2022 23:39:18 GMT -5
I never have the audio mixing trouble on either Roku or Chrome. Not sure why. What are you listening to it on? I watch all PC/streaming stuff on my TV which is hooked up to a PC with audio through a mid-teir 5.1 tuner (although for stuff like this i usually just have it on 2 channel stereo). It's not a new occurance for me. RiffTrax were bad for years. New MST3K DVDs have been bad. Often, my favorite copy of an ep audio wise is a good recording off of CC. I think someone has said in the past that the TV guys would compress a lot of the dynamics out of a show for broadcast quality.
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Post by demoniclambertobava on Apr 5, 2022 0:00:38 GMT -5
I've watched on either my built-in Roku TV or in Chrome on my Macbook Air. I don't have an issue with hearing either the film or the host segments. I can't speak to my audio settings because I haven't tinkered with them in a long time.
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Post by dudehitscar on Apr 5, 2022 7:18:55 GMT -5
I've watched on either my built-in Roku TV or in Chrome on my Macbook Air. I don't have an issue with hearing either the film or the host segments. I can't speak to my audio settings because I haven't tinkered with them in a long time. My sound system and computer both have a setting called 'Night Mode' which compresses the audio so that the quiet parts and louder parts are much closer together. With that turned on it really helps. A lot of folks have been using that setting for a long time because of the difference between levels in a lot of modern movies (christopher nolan movies are quite famous for this especially). Would you do me a favor and see if you have a setting like that toggled or share your settings?
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Post by demoniclambertobava on Apr 5, 2022 12:01:32 GMT -5
No, I'm not on night mode.
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Post by jadenh on Apr 26, 2022 23:25:12 GMT -5
Finally finished watching this one. I don't think this was as strong as the Santo episode. I agree with Kolos in that I think this one had to have been written by a different team. Some jokes went on for too long, and there were a lot more embarrassing ones this time around. Host segments were fine enough, especially the ending where Crow and Servo duke it out. I also quite liked Baron's character, Dr. Cabal. Kinda gives me some Sci Fi era vibes. I wish they have Hampton an on stage character too, like Bill had with Brain Guy. It's a tolerable episode. I didn't have a blast watching it, but it was pleasant enough. Now I'm REALLY curious to see what 1303 will be like, assuming it's Emily's first episode.
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