1101-Reptilicus

Film Year:  1961
Genre:  Science Fiction, Horror
Director:  Poul Bang, Sidney W. Pink
Starring:  According to Max, Dirch Passer and nobody else
MST Season:  11

The Movie

Reptilicus is a camp classic from Denmark about a giant frozen reptile tail being discovered and it is brought to Denmark for study.  Once thawed the tail regenerates into a massive lizard which proceeds to go on a rampage.

Well America has King Kong.  Japan has Godzilla.  England has Gorgo.  I suppose Denmark needed one too!  If there is a difference between Reptilicus and the other three it's those movies were made with at the very least a small amount of quality control.  There are avid fans of King Kong, Godzilla, and Gorgo who will defend the filmmaking of each to the death.  Reptilicus has avid fans as well, but they probably won't defend it.  It's more of a camp classic where people embrace just how stupid and poorly made it is because it's fun.

And don't let anyone tell you it's not fun, because boy howdy this movie is a blast.  The movie plays with some interesting ideas, such as giving the monster such an insane regeneration ability to the point where you can't blow it up because you'll just make a dozen more.  I personally find myself interested in where it's going even through some bad dialogue and stiff dubbing, though when that monster hits the screen, the giggles hit me.  It's then when I can't take the film seriously anymore, because Reptilicus himself just looks like a rubber toy that's being wiggled around to make it look as alive as possible.  Unlike the best of movie monsters, he doesn't display a personality.  He just kind of wobbles in general directions.

And spits green slime too.  Because of course he can.

It's not fine filmmaking, but it's a hoot.  It's a monster movie I'd watch outside of the show and would probably watch many times.  I need to get to that someday.

The Episode

There are all different kinds of fans.  There are optimists and pessimists.  There are those who thrive on new content and those who are disgusted by it, wishing only the things they like about it to exist.  There are those who embrace change and those who fear it.  When a relaunch of Mystery Science Theater 3000 was announced it was always going to be polarizing.  There was always a reason to look forward to it, just as there was always a reason to detest it.  When Joel switched to Mike, it was polarizing.  When Trace left and Bill and Mary Jo filled his shoes, it was polarizing.  Hell, even when Kevin Murphy took over Tom Servo from Josh Weinstein some fan sent him a banner that said "I HATE TOM SERVO'S NEW VOICE!"  When the franchise made it's comeback, it was destined to be polarizing.

I started watching the show during the Sci-Fi run and worked my way backwards, so from my point of view MST was always changing and cast evolution was just always there.  Now in defense of the naysayers on the new MST us fans aren't used to this much change at once.  We're used to a new cast member one at a time.  Here we're given a new host, new bot voices, new Mads, new sets, and new presentation all in one episode.  It's a lot to digest, even if we're used to change.  It might as well have not been an eleventh season but Mystery Science Theater 3000:  The Next Generation (which is probably part of the reason it was labeled "The Return" on Netflix).

Sitting down to watch this first episode of this new crew for the first time in April of 2017, I personally felt that whatever fans wanted to see in it was going to be what they took away from it.  This first episode of the new Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a flawed product, so if you want to hate it you're going to hate it.  If you want to nitpick it, you'll get every chance to.  But it's also a very fun episode, so if you're just sitting down to have a laugh at your favorite show being back on the air, you're probably going to love it.  A lot of the initial reactions from the theatrical screening before official release were resoundingly positive, some even stating that it was their new favorite episode of the show.  What needs to be remembered about these reactions is that a lot of people spent a lot of money on Kickstarter and travel accommodations to be there, all because they really wanted the show back.  I'm not saying these people would have accepted anything, but rather that if anybody in the fanbase was looking at the glass as half full it would have been them.  Add in the fact that this was a group experience with a rowdy crowd in a theater full of superfans of the first new episode in eighteen years, and no other episode in MST history was ever going to match experience and the resulting nostalgia of the experience.

As for me, I just wanted entertainment and a silly monster movie.  Ah, the simple things.  I therefor deem the relaunch a resounding success.

Though aesthetically there are a few things that bother me.  The riffing itself is very rapid, like lightning quick and they sometimes start the riff before the scene they're riffing on comes up.  It gets annoying at times, as their interplay sounds a little forced and there is very little of it that sounds like they're naturally watching the movie.  This is especially a problem since they filmed the entire season before they could get audience feedback, which means the entire eleventh season production was always going to be like this no matter what.  Also, certain things just go unexplained.  The Bots are back on the Satellite of Love despite having escaped in the previous episode, with no reason given.  Gypsy now drops some sort of basket called "The Payload" with no explanation given.  We're two seasons into the relaunch as of this writing and there is still no excuse for this, other than to give Gypsy a riff or two.  I can live with all of this, though creatively I disagree with it.

Changes to the presentation are made as well.  Reptilicus is the first episode filmed in widescreen and in high definition (not including The Movie), and the look of the show is very pleasing to the eye.  The episodes' cold opening now happens before the theme song, and the theme is now a song and dance number rather than clips of the series, both of which I dig.  The episode simulates commercial breaks, despite being a streaming series without commercials, with the new Mad character of Max narrating little bumpers as if it were a late night talk show or variety show.  These bumpers are a bit pointless, though sometimes Max's commentary is amusing.  But in the long run they are just there in an attempt to recreate the archaic rhythm of the original series by ruining what could have been the rhythm of the new series.

All of this is without getting into the new cast, which personally I think is quite good.  Jonah Rey plays Jonah Heston, our new test subject that has been reeled in by new Mads Kinga Forrester, the daughter of Clayton Forrester, and Max, TV's Son of TV's Frank, who are played by Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt (who are by far the biggest stars to ever be regulars on the show).  Jonah is a charismatic and fun host and I like him quite a bit, though the old school fan in me prefers me some Joel and Mike personally.  Felicia and Patton are absolutely delicious as the Mads, with Kinga's controlling personality on full display and her emotionally abusive attitude toward her underling Max highlighting.  Their plans for bringing back MST is hilarious, and Kinga gloats "We're going to blow up this brand and sell it to Disney for a billion dollars!"

Moving on to the Bots, Tom Servo is taken over by Baron Vaughn.  Baron has a thankless task in taking over for Kevin Murphy, who played the role for so long and had the longest run in the series (this isn't even taking into consideration his Rifftrax contributions), and it takes a while to get used to him.  Compounding this is that he has a very similar voice to Jonah, which makes the riffs get intermingled a bit, but as the series goes on the subtleties of the vocals started becoming clearer to me and it's easier for me to pick Baron out.  Overall, I quite like his Servo, which seems a like a logical continuation of Kevin's Servo, but given that it's always difficult hearing a voice other than Kevin's come out of this puppet (even Josh Weinstein's original voice has been massively overshadowed by Kevin's titanic performance) I'd recommend allowing yourself a few episodes to let him win you over.  By contrast, Hampton Yaunt plays Crow, and takes the character closer to Trace Beaulieu's portrayal over Bill Corbett's.  In fact he seems more like the naive and dim character Crow used to be in the KTMA to early first season years of the show.  His Crow is very simple and sarcastic, and sometimes a bit childlike.  But overall I think Hampton is hysterical, and his Crow definitely highlights the new series.  For the first time since a guest voice in KTMA Gypsy is voiced by a woman, Rebecca Hansen, portraying her as less of clumsy ditz and more of the brains of the crew.  The character is given an overhaul in both personality and design, as she now hangs from the ceiling instead of slithering around on the floor.

This is all a lot to digest, but what about the episode itself?  I need to take in all of this new information and take a deep breath, then look at the episode as a whole and I can safely say I find it quite delightful.  The rapid pace of the riffing is bothersome, but there are some killer lines spread throughout that make me laugh quite a bit, from the look of the opening title font prompting the riffers to hum the theme song to The Munsters all the way to a closing bit where during Reptilicus's death scene it looks like he's doing a dance, cuing the Bots to reference Singin' in the Rain by singing "All I do is dream of you the whole night through!"    If I were to single out a certain portion that I treasured more than others I'd say that I personally liked the riffs on the poor attempt at romance in the film, which had a pair of girls fighting over a man.  Many of the riffs on these women slayed me ("I licked him!  He's mine!").  If I do have a hesitance toward the new Mystery Science Theater then I'm put at ease by the moments that remind me of why I enjoy this show in the first place.  And they chose a giant monster movie to riff first as well!  Holy shit, I'm spoiled!

"Reptilicus is destroying the film stock!"

The most notable host segment of the bunch is the song "Every Country Has a Monster," which is pretty terrific.  However I think it's placement is a tad weird as the show throws so many things at us then gives us a musical number, which is usually saved for the second or third segment of the show.  But I have no complaint about the song as a whole.  We also see the return of the Invention Exchange, of which Jonah's bubble fan is a little bit of a lame choice for the restart of this tradition.  We also see the return of letters, though we haven't seen them since.  I'm not sure where these letters actually came from, maybe they were left over from the Sci-Fi era, or maybe new fans sent them in.  But...yay.  I think.

As an intro for a new cast, Reptilicus isn't quite as good as Mike's first episode, The Brain that Wouldn't Die, or even Bill's, Revenge of the Creature.  I'd daresay that it's much, much stronger than Kevin's first episode of Rocketship X-M though.  Given the goofy fun movie, playful riffs, and an exciting new look to the series, Reptilicus delighted this old school fan.  And I plan on watching it many more times in the future.

Good

The DVD and Blu-Ray (and VHS?!?)

Reptilicus was released on Shout Factory's complete Season 11 collection on both DVD and blu-ray.  I own the Kickstarter exclusive #WeBroughtBackMST3K Collector's Edition, which is the same as the basic but with more bonus features on the bonus disc.  Audio and video were stellar, and while the disc that houses the episode features no bonuses it does share the disc with the following episode, Cry Wilderness.

Kickstarter backers of a certain level were offered a special edition VHS tape of the episode.  It undoubtedly looked like a VHS transfer.  The cover itself was designed to look like a Rhino VHS cover, which makes it a cool collector's item.