1312-The Bubble

Film Year:  1966

Genre:  Science Fiction

Director:  Arch Oboler

Starring:  Michael Cole, Deborah Walley, Johnny Desmond

MST Season:  13

Host:  Joel

The Movie

*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS MOVIE UNRIFFED*

During the Kickstarter for this season of Mystery Science Theater, Joel had made the comment of having just screened a movie that "ruined our day" and he felt was "The New Manos."  The movie he was referring to was a little flick called The Bubble (which coincidentally came out the same year as Manos).  So, with those large expectations, what is The Bubble?

The Bubble is a paranoia sci-fi thriller about a husband and wife who make an emergency landing in a small town just as their baby is about to be born.  After their little miracle is brought into the world, they begin to notice the people of the town act like odd zombies who move around in a near-lifeless drone.  Chilled by everyone's behavior, they try to leave and find that the entire vicinity is surrounded by a sort of plastic shield.  Theorizing that the entire town is trapped in a dome created by aliens, they conspire to make their getaway.

Of course, it's a story we have seen before.  One of the first things to pop into one's head when thinking about this movie is the Stephen King novel Under the Dome, or even The Simpsons Movie.  Those both came out many years after The Bubble, but we can see similar stories being told way back in the days of Twilight Zone with Where is Everybody? or The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.  Twilight Zone very much seems to be on The Bubble's mind, as it plays out very much like an average episode where characters find themselves in strange surroundings and have to guess what is going on and how to navigate through them.  The problem is your average episode of Twilight Zone is a half an hour long, while The Bubble takes a concept that might make a swell episode and expands it to three times that length.  It feels like it's taking forever to get from one plot point to the next and when it doesn't, it feels like it's running circles as the audience is ready for the narrative to be three steps beyond what it's doing.  I'd like to stress, the premise of The Bubble is fine, it's just dull.  It gets so stale that the audience begins to feel like a trapped animal along with the characters.

The movie could almost be some sort of performance art, because it's replicating the feeling of being in a cage to an audience that was supposed to be watching a movie about people trapped in a cage.

The movie gets so aggressively unpleasant as it goes, which seems to be intentional based on how unsafe the characters are feeling.  Things just start getting befuddling after a while, as our characters seemingly kidnap a can-can dancer from town and take her along with them for no reason at one point and, even then, hardly acknowledge her existence.  Things tip to a breaking point as our characters are feeling so helpless that they start talking about mercy killing their baby and even possible cannibalism as food becomes scarce.  I'm not sure if I'm feeling the right anxiety at these scenarios that the movie intends however, because it wants me to be worried about what's going to happen and instead I just feel like I'm stuck watching this thing and I'm very uncomfortable with that.

Moving away from the story, this production was filmed utilizing what was a supposed new 3D technology called Space-Vision, which has tech specs that I'm sure would bore most viewers, so I won't repeat them, though the film's director Arch Oboler has a varied career that somehow ended with him pioneering new 3D technologies, also directing 3D films Bwana Devil and Domo Arigato.  The acting is reasonably solid with notable performers in the leads, including Mod Squad star Michael Cole, Gidget Goes Hawaiian title performer Deborah Walley, and singer Johnny Desmond in a supporting role.

Is The Bubble "The New Manos?"  I'm going to say no.  The thing about Manos is that it's such a bizarre film from a production standpoint that it's hard to get a foothold on to figure out what you're supposed to think of it.  The only other film I can think of that matches Manos in that category is Birdemic:  Shock and Terror.  The Bubble is a functional production, so it already has a leg-up on Manos.  It's just an unhinged one that is trying to be a ride but results in the viewer claiming "I want to get off."  It's a shock to the system in trying to stick with a movie to the very end and it doesn't even pay off for those who do.

The Episode

The hype for this movie led straight into the episode, where Kinga starts championing this film as the one of the worst things they've ever shown, and our test subject is none other than Joel, who is like "Okie Dokie" and takes it in stride.  For a flick that has been hyped up as the worst of the season, as well as the worst since the relaunch, very little is made out of it since that.  Crow gets pissed off at it once or twice, as the movie's lack of momentum irritates the Bot, but the only real reaction to the quality of the film is Crow coming out of the theater saying "Well, that sucked."  Munchie got more feedback than The Bubble.

As an aside note, I would argue that The Bubble is indeed the worst movie this season.  Or maybe the most unpleasant, depending on your definition of worst.  Mileage may vary depending on your tolerance for Munchie.  Some might even hate Demon Squad more (those people are incorrect, and I will fight them).  It's hard for me to say that this movie is worse than Carnival Magic though.  At least The Bubble maintains some semblance of a premise.

The Bubble is one of those episodes that I feel I'm going to need time with.  The problem I'm having with this episode as it's freshly released is that it's one of those episodes with a movie that sucks the air out of the room.  Mystery Science Theater 3000 should be primarily a fun experience, and sometimes the movie can be a bit too overbearing to really take in an episode on first viewing.  Episodes like Monster A-Go Go or the Coleman Francis films had to grow on me as I eventually appreciated what they brought to the table.  Even Manos left me a bit blindsided after my first viewing, and as I recovered, I began to realize that I didn't even have an opinion on the riff because I was too focused on the movie.  I'm a bit fortuitous on The Bubble in that I had watched most of the movies this year before the season started, The Bubble included, so I was already familiar with it.  But like the bubble in the film itself, this movie seems pretty impenetrable.  I got a steady stream of chuckles from this riff, but my biggest laugh of the episode came from Synthia's final line before the end credits, well outside of the theater.  The Bubble is a bad movie, but it's one that's hard to make funny.

That's not to say I didn't think the commentary offered much, because there are good lines tossed at it.  I like how Joel and the Bots mock the male lead's constant theories as to what's going on, because The Bubble doesn't so much as have an explained story so much as it has his character try and guess what the story is.  They're even a little dirtier in this episode than they normally are with the relaunch seasons, coming up with more risque jokes that toe that "family show" line (including Crow saying a certain T-word while punning during a breast-feeding scene).  I'm glad they still have that spirit in them.  Where was it during Batwoman and Sumuru?

I enjoyed the host segments of the episode.  A couple of them are setting up the premise for next month's holiday special season (series?) finale, The Christmas Dragon, as Joel, Jonah, and Emily crack out an entire plan in that Dr. Seuss rhyming schtick they've been doing whenever they've interacted for the last few episodes.  They plant the seed in Pearl's head to suggest to Kinga that she should put all the hosts on one Satellite for an all-host episode, which Pearl seems keen on.  They have my curiosity on this, so I'm intrigued to see what is in store.

Another segment that tickled me was the segment where Tom Servo confirms he can't see in three dimensions, which goes along with all the weird vision problems that Servo's bubble seems to have had over the years.  Joel creates a pair of goggles that allow Servo to enter the world of The Bubble, which goes about as well as you'd expect.  The Invention Exchange features Joel creating popcorn seasonings out of other theater foods and Kinga creates eyeglass protectors for your face that backfire for Max.  The intro to the episode is almost a bonus Invention Exchange, as Joel and the Bots show off a bunch of Star Trek influenced rebranded products.

I can see The Bubble being a bit of a polarizing episode.  I think there are going to be factions that love it, factions that just can't get past the movie to give the episode a fair shake, and factions that think the whole thing is boring and wonder what the hubbub was about.  I think every episode of the series has people split into those categories, honestly, though usually one is bigger than the others.  The Bubble is hard to gage because I'm not fully prepared to cement what I think about this episode yet.  If I were to say what I think right now is that I had a few good laughs but was mostly indifferent to it.  Compare that to my feeling of "I feel like I got hit by a truck" that Manos left me with, and I can't help but think the experience was underwhelming.

⭐⭐

Average

The Livestream

I'll confess to being a bit disappointed in this livestream, because it feels to me like they were rushing through it.  I believe most of these aftershows run around fifty minutes (give or take), while this one ran less than forty.  Mostly this stream consisted of Matt McGinnis, Joel Hodgson, Devon Coleman, Mary Jo Pehl, and Tim Ryder in sort of a support group circle talking about their feelings toward this movie.  Matt has nothing but hate, Joel is fascinated by its vibe, Devon compares it to having an eternal flight layover, Tim is frustrated by its meandering, and Mary Jo just says it stunk.  They all have thoughts and theories as to what kind of movie it's going for, and Tim even did some wiki research on the director (like I do for this blog, lol).  A lot of the conclusions mimic the ones that I was thinking of when I first watched it several months ago.

There is no Q&A session to speak of; the second stream in a row lacking one (third if you count the Devil Doll tribute).  Normally I wouldn't mind missing out on frothy fan questions like if "If you were an alien, what town would you bubble?" or whatever the fuck, but this stream did need to be beefed up a bit.  It all feels like a very slight justification for why they chose and hyped this movie by bringing in the people on staff who hated working on it the most.  I'm not even entirely certain why Mary Jo is here, because other than playing Pearl at the end (which is something they don't talk about), she didn't have anything to do with this episode.  I won't complain about having more Mary Jo in my life, though.

There is only one real question brought to the table for the talking heads, and it's mostly an excuse to plug a poll in the Discourse forum.  Maybe it's to plug the Discourse forum in general, because it seems the writing is on the wall and Twitter is getting demolished, so they probably want that community to flock there to keep in touch with the people working on the show.  Anyway, the question of the night is what is the single worst movie featured on the series.  Joel sticks to his guns and says Manos (and The Bubble), while Matt and Mary Jo hate Red Zone Cuba, which Matt claims he has never finished.  Tim brings up Monster A-Go Go, which he also claims he hasn't finished (but knows the ending to? Maybe through reputation?).  Devon has some very detailed feelings about Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, which is a movie that's constantly reminding him about a better one.  Matt says the chat brings up Castle of Fu Manchu.

All worthy choices, but I'm team Manos.  It's probably the boring selection, but I can never forget the first time I watched that movie and nothing else comes close.  Monster A-Go Go is probably a sturdy second but isn't worse than Manos because that fake telephone ring alone is hysterical.  Worst movie Mike riffed is probably Red Zone Cuba or Hobgoblins, for different reasons, while the Jonah flick that left a bad taste in my mouth is Carnival Magic.  Emily doesn't have a huge selection so far, though Beyond Atlantis is easily the worst one.

Spoiler Alert:  The Christmas Dragon is a doozy, so I think that's probably the worst flick featuring Emily's participation.  It just hasn't aired yet.  But her Bots both watched The Bubble, which is admittedly worse.

And that's it.  Matt plugs the Vault Picks this month, as well as spoiling the Turkey Day line-up (which will feature two Gizmoplex episodes in Santo and Beyond Atlantis).  Other than that, it's just Bubble venting, rough movie talk, and bye-bye.  It's slighter than I've come to expect from a livestream, but hey, maybe Matt just wants to curl up and cry from having to watch this movie again.

There won't be another stream this month outside of the Turkey Day marathon, but in mid-December we'll have four streams within four days concluding with the release of The Christmas Dragon.  I don't think it takes a genius to figure out that we're getting tibute events for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Santa Claus, and The Christmas That Almost Wasn't.  Or did I just ruin the Gizmoplex's Christmas presents to us?