Standing on the mighty shoulders of Discuss the movies for Season 13 (plus viewing poll) I was curious who’s going to try to peek between their fingers and potentially lessen the blow (yeah, right) or who, like myself, is preferring to go into each Experiment with as little… awareness? as possible of what’s about to happen. Some folks have commented elsewhere that they like having an idea of the film, trying to sort out what if anything was changed. Others… want the complete surprise package. I’m not surprised by the numbers in the other poll, but not much mention of plans to see or not to see.
I’ve seen a few of them already (multiple times, in the case of Million Eyes of Su Muru which has been riffed twice previously during the KTMA season and on Rifftrax), and while I did check out the trailers for the ones I hadn’t seen just to get a flavor of what was to come, I’m firm believer that watching the movie beforehand does not increase my enjoyment of the riffed version, and may actually detract from it, especially if I or someone else (like Rifftrax, Master Pancake, or KTMA era MST3K) did their own riffing for it and got in some really solid zingers that the new cast fails to top.
The one exception would be those rare instances where Rifftrax tackles a good movie, like Casablanca (which you absolutely should watch on it’s own merits before jumping straight into the Rifftrax version if you somehow didn’t get around to doing so before) or something in a multi-movie franchise, like the Avengers, Star Wars, or Harry Potter films, where sometimes it’s helpful to be a few movies ahead, so you understand the references they’re making to things that haven’t happened yet.
I’ve seen three of the Season 13 movies before, and I’ll leave it that way, so I get a variety of the new and familiar as the new experiments come out.
At most, I’ll take a look at the IMDB synopsis before watching.
I feel like there’s something to be said about the process of discovery. It really makes it more pronounced when you’ve only just now realized how much the movie sucks with the rest of the cast. You’re finding about the nonsense with the characters, so to speak.
On the other hand, there’s nothing quite like the joys of knowing about a part coming up that’s going to be a delight when it gets to that point. Still, I voted nay, so make of that what you will.
I’ve never actively sought out soon-to-be-MST3K’d movies before watching them get riffed. This worked out well for the Sci-Fi and Netflix eras, and will continue to work out well for the Gizmoplex era.
It’s like @glmdgrielson said. It’s about the process of discovery, about the journey, about the trip through the funhouse that you haven’t been through before.
Even if it were a movie that I’ve seen before, I wouldn’t go back to rewatch it; I’d want to be surprised by the stuff I haven’t committed to memory. This was the case with Mac and Me, and I’m glad I didn’t take a refresher course in that movie before watching Jonah and the Bots tear it apart.
I know that The Million Eyes of Sumuru will be a KTMA redo, but I’m not going to go back and rewatch that episode. I don’t remember what happened there, so it’ll be fun to experience that fresh all over again.
I was just typing exactly that: it’s the only S13 movie I’ve seen, and I decided not to watch either the KTMA or RiffTrax version again until after I see the new one.
I’m trying to avoid watching them in advance, but I did break down and watch The Christmas Dragon over the holidays. Looking forward to the MST3K gang making that one more enjoyable.
I think there are definitely benefits to both options. I like the surprise of seeing these movies for the first time with riffs. However, watching the films ahead of time numbs you to their awfulness. You got through the worst of it already. Now you can sit back and relax and actually enjoy the movie with riffs. It build up your tolerance to bad movies, I guess lol.
What I might end up doing is rewatching some episodes that have very similar movies to the ones featured in season 13. Just so I get an idea of what I’ll be in for without spoiling the movie (except for Million Eyes of Sumuru, which I’m sure all of us already saw on KTMA). Like for example, I might watch Atlantic Rim to prep for Robot Wars, or Samson Vs. The Vampire Women to prep for Treasure of Dracula. And for Gamera Vs. Jiger? Well, there’s a whole ten episodes of Gamera mayhem to choose from.
I had seen quite a few of the classic MST3K films in my childhood, and I don’t find it ruined them at all. If anything, it made me happy to see familiar films getting MSTed.
I went with “nay.” My personal preference is to go in blind, unless of course I’ve seen the film prior to it being announced for the show (which has not been the case thus far). But you do you. If you want to see them unriffed first, I salute your courage!
Nah. As it happens I have seen Million Eyes and I think there was one other that is escaping me at the moment without going and looking at the list, but I’m not going to purposely seek them out in advance.
