Genre: ’50s Sci-Fi (Color)

Synopsis:  After telling some nosy reporters something about horses and a cart, a scientist named Cal has the jet fighter he’s flying taken over by a weird green ray that then lands the plane (alien autopilot, perhaps?).  Soon Cal is send a crate of parts from an unknown source with metal paper (tin foil?) instructions for putting it all together.  When the parts are assembled, it’s just a weird-looking TV with a triangular screen that doesn’t have a remote and only gets one channel. (Obviously these are the dark days before cable.)  On that single channel is Exeter, a white-haired guy with a massive forehead.  He tells Cal to met a plane in the middle of the night and, having nothing better to do after Exeter self-destructs his only TV, Cal accepts.  The plane lands empty – it’s that alien autopilot again – and then takes Cal to a house in the country, full of other scientists and white-haired guys with massive foreheads.  Cal meets an old girlfriend there named Ruth and she instantly gives him the cold shoulder. (Yep, Cal now knows it’s definitely his old girlfriend, all right!)  Soon, Cal is informed by Ruth and a Scientist who was once a Professor on a secluded desert isle that Exeter and the other freaky white-haired guys with massive foreheads are not from around here or even from France... which means they are from another planet!  So the three try to escape, but after the Professor is zapped (no more Gilligan’s Island Reunions... Hurrah!), Cal and Ruth are taken by Exeter’s flying saucer to the Planet Metaluna, his home world, where they see the destruction caused by a war with some Comet People.  And only a few minutes after they get there, Metaluna loses the war and is completely destroyed.  Escaping in the flying saucer, Exeter returns Cal and Ruth back to Earth before going off to explore the universe on his own... but, on second thought, the wounded Exeter decides to crash the flying saucer in the ocean and die instead.

Don’s Review:  The feature film version of the show stays true to its roots and is just a good episode with higher production values. One benefit is that the quality of the movie in the experiment is better than usual, it being the classic – though cheesy – ’50s sci-fi film This Island Earth.  Although I’m a fan of the original film, This Island Earth is a rather odd sci-fi movie for being considered a classic:  at times, it does attempt to be somewhat intelligent, but at other times, it’s like a bad monster movie;  the plot is extremely clunky;  the main hero, Cal, does absolutely nothing heroic in the movie – his main accomplishment during the whole film was successfully putting together an Interocitor (and he had instructions for that!);  and Cal’s old girlfriend Ruth seems to be in the movie just so she can scream when attacked (twice!) by the hopelessly slow-moving “Bootzilla” mutant bug creature!  But there are some good things in the film.  For instance, the special effects of the devastated planet of Metaluna are, even today, rather impressive (unfortunately, most of these effects are cut out in the MST3K version – see link below).  And the main alien character Exeter is surprisingly compassionate and likable, which is a bit unusual for an alien in a ’50s sci-fi movie.  So I personally like the movie itself, but that is mainly because I have a bit of a soft spot (both in my heart and on my head) for cheesy ’50s Sci-Fi films.  As for the MSTing of it, the early riffing on this movie is some of the best I’ve seen in a Mike episode. (In fact, I didn’t really warm to Mike after Joel left UNTIL I saw this movie in the theater – then I scrambled to start watching some more Mike episodes!)  Although the riffing does unfortunately die down towards the end, this is not very different than is seen in a lot of other MST experiments.  Because the MST3K movie was edited down and the ending was changed due to pressure from the studio, I really think everyone should support a campaign to get a special edition with all of the cut footage released on DVD.  As for the current DVD, there are no extras whatsoever on the disc – but it’s still great to have this movie on DVD (a disc which after being out-of-production for years is getting an overdue re-release).

Don’s Rating: 

Forrest’s Review:  I already wrote a web review that says everything I wanted to say about MST3K: The Movie, so instead of putting a copy of the text here, just click this link to go to it at Epinions.com

Forrest’s Rating: 

Related Links:
    (1) Original Trailer for MST3K: The Movie
    (2) List of the cuts made to the original film This Island Earth
    (3) Ward E Transcript of Original End Host Segment
    (4) The Big Picture DVD (Image MST3K DVD Disc Review)
    (5) Petition to get MST3K: The Movie Released as a Special Edition DVD