MovieChat Forums > This Island Earth (1955) Discussion > A 5.7 Rating Due To MST3K Viewers Being ...

A 5.7 Rating Due To MST3K Viewers Being Prejudiced By The Riffed Version

posted 11 years ago by verbusen
1 reply | jump to latest

I posted this on the "MST3K The Movie" boards in regards to the riffed version of This Island earth, and it applies here also. BTW I am a fan of This Island Earth in it's original form but not the MST3K version. Although, I am a huge MST3K fan.

"I am a big fan of MST3K, I watched it pretty regularly when it was on the air over the years but really watched it regularly the last 5 years online. I think the only episode I have not finished is Hamlet which I'm really not into. Even watched the KTMA episodes. I watched this film version when it was still pretty new in the 90's and was bummed out that they picked a film I actually liked a lot. Anyone else think like this? I just saw it on the cable listings and am now re-watching it for the first time in at least a decade, thats how unimpressed I was the first time I watched this. Plus they cut the hell out the original! I looked the original up on IMdb and it's a mid 5 rating, I guarantee you it would have been a 7 had it never been riffed and prejudiced people. I think a lot of people just know this version and gave it a bad rating, it's a pretty strong 50's sci fi flick all around. There really are only a handful of sci fi films from that decade that are better. Maybe it's better NOT to have watched a film before it gets riffed, you have no sentimentalities to it. This film was played a LOT in late night and weekend TV in the 70's and I must have watched it a dozen times as a teen. Although I watched all the Gamera and Godzilla films as a teen also and loved the riffed versions of those! I just think they picked too good (and serious) a film to get riffed for such a big event for the franchise. Looks like in reading the boards that this episode has grown in fondness so I'll just shut up and re-watch it, lol. I don't remember it being loved so much back in the 90's though."

[–] Mashui 11 years ago

I saw the MST3K version first and found it very funny. Later however I did see the full original movie which I gave a 7, it's not the best 50's sci-fi by far but it's still pretty good. It was a strange pick for the movie but it was hilarious.
You're probably right about it bringing down the rating, honestly though I cannot see this movie garnering a very high rating anyway. Early sci-fi is a niche genre at best and the effects weren't that good for the era it was produced. It had nothing on The Day The Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, or Them!. Although it was an interesting watch, and it's nice to know what people are talking about when they mention a Interocitor.

And now for something completely different...