The second episode of MST3K’s 12th season starts with a disaster at the Gizmonic Institute while a spaceship flies away.  Is this important?
To those who saw the live show, they probably recognized the spaceship that flew away.

The Gauntley continues with Atlantic Rim, a fake version of Pacific Rim. It cost (according to imdb) $500,000 to make, and it shows in the writing, acting and everything else. After all, it’s from the producers of Sharknado.
The plot is about three hot-shot robot pilots trying to battle some sea monsters wreaking havoc along the east coast. It also includes the three heroes wearing a halo allowing them to control their robots without having to steer them. Seeing them ‘fight” was really bizarre.
Then again, so was switching between two people dancing and widespread damage the monsters caused….or Graham Greene as an admiral who sounds like LBJ and says “bullbutter” a lot.

The riffing does its best to deal with this knockoff, but it comes off a little stale. However, the top host moment was Kinga trying to make another hit like “Every Country Has a Monster”, but Jonah and his robot band create a song that made even less sense than “Atlantic Rim”. As you can see, Waverly has been rebuilt, and Growler (the green one) is also official. Throughout the season, they sometimes sneak in during the movies.

Top riffs:

The sea dragon (or whatever it is) emerges from the sea and destroys an oil rig
You morons drilled into my house

The heroes march to their robots
Go-Go Dour Rangers

A big fight between the sea monster and one of the robots
Andy Serkis is playing both of those characters.

There’s also riffs on the Vampire Lestat, Dire Straits, and Chris Christie.

Next up: what looks like The Abyss but with a dash of conspiracy, and there’s a new Mad in town.