The Thing (2011) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignright" width="263"]Official Score = 3 Devils Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]

John Carpenter (Halloween)… What can I say about the guy… I mean this guy is most definitely a true legend in the horror/science fiction genres! (I would go so far as to say that Halloween (1978) (a movie which he directed) was one of the first movies that helped me to become a true and long standing fan of horror movies!)

Now the reason that I mention him in this is that because besides directing true classics like, ‘Halloween’, or ‘Big Trouble In Little China’… He also directed the remake to a classic Howard Hawks movie that would eventually become so popular that people who, ‘HATE’ horror, and are not interested in Science Fiction still know of this movie… This movie of course is the movie… The Thing (1982)…

Now this movie which is a remake of the original, The Thing From Another World (1951) and told the story of how a group of American Researchers in the Antarctic end up having to destroy a Norwegian Helicopter, after it starts causing problems in the American Camp, while the Norwegian’s are trying to kill this fleeing dog (don’t worry, there is a lot more about this dog…) Anyway the American’s destroy this chopper, and as they go to investigate what the Norwegians are up to, they come across an Alien specimen that will eventually infect the team, and pit them in a struggle between their lives and their deaths, as well as the whole of the human race!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="216"] Definitely a fun one![/caption]

As for, The Thing (2011), this movie is a prequel that stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Final Destination 3), Joel Edgerton (King Arthur), Ulrich Thomsen (Hitman), Eric Christian Olsen (Not Another Teen Movie), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (The Bourne Identity), Trond Espen Seim (Fallen Angels), & Jorgen Langhelle (Elling), and tells of the story leading up to Carpenter’s original movie!

You see, this movie tells the story of how after falling through the ice, the Norwegian research team end up finding an Alien space craft under the ice as well as an Alien himself!

So they end up creating a research team that is comprised of a few Americans (and although it is not conclusive, I suspect a Brit) to dig the craft and the Alien up… The only problem is that once they do so, they ultimately end up unlocking Pandora’s box, and waking up the Alien who will proceed to infect this crew in the same way that it infects the next crew, and if they can’t stop it… Well let’s be honest… No one can!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="553"] The team after they pulled up the Alien...[/caption]

Now for the bad part... this movie does seem to lack for a certain element of originality (I,e… the shot where they first burn an infected person in the snow in this new movie is almost the exact same shot that Carpenter used for his… The characters, ‘Sam Carter’ and, ‘R.J. Macready’ seem to be a little to similar to be coincidence. Also, although they did a great job in re-creating what the burnt out parts that were seen of the, ‘Norwegian Camp’ by the Americans in the first one would have looked like had they not been burned out… the rest of the set I suspect was probably what was used by Carpenter in his movie... Also, I did like the fact that they tried to use pistols in this movie, they still used Flame Throwers in this one (if you have seen the first one, then you will understand why I am asking, ‘does no one have a rifle in these movies’?

In the end, albeit the fact that this movie is not entirely original, it is a fun one, and I do hope to see the what is next for, ‘The Thing’…

 

http://youtu.be/UKjErC2JLQc