THE THING (2011) First cinema viewing
BACKGROUND
'Who Goes There?' was written by John W. Campbell in 1938, and was adapted into the movie The Thing From Another World in 1951. The movie bore very little in common with the novella, and is memorable for the classic line of B-Movie dialogue: "An intellectual carrot! The mind boggles!"
In 1982, John Carpenter's The Thing was released. This was an extremely faithful interpretation of the novella, and formed a sequel to The Thing From Another World. The discovery and digging out of the alien & it's craft and subsequent rampage in the first movie is referenced from video footage & the state of the (now Norwegian) camp.
And now we have a new movie, called simply 'The Thing'. This is a remake of the 1951 movie so that it now seamlessly links into it's sequel. John Carpenter's The Thing is now seen as a classic, so does the 'prequel' match up to what is now considered the 'original' (despite being a sequel).
PLOT
It's 1981. A group of 12 or so Norwegians are working in an arctic research station. Investigating a beacon, they discover an ancient ship and a lifeform. Their leader contacts an old American scientist to bring in a select team of 5 experts to help with analysis and share the discovery. They arrive, a storm's coming in, and something breaks free...
REVIEW
On the whole, I was pleasantly surprised, but there are some minor issues I had with it.
Plotwise... well, on the plus side, it does cover all those alluded hints and discoveries Mac and Copper made at the Norwegian camp in John Carpenters The Thing - The Axe in the door, The melted two-face, Slitwrists, etc. There's also a few major continuity errors, but I need another viewing to check (or find a reason!)
However, being limited to what's in the sequel and how it starts, it's very much a standard by-the-numbers plot. American scientist wants it kept alive - check. Feisty sub-standard Ellen Ripley type - check. You get the picture.
One of the strengths of John Carpenter's The Thing was the atmosfear. The brooding menace and claustrophobia of an all-male distrustful individuals worked - especially with the slow pace. This movie is fast. Boy, does it race along! As such, it loses a lot of what is the essence of The Thing. That said, you could justify the change in pace as this is The Thing's first encounter with humans, so following it's experience with the Norwegians, it's learned not to be as direct and therefore more slow & insidious in the sequel.
Another of the great successes of John Carpenter's The Thing was the on-set FX. This Thing is CGI, which is sometimes excellent - sometimes too CGI, particularly in the brighter scenes. Also, being CGI, there are times it suffers from the Transformers problem - so much blindingly fast action you can't tell what's going on. Yes - this mother can move - imagine the Blair monster, then have it rampaging about at 10x the speed. Or Hellboy's Sammael, on speed, with extra tentacles
There are nods a-plenty to the Carpenter version. Perhaps slightly too many and too obvious. Surprisingly, the Morricone/Carpenter motifs aren't used. The opening minute and closing credits re-use the infamous theme, but the score doesn't evoke the same feeling, and sometimes seems out of place.
VERDICT
Not bad, actually, and I did enjoy it. For filling in the blanks and building the backstory, it does the job. And it links into John Carpenter's The Thing perfectly. On the downside - there are at least 3 plotlines left open for another sequel.
Is another sequel needed? Definately not. Was this prequel required... probably not. I'm glad the tale of the Norwegians is there, and seamlessly seagues into the sequel, but I think leaving the fate of the Norwegians may have been better left with Mac and Copper's puzzlement at what went on at the crazy Swedes camp.
After 1 viewing, I'd rate this as 7½/10, and will purchase the blu-ray.
