The Thing (2011)

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 10:26 pm

This is the prequel to The Thing (1982) and deals with what happened in the Norwegian facility that is seen in the other movie. It stars a a lot of people who's face you will probably recognize but not the name, with the lead being a girl by the name of Mary Elizabeth Winstead who plays a paleontologist who gets invited to go to Antarctica to help dig up a new find. She actually does a pretty good job, acts fairly well but it's not anything to save the movie.

Basically the movie is just like the other one but with more speed, less character, and lots of CGI. They bring everything up to speed really quick and there isn't any build up, they bring the thing to the location and that night it starts killing people. All the tension of who is who isn't fully developed because someone will change into the The Thing and kill a bunch of people and then it turns into a run and hunt movie.

They have like one test scene in which they see if people have fillings in their teeth or not (because the thing can't recreate inorganic objects, etc) but it doesn't get farther than that. Also the Thing seems to have a new instant kill feature in which it like stabs you with a tentacle, I don't remember this being in the other one but it really makes the monster more deadly at the sacrifice of fun.

They use CGI for everything which seems okay but it really doesn't compare to having the props like the original and the cgi now enables them to show the thing in the transforming form much more for better or worse.

Overall, it doesn't live up to the John Carpenter movie but it's mildly amusing if your a fan of The thing and just want to see some more. I do like how they connected the ending of this movie with the beginning of the Carpenter one with the chasing of the dog in a helicopter.

Post by **Retlaw83** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 2:10 am

While I'm convinced this movie is shit and probably won't see it, I'm glad it's a prequel instead of a remake. Seemed like an action movie instead of horror judging by the previews, and it pissed me off that the only horror movie that ever scared me was going to get shat on in that fashion.

SenisterDenister · Post by **SenisterDenister** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 3:40 am

I had no intention of seeing it since they were using CGI, which for me ruins the entire movie. It looks fake, not like Carpenter's puppetry fake, but legitimately fake and not creepy like how it was done in the first film. Hell, even their breath is CGI.

As for your poll, I'm torn between The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China.

Post by **King of Creation** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:03 am

Definitely Big Trouble in Little China. The Thing was good, but Big Trouble was a masterpiece.

Tofu Man · Post by **Tofu Man** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:48 pm

Big trouble. It's, like, not even a question, man!

Tied with the Thing? Lo Pan is not amused.

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:35 pm

Retlaw83 wrote:I'm glad it's a prequel instead of a remake.

Indeed. I saw the trailer for this film and thought it looked like a 1:1 remake.

Dunno if I'll watch it as it's hard to beat Carpenter's version.

Cimmerian Nights · Post by **Cimmerian Nights** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:58 pm

I saw it Sat night with my wife and it was way better than I thought. I was totally prejudiced "a chick?" "swedes?" "another JC remake?" "no JC synth soundtrack?"

They say it's a prequel, but it's pretty much the same movie, except they go into more detail about where it came from, and that didn't do much for me.

Funny thing is, it's a Thing remake, but there's a lot of Aliens influence in it. A lot. Too much.

And Excape from NY is his best.
I'd actually take Christine over Big Trouble in Little China.

Nothing beats the effects from the 1st one, CGI can never convey tactile shit. You know the first one was all gooey and slimy and squishy, a couple times this new one was running around, cthulhu tentacles all a-flailin', it was kind of funny actually.

With all the JC remakes, why don't they re-do They Live? It felt so...unfinished and ended so abruptly but had so much potential.

SenisterDenister · Post by **SenisterDenister** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:50 pm

They Live could work really well especially with the economic tensions being what they are. I know that was a huge theme and they could totally make it work nowadays. It had better be a 1:1 remake in terms of dialog and fight scenes, though.

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:32 pm

The movie wasn't terrible in my opinion. I enjoyed the small twist at the end, but really. It does lift a lot of iconic scenes from the first movie, but still differentiates itself enough to be its own movie.

The CGI was shit though and I thought it lacked a lot of the tension that the original had. Overall - I'd give it a rental, but if I were gonna subject someone the series, I'd start with John Carpenter's version first as watching this one would take away a lot of the mystery of the original.

Basically - it's for fluff purposes. Fills in back story, but is never the main event.

I kinda wanna see if I can track down the comic series as I'm curious if it was any good.

Cimmerian Nights · Post by **Cimmerian Nights** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:43 pm

Wolfman Walt wrote: Basically - it's for fluff purposes. Fills in back story, but is never the main event.

The backstory really isn't necessary, becomes predictable, and like I said before, was real reminiscent of Alien/Aliens. I kind of liked not really knowing where it came from, it doesn't really matter, because the essence of the story is "who can you trust" not so much where does this doppleganger-lobstersquid come from?

Kind of feeble that they call it a prequel, because it's like 70% the same as the original.

I always thought the best scene in the JC ver. was when they are all together, doing the blood test to reveal who it is, great suspense. Then it was total chaos. I think this one jumped into the total chaos/horror too quick and missed out on some of the tension/anxiety.

I'm surprised that I liked this one, since I think 90% of movies are shite.

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:52 pm

Oh, no disagreement from me. There's a reason why I said I'd force people to watch the John Carpenter version first. It's so much superior that it's ridiculous, but even so, this one had it's moments.

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:18 am

It's kind of hard to criticize the movie for calling itself a prequel when the story lines are so similar to the other one because any location you go to it's going to have the same story unless they want to completely change the type of movie. The THing movie really a mixture of things like the isolation of Antarctica, the monster, and the traitor element. You can't really make a true sequel to a movie like that without having very similar scenes.

They had the opportunity to viably make a prequel with the story line without straight out calling it a remake even though being in a different timeline doesn't really change much when your in Antarctica. Basically don't knock it for calling itself a prequal yet looking like a remake, it's just how its going to happen okay.

Anyways in regards to the best JC movie of the ones I listed I would probably say The Thing then Big trouble with New york after it. New York was good but always felt like it had a bit too much cheese in it considering its story line.

SenisterDenister · Post by **SenisterDenister** » Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:13 am

I thought In the Mouth of Madness was a good movie, its just that if people don't really know the whole Lovecraftian mode of story telling then they wouldn't like it.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:35 am

I rewatched in the mouth of madness the other night and thought it was still as good as i remember. Though i watched new nightmare a few days before so I was a tiny bit done with the whole meta aspect wahtevs, in the mouth of madness is still better. which sort of ties in as it dfits carpenters apoclypaseope trilogy, the thing, mouth, prince of darkness, the latter being real swell maybe a bit more 70s italian kind of shit than the other because of its desolation but still, a films a films a film.

I havent even seen this advertised in the uk yet and dont have anyone to go to the cinema with so im going to smash a train into my face jk ill rewatch the original

Duck and Cover

The Thing (2011)

Which Carpenter movie is better?

The Thing (2011)