Now Playing: The Thing (2011)

When I saw the trailer for the new version of The Thing I was very excited! I loved the John Carpenter movie, and this wasn't going to be a remake, instead it's a prequel. While some people might think this is a bad thing, I was just happy to have more of The Thing. It never even occurred to me that this movie could be bad, so I was surprised when bad reviews started cropping up the closer it came to release. I knew I still had to see it for myself, but I was starting to get a little worried about it. Tonight I got all my friends together and we all hit up the theater. Hit the jump if you want to know if this is worth the money to see it on the big screen.


As I said, this is a prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing, so if you've seen that you have a pretty good idea what this movie is all about. A group of Norwegian scientists find a space ship buried in the ice of Antarctica. Along with the interstellar craft, they also find a creature in the ice. Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a paleontologist who specializes in ice-digs, so she is flown in along with a selection of other specialists to work on the dig. Little do they know that the alien they have excavated can copy its prey and appear as they do. It doesn't take long before the base is under attack, and no one knows who is human, and who is a thing!

Examining the thing

One of the only things I wanted in this movie was good creature effects. Really, that's all I cared about. Luckily I wasn't disappointed, and the creatures looked pretty good. I wish they had used more practical effects, like the '82 version, but the CG was pretty good. It at least allowed for some really crazy creature designs, as I expected to see after the '82 version. The CG also allowed for them to make the massive alien ship, and while you don't see much of it, what I did see was pretty cool. I'm a little undecided about some of the "8-bit" effects used at the end. I have to be vague because it's the end of the movie, but there was just this one effect that I can't make up my mind if I liked it or not. It was certainly different, I'll give it that.

I'd just like to interject here that while the "thing" monsters look wild and savage, I always forget that they are still just as smart, if not smarter than us. Remember that before they go all crazy and turn into the worst kind of space-crabs, they look like us and can totally just have a conversation with you. I always wondered why they go all-out and attack everyone, when they could just talk with you about how bad the coffee is, and just hide in plain sight until getting back to civilization. Anyways, I just find it creepy that these creatures can talk to you so casually if they want to.

Flamethrowers, luckily, are standard issue at Antarctic bases

There were two actors that I recognized and enjoyed watching in the film, and thankfully they were the main characters. Joel Edgerton played the role of one of the American helicopter pilots at the base named Braxton Carter. I recognized him almost immediately as being one of the leads in Warrior, the MMA movie from last month. I'm starting to like seeing him; he has an interesting look about him. I hope he's in more films in the future. Second there was Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who I recognized, but for the life of me couldn't place her face to where I had seen her before. I should have been able to place her, as this just happened to me with Deathproof. She played Ramona in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Thankfully one of my friends remembered who she was after the movie, so I wasn't being mentally tortured by it for too long. As for the rest of the cast, I can't say much about them, because they either didn't speak much English, or they weren't around for very long.

I quite liked Joel Edgerton (right) in this, I hope he gets even more work in the future

The downside to this film is that it's usually pretty predictable and obvious when someone turned out to be a "thing". At least it was to me. Well, I guess there was one that I didn't see coming. Also, if you've seen the trailer, it spoils a few of the reveals. Luckily, none of my friends had see the trailer, but they still seemed to be able to tell when someone was actually a monster. I did hear a few surprised gasps in the audience at the start, but I think soon most people were figuring it out. Even so, I just wanted to see monsters and fighting and people getting killed, and I certainly got a lot of all those things, so it didn't bother me all that much.

In the end I had a good time. I'm a fan of the franchise, so just the idea and concept was enough for me, and the "things" all looked cool and did some crazy stuff. It's not the most sophisticated horror movie, but it has all the cool monsters and gruesome deaths and flamethrowers that you'd want in a Thing movie. I didn't mind spending the money for the experience, but I don't think it's really a movie that you have to see in a theater. Pro-tip: as the credits start to roll, you'll see a few additional scenes that tie this film into the '82 film, solidly placing this as its prequel if there were any doubts before. It may not be as good or impactful as the original, but I think it still works as a good addition to the series.