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The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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The Thing (Film)

by Anthony O'Connor | October 10, 2011 12:56 | Edited October 10, 2011 12:57

A disappointing effort for fans of the original, this fails to find the balance between paying homage to its predecessor and carving out its own story.

Set in 1982, The Thing (2011) is a prequel; telling the story of the Norwegian camp's extraterrestrial discovery, only hinted at in The Thing (1982). The question must be asked: do we really care?

 

Anyone who has seen The Thing (1982) knows everyone dies or at least leaves the camp and the action ends with a helicopter chasing a dog. So what unexpected story is told?

 

Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) joins the Norwegian team who has unearthed a ship and its ice encrusted occupant. After a little bit of fairly ordinary exposition - including introducing helicopter pilot Braxton Carter (Joel Edgerton) who seems to be channeling MacReady (Kurt Russell's character from the original) - The Thing breaks out of its icy prison and starts wreaking havoc on the camp.

 

The Thing's biggest problem is inconsistent storytelling. On one hand it wants to be faithful to Carpenter's version, slowly building suspense and suspicion between the characters, and on the other, it just wants to blurt out some really cool monsters regardless of logic or context.

 

The casualty here are the characters - we don't really have any. Winstead is beautiful and Edgerton is a high quality actor but neither have anything to work with. The rest of the cast feel like archetypes rather than people: ‘the science guy', ‘the one who likes dogs' and ‘the other chick'.

 

The first two acts play like a thin retread of Carpenter's version with way too much CGI added and the last third looks like, and has the logic of, a video game with a climax so far out of left field it's almost funny.

 

The Thing is a big disappointment for fans of the original but it's hard to imagine it appealing to the uninitiated either. A handful of vaguely cool monster concepts and a cast who are clearly trying very hard can't make up for a messy story and a downright goofy ending.