The Thing (2011)

 

 When I first saw this movie available on a streaming service I wasn't sure if this was a remake, a sequel or what relationship this had to the John Carpenter classic of the same name.  Turns out this is a prequel to the film I have loved so long that I almost felt it was pointless in making this.  I mean there's no way to make it better.  I don't care how much more advanced the special effects are it doesn't always translate to better.  In fact, most of the CGI effects are OK at best with a couple of them looking pretty questionable.  The effects from the 1982 version look so good still in comparison.  Now, like I said there's no making it better, so why bother doing it?  Well I give the original a near perfect scorer of four and a half flame throwers out of five.  The John Carpenter version I'm talking about here.  So maybe it can't be this great but can it still be a good film?  I decided to give it a go.

 

 This Thing or this version of The Thing, I should say, stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Birds of Prey, and 10 Cloverfield Lane) as paleontologist Kate Lloyd who goes to Antarctica on a mission to find what they believe to be the remains of an alien frozen in the frigid wasteland.  Also starring is Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby, The Green Knight, and Zero Dark Thirty) as helicopter pilot and Vietnam vet Sam Carter who has no idea what is going on as nobody tells him nothing.  Eric Christian Olsen (Not Another Teen Movie and Battle of the Sexes) stars as a young scientist Adam Finch, who talks Kate into joining the expedition.  Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje a long favorite of ours here at The Man Hole as he was Mr. Eko in LOST as well as playing Adebise in the prison drama OZ also stars here as Derek, another helicopter pilot who is best friends and partner to Sam.  I constantly had to tell myself this was a prequel and not a remake as it feels like the same story just with different characters.  While it's not a direct copy there are similarities.

 

 

There's no way this could be better than the original and as I expected, it's not but it is entertaining and that's all you can ask for.  The  claustrophobic feel of being locked up in the frozen tundra is never far away.  The isolation is real and the importance of destroying the creatures is certainly palpable but none of it reaches as high as in the 1982 version.  If this movie existed all on it's own I probably would judge it differently but I can't ignore the original and I can appreciate this version for what it is.  It comes off as a loving tribute to John Carpenter's masterpiece.  Nothing new and certainly nothing done better is added or offered.  Winstead and Edgerton carry the film quite nicely, some of the characters seem to fade into the background but that might be the fault of the script not the actors.  There's only so much that can be going on at the same time and most of it is all done by the same handful of characters.  Like I said earlier there is definitely room for this along side of the 1982 film and I'll give this three American Huskies out of five.