The Thing (2011) (Blu-ray + Digital Copy) [Region Free]

A few fondly remembered movies from the 1980's have beeen subject to the remake treatment lately. But when it came to The Thing [DVD] [1982], the makers of this new version opted instead to do a prelude [or prequel, if you will] to the original version. Although as anyone who has seen that will know [and you probably have if you're reading this] that film did offer the opportunity for such.

[Minor spoilers follow in regards to it, so be careful if you haven't seen it...]

The John Carpenter classic began with people from an American Antarctic research base investigating strange behaviour by two people from a nearby Norwegian base, and coming into contact as a result with an alien creature that absorbs and takes on the characteristics of any living thing it comes into contact with.

The Carpenter version didn't exactly reveal much about what happened at the Norwegian base, thus this new version takes the opportunity to do that, rather than simply remake what John Carpenter did back in 1980's.

Doctor Kate Lloyd [Mary Elizabeth Winstead] is a palentologist called in to help when the Norwegian team find a spaceship under ice in Antarctica, and a body of a creature near it. When the creature comes to life and starts to absorb and kill people, those at the base have a fight for survival on their hands. They have no idea if any of their colleagues can be trusted. But the creature can't be allowed to get out, or the future of the human race could be endangered.

This is thus set in 1982, and the production design is pretty good because it does recreate an 80's feel very well. In many ways it does feel as if could have been a product of the time. The visual effects in the Carpenter version were all done the old fashioned way - it being long before the days of cgi - but the ones in here do use a mixture of animatronics and puppets and stunt work, with a bit of cgi as well. How you react to that depends on how you feel about visual effects. But by and large they are pretty good.

The film does have a cast of largely Norwegian actors. When you would expect Hollywood to go for Americans playing Norwegians, so that's another point in it's favour. As is the fact that some of the dialogue is done in Norwegian with English subtitles.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead does carry the film well and make for a decent heroine.

But if you have the original, once the action kicks off, it can initially feel a bit over familiar.

Yet it does manage some decent surprises and shock moments and paranoia. And it gains momentum as it continues. In the final third the movie barely has a chance to pause for breath. Thus it does keep you very involved as a viewer.

It is also quite clever in the way it ties in with the Carpenter version because of the way it takes care to make sure what happens matches up with what was hinted at in that.

Although those who have seen the original will thus know how this version is going to turn out, the ending is an image that might stay with you for a while.

Do keep watching during the final credits, though.

This, like a lot of revisitations of old movies, perhaps wasn't a necessary new version. But it's a capable bit of film making for what it is. If you've not seen the original, then you'll get a decent bit of science fiction horror. If you have, then you'll get a fond homage to a 1980's classic.

And if you're fond of the Eurovision Song contest, you'll get an interesting surprise....

The dvd has the following language and subtitle options:

Languages: English, German.

Subtitles: English, German, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish.

Be aware that the extras only have subtitles in English, German, and Italian.

The disc begins with a few trailers, but you can skip them via the next button the dvd remote control.

The extras are:

A commentary from the director and the producer.

Some deleted/extended scenes. These can be watched individually or all in a row. If you do the latter they run for nine minutes in total. A couple are essential viewing because they do show the fate of a couple of characters.

There's a thirteen minute long making of feature called 'The Thing Evolves' which is quite good. If watching this watch it to the very end of the credits.

Plus a four minute long feature called 'Fire and Ice' which is all about the stunt work done for the scenes which involve the use of flamethrowers. Epileptics beware some flashing images at the end of this.

The only reason I bought this film was to see how it would tie in with the John Carpenter version on J W Campbells "who goes there". I can tell you now, that if you are a fan of the original Thing, then you WILL be disappointed. The film feels rushed, poorly edited and makes no sense whatsoever. In the original version, the shape shifting thing takes a long time to absorb an organism. But, in this version the two headed beast that MacReady and Doc find at the Norwegian camp took literally seconds. The parts that are CGI look CGI and the animatronics look too glossy, almost plastic in texture. The great thing about the original was the dark brooding atmosphere and unease between the characters. In this new version, there isn't a single likeable character. And finally, it still never explains how the guy sitting in the chair with his neck and both wrists cut actually managed to do it.
Do yourself a favour and watch Christian Nyby's and Howard Hawks version, "The Thing from another world" instead.

This is a pretty good prequel to the 1982 original The Thing with Kurt Russell imo, better than i thought it was going to be, as i love the original & have seen it numerous times. A Norwegian Antarctica based science research group uncover something underneath the Ice, and then we follow they're scientific leader Dr. Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen -Adam's Apples) as he hires Paleontologist(study of prehistoric life) Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead -Final Destination 3) to come & help investigate something they have found out there, purely on the premise that it's something they havent seen before, she accepts. Once the find is taken back to base & the group celebrate the discovery of the century, the merriments soon turn to horror, as whatever was in the ice has escaped running amok, but they cannot go anywhere, as a storm has moved in. It's time to see who is..... what!

Overall, from a nostalgic point of view, if you have seen the original before many times like myself, you will find this film hard to shock you outright as you already have a good idea of whats going to happen. It's just getting there that's going to be the interesting bit. And in that respect i thought it was rather good overall. It's still very much an enjoyable film as a science fiction horror by itself, but i would still recommend watching the original after or before this & see how it all ties in together. The mostly unknown cast of Scandinavian & American actors were decent.

My main worry coming into this initially was how much CGI was going to be involved with this modern version, as the original was all pretty much real props, hand made, and men running around in suits, style type of special effects that you knew were harder to implement back then & allot of time taken. Sadly pretty much 99% of the effects were CGI in this , even the flamethrowers that were used. So that was a huge disappointment tbh. It still looked reasonably ok but broke the immersion for me to an extent, even though the actors did a decent job of responding to it. I tried to not let it ruin my enjoyment of the film, as the suspense, claustrophobic environment & everything else was still there like the original.

In conclusion, going into it with an open mind & to give it a chance, i came out with the experience that The Thing (2011) is a good science fiction horror. But it doesn't quite live up to the 1982 offering. I was disappointed with the amount of CGI used, but they still managed to capture that atmosphere of panic & distrust in an isolated locale, although treading over familiar ground, i found myself still enjoying it as i followed how the story progressed & was still very much on edge wondering when things were going to happen. Recommended.