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Rottenwatch: THE THING (Dir. A Crazy Swede, Mary Elizabeth Winstead)

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Snaku

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http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_thing_2011/

Tomatometer: 34%
Fresh: 33 | Rotten: 65

As monster movies go, however, this one is better than the drivel we are normally subjected to and, by taking itself seriously (rather than adding comedic punctuation), it allows for tension and scares.

Dutch director Matthijs van Heijningen and company deliver lean suspense, and they update the Carpenter crew's gnarly alien-shapeshifter effects skillfully enough to remind us why the concept captures geek imaginations.

Not as good as either of the previous Things, but it cobbles together the best elements of each.

Van Heijningen does a pretty good job with the tried and true material, building up the suspense and claustrophobia very effectively and managing a couple of genuinely startling shock moments. But the last third of the film is a bit of a letdown.

Trailer

Taking place three days before the events of the John Carpenter film, paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) joins a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across a crashed extraterrestrial spaceship buried in the ice of Antarctica. They discover a creature that seems to have died in the crash eons ago.
When an experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate joins the crew's pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing and imitating them one at a time, using its uncanny ability to mimic any life form it absorbs through digestion, and potentially reaching civilization.

SEE JOHN CARPENTER'S THE THING AT RAVE CINEMAS NATION WIDE THURSDAY OCT 13! Click for theater locations and times!

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They could have bothered to give it a subtitle or something. I thought this was a remake until I read the OP. The first movie still holds up fantastically well so this will have to be extra good to avoid getting trashed.
 
Ushojax said:
They could have bothered to give it a subtitle or something. I thought this was a remake until I read the OP. The first movie still holds up fantastically well so this will have to be extra good to avoid getting trashed.
Uh wow. I thought it was a remake too.
 
I'm looking forward to this, even though it will be impossible to stand up to the first. And it will probably be thrashed by critics but I'll still be there.
 
I haven't watched The Thing but I hope our nationality will be put in a good light, we've only been in movies for blonde babes. Looking at Google it seems like Sweden was mentioned in the original The Thing, what did they do?
 
I'll see this. Not expecting much but I'll look at Mary Elizabeth Winstead on a theater screen for a fifth time!

Does anyone know if The Thing from Another World is on Netflix WI? I have Carpenter's Thing on Blu-ray and it's one of my favorite movies ever.

I also have the Xbox game which I actually thought was great.
 
Started listening to some of the samples of the soundtrack on iTunes, and I was surprised to hear Ennio Morricone's Humanity (Part II) from the Carpenter film used in the very first track: God's Country Music. I was under the impression that Beltrami wouldn't be sampling any of Morricone's work, but using it as inspiration.

Ushojax said:
They could have bothered to give it a subtitle or something. I thought this was a remake until I read the OP. The first movie still holds up fantastically well so this will have to be extra good to avoid getting trashed.

One could argue that watching this and the Carpenter film back-to-back constitute one movie.
 
I'm kind of happy this isn't a remake, but the title makes no sense. Also, a prequel set three days before makes no sense. I'll just re-watch Carpenter's film.
 
Tobor said:
I'm kind of happy this isn't a remake, but the title makes no sense. Also, a prequel set three days before makes no sense. I'll just re-watch Carpenter's film.

Well, that's how the Carpenter film starts. The Thing escaped from the Norwegian base, right? I may be hazy.
 
Manager said:
I haven't watched The Thing but I hope our nationality will be put in a good light, we've only been in movies for blonde babes. Looking at Google it seems like Sweden was mentioned in the original The Thing, what did they do?

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J. M. Romeo said:
Well, that's how the Carpenter film starts. The Thing escaped from the Norwegian base, right? I may be hazy.

Maybe you're right. It's been years since I've seen it. That would explain the plot, but the title is still lame. Oh, well.
 
Yeah this details the Norwegians from the beginning of the original movie and what happened to them.
 
Oh wow. I also thought it was a remake. I guess its better that they didn't slap THE BEGINNING or something stupid on there. Well good on them I guess.
 
i also thought it was a remake, haha. weren't there posts in the trailer threads saying it looked very similar to the original?
 
J. M. Romeo said:
Well, that's how the Carpenter film starts. The Thing escaped from the Norwegian base, right? I may be hazy.

Yeah, the Norwegians are shooting at a dog (The Thing), from a helicopter near the American base and the Americans take in the dog. That's what I remember anyway.
 
Meh. How many cheap startles can you get in a dodgy alien knock off?

And also, for a prequel not a remake they sure did steal a bunch of stuff from the thing like the ice block in the basement and the dog chewing through the wires.
 
Just saw John Carpenter's "The Thing" for the first time last night. Really liked it, holds up very well. The make-up/special effects at times looked a bit fakey, but more than make up for it in imagination and creativity. Fascinating stuff!

Looking forward to this prequel, but am realistic about my expectations. Hope it does the original some justice.
 
Why is the movie named the same as the movie it is a prequel to?
It makes no fucking sense and it will be confusing as hell in the future.

"The Thing" - a prequel to "The Thing". :|
 
I just remembered they are remaking Escape from New York, with Gerard Butler. I would be happy with a new Snake Plissken movie, or a non-goofy remake of LA, but leave the original alone.

Edit: Jeremy Renner as Snake, the director of Terminator 3 will write and possibly direct.
 
I'm really not a fan of the creature being cg. I hope this turns out well, because the first movie is a favorite of mine.
 
Yenrot said:
I just remembered they are remaking Escape from New York, with Gerard Butler. I would be happy with a new Snake Plissken movie, or a non-goofy remake of LA, but leave the original alone.

Ooooh, really?

I've been aching for a remake! It needs to do two simple things to be successful: Remove the campiness, and CGI Lee Van Cleef into it.
 
Subscribed.

I'm crossing my fingers for some good reviews. The Thing (1982) is one of my favorite movies of all-time, so I'd be okay with anything even a quarter of its quality.
 
Count Dookkake said:
Title is not identical. It's much shorter now.
It's officially called The Thing. The new movie is called The Thing.

The more I think about it, it's obviously a stunt to get people to think its a remake. Why that's seen as better marketing, I can't figure out.
 
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