Review of the 2011 Prequel “The Thing”

In the world of films, games, books and other media that may have sequential orders; there are only two types of Prequels… shit ones (Star Wars Episode 1-3 for example) and okay ones (Halo Reach) There are never any great ones that is a pure fact that I have yet to be proved wrong. I believe the 2011 prequel to 1982’s John Carpenters “The Thing” (Staring the awesome and great actor, the man of many talents… KURT RUSSEL!! :D) sits on a knives edge between the two types, and here is why.

The start of the film went off great, nice build up and plot development; bringing the viewer back to the setting of the main film, the abandoned geological station.  The 2011 film follows the perspective of Kate Lloyd played by Mary Winstead, throughout the film I believe she played the part very well, apart from the fact she instantly knows how to do all sorts of things and knows information that she probably shouldnt know.

The beginning of the film started off with the plot development and towards the half way point it began to settle into the horror of “anyone can be it” but that was instantly broken when they begin showing the creature. The original film barley showed the creature (due to the effects of the time being shit) but it made it even more scarier, with the new HD graphics and the High graphical creations CGI can create, they brought the monster to life. I will admit, it was a very good looking monster but the horror element changed from “It can be anyone” to “Oh its there, how do i get away” which was not really how the film should have gone.

The other thing to grumble about was the alien ship. it has been a while since I watched the original but I am sure the ship wasnt as big as it was in the new film, and the fact they showed in the inside made it feel like they were showing us too much. A good sci-fi horror shows you just enough to make you think, Like the original; Where is it from? why was it here on earth? how did it crash? etc. but the new one just showed you enough for you to make assumptions, which is not entirely bad but did take away from the original.

 

I will probably add some more to this review later on, This is how I feel at the moment