The Thing (2011)

The Thing is a prequel to the John Carpenter classic The Thing which I love and so I could not wait to see this movie. Now the movie starts out with 3 Norwegian artic explorers the 2 up front are telling a joke well the sucker in the back is doing all the work and the guy who’s doing the work picks up a signal. They stop and the ice breaks beneath them and find a space ship. Then you get the title screen and after that’s done we meet are main protagonist a woman named Kate Lloyd and she is a artic scientist, and Dr. Sander Halvorson needs her for something she isn’t told what it is but she is convinced and they set off.

                                You figure out what the team wants her to do which is getting the alien out of the ice which they do. Now some dialogue takes place they establish character at this point, and their not that great you really don’t care about any of them with the exception of maybe Kate. The Thing breaks out’s and it’s up to the crew to stop it. The Thing gets to one of the crew members but they do end up killing the thing and this is where the movie starts to get good. Dr. Sander Halverson dissects the thing and you learn that the guy he killed and sucked into his body has new like flesh. Kate also finds a metal plate and one the crew members says that used to be in his body and now Kate is wondering what is it doing out of it.

                Kate then starts looking at the Cells and see’s the thing’s cells taking over and replicating the guy who got killed cells. Now if you seen John Carpenter’s Version you know what this means. Some of the crew members decide to leave and seek help because one the members got hurt while fighting the thing. However Kate discovers fillings on the floor of the bathroom and blood in the shower she put the pieces together and figured out what the thing is doing and flags the helicopter down. The helicopters crashes and before it crashed you see the thing pop out of a guy it looks terrible I mean really bad.

                After the accident Kate tells the other crew members that they can’t leave like they want because the thing is in one them, they don’t believe her.  Juliette tells Kate that she saw one of the crew members clean up the blood in the shower and Juliette knows where the keys are to the Artic Tanks when Kate and Juliette are alone the thing come out of Juliette and attacks Kate.  Kate comes up with a plane the scientist come up with a way to test their blood and her and another guy will make sure the Artic tanks don’t’ work. Then for some reason the guy show’s Kate grenades maybe he wanted to look cool. Anyways 2 guys come emerging out of the blindness of the snow Sam Carter and Derek Jameson  they were part of the helicopter crash so the crew thinks that they are the thing but Kate convinces them to lock them up instead of killing them.

                After all of that you see the lab blow up and crew figures that it was the thing and go at peoples throat but Kate tells them there is another way she tells Lars to open up and he has fillings so he’s not the thing she does this to everyone until there is to groups and she tells Lars and another member to go get Derek and Sam and they do but they escape and Lars goes missing. In a panic the guy comes back pounding at the door Kate lets him in and tells them the thing is out there. Derek and sam Come through the back door and end up killing one of the crew members in self-defense. Sam and Derek take control and tell everyone to get into the recreation room here the thing reveals itself and kills everyone but Derek and Kate. The Thing takes over Dr. Sander Halvorson body gets one of the Artic Tanks running and sets off.

Derek and Kate follow to the things space ship and they fight the thing inside Kate is almost killed but destroys it by tossing a grenade in it and Derek sets it on fire. Derek and Kate escape and Kate tells Derek how she knew he wasn’t the thing it was his ear ring the thing can only copy organic material but the ear ring was on the wrong ear and she killed him,

Then the credits flash but wait there is a helicopter and the guy come out of it and starts yelling and Lars comes out and so does a dog. Now this is the best part of the movie because earlier you seen this dog get killed so you know exactly what it is so does Lars and they both jump into the helicopter and Lars starts shooting at it.

Now I like this movie it’s fun, but there are problems the biggest being that the effects are terrible I much prefer the ones in the original they look way better and more organic. Also they kind of repeat a lot of what John Carpenter put into the original which ruins the surprise because I already seen it. Plus giving us clues about its shaped shifting abilities was a good idea but is ruined by showing the thing before the helicopter crash they should of has just had the helicopter crash to keep it more of a surprise. But I did like the idea of an origin story that was a great idea instead of just remaking the original Plus the ending is superb I love how the set up the next movie. Overall it’s not as good but still good in its own right.  I recommend it especially to fans of the original.