There is little question that fans of John Carpenter's The Thing (for which this film is a prequel) are not going to be as enthusiastic with director Matthijis van Heijningen Jr.'s take. Carpenter's film was built on the tension and paranoia inherent in the story (who can you trust if the alien can clone itself into anyone?). He seized upon that to create a classic sci-fi thriller with a solid story, terrific acting and amazing special effects. This new "Thing" had its moments of tension and thrills, but never took enough time to utilize the stories' source material (the film is based upon a short story called, "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell Jr.) and make the film the kind of intense thrill ride that Carpenter's was. Instead, Heijningen Jr. focused more on the violence inflicted by the alien and all of the cool new ways he could show it via CGI as opposed to the practical effects used in the original. The results, however, were less than remarkable and the alien looked like something one would see in a SyFy channel movie, not a big budget studio film. The acting by the cast also did little to help the film, although one wishes that more development would have gone into Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character Kate. She was the only one of the cast that felt believable and it seemed as though the filmmakers were trying to make her Ripley-esque (Ripley is the heroine played by Sigourney Weaver in the "Alien" film series), by giving her a flame-thrower at the climax of the film and asking her to be a woman of action, not a shrinking violet that needed to be saved by a man. Alas there was little to no depth to her and when the film ended, it was easy to feel indifferent as to the fate of Kate.
The newest version of The Thing had a lot to live up to given the reverence that the original carries amongst fans and critics, unfortunately it failed to match the original in any way and was an underwhelming experience.
Grade: C-
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