Thing, The (2011)

Posted May 25, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

When the researchers at a Norwegian research site at Antarctica discover an alien vessel and a nearby creature in the ice, lead scientist Dr. Sander Halvorson has paleontologist Kate Lloyd join his crew. Lloyd is an expert on examining ancient remains and as such gets tasked to find out more about the alien. However, after a first hole is made in the ice, it becomes clear the alien creature isn’t dead. It escapes and kills one of the crew before getting torched by the rest. Unfortunately, little later it becomes clear that there’s more to the alien than thought at first.

Lloyd discovers that the creature can imitate other beings and as such has already managed to infiltrate the base. No-one can be trusted and all efforts must be made to make sure the creature doesn’t reach the rest of civilization…

Sound and Vision:
The image quality is where the good stuff is. Forget all possible transfer issues as there’s no edge enhancement, noise, banding, aliasing or anything of the likes. The blacks may not be as inky as they can be, but they’re very decent and the same can be said about the level of sharpness. Detail is very high, and also the contrast and brightness are top notch.

The sound truly makes the movie come to life. There’s a good portion of bass, the surround channels are used for music score and lots of effects, and directionals are perfect while dialogues remains crystal clear and perfectly positioned. Superb is the word.

Extras:
– Audio Commentary track
– Deleted Scenes
– The Thing Evolves
– Fire & Ice
– U-Control

In total time (less than half an hour), the extras are very thin if you don’t take into account the audio commentary and U-Control but the quality is high. The U-Control option also offers picture-in-picture pop-ups for nearly each chapter in the movie, giving a good piece of info on the making of the film.

Conclusion:
This 2011 version of The Thing is as much a remake of John Carpenter’s original as it is a prequel. Newcomers to the plot will find a setup that’s pretty much the same as the original with a shape-shifting creature, nobody to be trusted, and even a (new!) test to find out who’s still human and who’s not. Fans of the original on the other hand will find the story of the Norwegian camp that’s featured at the beginning of Carpenter’s movie, how they found the alien, how it first showed itself, and how they ended up near the American camp from the original.

Just like in Carpenter’s movie, the focus is on who can be trusted and who can’t, and all the right buttons are pushed. This is combined with action scenes when the alien reveals itself and goes on a killing spree. Unfortunately, it isn’t all great though. There are a couple of plot twists that don’t make much sense (the alien going back to the crashed ship supposedly to escape is one example) and also the movie doesn’t completely fit perfectly with Carptenter’s classic. Also the acting isn’t as good as it could have been (nobody good enough to replace Kurt Russell from the original) and the scenes with a half-transformed creature seem more used to bring failed awesomeness to the screen than to add tension.

Still. This new version of The Thing isn’t all bad. It’s a reasonably decent attempt to fill in some holes from the original, but as a stand-alone it’s a decent horror flick that unfortunately doesn’t manage to be interesting enough to make a lasting impression.

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