Re: THE THING: prequel
 

I agree that the CG creature(s) shouldn't have been so brightly lit. I felt it lessened the intensity of most of the scenes it appeared in. On the plus side, it made me go back and watch the original (something I hadn't done in years) and appreciate those practical effects all the more. The work done there still holds up.

This film actually does a decent job depicting the events leading up to the horrible aftermath Kurt Russell and his team discovered at the Norwegian base camp. But aside from filling us in on those happenings, it was somewhat paint by numbers. I kind of dug the surprise reveal before the helicopter crashed, but otherwise the plot had little in the way of surprises. Even the big twist with the earring was something I saw coming a mile away. Still, I give it points for not going the straight remake route. It manages to play okay as a double feature with Carpenter's film.

BTW: I love Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but she was pretty bland here. Didn't buy her as a scientist in the slightest. "You want me go to Antarctica? Okay, I'm in." Too casual for my taste. She didn't seem to have a passion for the job, especially for what was essentially the greatest discovery in the history of mankind. Not that much of the other cast left an impression, but I was expecting more.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

I think that as much as I love, love, love the freedom and variety that comes with DVD, I feel that I missed so much by not having cinema-going as a communal experience. There isn't much around my area in the way of art houses of something esoteric (except one local theater that has classic night on the night I have to work late). There are a few places, but they're out of the way or in parts of town I'd rather not visit. I just don't feel the communal experience of going to a late-night horror movie where the floors are sticky and everyone is scared together. Anyway...

Not a problem in and of itself, I suppose, just sounds kind of boring.

I just kind of like that she's carving out a niche as a genre queen!

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Which is one of the reasons I love her. :)

While her role here didn't do much for me, I still look foward to watching her in other interesting (and hopefully nerd-friendly) projects.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

I'll keep it short and sweet: This prequel to the original film "The Thing" is basically flaccid, and unnecessary.

I give it 2 stars, or a grade of C (being generous).

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

I saw it yesterday and it was ok. The best part was when Carpenter's Score would peek out and then they would pull it so fast. You didn't feel the isolation you felt in the first one.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

I liked this ok enough. My feeling is that its ok to not think this is better than Carpenter's, since Carpenter's is the "finale".

Sure, it hits the same overall beats, but it was cool to see how the set dressing ending up where they did. Couple of minor gripes:

Some iterations of The Thing moved too fast for my liking, mainly the third one (crashing through the door down the hallway) It just makes you think that Mac and Co were really on top of things (pun!) if they never got that formed to be fast. Also, obviously, some of the cgi (particularly the chopper part)

Couple of stand out scenes:



The cgi was hit or miss. I wish there was a "practical fx" cut before they went crazy with "touch ups" because I actually enjoyed this. It was good enough for me to think that these were the events that preceded Carpenter's

Also, regardless of the rest of the movie, the end credits gave me chillllllllls.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Agreed about the end credits.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Interesting read:

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/26758

Sounds like they did shoot a lot practical and Universal wanted CGI reshoots. Ack, lots of character development cut too.

So basically, it sounds like the filmmakers were on the right track, but the producers fucked it all up.

We should bombard Universal for the longer "practical fx cut" of the blu ray. I would like to see that.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

^That pisses me off.

Is it too much to ask that we get a director's cut on blu-ray/DVD? With the original effects and character scenes?

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Wait till you read this... now I'm pissed off too.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...-thing-6514514

Turns out the whole Rec room scene, hand monsters/ face melting and all, was done completely practical! They say it took 4 months to set that scene up! And they shit it all away.... grrrrrrr.. I better get to see this someday!

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

This movie would have been so much more intriguing had it been more of a straight paranoia film. They started to tread in an interesting direction when the Norwegians began conspiring against the Americans, but the whole thing became a big, lumbering monster-mash before the nationalistic conflict went anywhere interesting.

For what it was, I was entertained just enough not to be angry while in the theater, but the more I think about the freaky possibilities laid out during the tour of the Norwegian's camp in the '82 version, the less enthused I am about the direction this film took.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Saw it on Sunday, thought it was mediocre. I could forgive the one-note characters and weak writing if they'd gone the practical route in regard to the FX work. Fast-moving CGI beasts aren't what The Thing should be about.

And, really, I applaud them trying to get details right so this ties into Carpenter's film, but make sure you get the LOOK right. The split-face thing didn't look like the one they found in '82. They got some things right, but they could've done better.

And all the final scene stuff on the spaceship was retarded.

The best part was easily the ending at the camp. I wanted to like the film more, but it wouldn't let me.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/480...atches-premake

Original cast watches the remake...

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

That's the version I'll wait for. I won't bother seeing the CG Version currently in theaters.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

"Premake"? Is that a term now?

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Hahaha. Seriously, guys, I'd love to see that, too, but you'll be waiting a LONG fucking time.

(i.e. forever)

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Yup. The best we can hope for is an unrated cut that runs a whopping 72 seconds longer than the theatrical cut. :lol:

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Saw it this evening, about 20 minutes in I could see I wasn't going to be enjoying this and wanted to go see something else.

To be fair, I did thing the teeth examination scene had a good deal of tension and I have to say the effects looked better than I thought they would. Perhaps a mix of CGI and practical.

Overall though, this movie sucked. Just another generic movie with a monster chasing people down. No atmosphere. Nothing special. I watched the John Carpenter version a week earlier and MAN, is that a hell of a movie.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Here's an interview with Eric Christen Olsen where he talks about how the rec room scene was all practical (its towards the end),

http://screencrave.com/2011-10-11/in...-on-the-thing/

I hate petitions, but I'd start one to see the practical version of this.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Watched this yesterday, I thought it was just ok. I really enjoyed all the nods to the 1982 one, things that you can see in that movie (axe, end credits) and thought a couple scenes had good tension. But man, I'm not one to bitch about effects, but the cgi stuff was distracting. The first time someone turns into the monster looks really, really bad. As did another transformation later on in the film. Just all looked too glossy and distant.

With that said, I was mostly entertained, thought MEW did an ok job. My favorite character thought was probably the Norwegian with the epic red beard, he was a pretty expressive actor. Nowhere near Carpenter, but was an ok movie. **1/2 out of ****

Reading about reshoots and how so much actually WAS going to be practical effects pisses me off too. Especially since many of my gripes had to do with the cgi here. I'd love to see the version of the movie that was made before the producers got a hold of it

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

Just saw this earlier today. It was alright...not nearly on the level of Carpenter's. Obviously. But I knew that going in. At any rate, it was a decent way to spend a rainy Wednesday morning.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

aside from getting into a coughing fit and having to get up and leave and get something to drink - I think I missed how 'the thing' got out of the ice block. The movie wasn't great but like Ed noted it was a nice diversion, but man, this movie was loud - in the spaceship scene when the thing screamed it literally vibrated the theater walls.

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

<object width="600" height="396"><param name="movie" value="http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/45423"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/45423" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" width="600" height="396" allowFullScreen="true"></embed></object>

Re: THE THING: prequel
 

^ thank you thank you for posting that.