I'd like to hear your argument about Childs.

I watched this last night and enjoyed it quite a bit.

I liked the fact that most of the actors were Norwegian and the idea of the Americans being the outsiders. This film worked nicely with the Carpenter version; I think it's a nice lead-in.

I get why some didn't like it but I don't understand the criticism about it being just rehash. I mean this prequel would have to be to a degree wouldn't it? I would think that if something like this were to actually happen that people in that situation would act similarly. The way I look at it is that these are two groups of people (Norwegian crew and the MacReady crew) who acted similarly to a similar situation; therefore it would be...well...similar.

Yes, some of the CGI wasn't that great but it wasn't so awful that it took too much away from the flick. The film failed to capture the atmosphere of the original and it didn't play enough with the paranoia and claustrophobia of the surroundings. When it did address the paranoia the film succeeded.

The stuff on the spaceship was dumb but it was so small a section that I can forgive for that. The more "monster movie" chase elements were lame too but luckily there were only a few scenes that I would put into that category. Mostly the flick was made up of stuff that I loved about the 1982 film.

Overall I think the film is very watchable and enjoyable. There's a lot here to appreciate for fans of the Carpenter version.

Me too.

Same here

More than anything this thread makes me want to play The Thing game for the PS2 again. That game scared the shit out of me.

Oh hell yes. I was just thinking about that game. It was fun... and pretty goddamned difficult once you got up to around level 6. I think I gave up.

I've seen this movie many, many, many times but almost from the first viewing in about '82 or '83 I noticed that during the very final scene when Childs and MacReady are waiting to freeze to death there is a very big difference between them. MacReady is surrounded by plumes of breath and Childs is not. Watching again, seeing if I could figure out when Childs was infected I noticed Childs wears a dark blue parka throughout the entire movie until that final scene, where it is now tan. His original parka was obviously destroyed when he was "taken" since the movie make it clear clothing is shredded during assimilation. Childs also has a very lame sounding excuse where he was during the final battle.

There are several other clues as well, if you look.

This was discussed in a youtube video by someone before:

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One thing I noticed after watching it really closely recently is that only the humans are for other humans, i.e. a Thing will say "leave him" or "let's blast him."

Also, the game was supposed to have an amazing sequel and the publisher went bankrupt

I just watched that. Funny, he doesn't mention the "breath" which for me was the most obvious clue. Even as a 13 year old I couldn't figure out why everyone else didn't see it right off, but then none of my friends would ever agree with me that Total Recal was 99% in Arnold's head as his paid for "vacation" (and that was even more obvious).

was the game really that good? I seem to remember it was reviewed as being alright. What was the story in the game?

The story was that you played an Army specialist who had to figure out what was going on at a different research facility that stopped communications.

The game was great in that it had the soundtrack, the same tension as the movie, and you could play with other NPC's who you could test and they would turn at any given moment.

I'll have to check it out. It came out on the 3 consoles at that time. I'm assuming they were all solid w/ xbox being a little cleaner in visual?

Wasn't there some fear mechanic involved with the game as well. I recall that scared characters would react differently....or am I thinking of a different game.

There was a fear mechanic but the way you explained it sounds like Eternal Darkness for the GC. Which was a fucking great game that I never got to buy. I regret only borrowing it and never buying it.

I don't think the breath theory really works as you can definitely see breath coming from the Bennings-Thing outside. It was probably just the lighting of his shots.

Yeah. That's what I was thinking as well. It's a very iconic shot that stays w/ you.

I wanted to know others thoughts because I always thought his excuse for being gone was lame as well....and just the fact that they thought MacReady asking him where he was should be put in the film was a huge signal for me as well. Never gave much thought on the breath thing.

I kind of like that it leaves us wondering as well.

Saw some of the clips featuring the cgi. Didn't seem that scary or maybe it's because I'm seeing them out of context.

Really? How is that any different from what the creature has done in the first film? It seems like the standard creature scare.

For me, just the first part by itself was scary enough. A visual, something's-not-quite-right moment. Disturbing for some reason.

Now I'm really getting confused because I only recall that game screwing with you and faking you out now and then. But anyway...

It has been a couple years since I watched the 80's The Thing. After watching the new one I was kinda meh about it. Then I watched the extra about how they took scenery from the original film and with the new film explained how things like the axe in the wall got there. I had forgotten about the axe and the huge hole in the hallway in the older film. I thi nk the next time I have a day without my 2 year old around I may watch them back to back to fully enjoy them both.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to "enjoy" the 2011 film :P

There is a huge (even exaggerated) difference between the two as they sit and talk. So much so that it seems obvious to me that they went out of their way to show it.

I thought so I specifically bought an Xbox to play the game! Took me forever to finish it but I loved it.

I thought the game was frustrating as hell - you test a teammate, they turn out OK, and then literally a minute later they 'thing out'

frustrating.

I enjoyed the concept of the game - it's too bad a sequel was never made