MOVIE.RttP{The Thing: Prequel (10/14)}

I beat you Aaron, saw the 715 at Lowell

Spoilahs, don't read

First, extremely happy that they kept the theme song pretty much the same, the rest of the score was Marco Beltrami's interpretation of Ennio's style.

Negatives: The whole scene with the alien in the ship seemed useless, why was it trying to leave, I highly doubt it would have thought that it could go north without getting shot down.
I think they showed the creature too much, sometimes it was just too cheesy, like when the girl creature is running around. I feel like less would have been more. The cgi was tolerable but too much for a purist like me. The creature's sounds weren't as creepy, the one scene from the 80s that always creeps me out is the one with the long arms creature burning and making the deep moaning noise.

Positives: The characters are more likable and this you feel more sympathy for them when they die. Lars was a bad ass. They didn't create anything new to the myth, other than the it-can't-absorb-inorganic-stuff which was cool and added to the story. I loved the fact that the creature had more parts to it, much more insect like in some scenes and much more tentacled-toothed in others. There was also much more of a paranoid you don't know who is the thing element in this film and I loved when the Norwegians were trying to get their fellow Norwegian to side against the Americans.
The best part was the end credits where they tie the two films together, I think the one shot with the dog running was taken straight from the 80s version.

Obviously not going to match the 80s version but def a great homage and a good film, hopefully it inspires more alien/creature horror films.

questions left: Who was the dude who slit his wrists at the end, couldn't figure out which guy it was

if the helicopter crashes and the thing can only be killed with fire or ice, on as it is a cellular virus alien sorta, doesn't that mean that the one from the crash is still out there? Was that the dog?

What happens with the chick? Does she go to the Russian base? Maybe they could make a third film where she goes to the russian base and we get to see the commies rescue Kieth David and Kurt Russel and they team up and fight the creature. It would be useless but still entertaining, they could ratchet up the anti-communism theme, as the book the films are all based on is basically a metaphor for the red scare.

Bottom line, as a stand alone it is probably one of the best films to come out in theaters this year or in a while.