The Thing (2011) Movie Review 220

The Thing is a prequel of the 1982 version of The Thing. It is directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

The movie begins in Antarctica where some Norwegian researchers discover a huge alien ship under the ice and there is some sort of creature trapped in a block of ice. Kate Lloyd(Winstead) who is a palaeontologist and she is recruited by Dr. Sander Halvorson(Ulrich Thomsen) to investigate this. They all go to Antarctica and meet up with the team of researchers who are all interested in this new form of life. Kate is amazed when she sees the alien ship. Dr. Halvorson asks her to take a tissue sample from the creature in the ice. She is reluctant, but she does so.  Unfortunately, the block of ice is starting to melt and the creature eventually breaks out and goes AWOL. They don't know what it is so they have to look for it and try and capture it again.

They find the alien and they shoot it and kill it, but it can spread from person to person so there is no way of knowing who has been infected by it. Dr. Halvorson looks at the remains of the creature and sees that it was digesting one of the team. Kate finds fillings on the floor of the bathroom covered in blood. She realises that the creature can replicate a human being but that it couldn't absorb the fillings so it throws them out. The thing is on the loose in the building and it corners Kate. She is saved by the others and they kill that one and set it on fire but there is no telling if it has passed onto someone else. They have to isolate it and kill it once and for all.They disable the vehicles so nobody can escape. They take blood from each other and they take it to the lab to analyse it, but the lab is set on fire so they can't do that. Kate checks each of them for fillings and the ones who do have them are okay but there are a few who don't. They are under suspicion.

They have a flamethrower and they search to see if they can find the thing. It passes from one to the other and they have to kill each person it infects. Eventually Kate realises that it is in Dr.Halvorson and it is going for the ship so it can escape. She chases it and falls into the ship. She searches and finds the thing. She manages to destroy it by blowing it up. She is left shattered by the experience. The next day, a helicopter comes to the base and they see what has happened. There is one survivor called Lars and he orders the person in the helicopter to show him his fillings so he knows that there is no danger. He does so. Lars has a dog who was killed by the thing earlier, but it now running along with the thing inside it. Lars and the pilot chase it and try to shoot it.

This movie was not bad. It was not a patch on the 1982 version by John Carpenter, but you wouldn't expect it to be. Movies are not of the same quality these days , I think and this was not a brilliant horror/sci-fi film.

It is watchable though and I would say that there are some good scenes in it. I liked the thing itself and the special effects were quite good. This will  pass away a couple of hours, but it isn't anything special. I am giving it 5/10.