Movie: The Thing
Year: 2011
Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton and Ulrich Thomsen

Snapshot of Story:
The movie is a recreation of the 1982 horror sci-fi by John Carpenter where an alien being terrorizes a group of explorers in the Antarctica.

Storyline:
It is a tall order to recreate the monumental movie of its time ‘The Thing’ in 1982 directed by John Carpenter. However, the movie does have it’s moments but unfortunately does not quite live up to the previous showing where Kurt Russel’s brilliant performance coupled with John Carpenter’s directing adds great depth and realism to the whole story.
The new main star played by a woman Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Kate Lloyd) may not have been a good choice as the person to take the lead role when comparing like for like roles (ie. Kurt Russel) in the last movie.
Although the story has good twists and turns, it does not quite gel together to make it a worthy movie to remember. The lack of coherency in the storyline despite some very good special effects brings it down.
There were some sensational scenes where the bodies mutate into disturbingly contorted figures that were very life-like. At parts also there is great tension amongst the team which was well portrayed and the clever part of the ‘teeth fillings’ which could not be replicated by the alien. Often directors miss essential points in the movie that adds realism to the whole story telling and this is what separates some great movie directors of our time. The parts can be so minuscule but adds to the overall credibility and realism to the movie and many a times directors with vision surpass the limitations of current technology and philosophy of cinema making and is able to come up with something great.

Final Thoughts:
The movie is a satisfactory rendition of the original but the towering performance of Kurt Russell and the brilliant directing of John Carpenter cannot be beat in the original version. Although today the modern aspects of movie making are far superior to that of 20-30 years ago, ultimately the storyline has to be on par to have an effective overall movie that can be appreciated by everyone. Take the examples of the movie series ‘Paranormal Activity’ where a good story telling with some special effects brings the movies together into something very watchable and almost addictive.

Rating:
6.5/10