Before commencing with this review, it should be noted that John Carpenter's The Thing is my all time favorite horror picture. I even prefer it to Howard Hawkes' original. This new version of The Thing has billed itself as a prequel to Carpenter's movie and focuses on the Norwegian Arctic research team who unearth the alien life form that ultimately takes over Kurt Russell and his paranoid crew in the 1982 gem. And while this is technically a prequel, much of it resorts to direct lifts from its predecessor all while trying to find a soul of its own. The end result is a picture that's hardly as bad as the negative reviews would have you believe. On the other hand, it doesn't come close to being in the same league as previous adaptations of the source material.

Solid direction, stunning art design, outstanding cinematography, and strong performances (particularly by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton) can't quite rise above the short comings of a script that trades in the character driven, slow build, paranoia drenched aspects of Carpenter's version for a more one dimensional, briskly paced, straight forward monster movie. The icky gooey, shape shifting imitator at the the heart of this film is an aggressive killing machine more along the lines of a Jason Vorhees and fans of Carpenter's picture may be put off by this. They'll also be put off--as was I--by the over use of CGI (a partially practical creature would have been nice). Granted, had Carpenter had such technology at his disposal in 1982, he too might have gone this route. Having said all of this, I was impressed by .Matthijs van Heijningen Jr's direction even if he doesn't have a complete understanding of what made Carpenter's movie such a masterwork. With nods to other sci-fi films (i.e. Alien and Invasion of the Body Snatchers), The Thing makes an earnest attempt at capturing early 80's nostalgia (look no further than the very last sequence in which the gap between this picture and Carpenter's is joyfully bridged). Does this movie pull it off as a whole? No, but then how could it? In the end, it has enough slick production value and visual flair to offer up a mild recommendation but it lacks the grit, unpredictability, and ambiguity of a true masterpiece that I'll never forget.