The Thing

I wanted to talk about the remake of The Thing but I didn't really want to make it a full-on review. (Mostly because I was doing laundry as my husband watched it so I didn't really watch the whole thing.) My husband is a fan of the original movie. Of course, that means he had to check out the new one. While I'm not particularly fond of horror movies, I can appreciate certain aspects of them. And I have to say that this remake was a bit of a let-down. First off, the creatures are never really seen in the original. When they aren't in the host bodies, they are skulking around in shadows. This makes the whole movie scary as hell. You aren't sure what the crew is up against. In this remake? They are all over the damned place. Sure, they are scary looking but it's just not the same. It is a lot scarier when you leave it up to the audience's imagination.

Then they put Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the Kurt Russell role. However, as the "hero," she seems to ask an awful lot of stupid questions. I kinda wanted the monster to eat her. It annoys me when movie people (be it the producers or the director or the studio) won't give us the strong female lead. Ripley from the Alien movies is a good example of a strong woman. Kate here? The only reason she didn't die is because the guys decided to give her the flamethrower. Though, to be honest, I'm still not convinced that she didn't murder the guy at the end. (Some of you may claim that as a spoiler. I already said she's the hero. American movies don't kill their heroes.)

Since I didn't sit through the entire movie, I won't comment on the script or the acting. The pieces I did see were pretty terrible. My vote? Skip it altogether and watch the Kurt Russell movie.