I had no plans for today, so spent most of it watching Breaking Bad. I'm totally hooked on it. I knew that new 'The Thing' prequel/remake type thing was released yesterday, so decided to go and check that out in the evening. I was hoping some people would come join me, but they all had other plans, were ill, or had locked their keys in the trunk of their car…

I had a few beers at the Yard House in Downtown, before heading to the cinema, and after being thoroughly disappointed by the film, went home after a couple of consolation beers at the Novel. I did get to witness a fat elderly weirdo of a man standing outside the bar shimmying to imaginary music which cheered me up somewhat. Shame I forgot to take a photo.

As I didn't really do much else today, I'll fill the rest of this blog with my review for 'The Thing' (2011).

John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) is, as most of you will now know, my favourite film, so I was quite excited to see whether or not this would hold up to it's predecessor's (I'm including the 1951 'The Thing Another World' in this, as it comes as a set), in the hope that Hollywood had respected them, and not just attempted to churn out yet another prequel/sequel/remake, into the slew of poorly made films that seem to have dominated cinemas in recent years. Unfortunately, I was hugely let down again, in much the same way I was having seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

John Carpenter's masterpiece had everything, but the main draw to this film for me, was the amazing visual effects headed by the incredibly talented (and possibly slightly unstable) Rob Bottin, and they're the reason I wanted to become a make-up special effects artist. To think that a team of highly skilled sculptors, artists and technicians created such bizarre and jaw-droppingly good visuals, without the need for computer generated imagery, is astounding. It also gives you a feeling that the actors are physically reacting to something in front of them, as opposed to empty spaces to be filled in later.

Then there's Carpenter's excellent direction. Each scene helps in building up the tension perfectly, and this is heavily aided by the great acting. Every shot is excellent. There's no need for this new MTV style of filming. There doesn't need to be a great deal of pace for it to be haunting. The chest-opening scene when they witness Norris's now spider-like head scurry off, is a superb example that the suspense plays a major part.

Even the score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone fits perfectly. It's always there in the background, and it's not overpowering, but works so well to create the mood. I could go into more detail about how even the credits were excellently done, but I'll leave it.

I'd heard varying feelings about this new version. I was keen to see how they would play it out in the Norwegian camp, leading up to the helicopter dog-chasing, to Outpost 31 (American research facility). I won't give away any spoilers, but here's the lowdown. The direction was lacklustre. The score had too much going on. The cinematography was too frantic. There were some extremely cheesy action sequences which weren't necessary. There was some nice 'hat-tipping' to the original, but it wasn't really needed. And finally, nearly all of the effects were computer generated. Some CGI can be useful when trying to cover mistakes or add a little something extra, but every "thing" is heavily modified. Even the two-faced "thing" that is discovered burnt and frozen outside in the original starts off as totally digitalised. I know there are moments in the 1982 version where you know some of the visuals may not look entirely realistic (eg. when Palmer's head opens and starts flailing Windows around like a blanket), but the work that's gone into it counts for a whole lot more.

I could probably write an essay on what is so good about the Macready, Childs, Palmer, Garry, Windows, Blair, Copper, Clark, Norris, Nauls, Bennings, Fuchs version (even the characters are better before now*), so rant over. Go see it if you want to see yet another poor Hollywood remake of a classic, because that's essentially what it is, but I advise you save your money for something worthwhile.

Like the originals on DVD or BluRay, perhaps?

*and it's not because I don't like Norwegians or anything. It's just badly scripted. Anyway, I've been to Norway. It's nice. Saw the loveli lakes and the majestic moose…

a moose once bit my sister…