This Week In Movies - The Thing

The movie “The Thing,” which is actually a prequel to the original 1982 movie titled . . . wait for it . . . “The Thing.” I’m not sure how they expect us not to get confused. I enjoyed the original 1982 horror flick with Kurt Russell. He rocked in that movie.

Also, I remember watching it with my grandma who happened to love horror flicks, especially if they were B-Movies. For some reason she never did enjoy high budget horror flicks and probably wouldn’t be interested in most horror flicks made today. Na . . . Who am I kidding? She would love the horror flicks today!

As I became older and more importantly became a Christian, my taste for horror flicks faded. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy classics like Aliens and the iconic role Sigourney Weaver played as Ellen Ripley and the original 1987 Predator film starring our former Arnold Schwarzenegger and his kick-butt role as Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer.

How many 80’s flicks to you still hear quoted? (e.g., “Get to the chopper!” “Come on kill me, I’m right here . . . DO IT NOW!!!”)

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, The Thing coming out this week. Here’s a quick synopsis of the movie:

Paleontologist Kate Lloyd has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up.

Here’s “the thing” about prequels that I don’t enjoy. If we’ve seen the original movie, then we all know where the film is going to end up. Prequels by there very nature are predetermined. I understand watching the journey is part of the fun but it only applies to films with depth, character, and a compelling story. For example, even though most fanboys of the Star Wars franchise were disappointed by the prequels it was still interesting to watch because of the iconic characters the previous movies established (e.g., Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, etc.). We wanted to know “How did they get here?” despite the fact that we knew where they would end up.

Ridley Scott is currently working on the prequel to Alien called Prometheus.

The film will be successful (financial speaking) for the same principles, which I mentioned above. The Aliens in Scott’s films were kick-butt wicked and downright scary as h***. Furthermore, Sigourney Weaver’s character, Ellen Ripley, empowered women to the degree that would rival the Feminist movement. So naturally, people are interested in the “How did the Aliens come to being?” because we’re interested in the aliens themselves and the aliens gave rise to Ellen Ripley who was a compelling character.

This bags the question, “Does The Thing carry the same weight?” Although Kurt Russell rocked the house in the original I’ll have to answer that question with, “very little.” Sadly, most Hollywood prequels these days are “cash grabs,” a sorry attempt to make more money and past success. I may check out the movie when it streams on Netflix but not before. And I’ll only check it out to pay homage to the original. But if you decide to go see it before it streams on Netflix, let me know if it stinks.

A review by ScreenRant is here.

Here’s the trailer: