The Thing isn't the new thing

An alien space-craft discovered in the Antarctic houses much more than the Norwegian scientists who discovered it expect in "The Thing". When the thought-to-be-dead alien comes back to life, and begins killing team members, it becomes a game of cat and mouse with shocking revelations throughout.

What the prequel fails to do is explore any new territory in the series, or the horror genre really.  Besides the special effects and amazing looking monster, most of the movie feels like it has been done before.  The original gripped viewers with a psychological tenseness that doesn't manifest the second time around.  John Carpenter, the director of the 1982 version, created a masterpiece thriller because of that.  He couldn't rely on gripping special effects as first-time feature director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. does. 

The alien really does come to life in the new version though, thanks to the special effects.  Part human, part shape-shifting alien, the thing jumps, creeps, and crawls all over the place, when it popped up on the screen, shrieks rang out in the theater.   

As far as horror movies go the dialogue and acting were good enough, but the movie never seemed to develop the characters enough for anyone to care what happened to them.  Some of the Norwegians were funny, but never got past the point of being caricatures. 

Only the paleontologist Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) offered a clearly defined character with understandable motivations and actions.  The American pilot (Joel Edgerton) worked pretty well too, and at the very least he looked cool running around blazing the place up with a flamethrower. 

"The Thing" offers enough thrills and jump-in-your-seat moments to make it worth a watch.  If you somehow haven't seen the original it might even be good.  But don't expect another classic, it's not there.  Just sit back, relax, and take what "The Thing" has to offer; special effects, creepy hybrid people, and a ton of flamethrowers and grenades.