THE THING (FROM ANOTHER WORLD)
Damn good movie. But I still like Carp's better.
I saw this one looong ago, and again tonight. It's a good movie, no doubt of that, but I've got some whines and questions.
Firstoff, this bears less resemblance to Campbell's "Who Goes There?" than The Lost World bears to its alleged source material. That's a whole lotta non-resemblance. I mean, freakin' everything is changed...all that's left is thermite and snow. That's about it. That's not neccessarily a bad thing (straying from the source material is never a bad thing merely because it strays) - it just made for an ultimately less interesting tale. Campbell's story is a complicated tale of paranoia and isolation - this movie is, when you get right down to it, a slasher flick.
Here's a "goof" I noticed - I can't tell if this is a mistake or if I'm just misunderstanding things. The Thing is outside, and the door is barricaded to slow its inevitable entry into the electrode-strewn corridor in which it is to be done battle with. It's barricaded pretty good - nothing's gonna push through THAT, we think! Well, it doesn't - it PULLS OPEN THE DOOR, neatly overcoming the barricade that was constructed to prevent the door from being pushed. Hmm. Now, I do understand that it was meant to get through eventually, but damn...that one got a laugh out of me anyway.
The doctor character was ridiculous, and reminded me of Tony Curtis' ersatz millionaire in Some Like It Hot .In a serious film, this is not a good thing. And I do have to complain about the setting - there are just too many people in this movie to give it a sense of isolation, and it doesn't help that there's always a functional plane outside should they choose to cut their losses and go home. The odds are too good in the humans' favor.
But overall, it was a good show indeed. I loved the Thing's entrance just prior to the kerosene-soaking - unexpected, catching cast and audience alike off-guard. And while the Thing is never convincingly alien, it is convincingly dangerous.
The verdict - Carpenter's Thing kicks this Thing's ass. But that doesn't mean that this is a bad Thing.