Let's count all the ways they are ruining The Thing prequel

The_Spaniard

The Thing was a classic horror thriller. A slow suspense driven masterpiece. To this day it is lauded as the height of old school pre-CGI special/monster/horror effects. I could go on and on about how great John Carpenter's directing was, or Kurt Russel's acting, but suffice to say if you post on these forums you've probably seen this movie.. multiple times. So I'll cut to the chase. As many of you know, a prequel has been in the works for a while now.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0905372/

Let's watch a trailer then shall we?

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/09/19/the-thing-red-band-trailer?show=HD
Now let the bitch fest begin!

P.S. Did you know that after the success of the game John Carpenter expressed interest in making a proper sequel and was turned down? This is what we get instead.

Edit:
Less bad trailer from late July.
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/07/27/the-thing-trailer?objectid=866301

More bad creature awakening scene.
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/09/09/watch-the-thing-escape

Newtron

It looks like a typical CGI playground. All pretty, no gritty.

Wasn't John Carpenter part of this? What does he think about all this?

L Ron Howard

What's wrong with it?
It's got a stylistic change over the first one, yes. Maybe they made it a bit more psychological? I mean, we only have a short trailer, so it's hard to tell anything, really.

Mike Danger

I had high hopes for this, and the last trailer looked pretty good, but this one seems exactly like what I didn't want.

Is this even really a prequel at this point? Some of the stuff (the helicopter, the icecat, the science lab) looks more modern than 1980s.

japan

Meh.

Generic special effects action film. It probably won't be awful but there sure as hell won't be anything interesting about it.

Styrofoam Sammich

It went from The Thing to generic horror movie number 154621

They probably show the thing itself as much in that trailer as they did in the entire original movie (exaggerating of course).

Havelock

I was under the impression that the prequel to The Thing was being done using combination of CGI and the animatronic techniques they used in the original. There was an article of sorts posted in the Film or Trailers thread that made it sound like the prequel was a labor of love or at least an homage to the first movie.


But to echo what L Ron said, there's not enough in the trailer to tell if it's going to be super horrible or super great.

Newtron

Mike Danger wrote:

I had high hopes for this, and the last trailer looked pretty good, but this one seems exactly like what I didn't want.

Is this even really a prequel at this point? Some of the stuff (the helicopter, the icecat, the science lab) looks more modern than 1980s.

I gotta agree. Almost looks like they were going for a modern, soulless, remake, but decided at some point to make it a prequel for whatever reason.

japan

I suppose it's really the Alien/Aliens problem. The monster isn't scary the second time around, so something else has to take the place of the tension that would otherwise be generated by not really knowing what's going on.

Havelock

I think my biggest hang up with it, not judging from the shots and trailer but rather from the concept or idea of basing the movie in the Norwegian camp as a prequel, is that what happens in the first third of the first movie more or less tells you what's going to happen to the folks at the Norwegian camp.

Unless there's some sort of twist ending.

Skoal Cat

The_Spaniard wrote:

The Thing was a classic horror thriller. A slow suspense driven masterpiece. To this day it is lauded as the height of old school pre-CGI special/monster/horror effects. I could go on and on about how great John Carpenter's directing was, or Curt Russel's acting, but suffice to say if you post on these forums you've probably seen this movie.. multiple times. So I'll cut to the chase. As many of you know, a prequel has been in the works for a while now.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0905372/

Let's watch a trailer then shall we?

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/09/19/the-thing-red-band-trailer?show=HD
Now let the bitch fest begin!

P.S. Did you know that after the success of the game John Carpenter expressed interest in making a proper sequel and was turned down? This is what we get instead.

Fine sir, his name is Kurt with a K

The_Spaniard

How the hell did I do that, I know it's spelled with a K, why did I put C? Well fixed.

Also, I think one of the major issues with the film is that the main character's beard is not manly enough.

Ziggymon

So the first few problems coming from the trailer/concept of a prequel is...

1) monster fatigue- as mentioned above fans already know about the alien monster and its abilities from the original, making it far more difficult to make the creature scary/interesting to audiences this time round unless they change something with the monster which will break the 'prequel rule'.
2) Being set before the first film will it really be enough for audiences to watch a horror film where they already know the ending? It can work with a really talented team of writers and director however considering all the recent remakes/sequels to classic horror/thriller franchises the biggest problem this prequel faces is really falling into generic horror traits, you can just tell that there will be some sort of twist ending or evil conspiracy involved. Something that the average horror audience can relate to easy.

Atomika

I think there's very little chance that this movie can be good in any meaningful way. There's just not a lot that can be told in this story that the audience doesn't already know. The best I'm hoping for is an homage that doesn't shit on the original.

SyphonBlue

Meh

I thought both trailers looked good

Second one is obviously Marketing trying to appeal towards Mainstream, but whatever

BigBear

Well, I absolutely love John Carpenter's original, and I like Mary Elizabeth Winstead, so even if it's not all that great I'll probably go see it anyway.

I don't see what everyone's complaining about, though. There have been plenty of remakes released that look far worse than this.

Atomika

BigBear wrote:

There have been plenty of remakes released that look far worse than this.

This is not a remake of Carpenter's film.

It is a prequel to Carpenter's film.

It is a remake of the original film from the 1950s.

MetroidZoid

My gripe besides that none of these guys are speaking Norwegian?

A sequel could've worked out so much better. But then we'd all be complaining about a sequel.

Atomika

I think I'd like a little insight to the alien itself.

I mean, virus-like monsters are scary and all, but the Carpenter film implies some level of sentience on the alien's behalf.


So, why be all mean and stuff, monster? Huh?

BigBear

Atomic Ross wrote:

BigBear wrote:

There have been plenty of remakes released that look far worse than this.

This is not a remake of Carpenter's film.

It is a prequel to Carpenter's film.

It is a remake of the original film from the 1950s.

Oh, sorry, my mistake. Still, the same could be said for some of the prequels and sequels that have come out over the past few years as well.

At least this movie looks like it will respect the original movie. I think there was some article in the trailers thread that said Carpenter was totally cool with this film, and was possibly a consultant at some point.

I guess you could argue that a prequel to The Thing is kind of unnecessary, but it at least looks somewhat entertaining.

This thread is actually kinda making me want to go watch the original.

Hamju

I think a film as good as John Carpenter's should just be left alone. I can't think of any reason why I would watch this and not just re-watch the classic, unless it gets some really stellar reviews somehow.

Cabezone

So the alien busts out of a solid block of ice. Has it been awake for the past thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of years in that block of ice? Since it was still inside the ice, it was still the same temp as it had been for a long ass time.

emnmnme

A certain cameo in The Thing videogame kinda ruined the ambiguity from the movie's clever ending.

Edith Upwards

Can't Carpenter just go back to the Derleth estate and ask them for the rights to At The Mountains Of Madness?

I'm sure he could get it for the same numbers he originally offered(or less) now that he's a big famous director.

...Let us all pause in silent recognition of how awesome that could be.

emnmnme

Wait, has John Carpenter made anything good lately? I thought Ghosts of Mars sunk his 'infallible director' status like Alexander sunk Oliver Stone.

adytum

It looks like a perfectly adequate movie with a solid cast. The only disappointing decision seems to have been the one to eschew the effects work that the original did so brilliantly for generic CGI. Particularly when the budgets were similar (adjusted for inflation).

Oh well.

Mike Danger

Erich Zahn wrote:

Can't Carpenter just go back to the Derleth estate and ask them for the rights to At The Mountains Of Madness?

I'm sure he could get it for the same numbers he originally offered(or less) now that he's a big famous director.

...Let us all pause in silent recognition of how awesome that could be.

Seems like a slim chance, considering del Toro is already trying to get it made and has most/all of a script done.

GR_Zombie

I'm just hoping that at least two of the Norwegian guys can't speak English, and they turn out to be the two we see at the beginning of the original. I can put up with little inconsistencies between movies, but all the Norwegians being fluent in English would be too much for me.

The_Spaniard

GR_Zombie wrote:

I'm just hoping that at least two of the Norwegian guys can't speak English, and they turn out to be the two we see at the beginning of the original. I can put up with little inconsistencies between movies, but all the Norwegians being fluent in English would be too much for me.

I could at least play a little devil's advocate here.

I could imagine that the two survivors at the end of the movie chasing the sled dog (Thing) were so hysterical that the guy screaming started speaking his native tongue again in fear. He may have not realized he did it, or was too freaked out to remember how to speak English.

Rhesus Positive

If I've learnt anything from WWII films, it's that foreigners speak English to each other when alone.

GR_Zombie

The_Spaniard wrote:

GR_Zombie wrote:

I'm just hoping that at least two of the Norwegian guys can't speak English, and they turn out to be the two we see at the beginning of the original. I can put up with little inconsistencies between movies, but all the Norwegians being fluent in English would be too much for me.

I could at least play a little devil's advocate here.

I could imagine that the two survivors at the end of the movie chasing the sled dog (Thing) were so hysterical that the guy screaming started speaking his native tongue again in fear. He may have not realized he did it, or was too freaked out to remember how to speak English.

Also good.

Joolander

maybe they just pull a Red October and do the "zoom in/zoom out, ok now Norwegian sounds like English" thing

Ragnar Dragonfyre

If you've read the short story The Thing was based upon, there's a lot of inner monologue from the alien itself. It could be REALLY interesting if the movie is done from it's perspective as it is in the story.

valhalla130

I was under the impression that At the Mountains of Madness by del Toro had fallen thru.

Atomika

valhalla130 wrote:

I was under the impression that At the Mountains of Madness by del Toro had fallen thru.

It has. del Toro is working on a Godzilla-type movie now called Pacific Rim.

Peter Ebel

Haha, Ulrich Thomsen, Trond Espen Seim. I'm in it for my Scandinavian Hollywood bros alone.

MetroidZoid wrote: »

My gripe besides that none of these guys are speaking Norwegian?

But Norwegians usually speak pretty good English, though with a hilarious accent, and the main scientist girl is an American visiting the Norwegian base. It makes sense that they would speak English around her. And there are many Norwegian actors in this movie. You will totally here some Norwegian and maybe even Ulrich Thomson trying to speak Norwegian.

jefe414

Rhesus Positive wrote:

If I've learnt anything from WWII films, it's that foreigners speak English to each other when alone.

Also, they DO know how to tip but just choose not to.

Deadfall

Eh, I'll still see it. The Thing is my favorite horror movie. Though I'm a bit disappointed that the preview shows where it comes from. Part of the suspense of the original, for me anyway, is that you don't know what the fuck it is. Is it an alien? Has it been hiding in plain sight on earth for thousands of years?

The prequel just goes nope, here it is.

Havelock

Ragnar Dragonfyre wrote:

If you've read the short story The Thing was based upon, there's a lot of inner monologue from the alien itself. It could be REALLY interesting if the movie is done from it's perspective as it is in the story.

IIRC, The Thing is based off of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s novella Who Goes There, but we never get to see the alien's perspective (since that would more or less ruin the suspense of the story).

The prequel looks like it's hewing closer to WGT though, as far as how they discover the creature, etc.

In any case, the creature is pretty fucking evil so I'm not sure how interesting it would be if were done from its perspective. Unless you pulled something similar to the narative bookends in the movie "Fallen".

ElJeffe

Atomic Ross wrote:

I think I'd like a little insight to the alien itself.

I mean, virus-like monsters are scary and all, but the Carpenter film implies some level of sentience on the alien's behalf.


So, why be all mean and stuff, monster? Huh?

I always assumed it viewed us the way we view something like ants - so alien and inferior that who cares if you stomp on a few here and there. I'm pretty sure that if humans landed on another planet and got stuck and then found a way off that just involved slaughtering a little tribe of screeching monkey things, those humans would be off the planet wearing stylish space-monkey hide pants without a second thought.

ElJeffe

emnmnme wrote:

Wait, has John Carpenter made anything good lately? I thought Ghosts of Mars sunk his 'infallible director' status like Alexander sunk Oliver Stone.

Dude, Carpenter hasn't made anything good since at least the mid-90s.