It's a pre-Thing sort of Thing...

As the opening joke revealed, this is a prequel which shows the events at the Norwegian research base that Kurt Russell visits in the 1982. Instead of the awesome Kurt Russell playing R.J. MacReady, we get Mary Elizabeth Winstead playing a paleontologist getting hired to check out this Thing the Norwegians found buried in the ice of Antarctica. Some people say she's ripping off Ripley from Alien but that same argument could be made about the '82 film of some guys isolated out in the middle of nowhere being hunted by Alien while they have internal feuds and power plays with their own paranoia.

"Fatality, bitch... Toasty!"
-Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Kate Lloyd

As with the 1982 film, the actors did a terrific job playing their roles. The paranoia and suspense is there, as is the disgusting gory-ness that is The Thing trying to take over it's prey and disguise itself as many people as it can. Also, the sets really look spot on with the scene in the 1982 film where Kurt Russell visits the Norwegian base, it really does a great job tying in with the classic movie.

"The Thing is out to kill us all..."
-Kate Lloyd
"No one cares what you Thing, I mean think. You're young, you're a woman, and you're probably just crazy."
-Ulrich Thomsen as Dr. Sander Halvorson

As far as the creature design goes... Well, we live in a day and age where CG and photomanipulation is all the rage soooooo... Yeah, the creatures don't feel as physical and real as the 1982 film (in my opinion, anyway) but they still do a damn good job for the movie. This movie's pacing seems to go a lot faster and be a little more action-like than the '82 movie BUT the runtime is only a few minutes shorter. Not as much suspense but it's still there and when The Thing makes it's move, oh man can you feel how tense the actor's get.

I think if there's one thing about the prequel I don't care much for it's how much they try to pay tribute to the old movie, there's multiple scenes that are very identical to the 1982 film including a scene when these Americans are being accused of The Thing and they turn the tables and wind up taking control of the situation, very similar to how Kurt Russell does. There's another scene that pays homage and that's when they discover how they might isolate who could be The Thing and who isn't, but this movie still winds up doing it's own thing and makes it stand out from the old movie.

As before, I don't wanna reveal too many scenes and ruin who's The Thing and who isn't because this movie IS about the suspense and not knowing who's who until shit hit the fan. But all in all I give The Thing 4 out of 5 clever alien asskickers. Well worth checking out and have your own opinion if it's a good horror movie or not.