Apparently writers were more creative pre-internet than now.

What happens when filmmakers run out of ideas? Yeah, that scenario that happens over and over again. But they do have a magic trick they can pull, because the movie making machinery can’t stop, right? So they look at what classic movie from 10-20-30 years ago can they re-do in a more modern fashion and make big bucks. Apparently writers were more creative pre-internet than now. It sucks but what can I do abuot it? Complain I guess, but that’s what I’m doing already so yeah. The Thing! One of THOSE films with great atmosphere, tension, scary, well acted and considering the production date (1982) amazingly good visually. So now we have a sort of Prequel to The Thing, and how does it stack up against the cult classic?

As a matter of fact not bad. Or at least not terrible. It doesn’t have the same level of acting and tension, but some characters are actually believable. The problem with it is that mostly the Norwegian guys seem to be right for the film, while all the American cast is as stiff as a Keanu Reeves reinacting the Matrix in Starbucks. But at least the Wikings deliver! There’s of course plenty more CGI here too, with weird morphing, evil creature kinda reminding me of the “Akira” movie. It’s gross at times, but I guess it had to be visible or the people would find a movie with no “creatures” boring if it only had “tension” and “fear”. Good thing is that they don’t overexplain anything here, so we won’t be stuck with knowing it was just an American experiment with bio-weapons or something. Nah, it stays plain and mysterious, at least another “The Thing” thing.

Good thing about the Thing is that it does it’s own thing well enough, and even has a little nod towards the 1982 movie, with the ending explaining the beginning scenes of it. And for that I give it one star more than the “2″ that I was going to rate it at. Worth a watch, but NOT unless you’ve seen the original, because the original is still better in every way.

Super 8 is a highly acclaimed thriller (not a horror, as it’s not scary) with some quirky elements that move it closer to E.T. go home, than a traditional thriller. It follows a group of boys making a movie, who accidentaly witness a terrible train crash. For those who don’t know that yet, it’s the scene from the trailers, that’s also almost the best scene in the whole movie (the very best scenes are AFTER the credits though, so it’s worth to wait the credits off or skip). The train accident was also portrayed in an interactive teaser made inside the Portal 2 Game from Valve – in it you’re on that train and survive the crash somehow. You can walk around the rubble, until you find out one cart is carrying something else. Something evil

Well, to be honest – it’s more of a teen movie than anything else. E.T. and Goonies come to mind when watching this. If you’re expecting evil aliens, explosions, gore and such, you’ll be disappointed. It’s not bad though, just not too good either. There are many plotholes, and the acting could’ve been better sometimes. For something that received so much hype it’s definitely a failure. It’s not really boring, but you can easily predict nearly every plot twist, due to the lack of originality in this one. The grainy, 70′s style visuals were probably a clever idea of the director, but all they do is they remind you about the movies this copies from.

Oh and for all those hoping – there are NO zombies here.

The best part is AFTER the credits, and has nothing to do with the plot itself – think of it as a completely different (though short) film.