Movie Review - The Thing

Movie Title

The Thing

Year

2011
Genre
Horror, Sci-Fi, Prequel

Story

The movie starts with several Norwegian research scientists exploring an anomalous signal emanating from the remote regions of the Antartica back in the '60s. However, their mission abruptly ends when their snow cruiser falls into a deep ravine that had been caused by a colossal non-terrestrial structure.

Forward to the present, American Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead - last seen in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is recruited for an historic expedition she couldn't refuse by the highly respected research scientist - Dr. Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen)

Joining the Norwegian scientific team in an isolated outpost in Antartica, that have finally found the alien craft discovered earlier by their predecessors back in the '60s buried in the ice. They uncover a creature, presumably the pilot of the space-craft, completely frozen and seems to have died in the crash thousands of ago.

They bring the frozen alien back to the research centre for further study. Their experiments inadvertently allows the alien to free itself from the ice block in which it was frozen.

They soon find that the alien has shape-shifting abilities - to turn into exact replicas of any living thing & mimic their behavior. Paranoia soon spreads among them as they they're infected, one by one, rife with suspicion they succumb to the alien.

Their mission now turns into one of survival and destroying it - preventing it from reaching human civilization. The Thing 2011 is a prelude to the classic John Carpenter's the Thing from 1982.

Acting

I don't really know most of the actors from this movie except that Ulrich Thomsen looked like one of those villains from either a James Bond or Die Hard movie.

This is after all a movie premised on a horrible alien that kills and mimics its victims. so other than looking fearful or anxious, not much else is really required of their acting skills. Well, except for when Kate infiltrates the alien craft in the last half that we see her convey some sense of drama & suspense. But I have to say, she is a really beautiful actress and had never quite noticed her beauty until now.

Overall

I think that with movies like Avatar & Matrix, audiences now have much higher expectations from Sci-Fi movies that incorporate heavy use of CGI. Hence, with that in mind, although this version isn't really bad, but one can't help but compare it against the 1982 version. Technically, this one is slicker and has more scenes of the alien morphing, but people will still like the older version more as it (or the concept/implementation) was new while this one doesn't show audiences anything they have not seen before.

Not great but still enjoyable nonetheless. However, there are quire a number of disturbing scenes especially when the alien morphs.

Rating: 5.5/10

Movie Review - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Movie Title

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Year

2011

Genre
Sci-Fi

Story

This is a prequel to the famed 43-year-old Planet of the Apes franchise.

Sys-Gen Corporation biological design scientist Will Rodman (James Franco)'s dad, Charles (John Lithgow), suffers from Alzheimer's Disease and is slowly wasting away.

Will's project, ALZ-112, is a virus intended to stimulate the human brain to grow new cells. The test chimp, Bright Eyes, apparently turns violent as a result of the tests but we later learn that she was only protecting her baby - Caesar.

SysGen pulls the plug on the ALZ-112 project and all the test chimps were culled except for baby Caesar who was then adopted by Will, who's decided to quit Sys-Gen and continue to work on his project on his own.

Caesar soon becomes too large and dangerous to live in Will's suburban San Francisco home. Caesar is then put into San Bruno Primate Sanctuary, run by John Landon (Brian Cox from X-Men 2),

On the surface, it appears to be a caring place but In reality it is more like a prison where the primates are abused, mainly by the supervising keeper called Dodge (Tom Felton, Malfoy from Harry Potter)

Caesar soon becomes the head honcho for the apes and before long, they break free from the Sanctuary to establish their own sovereignty with humans caught in the middle.

Most memorable moment

When Caesar shouts "No" to his tormentor, Felton, in the Sanctuary

Acting

Andy Serkis who gave life to Gollum in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and the main character in yet another Peter Jackson film - King Kong is the maestro behind Caesar. There is no artist that good to convey the kind of emotion that Serkis does under all that CGI work.

He is so good in fleshing out CGI characters he is just plain scary! In some of the scenes, the intensity Caesar demonstrates through his eyes are so real they simultaneously penetrate with seething rage and yet restraint and a tinge of melancholy.

James Franco however, does little for me personally, despite his commendable performance in 127 Hours (I still haven't caught it yet).

Overall

I know that many people are kind of tired of the franchise after the dismal performance of the 2001 Tim Burton version with Mark Wahlberg & Tim Roth in the lead roles. BUT,...this one may really change the game for the franchise and rumours have it that there may already be 2 sequels (making it a trilogy) in the works due to its success at the box office.

Rating: 7.5/10