Meandering, slow, sci-fi tale

Rating: 5/10 (18 August 2013)

Being a fan of several of John Carpenter's early oeuvre of works (Halloween, The Fog, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live), I've got to say that I was disappointed in recently getting around to watching his remake of THE THING (1982) and am a tad surprised by how revered this movie is. Having seen the original 1951 Howard Hawks' classic a few times, I was stunned that Carpenter's remake is actually SLOWER than the original film, which moves at a brisker pace, never lets up, and is still fun to watch even over 60s years later! Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a "slow" film if there's a method to the madness, but there is none here. The Thing just drags and drags and drags and really goes nowhere.
Not to mention, I was not much impressed by the casting in this 1982 remake. I thought most of the performances were rather monotonous and lifeless throughout, which a bunch of interchangeable characters. Even the usually reliable Kurt Russell really brought very little to the table in terms of personality. The ONLY character the remotely piqued my interest was the one played by the veteran actor Wilfrid Brimley, and low and behold, Carpenter sidelined him for virtually the entire 2nd and 3rd acts! Other than the talented Brimley, the rest of the cast was literally just there.
Getting off to an interesting start, with an alien spaceship hurtling toward Earth, we are immediately introduced to the crew of an Antarctic research and discovery station, who witness the pilot of a helicopter from a nearby station shooting at a seemingly harmless dog. The station captain kills the pilot and they take in the dog, who turns out is an alien beast that kills it's prey, then replicates them in every detail. So that this remake ends up functioning as a mystery-whodunit, as the station crew become paranoid (although it's hard to tell through all the mediocre acting) for the rest of the movie not knowing who is really who.
I found this remake to be overly long and very slow. It literally got to a point where I thought the film was over, then it went on for about another 45 minutes! Some of the stuff in the climax was kind of interesting, whittling down the crew to the remaining "humans", but the getting there was very tedious. I found it strange that as soon as they found out they were dealing with an alien life form, none of them seem flabbergasted or blown away by their discovery. Also, I wondered why they didn't try harder to call for help as the alien threat became increasingly ominous. Plus, the ending left a LOT to be desired. A bit too ambiguous even for my taste. Also, the initially shocking, gory effects wore off quickly as the film progressed and became redundant.
Carpenter's film usually have a penchant for thrills and suspense (see aforementioned movies of his that I actually LIKE in my first paragraph), but this one strangely left me cold (pardon the pun!). However, I do give it points (thus, the 5 out of 10 rating), for having some obviously unique (if a bit too gory) effects and piquing my interest early on, just not being able to maintain my attention.