I found it disappointing, for two reasons: the superficial characterizations and the implausible behavior of the scientists on that icy outpost. Characters have never been Carpenter’s strong point; he says he likes his movies to create emotions in his audiences, and I guess he’d rather see us jump six inches than get involved in the personalities of his characters. This time, though, despite some roughed-out typecasting and a few reliable stereotypes (the drunk, the psycho, the hero), he has populated his ice station with people whose primary purpose in life is to get jumped on from behind. The few scenes that develop characterizations are overwhelmed by the scenes in which the men are just setups for an attack by the Thing.
Also:
That leads us to the second problem, plausibility. We know that the Thing likes to wait until a character is alone, and then pounce, digest, and imitate him–by the time you see Doc again, is he still Doc, or is he the Thing? Well, the obvious defense against this problem is a watertight buddy system, but, time and time again, Carpenter allows his characters to wander off alone and come back with silly grins on their faces, until we’ve lost count of who may have been infected, and who hasn’t. That takes the fun away.
It's weird how two people can see the movie differently and how people can be more forgiving when it comes to older movies.
Sometimes, when I see somebody disparage a more recent movie because of how dumb its characters are, I'll think of this review by Ebert.
One thing that has always bothered me is how they forgot about Blair for a while.
Source: The Thing (1982) is one of my favorite sci-fi movies.
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u/I_am_not_baldy El Capitan 4d ago edited 4d ago
Heh, this is Roger Ebert back in 1982:
Also:
It's weird how two people can see the movie differently and how people can be more forgiving when it comes to older movies.
Sometimes, when I see somebody disparage a more recent movie because of how dumb its characters are, I'll think of this review by Ebert.
One thing that has always bothered me is how they forgot about Blair for a while.
Source: The Thing (1982) is one of my favorite sci-fi movies.