'The Thing' about it is, it's a remake

Only dedicated sci-fi fans will care much for "The Thing," an almost identical remake of John Carpenter's 1982 classic about an alien that eats people and mimics them. Actually, that movie was itself an update of a 1951 film based on John W. Campbell Jr.'s novella "Who Goes There?" That's a lot of copies, and with this new one we're seeing some deterioration in quality.

The action again takes place in Antarctica, where researchers discover an enormous spacecraft and its frozen, 40,000-year-old pilot. After Columbia University paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead of "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World") choppers in to inspect the specimen, it jumps to life and begins absorbing and replicating whoever's nearby.

How to tell the real humans from the fakes? In the Carpenter version, you couldn't until it was too late. But Kate realizes the alien can't re-create inorganic material -- like fillings! -- which leads to an amusingly tense scene in which she forcibly inspects everyone's mouth. "So I'm gonna be killed because I floss?" whimpers white-toothed David (Eric Christian Olsen).

Like the Carpenter version, "The Thing" goes heavy on the blood and goo (effects that looked more impressive back in 1982) and has some fun with flamethrowers. But neither writer Eric Heisserer (last year's "A Nightmare on Elm Street") nor first-time director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. seem much concerned with character. Aside from the icy Dr. Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen) and the tough-minded pilot Carter (an ill-used Joel Edgerton), everyone here seems interchangeable and expendable.

The new film closes with the older film's opening scene, suggesting a prequel. That may be an attempt at originality, but this movie, like The Thing itself, is really just replicating.

PLOT At an Antarctic outpost, researchers make an unfortunate discovery. RATING R (language, strong creature violence and gore)

CAST Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Eric Christian Olsen

LENGTH 1:43.

PLAYING AT Area theaters

BOTTOM LINE An uninspired replica of the 1982 version, though the goo and gore may please hard-core sci-fi and horror fans.