Movie Review: The Host (2013)

PLOT: When an unseen enemy threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories, Melanie will risk everything to protect the people she cares most about, proving that love can conquer all in a dangerous new world

Rating: 7/10

The Host is certainly better than its Rotten Tomatoes (8%) would suggest. A closer but probably still unfair score is the one IMDb (5.9/10) gifted it with.

The Host is adapted from a Stephanie Meyer novel of the same name. If you could ever possibly forget who that it, let me remind you; oh cave dweller: Mrs. Meyer is the author who penned the Twilight saga, those books who startlingly get more derision directed towards it than Fifty Shades of Grey does.

Apparently Meyer wrote this book between all the Twilight books, probably just to shake off that vague feeling that she was corrupting the minds of young women. Although I can’t begin to claim that I am educated in the science fiction world I do think that the story is interesting enough and I find the thought of these odd creatures inhabiting humans vaguely interesting and somewhat disturbing.

 

The Host was refreshingly devoid of a love triangle debacle and I liked that plenty. It has another issue that would have me screaming for a psychologist – Melanie is in love with her Jared but Wanda keeps falling for Jake. It’s more two souls in one body loving different people than the infuriating “I don’t know who to love” angle.

I had some major issues with Jake hitting Melanie while she was inhabited with Wanda – I don’t give a flying fuck if her body has been taken over by an alien that is still a girl sixty times smaller than you, douche bag. The violence on females was just a bit too pronounced and justified for me to fully enjoy.

Saoirse Ronan really is the best thing about this movie. She moves through all her scenes with the grace the dialogue doesn’t always deserve. The story is a bit beneath a woman with her acting abilities, although to her credit she does not seem bored to be there. Max Irons is definitely someone I can watch in a movie, he is cute and doesn’t do a bad job being Jared Howe.

I would really have enjoyed getting more into the nitty and the gritty of these characters and their stories – it is mostly rushed through and only snippets are shown. Yeah, the time allocated is limited, but I’ve seen other movies do it before.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Diane Kruger in something, and it is nice to put something to her other than her dating Joshua Jackson. I won’t be weeping with heartfelt emotion about her performance anytime soon, but I did think she makes a good alien (erm, that is a compliment)

If it sounds that I didn’t enjoy the movie, I did. I enjoyed it despite the corny dialogue and often dragging storyline. I think it is a good movie if you don’t expect too much and has decent popcorn entertainment. I liked that Melanie is so independent and that she took care of herself and her brother long before Jared entered the scene. I like that she was strong enough to fight back against alien invasion and that she wouldn’t just give up on Wanda’s existence so she could come back and kiss Jared. I loved the underground farm scenes and how they took efforts to show how humans were surviving in caves. I also liked that they tried to bring across that these alien life forms weren’t necessarily evil, just very different.

The Host interested me enough that I will soon start reading the book, something I’ve avoided until now. It is a decent enough movie, and although the plot isn’t solid or breath-taking, it kept me sufficiently entertained for a while.

Plot query: How did the first Wanderer enter a human? I get how the rest of them entered their hosts, but the first one? Someone had to help It and I have no idea who would even think of doing that.

April 13, 2015April 12, 2015 by Natasha Categories: Movies, ReviewsTags: Diane Kruger, Max Irons, Saoirse Ronan, Stephanie Meyer, The Host, William Hurt 11 Comments