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.

The Host is again one of the movies where the Internet and I do not see eye to eye. Based on the Sci-Fi/dystopian novel of the same name by Stephanie Meyer, The Host was released in the time where the Twilight craze was full blown. It’s not hard to see what the grand plan was here – the producers hoped the Twilight hype was enough to draw crowds for The Host. That didn’t happen – I don’t think the majority of the Twilight fan base would even appreciate Melanie Stryder – she’s way more independent than the ever whiney and spineless Bella Swan. The Host is also not strong enough to stand as a Science Fiction film, and any hardcore SciFi fan would be irritated by the predominantly romantic and schmaltzy moments between the lead characters. So while The Host failed rather in the eyes of the public, I enjoyed it.

Before I typically start only discussing characters again – let’s just talk about how dark the whole essence of The Host is. Humans being infected with aliens and their souls dying out while they are trapped in their bodies?Brutal man.

Also, there were some great scenery – the barren landscapes are gorgeous, contrasted sharply with the world environment created by the alien species. The CGI was also neat. The being network thing was beautiful to behold. The cave that was transformed by Jeb is also amazing to behold, and the harvest nearly angelical in its’ existence.

I’m a big Saoirse Ronan fan – the girl can act life into any character. She applies subtle changes to her impressions of Wanda and Melanie, and can appear slightly alien and very human alternately. There is naturally a bit of a love triangle – it wouldn’t be a Meyer book without it – and Max Irons and Jake Abel, who star as Jared Howe and Ian O’Shea, seem at times a bit bemused by how they ended up in this film, and also comes across as unconvinced and bored, but that doesn’t stop them from being smoldering and sexy love interests when they must. I did enjoy Diane Kruger as The Seeker – the character is such a big pain in the ass, and proves not all the beings are as benign as Wanderer claims. It took me some time to place Frances Fisher – she’s Rose’s mom in Titanic – and I think she could have been worked in more frequently into the film with her character serving as the voice of doubt. William Hurt as Jeb was also fun, with some good one-liners that I enjoyed. Kidlet Chandler Canterbury as Jamie Stryder was likely the weakest performance – he was unconvincing and wasn’t really capable of acting out the role, I’ve seen other kids do much better work with similar source material.

The Host focuses mostly on the romance and very little on the actual story – which is quite interesting and thus a shame. However, I do enjoy the romance part as I have a marshmallow heart underneath it all. The movie could have been better planned and executed, but overall I can see myself watching it again. That is the most important part of entertainment, right?

Rating: 6.5/10

 

June 26, 2017June 5, 2017 by Natasha Categories: Movies, movies, Review, ReviewsTags: Alien Invasion, Aliens, Boyd Holbrook, Chandler Canterbury, Diane Kruger, Dystopian, Frances Fisher, Ian O'Shea, Jake Abel, Jared Howe, Max Irons, Melanie Stryder, SciFi, Scott Lawrence, Stephanie Meyer, The Host, The Seeker, Wanderer, William Hurt 3 Comments

Movie Review: 28 Thoughts while watching Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Plot: With many people fearing the actions of super heroes, the government decides to push for the Anti-Hero Registration Act, a law that limits a heroes actions. This results in a division in The Avengers. Iron Man stands with this Act, claiming that their actions must be kept in check otherwise cities will continue to be destroyed, but Captain America feels that saving the world is daring enough and that they cannot rely on the government to protect the world. This escalates into an all-out war between Team Iron Man (Iron Man, Black Panther, Vision, Black Widow, War Machine, and Spiderman) and Team Captain America (Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Falcon, Sharon Carter, Scarlett Witch, Hawkeye, and Ant Man) while a new villain emerges

DON’T READ IF YOU ARE AVOIDING SPOILERS!

Rating: 7.5/10

1. Why isn’t this titled Iron Man: Civil War? Was that the first fight between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark? (The lame comments gets worse, promise)
2. Let’s just focus for a few seconds on the fact that this entire fight starts with Tony signing something, The Captain refusing and because they are both pigheaded, a big brawl starts. MEN.
3. When did Rhodie become an Avenger?
4. That scene with Tony Stark and the lady at the elevator at MIT is really very sad.
5. Vision is like the strict dad. No fun allowed.
6. Can I please learn to Sparta kick like Captain America?
7. I will also pay a lot of money for fighting skills like the Black Widow.
8. And also – her hair in time of upset – it remains perfect and I want her secret.
9. Black Panther!!! How great does he look? I love it.I didn’t expect him to be Prince what-what, that was a surprise. Also, the country/area’s name is Wakanda? American source material, I tell you.
10. On a serious note – I love that the cast is looking more diverse these days.
11. But on another note – how are only TWO of the Avengers women? That is not very diverse – are the Avengers Donald Trump supporters?
12. Let’s play a drinking game – every time you spot an Audi onscreen you take a shot of Jagermaster.
13. Is there a slightly love vibe between Vision and the Scarlett Witch? For interest sakes, does he have… all… the equipment of a man or how does that work? And isn’t he something like Tony’s best brain parts? Does that mean that Tony also fancies Scarlett Witch? So many questions!
14. How does Steve feel to have dated a girl and her grandmother’s sister? Steve is a fox!
15. Captain America in sunglasses and a cap. (hehehe for my pun) – it works really well.
16. The fight scenes were incredible, well choreographed and not over the top. Although, the buses flying everywhere at the helipad? That was the height of preposterous. Does Stark Industries cover the bill for all the damage the Avengers wreck?
17. Bucky Barnes. Such a great character and Sebastian Stan brought everything to the table as usual. Sebastian broke my heart with all his sad and soulful looks, though I loved the camaraderie between Steve and Bucky.
18. How sad is Penny’s funeral? Seriously, how much must our guy handle? Penny’s inclusion broke my heart because she’s the only thing that Steve had left from the world he existed in and new well.
19. PLOT TWIST! As mentioned above, how does he feel that he does a cross generational dating vibe going on?
20. Steve can pull me closer like he did that helicopter. MY GUY.
21. I want to bitch and moan that husband Chris Hemsworth is not in this, but really, there are about ten million characters already in here. Same goes for the green guy – I ADORE Mark Ruffalo and think he’s great as Dr. Bruce Banner. But I don’t think the posters would have been big enough for the cast if they were included.
22. I really liked the Black Panther. He looks great. The character is also really solid – there is a goodness in him that was definitely missing from the havoc the Scarlett Witch wrecked in Age of Ultron.
23. Daniel Bruhl! Great appearance by a solid actor.
24. Some Martin Freeman too. I hope he has some more time in future movies – Marvel can do with some of his experience and class acting.
25. I need to watch Ant Man really soon – I wish I could have seen the film before I saw Civil War – because my cutie pie Paul Rudd is his cute self.
26. The new Spiderman… why is his aunt Marisa Tomei and why is he so young? I just can’t.
27. Spiderman’s talking is only second to Tony Stark’s incessant talking, and if I have to be honest there is only enough space for one talker in the franchise.
28. I enjoyed the end and appreciated that it didn’t end with a truce because everyone’s mother is named Martha. Not that I’m pinpointing to anything else.

Ultimately, Captain America: Civil War is Marvel at its’ finest. What did DC think in sending in the substandard BvS when it was so obviously made to go up against this? There is no competition. Marvel has established its’ characters and they follow a successful if generic formula, and it works every time. I thought the story was a bit rushed and Daniel Bruhl did not get nearly enough show time or even a few flashbacks. Only when he’s achieved what he wanted to achieve you get insight into why he is doing what he’s doing.

Civil War is also sporadically like a Game of Thrones episode – there are too many characters to follow and you end up looking at things like how nice the costumes are and the action sequences. Captain America has always been the best Marvel films in terms of material, and this one slipped just a bit in that aspect.

However it does not change the fact that Civil War is a fine piece of work – the action sequences are thrilling and authentic looking (except Audis flying here there and everywhere). Of the new appearances I enjoyed Black Panther the most, and Spidey way last because really, why a reboot when the last cutie pie Andrew Garfield movie was released only last year or something?

Anyway, good job, Marvel. You entertained me really well.

Also, these arms:

May 3, 2016May 2, 2016 by Natasha Categories: 2016, Avengers, Movies, movies, Reviews, UncategorizedTags: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Anthony Mackie, Avengers, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain America: Civil War, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Daniel Bruhl, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Emily VanCamp, Frank Grillo, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Jeremy Renner, Marissa Tomei, Martin Freeman, Movies, Paul Bettany, Paul Rudd, peggy Carter, Reviews, Robert Downey Jnr, Scarlett Johansson, Scarlett Witch, Sebastian Stan, Spiderman, Steve Rogers, The Black Panther, The Winter Soldier, Tom Holland, Tony Stark, Vision, William Hurt 6 Comments

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