Review of The Host (2006) by Dustin G — 04 Mar 2011

This movie's okay for what it is, but I have to say, it's also a disappointment. Joon-ho Bong, the great Korean director, has been much better and this is in fact my least favourite of all his films.

The concept is great, formaldehyde pollution causes a fish to mutate over the years into a huge, vicious sea monster type thing that one day jumps from the water and begins terrorizing the residents of a city. A girl is snatched by the monster, the family tries to track her down, all the while the city is trying to control the situation in their own clueless and unhelpful way.

I guess what doesn't work for me here is the characters. They are most of the time way over the top and are an example of the main thing that doesn't work, which is that Joon-ho Bong doesn't seem to know whether he wants to make a cheesy B-movie or a higher quality monster flick. This indecision makes the B-movie scenes bring down the higher quality ones and the higher quality ones feel out of place to the B-movie ones.

The Host has its moments for sure, the first time the monster comes ashore and starts creating havoc is the movie's greatest scene and and a damn fine and effective scene in its own right.

But more often than not it just doesn't strike the right note and, for me anyway, Bong's greatest success thus far, is his weakest film.