Review of The Host (2013) by Samxsteal — 29 Mar 2013

Pacing.

- The pacing was very good for the time restraints it has (800+ page book into 2 hours movie) thing flowed from scene to scene. The emotional flow is about the same as the book with pieces taken out to shorten the film Action.

- There gun fight and chases though they are quick and don last as long we can chalk that up mostly to length. Though there is not as much action and many my have thought. There a still scene intermixed helping the flow of the movie.

Cinematography.

- Really nice looking Andrew Niccol does a fabulous Job using wide camera angles to show case the scenery Which is stunning even for a desert. He captures the emotion of character using the camera to show their face and eyes to help show you how the characters are felling. This was very well done.

Production.

- I personally Love the cave scene I feel as though they did a really good job with something of this magnitude (a huge interior living cave system),.

-The desert scene are well shot and make you feel lost as if you where in the desert with the characters.

-The scene in Louisiana Are very well shot used many land marks that look and feel Futuristic and metallic.

-This is same look is used for the look of the vehicles, tools and accessories used and it's pulled off very well Has flashes of Andrew Niccol's visual style.

-Which lead to Costumes, they were great as souls the where a vintage style, as the cave dwellers they look and feel worn in and practical. Music.

- Score throughout the film good Scored by Antonio Pinto* He does a fabulous job using the score to help convey emotions and help the pacing of the movie flow.

-There is also an official soundtrack that has many great artists, and it is very good and worth checking out bit and pieces of this are dispersed throughout the film. Emotions.

- It was touching in a few scenes, but at times I felt it kind of sputtered and never really took off. Andrew Niccol is not an actor's director and I wish he were because (as written below) some scenes the actors could've been directed/pushed more.

Acting.

- Solid no weak links amongst the actors/actresses who had speaking parts. Saoirse was good, She thoroughly pulled off the duel roll of Melanie and Wanda, Which she separated by using different accents Melanie(southern, Wanda proper and soft) And she did very well my only Gripe was that to communicate while preventing confusion was to talk outside(no Voice over) as Wanda and talk inside (using a voice over) as Melanie, and feel it might have been better to keep some of the audiology in her head to better convey that, but that would be hard to do and would be confusing to the audience seeing as it’s the same voice.

- Chandler Canterbury Started out rocky his first experience could have been a little better But she is a very good young actor and can show a lot of emotion. William Hurt was, in my mind, the standout. I see critics really liking his performance. He was funny when needed and he really was this character. Max and Jake were good. They both have a very good presents in the film Jake is able to steel scenes to it balances out with Saoirse -Boyd and Doc were very good. Though I wish they both got more screen time and character development If I had to rank the cast -.

William Hurt (great).

Boyd Holbrook (awesome screen presence).

Max Irons, Jake Abel (both were good).

Diane Kruger (Very solid).

Francis Fisher (solid but she had minimal screen time).

Saoirse Ronan (good to fantastic), Chandler Canterbury (pretty good).

Directing.

- It was good. He has an attention to detail, thought I do wish he could have fixed certain scene and flow like the rest to the movie, but those were very few and everything else worked. His visual style is great I personally love it. 8.5 Overall it was a solid movie, a solid adaption, but it felt a little rushed a point and is missing aspect from the source they could have lent to making it better.