Review of The Host (2013) by Joel M — 09 Jan 2014

At first, this film genuinely caught me by surprise. It has a distinct look (shiny would be the most appropriate adjective probably), a shockingly strong and heartfelt performance from Saoirse Ronan, and a very original take on the alien invasion story.

I was genuinely intrigued by the world that has been created, and the unique and horrifying nature of the invasion. I was also surprised by the female lead, who by the very nature of the story has to be extremely headstrong and resilient, traits not shared by Twilight's Bella (both of these stories being penned by Stephanie Meyer).

For the first hour, it seemed like Stephanie Meyer's was redeeming herself. However, an hour in the romance begins with an amateurish abruptness, and the movie drags on for the rest of its overlong runtime into melodrama and silliness.

The love story was interesting in its complications, but it didn't feel real for a single second, and neither of the male romantic leads (of course there are two, this is Stephanie Meyers after all) had any defining personality.

The film ultimately falls to the penultimate crime in storytelling: it becomes boring. A monotonous and apathetic tone removes any sense of tension. At first I stopped caring, but as the film dragged on, I started getting annoyed and all the films additional flaws (bland performances by everyone but Ronan, the logical inconsistencies of the parasitic aliens, the fact that this is apparently a post-apocalyptic world with an ample supply of hair gel) boiled to the surface.

There's the potential for an interesting story here, but in execution the bad outweighs the good.