Review of The Host (2013) by Dave G — 29 Jul 2013

The idea was a good one but 'The Host' is unfortunately marred with bad casting and at times a shockingly bad script. Stephanie Meyer (Twilight Saga) wrote the book so I presume expectations were high surrounding it being made into a Film. On the plus side, Saoirise Ronan who plays the main characters (Melanie/Wanda ) is quite convincing as a human that has now been taken over by an Alien etntity. Her human character 'Melanie' is played out in narration as she's been taken over by the Alien 'Wanda'. However Melanie's mind hasn't been fully converted in this particular conversion so therefore she's still able to influence Wanda's mind. *Yep, don't have too much to drink when your watching this one! On the other hand a few glasses of wine might make the Film more tolerable at times.

The Alien race have already taken over Planet Earth but as with many other films in the Sci-Fi genre there are humans that have yet to be converted yet and yep, you've guessed it, there's a Resistance group running around too. Although the Resistance group in this film don't really do much running around or resisting at all to be honest. Their idea of 'resistance' is to hang out in a big Cave in the desert and to pop out occasionally for supplies from a Store. Its simply called 'The Store' too and everything is free to purchase. Its kinda like a futuristic 'Asda' or 'K-Mart' but without the logo. Guess these Aliens don't care too much for Retail Marketing. Anyways, after yet another shopping trip the Resistance scurry back to their hideout. Don't bank on these lot saving your ass and Mother Earth anytime soon.

Unfortunately the resistance group in question become a pivotal aspect to the story because a division of the Alien race known as 'Seekers' want to extract from Wanda the whereabouts of Melanie's Brother who escaped conversion. Melanie has other plans though and influences Wanda to escape. Its not long before their driving down the highway until they ultimately crash in the desert which conveniently is where the lazy bunch of Resistance fighters are hiding out.

Then believe it or not the Film goes onwards into Love/Romance with a lot of walking around the Cave tboot!

There are positives to 'The Host'. The ending is pretty good and there are some clever and touching moments to be had as well. However its the casting of the male actors that really lets it down in my opinion especially the 'Uncle Jed' character surprisingly played by William Hurt! The character of 'Jed' as the name suggests looks like he's just wandered on set from 'The Beverley Hillbillies' or 'The Waltons'. It was only the chewing and spitting out of tobacco that was missing from his overly cliche character. As for the other guys in the film they all kinda looked the same to me perhaps it's because the last 2 thirds of the Film is mostly played out in the dimly lit Cave hideout.

Still, overall, 'The Host' is worth a viewing if you haven't seen it before. I liked the concept behind it. I think its cleverly done when one of the Alien's starts to develop human emotions herself. It brings it home once again that its not the fear of Aliens invading we need to be concerned about its the destructive nature of our own race. Dg.